Nintendo Switch performance and polygon count

bitinn

TL;DR: I am wondering if anyone here have tried building games for Nintendo Switch dev unit, and have some idea on what sort of ballpark polygon count threshold I can expect?

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I know, I know, polygon count is hardly the only factor for performance, given these 2 articles:

- http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2017-overcooked-on-switch-has-big-performance-problems

- http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2017-hands-on-with-skyrim-on-switch

In short: Overcooked runs terribly, Skyrim runs great...

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In theory, Tegra X1's performance is within ballpark of an entry-level MacBook Pro (which I do want to target for my project anyway).

Since I don't have a Switch dev unit yet. It's tempting just to target MBP and see how it goes on Nintendo Switch when I get around to it. Does it sound fair?

(For reference, ARMS' character models are about 10-20k poly. But adding background, maybe 50k is a good line?)

Fuiosg

you'd probably be better off asking some indie devs on Twitter, but I'd be more specific cause there's too many angles to that question.

I wouldn't base anything off overcooked, it's a weak port and Unity games seem to really struggle on the platform for whatever reason.

EarthQuake

How many polygons the engine can handle is a meaningless metric. It varies hugely on many different factors, like what engine, what shaders, what sort of lighting, effects, physics, gameplay, and on and on. Polygon count could very well be the least of your concerns. It's best to talk to an engineer or tech artist who is familiar with your project and the engine you're using.

The answer is "how many polygons?" is "not too many". The answer to "how much is too many?" is "it depends".

JordanN

I saw a Switch for the first time today. Was about to get off the bus and I did a double take at a guy playing it in the corner.

It's smaller than I expected. Looked about the same size as the original PSP. 

With that in mind, I honestly wouldn't even compare it power wise to a modern console. It's probably closer to the PS3/360/Wii U level of detail but with the added PBR shinyness all the cool kids are putting in their portfolios.

bitinn

I did manage to ask Overcooked team on that, and looks like lighting and post-processing is a major factor in their case (I know they are not hitting any polygon "threshold").

Really my question comes down to how Unity Standard Shader will perform, and of course we don't have much data on that yet (unlike mobile platform where people can tell roughly how many polygon you can aim at).