Switch Performance Feedback Request

Jumping up into another room in Livre Ex Machina, the game goes to a black screen for 11 seconds before loading the room. If I missed the jump then I have to wait another 11 seconds as I fall into the previous room.


Edit: this is a cartridge running 1.01 update, and the slow load occurs from fresh startup of console, wether playing for five minutes or long session. See later post for video after powering on.

Hi

I feel like FPS drop on area with high effects, like first boss area

I also notice strong imput lag on switch, docked or handled, with the original joy con. I could take a video to explain it, showing the impact on the jump button on computer and on switch

The input lag issue is noticeable even in Handheld mode as soon as you gain control in a New Game, so it's definitely not my Monitor that is causing the issues... Input lag also seems to get significantly worse in areas where a lot of things are on the screen at the same time. The Area where the shopkeeper NPCs are, for instance, shows a drastic decrease in performance in comparison to the empty areas with less decor...

The lack of interpolation also makes the 30 or less FPS very much noticeable as it appears a lot more slideshowy than other 30FPS locked games I've played on the Switch... Game is also much MUCH blurrier in docked mode than it is in Handheld mode, I'm not entirely sure why, it could be the textures are not optimized for that resolution, but that being said, it's not really an issue in handheld.

I can deal with 30 FPS, but it can't even keep that up consistently. I've only played for about four hours, and so far I have experienced:

1. Frequent slowdown
It first happened during the fight with Zangetsu and has reoccurred many, many times since then, with the game speed completely tanking in the twin towers specifically to the point that it's nearly unplayable at times.

2. Animation desync
During multiple conversation scenes, the character animations will slow and fall well behind the voice clips, particularly noticeable when a character moves their arms or something.

3. Atrocious load times
Takes far too long just to transition from one room to another; at one particular spot in the library, I timed it and it took a full 15 seconds to load the next room. In a game with so much backtracking, this completely kills it.

4. Freezing
This only happened once, and only for a second, but it should not happen at all.

5. Input lag?
I'm not sure if it's input lag or just the result of the lower framerate, but platforming is far more difficult than it should be. There's one particular jump in the castle entrance that requires quite a bit of backtracking through the garden if you fail to make it, and while it should be a fairly easy jump, it took me eight attempts (with the required backtracking, plus the awful load times for each room along the way) to successfully get across.

Overall, the game is just not fun at all on the Switch.

We had been told about the resolution and framerate decreases ahead of the game's release, but it goes well beyond that and the port still does not even come close to reaching an acceptable level of technical performance. To not be told about the resolution & framerate until after backer platform choices had already been locked-in was bad enough, but it's another thing entirely to then have to deal with all of this on top of that, and additionally a full week's delay. Delaying the port and then still having performance problems is not okay. Not even a little bit. It makes one wonder if the delay was not to address issues, but rather that you all knew how bad it was and didn't want it to affect the review scores. Honestly, it's so bad that I feel the Switch version of the game should have been canceled entirely rather than released in this state.

I backed the game at $100, and despite being someone who always prefers to play games on a portable where possible, had I known about these issues ahead of time, I would have set my platform to PC without hesitation. I can not stress enough how furious I am right now. As great as it is that you want to fix the problems with the Switch port, I think providing extra Steam keys to all Switch backers is the bare minimum that would be needed to make this right, so people can actually play the game in the meantime (do you have any idea how difficult it has been to avoid spoilers just for this past week alone?). You've already provided this to Japanese backers to compensate for the release delay in that region, so we know you're capable of it.

I apologize if this came off as more antagonistic than I intended. I just can not overstate how upset I am about this.

streamable.com/q8sz0
Switch input lag "testing". Video is not mine.

The switch Version is sadly a total disaster...

From Performence Issues to horrible Textures to altogether removed effects everywhere. The switch is defiantly capable of way more.
If doesn't stress PC hardware at all and can run UE 4 games just fine like Yoshi

I really wish you guys would have paid Panic Button to port the game... They would be able to get a stable 30 FPS 720p without Downgrades like this working : (


So i really hope you guys improve not just performence as you call it but also the graphics cause honestly the way the game looks right now does in no way justify the way it performs and wise versa


This Video shows off the flaws greatly.... Either you guys are unable to work with UE 4 properly or let another Team port it please 

I appreciate you wanting to adress the performence and stability but honestly there is more to do than just that. The visuals are really not good even for a switch Version yes. 

I just powered back on again, ran from the save point to drop through the grate (by the bookshelf) and 11 second load again. I took video:

Performance Drops: First Boss, the game would just stop altogether for a second, It could not handle the tentacles probably since it was just the Fish Boss, Me, and the tentacles.

Crashes: My only crash came in from after the first Zangetsu Fight. After the fight I went left and found a small room with a Blood Grinder Knight, I beat it. and then I realized the wall was holding an item, so I broke it to find the Ulfberht Sword. I then to the bookshelf to read a book only for the game to crash. I just tried recreating it, but it didn't work. I guess having the item icon on screen may be caused an issue when opening up the book.

Loading Time: Loading into the game took a little bit of time, about 15 seconds, no big deal. However, there was this one room in the garden where you jump up (You`ll find a bookcase there about a man who is living in the castle eating food from chests) The Loading there is so long, about 5-10 seconds on just loading. Usually, a screen transition would take maybe 1 second, so the extra time became jarring.

Game time 4 Hours and 10 Minutes (I suck, I kept dying a lot on the first boss, so I grinded a bit.)

Performance Drops: I only just got to the first save room at the Entrance and from what I've observed so far, there was major slowdown when grinding for Dullahan Heads in the room with the box at Galleon Minerva. The more I ranked up my Dullahan summons, the more the game felt as though it would crash. Thankfully it did not, but thanks to having the Summon on, the game feels even more sluggish than it should be; the room prior to the save room with the blood fountain and the chandeliers is a big pain to get through with the Bone Mortes. There have also been random freezing for three seconds during Entrance as well with the Dullahan Heads equipped.

Also another thing to detail would be the bookcases; they open and close as slow as can be, and it feels as though I'm risking a game crash when I open them up.

Crashes: Thankfully none so far! I've been making it a habit to save often just in case. Will edit if one does happen, however.

Loading Times: It feels like they take a second longer than the PS4 usually does, but again, I'm not too far into the game to give a good answer.

Play Time: 1:48:50