Dragon Quest Builders 2 Switch Performance
How - and why - Dragon Quest Builders two on Switch runs then badly with user-made levels
While the story mode is only fine.
Is Dragon Quest Builders 2 the worst performing game on Switch? And if and so, why? Let'south take a footstep dorsum from those questions for a second. Here we have a truly cute game that combines the cake-building mechanics of Minecraft with the colourful aesthetics and lore of Dragon Quest. It's a game that oozes quality in so many means, offering a full-bodied RPG entrada to follow through and extensive tools to build and fifty-fifty share worlds online. This is a wonderful game; full of the charm that defines manager Yuji Hori's other works, consummate with a story that distances altitude from its block-based inspiration.
Developer Omega Strength goes to boondocks in its engine-piece of work too. The anime style is a focus, and it's propelled by beautiful water shaders and caustic furnishings from the start. We get proper, real-time shadows cast by characters as the sun travels its arc, from dawn to dusk. Atmospheric deject handful features too, plus god rays streaking by cliffs at sun-down. Not to mention the material-piece of work is built to blend naturally with the lighting. Even as rudimentary blocks, every object has a brilliant glow, and especially in user-made worlds, it creates a beautiful aesthetic.
But yes, performance is an issue on PlayStation 4, only in particular on Switch. In extreme cases, Nintendo's hybrid console finds itself lurching below 10 frames per 2d while playing online user-made creations. Certain content pushes the game engine to boggling lengths - way past Omega Forcefulness'southward objectives for the chief story.
Story content runs unlocked, typically in a 20-40fps - not ideal, just playable. The game kicks off with fetch quests; farming, collecting resources, and building structures from blueprints. You lot travel between islands and run errands for each grapheme yous see. It'southward charming and pretty straightforward for Switch to tackle. Crucially, it veers away from likewise much content that may crusade performance issues - 25fps is indicative of the game's lower bounds. If you lot focus only on this function of the experience, you're set for a reasonably smoothen ride.
Switch does OK here. V-sync is engaged, though the downside is there'south really no frame-rate cap at all, leaving information technology to wander up and downward the graph equally information technology pleases. Information technology'due south a hangover from the PS4 version, which targets and hold 60fps in campaign. For Switch it's far more variable, and ideally that frame-rate should have been capped to 30fps, or an optional toggle included. Dragon Quest Builders ii has much more to show in the tools it offers the players though. The campaign revolves around open up-field gameplay where built-up cities aren't usual, at least in the first one-half. The other, major part of the packet is creating and sharing your worlds online - and this is where the problem lies.
Yous've got to applaud the commitment that goes into the user-made content that's out at that place to sample. Giant castles and candy-themed cities are just the tip of the iceberg: every day the board updates with a new superlative user-made list. With a simple click of the correct stick, you download a level, and gawk at someone else'southward wild invention. It's easily the most heady part of the game - but the complexity of this content is just too much for the Switch hardware to handle.
Under 20fps? Yeah. Under 10fps? Also possible depending on the map. Our tools have logged an absolute minimum of only 7fps, rendering a gorgeous slideshow. The pattern is incredible, from what you tin can make out in motion. Dense with flower arrangements, drinking glass windows and opaque h2o blocks, it's overload for the arrangement. Information technology'southward as well far beyond what the developer itself includes in the main story. All of that combines to hammer the Switch to the lowest, sustained frame-rate I've seen on console in many, many years, and, moving to the first-person view simply makes the stuttering stick out all the more than.
Equally a mode to benchmark Switch, it'southward remarkable. Putting the frame-rate at the mercy of user-made creations isn't a new phenomenon - Minecraft has blazed that trail already. What's surprising in this case is that there are no limits at an engine level, to avoid a calamity in performance. And so, for example, there's no style to adjust the in-game settings for level of particular, which is a problem. Every block is rendered far into the distance without much curtailment. Apart from a distant fog, Switch'southward limits aren't catered for, and with the density congenital up as information technology is, it's no wonder that functioning is and so bad.
We tested some of the about taxing content in portable mode, and there's only a minor variance in frame-rate, simply the bones reading is very close - in the 10-20fps range. Resolution drops from native 1080p docked to 720p in the handheld configuration, with no changes in visual design. The parity in performance here does suggest that level complexity is the majority bottleneck in both configurations - not surprising when CPU clocks remain the same in both modes. Resolution doesn't seem to be the problem so - it's the world density that causes these profound issues.
For perspective, it'due south worth taking a glance at the best case scenario on console. PS4 Pro runs the game at a about faultless 60fps during the main story. There are a few drops into the 50s from time to time, but honestly, it's a breath of fresh air after Switch's output on user levels and the turnout is very solid overall. Looking at the custom levels though, it seems even the Pro has some difficulties. In that instance information technology starts to tumble downwards to around the 30fps line - all of which goes to evidence the mountain Switch has to climb on a mobile chipset. In the worst case, PS4 Pro has a like crunch to Switch, though not to the same extent. The high teens is where it can drop to - effectually 17fps. The complexity of these levels isn't wildly unlike to those on Switch, but conspicuously information technology's a powerful workout for the system. Arguably, this could become downwardly as one of the nigh strenuous games to hit PS4 Pro likewise.
There's the sense hither that Dragon Quest Builders 2 is a game principally designed for the more powerful PlayStation 4, and perhaps the Switch conversion is too close - to the detriment of overall performance. Switch offers almost the entirety of the visual feature set used on PS4 and PS4 Pro, with piddling in the fashion of cutbacks.
There are a handful of differences. Firstly, shadow depict distance and small-scale objects like rocks and copse are rendered much further away on Pro. It means that you lot get a little more than density on extreme range vistas, just in practice, I genuinely didn't notice much departure during play. There are too higher quality - sharper - shadows on PS4 and Pro, while Switch has a softer, more diffused look. Once more information technology never sticks out equally a negative while playing on Switch, and the game's visuals are essentially a match. Minecraft on Switch worked around this past merely fading in blocks closer to the camera, reducing visual complication simply keeping the load manageable for the Nintendo hardware. What we're left with is a seemingly no-compromise edition in terms of globe scale, but information technology pays the price for information technology dearly. Small tweaks in shadows and object visibility don't cut it - information technology needs more to help it along.
Dragon Quest Builders two is a fascinating slice of software. It'south rare that developers requite u.s.a. the tools to button a organization this hard. What we also need however, in the spirit of being given this absolute liberty, is an engine robust enough to maintain operation, or a settings carte du jour to scale the complexity of the rendering. Ultimately, the game is a genuine delight in what information technology's trying to achieve, and to be fair, Omega Force does tailor the main story to piece of work well plenty on each organisation - especially PS4 Pro at 60fps. The user-creation side is a significant allure however, and without curation, it gives Switch the everyman, most extreme levels of performance we've seen - with no mode to improve matters. In that location'southward a lot to dear here, simply the user-made levels are both the highlight and the nadir of this game for me.
Source: https://www.eurogamer.net/digitalfoundry-2019-why-dragon-quest-builders-2-switch-can-run-so-poorly
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