WRC 10 on Switch: Is It Really As Bad As People Say It is? + PS4/PS5 Next-Gen Features Tested

[@ninjapants7688]

"How do we port this?" "Just set the LOD distance to 1 meter" "Aaaaand... port complete"

[@sean_mc]

My god the vehicle ground shadows @2:26 are genuinely the worst looking thing I've seen on a lower-end port. It should have been made into a texture.

[@JudeTheYoutubePoopersubscribe]

as soon as 0:53 happened my jaw dropped because of how awful it looks holyyyy. ps3 racers look better.

[@kidShibuya]

It worked for FH5...

[@JudeTheYoutubePoopersubscribe]

@@kidShibuya an a base xbox one yes. when i played that on my series s in quality mode i never saw shit popping in so obviously. it was there a little in performance mode tho

[@bannanateam]

More like 1 CM

[@OwtDaftUK]

If they gave it another 6 months of development time, it could have looked as good as WRC4 on the PS2.

[@Buddies_official46]

this

[@csl02]

Agreed, the vita version of WRC 4 was at least comparable to the home consoles, deformation carried over as well. Kylotonn doesn't seem to think about the switch until after development is finished and then doesn't give it enough effort (time and/or people).

[@bern9642]

True

[@MedalionDS9]

Another year of dev time, it could look as good as PS1... but with sacrifices :)

[@infameplay]

True

[@Interference22]

The Switch version literally looks like Colin McRae Rally 2004 on low settings. The visual quality has taken such a hard cut that we've dropped something like 3 generations in graphics. If this is genuinely the best you can do, there has to be a point where you decide it's a cut too far.

[@SuperPotato316]

Wow. It really does look like a mid 00's racing game. The car models are decent but everything else is even worse than some games of that time.

[@InnuendoXP]

It reminds me a lot of what 'low' settings used to be like in games, where rather than scaling down visual effects key to the artistic style of the game, it switched them off entirely like "no DirectX 9 for you"

[@THENAMEISQUICKMAN]

honestly reminds me of Street Fighter Alpha 2 on Super Nintendo. Probably the best they could do, but even though Street Fighter 2 Turbo is technically a worse game it plays so much better on the same platform.

[@Interference22]

The biggest issue is how in-your-face some of the model quality reduction is. My guess is the base game -- ie. the PS4 / PS5 version -- has high quality "near" assets complimented by a LOD system that generates lower poly "distant" models by an automatic process. Within their originally intended use -- as models you see off in the distance that have broadly similar silhouettes to their high detail counterparts -- the shortcomings of this process is barely apparent. The problem is, they're using these "distant" models for "near" sections of the course, meaning you get really blocky, aggressively low detail results, because that's what the automatic process is built to do. Perhaps with the skilled touch of a human modeler some of these courses could have looked a lot nicer: with a better eye for detail, manually rebuilding certain models (not all, just some of the more extreme issues) would put the limited polygon budget where it really counts. Those very pointy cliffs in certain sections, for instance, you'd hope a hand made model, even with the same performance budget, could look better than that.

[@geminijinxies7258]

The Switch is as powerful as the Xbox 360 and that console had nice looking games like Dirt 2. WRC 10 has no excuse to look this bad.

[@yotube155]

Burnout Paradise is on the Switch and runs and looks much better. You can really tell a difference between games that were designed with hardware limitations in mind (it was originally a PS3/360 game after all) vs games that were designed with high end modern hardware in mind and then just had features stripped back until it runs

[@kaidenkobani4190]

I wonder how much better games would perform if they were still developed with smaller limitations in mind. Or if they took time to actually optimize software for once.

[@Izhen_UwU]

Asphalt 9 looks gorgeous and runs at 60 fps.

[@VexAcer]

@@kaidenkobani4190 In this case you can pretty much take a look on what was being done on PS3/360 and imagine it on Switch (Since they're comparable in spec). Dirt 3 is miles ahead visually of this Switch port, same with something like WRC 4 on PS3 too.

