DF Direct Q+A: Switch 2 60FPS Frame-Gen - How Good/Bad Is It? Should Next-Gen Be Delayed?

Rich Leadbetter (0:02)

Hello there, and a warm welcome to this, the latest edition of the DF Direct's Q&A show. As usual, you have questions, and we apparently have some answers for you. Joining me first of all, Oliver McKenzie. Hello.

Oliver McKenzie (0:16)

Yes, Rich, should be a fun episode. Unfortunately, on the eve of some Xbox news, we're not totally clued into yet. That sounds kind of unfortunate, but at least this episode should be interesting.

Rich Leadbetter (0:26)

Right.

Tom Morgan (0:27)

Yes.

Rich Leadbetter (0:28)

And of course, Tom Morgan. Hello.

Tom Morgan (0:32)

Yeah. Here for consecutive directs.

So glad to be back.

Rich Leadbetter (0:36)

Lovely. Okay. Glad to have you.

Lots to get through this week, so let's just crack on. Okay, then. So we're going to kick off with a really interesting subject. Basically, two games have been announced for Nintendo Switch, which are going to be using Frame Generation to work from a base 30 frames per second and deliver what purports to be a 60 frames per second experience. Now obviously, when it comes to Frame Generation, typically is the case that the people who created it, Nvidia, AMD, etc, typically suggest a minimum of 40-60 FPS, 60 FPS in AMD's case. 30-60 FPS Frame Generation, now it's a bit tricky, but we've just had a demo released, Stellar Blade, from Shift Up. And Capcom has just announced that Dragon's Dogma 2 on Nintendo Switch 2 is also going to have Frame Generation. There is a difference, however. It's mandatory with Stellar Blade, you can't turn it off. However, I believe Dragon's Dogma 2 is basically offering you the option. So you can either run at 30 or run at a Frame Generated 60 This has generated some questions from the audience, and we're going to kick off with, well, let's just get through them. We've got three here. Hey, DF, exclamation point says, I like licorice. I underscore like licorice. I underscore like underscore licorice even.

Hey, DF, exclamation point, I'm really curious about the Frame Generation on Switch 2 There was recently news that it would be an option in Dragon's Dogma 2 I also briefly played the Stellar Blade demo, and putting aside image quality, it felt responsive. I did not play that game on any other platform, however. I'm curious about your thoughts on Frame Interpolation. If this technique becomes popular on Switch 2, what are its characteristics? Thanks, exclamation point.

Dajako in Bracket Stan, if third-party developers are going to go wild west with their use and abuse of DLSS and FSR FrameGen, isn't there a strong case to argue that Nintendo should develop their own version of Nvidia-derived FrameGeneration that's specifically designed to play nicely with at least two DLSS variants that we know exist on Switch 2, while being specifically designed to run efficiently on the hardware, if only to keep third-party somewhere with insane boundaries?

This one from taggen86, any idea why Nvidia never created a DLSS FrameGen light for Switch 2? Very strange that devs need to use FSR to get FrameGen on the little handheld. Nvidia should be able to create something more performant with less artifacts given that they know the hardware inside and out. Why not also implement a version of Reflex? I bet a native version of DLSS FrameGen with Reflex on Switch 2 would feel quite good, even with 30 going to 60 I'm going to go to you first on this one, Tom, because, yeah, 30 to 60, I mean, my view on this is pretty straightforward. There are going to be games where it's probably going to work fine. Basically, if you've got your image, your buffered image, if there's not much difference between them, if, for example, it's a game with a slower pace, you probably won't be able to tell the difference.

And there are games where latency isn't a massive issue, right? It doesn't matter. For example, a turn-based RPG, does it really matter if your response is 16 milliseconds later? But what do you think about this? Are we on a slippery slope?

Tom Morgan (3:56)

Yeah, if it's been used as a kind of crutch to get over the line to 60, when maybe there's a path to optimizing it for 60 with some cutbacks.

Obviously, there are a bunch of games which will benefit from being at 60, and I think Stellar Blade would be one. But say, if they couldn't get it up there, then an option to have FrameGen there is an interesting idea, is a good experiment as a first run of it, and by all accounts, I haven't tried it myself, but by all accounts, it sounds like it's running well enough. But not having the option there is a bit of a concern in case there's a fallback in case it's not to everyone's tastes. And the latency point, yeah, there's no skirting around that. I mean, it's the millisecond numbers, the input delay is still not solved with FrameGen. It's still giving you the same feedback. So it's a, I don't know, it's a strange situation that it's been rolled out with this game without much fanfare, I guess, and that we've got no, that there's no real, I mean, Dragon's Dogma 2 coming as well, will kind of cement what we feel about it, like whether it is a working solution and if there's any other issues or characteristics that go with it.