@LukeAlmighty @icedquinn it depends on the game's implementation of it, but sometimes running at a higher resolution will decrease the size of the grid they're using.

honestly it just feels like a huge step back in video game graphics. this is what the sega saturn did, why the hell are we using it now, especially after not using it for this long??

@beardalaxy @LukeAlmighty to be honest it would have *never* crossed my mind to resort to dithering for performance reasons.

@beardalaxy @LukeAlmighty like i thought this was happening https://pngquant.org/vsphotoshop.html

which i would understand because color banding is an old console thing to get vram use down.

although.. can you use quantization and etcpack at the same time

@beardalaxy @icedquinn
It's mostly, because devs are obsessed with approaching the "realistic complex lighting".

Most games are ok with sharp shadows. These shadows make every pixel mean something solid, so your eyes won't tire trying to distinguish details.

But when "pixel sharp dots" are used as a noise, then your eyes expect each dot to mean something meaningful, and get overwelmed by pointless noise.

(At least, that is how I believe this shit works)

@beardalaxy @LukeAlmighty haven't done a lot of testing though. i'm not convinced 4K is worthwhile but haven't done the proper amount of self study. resolution downscaling is a fun strategy but i tested it on a few games and it made no difference. so i dunno.

according to mangohud when i put hokkolfie in gamescope, halved the resolution and put FSR on, it didn't actually run any faster. i think it only matters if the fill rate is whats bogged your game down.

but yeah i have to remind myself the switch is a 6 year old android tablet

@icedquinn @LukeAlmighty resolutions higher than 1080p are nice if you're sitting close to the screen, like a monitor. things get nice and crisp, i can definitely tell a difference. for gaming though, ehhh there's so much happening on the screen it's rarely worth it.

the only time i use higher resolutions (or wish i could) is when i don't like the game's AA implementation. TAA/FXAA/SMAA all kind of suck. if a game has MSAA i'll just use that, otherwise I'll increase the resolution (if i'm able to) to clean up those edges more.

@icedquinn @LukeAlmighty also the switch is technically older than that, iirc it's based on the original nvidia shield which came out in 2015. we're nearing on 8 year old tablet hardware, here.

for nintendo's credit, though, the switch was super dominant for a long time in that space. it's only recently that we're seeing REAL competitors, with stuff like the Steam Deck.

@beardalaxy @LukeAlmighty i still like the switch more than the deck, tbh, but the deck has marginally less user hostility.

@beardalaxy @LukeAlmighty it triggers me to no end that the ONBOARD sensor platform requires me to be logged in to a cloud service. this is why i put the fatwa on razer for

also being able to drop the switch in a dock and pull the joycons off the rails was very hype and i'm kind of sad

@icedquinn @LukeAlmighty it would have been a lot better if the joycons weren't complete shit

@beardalaxy @LukeAlmighty i guess i didn't use mine enough to feel that way.

@beardalaxy @LukeAlmighty i shitposted before about if we could get something with the deck's sensor platform in a handheld format but with premium quality parts that would be

i really really like the touch sensors, undergrips and being able to customize the menus and such.

@LukeAlmighty @beardalaxy valve for some reason designs wonderful things and then builds them out of compost.

@icedquinn @LukeAlmighty the sticks just drift really easily and they aren't symmetrical so using just one sideways joycon feels different from the other one.

the stick drift is really easily solved at least, you just have to add some cardstock underneath the mechanism box, but nobody should have to take apart their controller to fix something that's such a common and easily solved error in manufacturing.

and they have no grip to them whatsoever. i get that the idea was to keep it slim, but it ends up just feeling uncomfortable.

@icedquinn @LukeAlmighty i don't have a deck so i wouldn't be able to make a fair adjustment. i do love my switch but all i do is play modded smash bros on it, and we're to the point where you can finally do that on emulator but with some shader compilation lag.

@icedquinn @LukeAlmighty oh okay that makes sense. i thought it used rudimentary AI but i guess image reconstruction isn't exactly the same thing haha. it definitely isn't the same thing as a bilinear upscale, but if i'm being totally honest i'd probably prefer that. FSR looks really messy imo. i also don't like TAA though so maybe that's a me-problem xD

@beardalaxy @LukeAlmighty FSR is some collection of algorithms they tuned yeah. and they fairly recently released FSR 2 which isn't widely available. i mean you can go get the kit right now its open source but most games don't use it.

i haven't seen it A/B tested though. i've seen people say they can spot the difference but that's because upscalers make UIs look like shit.