[@solid_justice5855]

@@Izhen_UwU A9 is a mobile phone game though

[@RockNRollaMAC]

@@VexAcer Think Dirt 3 would be fantastic on Switch too

[@robertososa23]

Is It Really As Bad As People Say It is? - Yes

[@forasago]

The starting point for the "visual tune-up" would be deactivating the shadow map completely and using a projector shadow under the car instead. Besides the trees essentially nothing even casts visible shadows. Good example are the fence posts along the road. All those fence posts are effectively being rendered by a second camera, only for none of that work to show up on screen! They are too thin for the rough resolution of the shadowmap. Just get rid of the shadowmapping entirely and fake the one important shadow, and for extra credit also fake the tree shadows with projectors as well. I bet this would lead to a significant improvement in performance and the fake shadow under the car would look much better. There's a reason games on Xbox and PS2 didn't use this kind of large scale shadowmapping. Every racing game used "fake" shadows of some kind, and they all looked better than this game does at 480p.

[@paulszki]

Yeah, you can say "oh it's a weaker console so these sacrifice HAD to be made" but actually, to me it's a below mediocre port, if you simply turn of 80% of modern features and call it a day. Mario Kart 8 deluxe simply looks better and that's a slightly souped up WiiU game. And in portable mode this looks worse than most mobile racers while running at 30fps. Nobody should spend money on this. it's simply a lazy port for a game that doesn't translate easily to lower spec hardware. It COULD have looked good but they didn't put in the work and you don't have to accept it.

[@raminudl]

Yeah, I honestly think going back to older 6th and 7th generation rendering techniques for Switch would work wonders. So many of these games try to just dumb down the modern rendering, leaving it looking terrible (or forced to run at awful resolutions). I understand why it's not really practical to completely re-do a game from the ground up using different techniques, but if it was feasible it would probably look a lot better than what we're getting out of ports.

[@NonsensicalSpudz]

using old techniques to achieve shadows and lighting would be perfect on switch, because as you say modern shadows don't work at such low resolution maping, modern shadows require that resolution

[@no1DdC]

@@raminudl This would cost time and thus money though, so they aren't doing it. The old techniques are likely not part of the engine's rendering pipeline anymore, so they can't just be enabled with a switch (heh) of a button, they would have to be added back in and you'd need artist time to make it look good. It's far easier, faster and cheaper to just disable expensive effects and use automatically generated LOD models and textures instead of crafting better-looking replacements. In the end, the problem is two-fold: 1), the engine, unlike what's said in this video, does not scale well to the Switch at all and 2), they just didn't care, did not want to spend more than a small handful of days on the port, since management believed the market on the Switch to be too small for a game like this. There is some truth to the latter - the lack of analog triggers makes serious racing games a rare breed on Nintendo's console - but on the other hand, this kind of shoddy work damages the game's brand as a whole. It's always had a reputation of being a bit low-budget, of being a bit of a low effort, irregardless of the platform, a reputation that poor ports only reinforce.

[@fillerbunnyninjashark271]

They could just bake it in instead like they did with ps2 shit. Just rendering sprites

[@Vge21x]

The comparison makes the PS4 version look pretty great, and you're mentioning how it's clearly made for the big consoles, but I'm not sure it looks any better than DiRT 3 with a resolution bump.

[@InnuendoXP]

DiRT 3 did a 'lot' with its post-processing effects, while WRC shows its rough edges in stark relief, the DiRT games do a great job hiding them. WRC has a 'lot' more geometric detail in its environments, particularly effecting physics in the road surface, not that you really notice it next to everything else. But that processing power isn't going nowhere, even if it isn't immediately obvious.

[@YashaAstora]

@@InnuendoXP lmao the fuck it does. I played both WRC10 and Dirt Rally 2 and the former's stages are as smooth as glass from a physics standpoint.

[@InnuendoXP]

@@YashaAstora Have you played Dirt 3 lately? You get launched off the ground more often, sure, but the rest of the time you're stuck to the ground with more downforce than a dragster.

[@InnuendoXP]

@@YashaAstora oh wait you said Dirt Rally 2, that's a different game entirely to what's being talked about here.

[@melxb]

he didn't say it's made for the big consoles, he said it benefits on the big consoles (ps5) because it was clearly made for PS4 gen

[@wilshirelive1014]

This shows why Grid on switch is so impressive. Feral interactive did such a incredible job with Grid on switch

[@bruhname2072]

LoL it runs better on phones.

