Shortly after the Switch release of Dead Cells in August last year, the game's developer Motion Twin was forced to issue an apology because of the frame rate issues. In certain areas of the title, players were reportedly experiencing significant dips in performance, resulting in entire sections of the game running well-below 60fps.
Motion Twin, at the time, said it would prioritise the issue and later on in September released a temporary fix, allowing “sensitive” players on the Switch to cap the game at 30 frames per second. Now, in the latest major update, the developer has finally got the game running on the Switch at a silky-smooth 60 frames per second. Here’s exactly how Motion Twin fixed it, courtesy of a message from the game’s newsfeed on the Switch:
We went back to the drawing board and completely rebuilt the driver that runs the graphics on the Switch, interfacing between Haxe, our home made game engine and Nintendo’s hardware. That was August last year…
As you can see we hit a few roadblocks, it was something of a technical challenge. However, we pulled it off and we’re really excited to see what you all think of our work.
In addition to this is a major update for the game. It adds custom game support - allowing players to select their level seed, and adjusts the difficulty and balancing. You can read the full patch notes over on the Dead Cells website.
In case you missed it, be sure to check out the recent interview with the Dead Cells team as well:
Have you been waiting for this Dead Cells frame rate fix? Will you be trying out the new update? Tell us below.
[source dead-cells.com]
Comments 44
awesome stuuff got this on my watch list
It was an amazing game already and now it’s even better! I’m sure I won’t notice much of a difference, but it’s great for people who will notice it .
Highly recommend the game!
Time to get back to it then.
Awesome, I bought the game a while ago and liked what I played initially. I noticed and read about the performance issues and decided that I'd wait for the promised update. This weekend looks like the right time to dive in, nice.
An excuse to give this excellent game another spin
Next sale I’ll be there
Old news. The update came out 2 days ago.
Not played it yet but if it's anything like Sundered I will give it a go! (Sundered is only £3.50 on the Russian eShop if anyone is a fan of Dead Cells).
Did they make the end boss easier? I can't see anything about it but I played for a month solid when this came out and couldn't beat it. First run after the update and I slaughtered him. Just random luck, I guess...
Played a ton of Dead Cells on the Switch and never felt the framerate was major issue. Still, kudos to them for paying attention and actually owning up to any shortcomings, thus making a fantastic game even better. It sure took some time, but apparently it was time wellt spent. Definitely going back now to check the effects of the patch out, doing a few more runs and ... well, generally looking forward to their next project. They got my support for sure!
I can attest that, after the update, the frame rate in handheld still dips significantly rather often.
And here I was just about to play Ace Combat 5 on my PS4. Back to my Switch then!
Sweet, I never noticed any real issues but will be happy to go back and check if I see any difference!
I get all my Dead Cells news from Filip Miucin.
@dystome I find that it’s best to step away from a game you are stuck in for a day, week, month etc... once you go back, you are less frustrated and usually do better.
Now i can finally play without being in physical pain, due to "frame rate sensitivity." Maybe I can get a refund on all of those bottles of Johnson + Johnson no more tears shampoo...
What would I see if the frame rate drops below 60fps?
In 20 years from now if you bought this physically again you will not get 60fps unless a definitive version exist.
As someone who had over 60 hours logged in this game its weird that now there’s achievements and I’m getting them for supposedly doing things for the 1st time that I’ve done many many many many many times before.
@Flatwoods Yes I saw this as well. Was kinda shocked it was happening since it was supposed to be fixed.
It doesn’t seem to be running any different from what I could tell. Still chugged along in spots and frame rate pauses during heavy action sequences.
Who is that frame rate analyzing studio? They should do a comparison video of pre-update gameplay with post-update gameplay to show everyone how it measures up.
@dystome Same for me... first run back at this game after update I blazed through the whole thing...
@Zach777 Who is Digital Foundry? Sorry. I couldn't resist answering Jeopardy style.
