Now that there is a respectable understanding of the hardware that powers Wii U, I thought it might be time to discuss software performance on the console. We have all seen the digital foundry comparisons, and more often than not, these multi plat games seem to have framerate issues. I suppose the obvious question is why? Its obvious these games aren't meeting the target framerate. Why are these developers enabling Vsync when it causes larger dips in framerate than it would have without?
While its not possible for use to really dissect if the bottlenecks are CPU, GPU, or memory related issues from looking at frame-rate test by DF, but two of the three issues seem easier to resolve than the other. For example, in Unities Optimizing graphics performance documentation, they make reference that its pretty easy to see if your fillrate limited. Lower the rendering resolution, and see if the performance goes up. Memory performance and fillrate are nearly synonymous with each other, so its seems that developers are faced with a pretty simple solution if they are indeed fillrate limited. Basically, if a 720p game has issues because of fillrate, then a drop to 600p should cure it. I think if there was an option in games like Batman and Assassins Creed to drop the res down to 600p to get a solid 30fps, then most gamers would sacrifice the res.
That's not to say that we aren't seeing fillrate being the limiting factor. The real question, do the developers porting these games prioritize framerate at all? Perhaps more time is needed to clean up bugs and game breaking problems than we realize. Perhaps developers aren't as concerned with watching a framerate monitor, but instead test the game, and if gameplay seems to be at an acceptable level, then they will not fuss about trying to gain a few fps.
While its not possible for use to really dissect if the bottlenecks are CPU, GPU, or memory related issues from looking at frame-rate test by DF, but two of the three issues seem easier to resolve than the other. For example, in Unities Optimizing graphics performance documentation, they make reference that its pretty easy to see if your fillrate limited. Lower the rendering resolution, and see if the performance goes up. Memory performance and fillrate are nearly synonymous with each other, so its seems that developers are faced with a pretty simple solution if they are indeed fillrate limited. Basically, if a 720p game has issues because of fillrate, then a drop to 600p should cure it. I think if there was an option in games like Batman and Assassins Creed to drop the res down to 600p to get a solid 30fps, then most gamers would sacrifice the res.
That's not to say that we aren't seeing fillrate being the limiting factor. The real question, do the developers porting these games prioritize framerate at all? Perhaps more time is needed to clean up bugs and game breaking problems than we realize. Perhaps developers aren't as concerned with watching a framerate monitor, but instead test the game, and if gameplay seems to be at an acceptable level, then they will not fuss about trying to gain a few fps.