[@JamieRobert_]

@@bruhname2072 that’s because phones are more powerful than the switch

[@Sackboy612]

@@JamieRobert_ Always funny when someone says that, not understanding how powerful modern phones are and the fact that the Switch is using a 2015 mobile processor

[@ps2progamer814]

@@Sackboy612 so phones are stronger?

[@EricCartman056]

@@ps2progamer814 yes

[@SatansBestBuddy1]

those cars are _extremely_ detailed for a handheld racing game. like, those hubcaps are easily far more polygons than you'd ever need for a 720p display. seems fairly obvious the devs were given the job of porting the game without redoing any of the art assets, so they used low LOD versions of most track elements and pruned trees until it hit 30fps. it makes sense why they did it this way, to optimize the game for switch you'd need basically the full original team of 3D modelers to go back and redo all of their work with a lower polygon and texture budget, which I don't imagine any publisher is willing to write the cheque for.

[@garyad8796]

Not having any other ai vehicles on screen means they've never made a low LOD versions of cars with significantly paired back details for original console releases. So yeah without a budget for new 3d models there's not much devs can do, they had to use the over-detailed car model that takes way too much of the polygon budget while nuking track asset density and LOD setting.

[@05DonnieB]

Was watching John's DF retro coverage of GT3 on PS2, and I must be honest and say it looks better than this game on Switch 😆

[@kikiphallin]

Of course, games built for a specific console always look better than their lower powered console ports which only reduce some (or a lot of) settings and call it a day.

[@DuckAlertBeats]

@@kikiphallin That was about 80 years ago though

[@Alorso_]

Polyphony Digital also has the backing of Sony tbf, they can afford to put the time and money into pushing the hardware

[@ZackSNetwork]

@@DuckAlertBeats Less than 20 years.

[@alphaomega887654321]

@@kikiphallin dude he is comparing a 10 gflops console vs a ~900gflops console and gt3 that works on a 90 wealer console looks better...

[@abbiedoobie]

For analogue throttle/brake, it could use Gamecube controllers. Not sure if that is supported, but some switch racers have done that as a work around.

[@pepe2011pley]

It's supported in grid auto sport only

[@chrisrichfield8906]

I didn't even know switch games could support analogue triggers. Is it only for gamecube controllers, or can you use one of those adapters that let you use a PS4 or Xbox controller on Switch? I'm guessing it has like a GC controller input mode or something.

[@VexAcer]

@@pepe2011pley Also Trials Rising. Grid Autosport also has native support for the Hori Steering Wheel which has analog acceleration/braking with its pedals.

[@kamilciura7953]

The fact that one would need to use a controller from three generations back to play racing sim properly on Switch isn't really helping in this case xD

[@matttheshadowman2790]

@@kamilciura7953 except getting a GameCube controller on Switch is totally a viable option thanks to its popularity with the Smash Bros community and its fairly easy to still get one

[@TechHug]

Saying that the engine is "scalable" is dubious. This game is running at PS2-level graphics and even resolution in handheld mode, and doesn't even run well, when Switch in handheld mode is comparable to PS3 in terms of performance. This is a pathetic showing, and shouldn't have even been released if this is the best they could manage.

[@ZackSNetwork]

False even in portable mode the Switch is more powerful than the Wii U. Which had a much stronger GPU and a lot more than the Xbox 360 and PS3. Get your facts straight clown.

[@finaldivine8235]

Actually, switch's 'dock' mode is comparable to ps3(a little better), not 'handheld' mode.

[@efuuu]

@@ZackSNetwork Look at the fanboy mad as hell

[@RonaldoTalison]

@@ZackSNetwork not really. Wii u could look worse even than PS3 in some games, you can't compare. The thing is this looks worse than some PS2 games which is really bad.

[@TechHug]

@@ZackSNetwork I was being conservative, but the Wii U was only on-par with PS3 and 360, with a couple of more modern features and a much weaker CPU. Switch in portable mode is a bit better than that, so maybe about 10-15% faster than PS3.

[@DJBV]

This is what happens when they try to push a game engine not designed for the switch hardware But the fact it looks worse than ps2 rally games is unacceptable

[@pocketanime]

fcking bots

[@Wogle]

2:40 SURELY a fixed block shadow under the car would've been a much better alternative to the horrible dynamic mess they went with?

[@no1DdC]

Sure it would, but that horrible dynamic mess was achieved by just changing a value in a .ini file. A fixed block shadow on the other hand would have required minutes of works by comparison.