@Friendly you will notice it if you have more experience with 60fps. going back from 60fps to 30fps same game you will feel it. It's not about the graphics you see, but you have to feel it. 30fps is mostly cluncky while 60fps is more smooth and fast. But good for people who are less aware of the differences. I don't think we would accept any system atm with only 30fps
So what’s with the difficulty? Is it any easier? I’ve put tons of hours in and can never beat the final boss if I manage to get to him
I gave up eventually
@Alucard83 it really depends on the game though. I would notice it if it was a reaction game like a fp shooter. This is not a game with a high resolution or one that requires a high reaction rate. So I don’t think many people will notice the difference or if you notice it that it will impact the experience all that much.
Other games, one might, though. I very much agree with you on that one
I never noticed any problems with the frame rate and was curious why there was an option to lock it at 30. I thought that was just part of the old school aesthetic like how you can choose pixelated text.
Man when playing on hard holy crap it is real tough to beat the game. I can't even get to the first boss and I have beaten the game already on normal a few times.
@SterlingEyes
Took me about 5 try's to beat him. You need to definitely have something that traps him in one spot and also something that is constantly firing at him and have them both at very strong levels ++
A simple 2D game and they can't get it to 60fps? Bayonetta 2 runs at a rock solid 60 fps and has superior eye candy in 3D. Dead cells is not even using Unity or Unreal engine, why can't they optimised their own engine properly?
@Friendly it does requires a high reaction rate as most important mechanic is being able to read enemies and knowing when to dodge roll, the dodge has a cool down meaning you can’t spam it you have to read the tells from the enemy and react immediately. The last two bosses in particular will destroy if you can’t react in time.
@SterlingEyes it’s easier but you will still need a good load out to beat him, from what I understand they removed enemy scaling when you get a lot of scrolls so that makes it a lot easier. If you reach the boss with lots of hp, high DPS weapons and turrets learn some of his attacks you should be able to beat it.
It definitely plays much better now. Good updates!
I booted this up today to check out the changes...and I beat it for the first time. This was the 30th playthrough and only the second time I've fought the King but I beat him easily. Methinks they lowered the difficulty considerably by adding a lot more scrolls. In any case I love this game and I enjoyed the changes.
@Denoloco Absolutely!
@dystome - exactly the same for me. Got my butt kicked 4-5 times by the Kings Hand before, first playthrough after the patch I beat him. I think it could be the power scrolls being more generous (my HP was higher). Have just tried 'level 1' though and died within 5 minutes!
Did ps4 pro cry fowl play.
Wow. Booted this up for the 1st time in months after the update, and continued a save from the second last level. Got to the King, and beat him on my 1st try, even though I was super rusty, and never got even CLOSE to beating him previously. He took so much less damage, and my hits were so much more powerful. This is on zero cell difficulty, and it should have been this way from the beginning.
I do like that they added 2 bonus doors(one time based and the other for killing a certain amount of enemies in each level) in the safe zones where you cash in your cells that have bonus cells and gems.
Looks like a good update, time to get back to it.
@Scottwood101 I just got Sundered and I freaking love it. My belief is if I hadn't played Dead Cells first I may have found myself frustrated. If you like Sundered you will love Dead Cells. Both are great games! Happy Gaming!!!
It's hilarious to see all these people complaining about dips below 60fps when prior to the 8th console generation the only people who had even been exposed to 60fps games were pc gamers with awesome hardware. The standard in the industry used to be a targeted at at hard 27fps, anything lower didn't cut it, although some things did slip by that dropped as low as 13fps. These people claiming that they get physical pain from anything lower are flat out liars or didn't play games prior to this current generation of consoles. There were a few PS3/Xbox 360 games that hit 60fps but not many, and honestly it doesn't even matter unless your playing a twitch shooter or a game that requires extreme reaction time like guitar hero or maybe dark souls although the latter is reaching. These frame snobs need to go back to thier expensive PCs and leave the console industry alone to be frank, there's nothing to apologize about if your game doesn't hit the 60fps mark unless you claimed it hit that mark to begin with.
@Ralek85 so it does run well?
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