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XDDX · May 24, 2014

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-vs-mario-kart-8

Some interesting things they found:

When it comes to performance, Nintendo has always aimed to deliver a rock-solid 60 frames per second with each home console Mario Kart and, aside from Mario Kart 64, it has always managed to achieve just that. There was never any doubt that Mario Kart 8 would fall right in line with the rest of the series but upon seeing it for ourselves we immediately noticed that something was amiss. During gameplay we experienced the regular appearance of duplicate frames manifesting as a constant but subtle stuttering effect. Upon analysis we determined that the game suffers from extended clusters in which a duplicate frame is displayed every 64 frames. What this ultimately means is that, during normal gameplay, Mario Kart 8 continually drops down to 59fps. This may not seem like a big deal - most will probably not notice it at all, and it has zero affect on playability - but it has a noticeable impact on image fluidity that mars what would otherwise be a perfectly consistent frame-rate. And for us at least, once it is seen, it can't really be unseen.

And the multiplayer:

Unfortunately, two-player split-screen operates in much the same way, suffering from the same frame-rate disturbances of as single-player, provided CPU racers are enabled of course. It's with the three- and four-player modes that things become even more fascinating. At first glance the four-player split-screen mode appears to operate at 30fps, but if you look closer you'll notice something interesting: the HUD updates at 60Hz. Digging deeper we were able to determine that the complete image is still updated 60 times per second with the top and bottom sections refreshing on alternative frames.

By most standards, Mario Kart 8 is an incredibly polished game with beautiful visuals, a high frame-rate, magical playability and an excellent menu system. By Nintendo's stratospheric standards, however, we dare say that it falls just a bit short. When a Nintendo game goes gold you better believe the final product will be complete and polished to perfection. In the case of Mario Kart 8, the issues we encountered with performance and image quality do detract just a little from an otherwise totally solid experience - and bearing in mind its previous, relentless push for gaming perfection, it leaves us wondering just how the stutter in particular managed to slip past Nintendo QA. Thankfully, the issue should only really stick out to those most sensitive to frame-rate and shouldn't impact the experience for most people, while the sheer fun and imagination injected into this title clearly trump the technical limitations in the image make-up.

More information and videos at the link.

Tripon · May 24, 2014

Wait, what? I need somebody to explain to me what Nintendo did with the framerate for 3/4 players.

POWERSPHERE · May 24, 2014

pickin' nits.

Bill Rizer · May 24, 2014

So WiiU lacks just that bit of power to render one more little frame

Chocolate & Vanilla · May 24, 2014

Seems a bit nitpicky to me.

Decided to not wait for Bayo/X to get my Wii U and will be jumping in for this

TheMagician · May 24, 2014

Normal people will never notice stuff like this. It's like marrying a beautiful woman and claiming she has imperfections when you shine a floodlight on her face and then inspect her with the Hubble telescope.

Cringe.

XANDER CAGE · May 24, 2014

I'm confused - the way they've phrased this, the game stutters once per second? What?

SymbiantXenos · May 24, 2014

Damn that 1 frame drop. Much choppiness.

Tak3n · May 24, 2014

I mean seriously wtf is up with DF, there is nit picking then there is extreme nit picking

ridiculous and a little sad

also worth noting did a single review even notice this?

I suspect not

NewGame · May 24, 2014

59fps? 7.5gen teir confirmed.

DarkLiberator · May 24, 2014

Loss of one frame?

PREORDER CANCELED!

That seems a bit nit-picky to me.

Nugg · May 24, 2014

Tripon said:
Wait, what? I need somebody to explain to me what Nintendo did with the framerate for 3/4 players.

The game is still technically 60 frames per seconds, but 30 frames are dedicated to the top two players, and 30 to the bottom two. Each player looking at his section of the screen is effectively looking at 30 frames per seconds.

Risgroo · May 24, 2014

ohh nooooooooo

StuBurns · May 24, 2014

HalfBaked said:
Seems a bit nitpicky to me.

Decided to not wait for Bayo/X to get my Wii U and will be jumping in for this

TheMagician said:
Normal people will never notice stuff like this. It's like marrying a beautiful woman and claiming she has imperfections when you shine a floodlight on her face and then inspect her with the Hubble telescope.

Cringe.

It's a technical analysis, if you do not want a technical analysis, don't click on Digital Foundry threads.