[@Daniel-yz3zf]

Yeah that does look absolutely terrible.

[@gmunny46]

Wow, some of the comparisons even in the beginning are absolutely shocking.

[@logicalfundy]

It really looks like they made graphical cuts in all the wrong places. They could have cut the car's detail back a bit and given some of that to the environment, and I agree with many of the other comments about places where they could have optimized better. I also looked - and this game is available on Steam, so if you have (or will be getting) a Steam Deck, then it's best to get the game on Steam instead.

[@bltzcstrnx]

A game about cars and you want them to cut car details instead?

[@logicalfundy]

@@bltzcstrnx not too much. But they really need more GPU budget for everything else.

[@maxpowerulez5276]

Stop blaming devs, they did what they could.

[@logicalfundy]

@@maxpowerulez5276 I don't mean to demean or belittle, but to note an opportunity for learning and improvement. I've done software development myself, and I know it's not all always as simple as it looks.

[@blinkachu5275]

Imagine a game on a "modern" system like the Switch looking worse than games on a system released 22 years ago (the PS2)...

[@blinkachu5275]

I feel like this is because back then developers were limited, so they had to find workarounds to do proper shadows/lighting to get their vision across. Modern developers rely way too heavily on the engine just spitting out lighting/shadows for them, as well as materials being PBR and such.

[@Fina1Ragnarok]

Modern is a bit of a stretch for Switch though. It is 5 years old and uses mobile hardware from 2014. Having said that, I think the game, even on the other consoles, doesn't look that impressive. It has very flat lighting and other better looking racing games on PS4 hit 60fps.

[@blinkachu5275]

@@Fina1Ragnarok I mean, 2014 is still 14 years ahead of the PS2 (which used older hardware than was available in 2000 ^^) So it still stands. But I do agree that the game itself looks very bland even on the PS4.

[@Alorso_]

PS2 games in general are far blurier then you remember, vast majority only did 480i, and only a small amount did 480P, and only 4 were capable of 1080i, WRC10 on switch is not a great port, but even at 480P it's still gonna look cleaner than the vast majority of PS2 games

[@Fina1Ragnarok]

@@Alorso_ It's not just about resolution. WRC10 looks broken with all the stuff missing and textures being low and everything. Old PS2 games were designed with the hardware limitations at the time in mind and assets are all at an appropriate level.

[@williamcrms]

There are better looking games on iOS/Android. This is hilariously bad and I can’t imagine what the devs were thinking when they signed it off to be released. Would have loved to see John’s and Richard’s opinions on this one as well.

[@kebbinator]

The iPhone 13 CPU benchmarks at almost 850% compared to the Switch, and the GPU almost 200%. It’s no surprise that mobile games can and do look better than Switch games, you would expect so on hardware 5+ years newer and 4x+ the price.

[@japkoslav]

@@kebbinator What is actually more surprising is why mobile platforms like iOS or Android do not have more than 10 good game on the whole platform :-D

[@ZeitGeist_TV]

@@kebbinator Even games on my iphone X as old as that device is look better then Switch games even if I screen play on TV, the Switch chipset is down clocked for battery life but Apple silicone is just much better regardless even in a 2017 phone.

[@anabang1251]

@@japkoslav What are good full mobile games? The only one I know is NieR ReIncarnation but the combat system is as stupid as it gets.

[@samgoff5289]

If they made the game look good all the kiddos would cry about the terrible performance so when they make it run you cry about how it looks like a low resolution game running on a weak 5+ year old handheld

[@ScottX68000]

It doesn't suprise me that the switch port is so poor. The game engine used in WRC 7 - 10 is very heavy on the CPU, my gaming laptop that can run Forza Horizon 4 at 60fps really struggles to hit 30fps with even the older WRC 7. The game is phenominal on PS5 though, as is WRC 9.

[@Jonen560ti]

Explains why the PS5 port can run at 120fps

[@StanislaoMoulinsky79]

What do graphical cuts have to do with the game being CPU heavy? :S

[@Jonen560ti]

@@StanislaoMoulinsky79 The PS4 is stuck at 30fps no matter what, cause the CPU load is the bottleneck and reducing graphical quality would not help the framerate. The PS5 has a significantly faster CPU and has the grunt to run the game's logic at 120fps. Thus, the determining factor for the framerate ends up being the graphical fidelity, which can be scaled, unlike game logic

[@yancgc5098]

@@StanislaoMoulinsky79 The less things the game renders, the less CPU heavy it is. Which is why the Switch version looks the way it does.

