Switch Discussion Thread

[PartridgeSenpai]

part of me thinks this is very interesting, and part of me thinks that as far as portables go it would make a lot more sense for me to consider the Smach Zero ("Steamboy") or GPD Win as it would mean I could play the PC games I already own portably. Something to think about (and I've got 3 months to do so, right?).

As it stands now, not much has been announced for the Switch that I want to play and can't already play on PC. Skyrim on the go is alluring - but again, if I got one of those portable PC units then I already have Skyrim. Zelda does look good. But the biggest draw at this point would probably be Virtual Console.

I believe they are waiting until January to begin announcing any software or information other than what was in the trailer for the Switch, so I'd wait until the first big software Nintendo Direct at least to make any serious decisions on whether to set aside money for one. At least, that's what I'm doin'.

It can't stream 3DS games to your TV (;A;), so I'm kinda put off a day 1 sale atm. I got more than enough 3DS stuff to tide me over for until well after the Switch comes out, let alone all of the PSP, Vita, and GBA stuff I still gotta go through.

[noiseredux]

I am not really interested in the TV stuff myself. Would mainly be thinking of it as a handheld. Just not sure I need it. But paying attention.

[Tanooki]

Same here, more comfy doing the handhelds in my desk chair here or in my comfy chair (which could go console mode) or out on the couch. Hell if they sold it for like $50-100 less I'd even consider not doing the TV mess to invest it in a game instead potentially.

Jan 12th it's why we know nothing publicly about it other than the little carrot dangled so far. I think with them looking at March they want to see what developers can accurately and non-buggily loaded get ready by that date so they can throw it out there. Throwing it out as a launch, launch window, or look towards summer/fall type listing. They can't afford screw ups as this rate as they've effectively taken themselves out of being a 2 system maker so they can't have one carry the other failure like the WiiU was limped along until taken out back recently.

[marurun]

Digital Foundry has confirmed the Nintendo Switch will use the Tegra X1 chip (Maxwell architecture) rather than the X2 (Pascal) as originally rumored.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/12/n ... ecs-speed/

[fastbilly1]

One of you programmers correct me if I am wrong, but dont the UE4 devtools allow you to compile projects to different outputs with a few clicks? Meaning you could develop a Switch version of a PC game in weeks not months?

[MrPopo]

I haven't had the UE4 tools installed since I wiped them due to running out of space on my hard drive, but it's certainly feasible for it to do so. When I was working on Windows 8 I just added a switch to my build command line to build for ARM rather than x86, so a similar capability should be available for the UE4 tools.

[fastbilly1]

So all those news writers who keep saying that it will take months to build a Switch version of games, if they come at all, are just talking out their ass?

[MrPopo]

Not necessarily. Sure, you can get a binary built fairly quickly, and if they're smart they use templates for their dialog to put in the platform specific button prompts to pass certification, but optimization will be the real difference. If they need to toss in a completely different set of art assets or adjust logic around triggering loading that's where you add a lot of development time.

[isiolia]

Not necessarily. Sure, you can get a binary built fairly quickly, and if they're smart they use templates for their dialog to put in the platform specific button prompts to pass certification, but optimization will be the real difference. If they need to toss in a completely different set of art assets or adjust logic around triggering loading that's where you add a lot of development time.

Yeah. There's a massive hardware disparity, which hitting the build button isn't going to be able to compensate for. Nevermind that everyone else is going to be looking for developers to scale their project up for PS4 Pro or Scorpio or whatnot.

Making a Switch game that can actually be playable undocked, with a fraction of the GPU performance on tap, is going to mean scaling down multiplatform games a lot. Probably more to the point of it being outsourced, like later PS3/360 versions tended to be. With basically every console wanting games to run at two spec levels though, the process will probably get better.

[fastbilly1]

Thanks Popo and Isiolia. Like I said, not a programmer, I have only coded simple things in basic and fooled around in hex.