Brohan · May 24, 2014

XANDER CAGE said:
I'm confused - the way they've phrased this, the game stutters once per second? What?

No i think it says a duplicate frame every 64 frames and with a frame rate of 59-60 that's pretty much almost every second.

dark10x · May 24, 2014

Oh cool, glad to see it up. Was working on this the last few days.

Tripon said:
Wait, what? I need somebody to explain to me what Nintendo did with the framerate for 3/4 players.

The game updates at 60 fps but alternates between odd and even frames for the top and bottom. The top portion contains all even frames while the bottom shows odd frames. Very clever.

I'm confused - the way they've phrased this, the game stutters once per second? What

Yes. It looks like the game is hitching very slightly all of the time. For me it was super jarring.

Vashetti · May 24, 2014

POWERSPHERE said:
pickin' nits.

HalfBaked said:
Seems a bit nitpicky to me.

Decided to not wait for Bayo/X to get my Wii U and will be jumping in for this

> clicks on Digital Foundry analysis thread
> complains about "nitpicking"

djplaeskool · May 24, 2014

Being "nit-picky" is Digital Foundry's raison d'être.

thedarknight87 · May 24, 2014

TheMagician said:
Normal people will never notice stuff like this. It's like marrying a beautiful woman and claiming she has imperfections when you shine a floodlight on her face and then inspect her with the Hubble telescope.

Cringe.

More like marrying a mediocre looking woman, the game hardly looks impressive and the jaggies are horrible

Tripon · May 24, 2014

Nugg said:
The game is still technically 60 frames per seconds, but 30 frames are dedicated to the top two players, and 30 to the bottom two. Each player looking at his section of the screen is effectively looking at 30 frames per seconds.

dark10x said:
Oh cool, glad to see it up. Was working on this the last few days.

The game updates at 60 fps but alternates between odd and even frames for the top and bottom. The top portion contains all even frames while the bottom shows odd frames. Very clever.

Thanks.

DeaconKnowledge · May 24, 2014

StuBurns said:
It's a technical analysis, if you do not want a technical analysis, don't click on Digital Foundry threads.

There's nothing technical about it.

Zemm · May 24, 2014

I'm so glad there's atleast one developer that still values rock solid 60fps for racing games.

Risk Breaker · May 24, 2014

Then a 10-15 FPS difference in other games is "preferable, but barely noticeable" :lol

TheMagician · May 24, 2014

StuBurns said:
It's a technical analysis, if you do not want a technical analysis, don't click on Digital Foundry threads.

I think they've reached so far out to find things they've gone for the completely unnoticeable. Im all for technical analysis but it's pointless at the level in the article aside from the multiplayer comments.

Thoraxes · May 24, 2014

Wonder if something like that would end up addressed in an inevitable patch.

Odd with a duplicate frame every 64th, heh. I doubt i'll notice and overall it seems like it's solid to the core with fluidity.

chugen · May 24, 2014

why are they still using youtube for the videos

onken · May 24, 2014

dark10x said:
Oh cool, glad to see it up. Was working on this the last few days.

The game updates at 60 fps but alternates between odd and even frames for the top and bottom. The top portion contains all even frames while the bottom shows odd frames. Very clever.
.

How is this any better than just regular 30fps?

TheMagician · May 24, 2014

thedarknight87 said:
More like marrying a mediocre looking woman, the game hardly looks impressive and the jaggies are horrible

You might want to see the game running in person first.

Now get back to dreaming about CGI story trailers and bullshots.

Persona7 · May 24, 2014

Who reported that this game runs at 1080p?

Broken Hope · May 24, 2014

onken said:
How is this any better than just regular 30fps?

Probably because the UI/HUD still updates at 60 fps.

Durante · May 24, 2014

onken said:
How is this any better than just regular 30fps?

Depending on how it's done internally, it might reduce input lag. (And it probably does, otherwise there's no sense in implementing it like that)

StuBurns · May 24, 2014

TheMagician said:
I think they've reached so far out to find things they've gone for the completely unnoticeable. Im all for technical analysis but it's pointless at the level in the article aside from the multiplayer comments.

Obviously it is noticiable, because they noticed it.

The point is to explain why people might perceive a flawed fluidity despite it appearing to run at 60. For the people who don't notice or care, that's fine, but some people will be interested.

Bill Rizer · May 24, 2014

Broken Hope said:
Probably because the UI/HUD still updates at 60 fps.