[@StanislaoMoulinsky79]

@Jonen560ti Sure, but the guy above said that the port is what it is because the game is CPU heavy. If the bottleneck is the CPU reducing graphic doesn't help. @Yan CGC No, it doesn't. See above.

[@chanhjohnnguyen1867]

5:14 here we see the effects of deforestation in just 6 months. SMH😥

[@peterGchaves]

Exactly!! 😔 The Devs having such an amazing attention to detail to match reality, but Digital Foundry be like *"Huh, several graphical cutbacks were implemented."*

[@Moravia90s]

Why have "dynamic framerates" when you can also add "dynamic details" to the mix.

[@Daniel-yz3zf]

This game has it all!

[@OrionXIXI]

The saddest part of this port is how awful it looks compared to WRC8 and 9 on Switch. In their terrible efforts to get this game ported to Switch, they ended up with something that looks infinitely worse than the previous games they ported in the series.

[@mauryj.3415]

All ports look bad on switch

[@st0nedpenguin]

I'm really not sure that having to run lowest settings for everything AND delete half the terrain suggests an engine that scales well. If it scaled well the Switch release wouldn't be so bad.

[@bltzcstrnx]

Physics engine runs fine, so there's that.

[@st0nedpenguin]

@@bltzcstrnx After they removed vehicle deformation.

[@allanmhanson]

Looks like a 00’s PC game ♥️ I actually love it lol I do feel nostalgic for that era of gaming.

[@kwedl]

The Switch version really reminds me of Descenders or BeamNG on lowest settings.

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

The Vita port of 4 looks better.

[@Phelaidar]

This level of graphics on Switch clearly shows the engine is not really scalable, ok? Being scalable is about dropping down settings to lower-spec machines while maintaining a good gameplay and visual experience with few compromises. This is a flickering mess with horrible warping blob shadows, missing trees, extremely low polygons and bland textures. If we consider this as "scalable" we are setting the bar dangerouly low.

[@WeinerTouchy]

You think graphics is what's scalable about an engine? Lol. He clearly stated that it was impressive that the game ran at 30fps on switch while docked in a majority of stages which shows the scalability of the engine. Anyone with half a brain cell can understand that he's talking about the PERFORMANCE of the engine scalability, not the garbage direction they took with the visuals which is a completely different matter. If this is your understanding of engine talk, best to stay out of the comments to save yourself from embarrassment.

[@forasago]

@@WeinerTouchy It's not a different matter at all. What besides graphics COULD POSSIBLY be demanding in this game? It's one damn car driving along a predictable track. PS2 and Xbox games ate this genre of game for breakfast, at 60 fps, 20 years ago. You don't need a beast CPU or big RAM to run anything this game does. The only reasonable explanation for any performance problem is the graphical presentation. And the graphics are fucking terrible.

[@SatansBestBuddy1]

@@forasago the cars are literally the same 3D models as the PS4 version, that's a huge amount of detail for a handheld system. look at the hubcaps, or the steering wheel, or any of the body molds, they're all very smooth and look identical in all the side by sides with PS4. they were not optimized at all for the switch, so the very high polygon count and texture detail are eating huge chunks of the GPU's processing power, leaving too little to use for the tracks, resulting in the mess you see in the video. So yeah, the _game engine_ can scale well, but the _graphics_ were not optimized at all and don't scale very well. cutting the 3D model's down to PS3 levels, in the range of tens of thousands of polygons instead of hundreds of thousands, would have been a big help.

[@Ben-Rogue]

@@SatansBestBuddy1 I don't think the game engine scales well at all, from experience on PC at least. Changes to graphics settings on PC does little to improve performance, even on high-end hardware. There's something fundamentally weak about this games engine. I've seen some people blame poor CPU optimisation

[@bltzcstrnx]

@@Ben-Rogue if this game is physics heavy, then CPU limits are the norms. Most simulation game are bound by CPU, Flight Simulator, XPlane, Kerbal Space Program, Euro Truck Simulator 2, and Cities Skyline just to name a few. These games are bound mostly by their CPU utilisation.