And control input, most of all.

dark10x · May 24, 2014

onken said:
How is this any better than just regular 30fps?

Controller inputs are still polled at a faster rate. Only the render output suffers. It's more responsive than a standard 30 fps.

ClearData · May 24, 2014

Maybe they did notice the dropped frame in QA and the developers decided it had no effect on gameplay? I mean, how many people can see a single dropped frame with the naked eye and then be bothered by it? That part of it being something they "could not unsee" struck me as a little much.

dampflokfreund · May 24, 2014

Disappointing....720p with no AA will look like shit on my TV. Also 59 FPS is disappointing too because below 60 FPS I can see stuttering...

nikatapi · May 24, 2014

Amazing looking game, i prefer 60 (or 59) fps over antialiasing, i'm sure the jaggies won't be noticeable during gameplay.

This is by far the best looking game on the system in my opinion, and hopefully they'll use the experience from this game to a 3D platformer for the system, because SM3DW didn't look that good i think.

Raist · May 24, 2014

dark10x said:
The game updates at 60 fps but alternates between odd and even frames for the top and bottom. The top portion contains all even frames while the bottom shows odd frames. Very clever.

I still don't get it

Wouldn't that essentially be constant tearing right in the middle of the screen?

lights · May 24, 2014

Persona7 said:
Who reported that this game runs at 1080p?

Eurogamer was one of them:

Official Nintendo Magazine:

This is the first big step up for Wii U, a real visual showcase, running in 1080p at 60 frames per second (and goodness knows we've waited a long time to say that).

http://www.officialnintendomagazine.co.uk/52188/previews/mario-kart-8-preview/

Eurogamer:

The game's visuals are beautiful, 1080p and 60fps even in two-player split-screen, while new characters and weapons such as the Piranha Plant keep things feeling fresh amongst otherwise familiar surroundings.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...rio-kart-8-retro-tracks-compared-to-originals

Metro:

Nintendo has also stated that the game will run at 1080p and 60 frames per second in single-player mode, but only 30 frames per second in multiplayer (we assume split screen, we’ll ask about online).

http://metro.co.uk/2014/04/03/new-m...etro-tracks-no-blue-shells-confirmed-4687301/

strata8 · May 24, 2014

Raist said:
I still don't get it

Wouldn't that essentially be constant tearing right in the middle of the screen?

...in splitscreen mode.

Zeyphersan · May 24, 2014

That's so weird that Nintendo let the duplicate frame thing slide. Surely they must have noticed? They're usually pretty technically proficient when it comes to this stuff

Raist · May 24, 2014

strata8 said:
...in splitscreen mode.

Derp. Thanks

Asd202 · May 24, 2014

So this game is not 1080p?

Bright-Light · May 24, 2014

DarkLiberator said:
Loss of one frame?

PREORDER CANCELED!

That seems a bit nit-picky to me.

Nitpicking is the whole point of DF.

Canis lupus · May 24, 2014

Starting from the top, then, there has been a surprising amount of confusion surrounding the resolution of the game with some sources even suggesting a native 1080p presentation. We can finally put that rumour to rest right here and confirm that Mario Kart 8 instead operates at what is effectively the console's standard 1280x720

Yeah most game sites sourced you for the 1080p info
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...rio-kart-8-retro-tracks-compared-to-originals

Asd202 said:
So this game is not 1080p?

Nope, it's 720p as expected.

StuBurns · May 24, 2014

Raist said:
I still don't get it

Wouldn't that essentially be constant tearing right in the middle of the screen?

It's not rendering them and updating them one by one. The top game screen is rendered, the bottom screen is taken from the last render, the HUDs are rendered and it's displayed, next time they draw the bottom frame and copy the top from the previous frame.

Vashetti · May 24, 2014

Asd202 said:
So this game is not 1080p?

720p.

Business · May 24, 2014

I haven't noticed any stuttering on any 60fps MK8 footage I've seen and I really wish I don't notice it because I've clicked on this thread now.

bombshell · May 24, 2014

Tak3n said:
I mean seriously wtf is up with DF, there is nit picking then there is extreme nit picking

ridiculous and a little sad

also worth noting did a single review even notice this?

I suspect not

You are welcome to not enter a DF thread in which they present the technical facts about a game if you can't handle seing those technical facts.

ruie · May 24, 2014

where's our 59fpsvs60fps site when we need it?

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