[@OriginalChrizum]

I don't know what everyone is complaining about, this is a great looking PS2 game!

[@theninjamaster67]

I know this is a joke but the original release of Shadow of the Colossus on the PS2 looked better than this so I'd say it's more like a good looking PS1 game maybeeeee PSP or DSI if you're generous.

[@bliglum]

It really does look rather PS2 like. Or maybe, like a PSP game??? Whoever ported this should be at least a little bit embarrassed .

[@jatnierdorta]

@@theninjamaster67 i wouldnt go that far. SOTC is my favorite game of all time but it cant be denied that the land was almost completely baren and it ran at like 20 fps. Its incredible that it could run on the ps2 at all.

[@3dmarth]

Even that is an exaggeration. Did you see DF's Gran Turismo retrospective?

[@theninjamaster67]

@@jatnierdorta Yah well this runs at like 20 fps too I'm not seeing the difference lol

[@8Paul7]

These comparisons should really include Steam Deck as well.

[@swayamkrishnan8273]

Agreed

[@timytimeerased]

Except it would be a headache because its a pc

[@deputyskog]

Not really. Because of how customisable the visuals are on any PC based system it could be unfair against or in favour of the deck.

[@elbowsout6301]

I was thinking the same thing.

[@BigDoniel]

@@deputyskog It's easy to match the resolution and detail settings to see a vs Switch comparison. Then naturally it scales up to 'Deck can actually play upto X details and Y resolutions'.

[@nameless-user]

Looks horrifically unoptimized. The Switch can do better. Maybe poor culling or too much detail in the distance?

[@duckysyn]

Switch can't do better it's underpowered at this point should be retired already seems like a common theme with switch games well apart from any games made by Nintendo themselves

[@nameless-user]

@@duckysyn Witcher 3 already looks and runs better than this. Even SMT 5 looks better. The Switch is no powerhouse but the hardware is plenty capable if used properly. The wrong cuts were made here.

[@SITSIndustries]

1:14 Tom: "Is it compromised too much?" Visuals: "I'm a Dreamcast."

[@ChaFairchild]

Literally my first thought was, "at least Dreamcast games were 60 fps at 480p"

[@SpartanX360]

Dreamcast racers run at VGA 480p and locked 30 FPS (Msr/Sega gt/ V8:2nd offense) and 60 on test drive 6/toons race/Rush 2049/ Star Wars demolition/V-Rally

[@danbooke2001]

Well in the previous famous words of DF: “I don’t know why anyone would play a third party game on Switch when there are much better places to play.” The exact reason my Switch has gathered dust since launch.

[@Dookie69uk]

I'm shocked how terrible it looks, and no AA just makes it look like 1000% edge sharpening. Good god I wouldn't even pay £8 for it.

[@zzysk2]

The problem with 9s, which had better graphics quality than 10, was that their FPS dropped so much that it had a huge impact on the game. I think this downgrade is the correct answer when considering the game. Considering the customer base of switch, I think that Nacon can secure future customers by making it playable as a game rather than making it a game that looks good.

[@Nabalazs]

Looking at the tutorial stage, I almost wanna call it a demake, instead of some miracle port of downscaling.

[@cikame]

I absolutely love these games on PC but i've never thought they were pushing graphics particularly hard, there are a lot less effects and details when compared to a Codemasters release and you get the impression there's not much more to the world than the boundries of the track, so i'm really surprised by the downgrade. I started with WRC8 and there's not a huge difference between 8 and 10 graphically, really not a lot of work done on the engine as far as i can tell, so maybe the aging engine without many updates is the cause for the drastic downgrade, a lack of flexibility or modern scaling.

[@NecromancerAdr]

This just makes me love Grid on Switch even more.

[@mauryj.3415]

That game looks like shit on switch too

[@lordadz1615]

@@mauryj.3415 get your eyes checked. its unanimously agreed upon that grid looks really good for switch. its comparable to like a home console version. wrc on the other hand is like inbetween a ps1 and a ps2 game lol

[@hassosigbjoernson5738]

This footage shows how advanced a portable PC like Steam Deck is. My first thought when seeing the Switch footage was that this old PS2 game could be emulated on Steam Deck (or any other Laptop with a Ryzen 5600G or similar) quite easy. Then I began to understand that this was actual Switch footage. A portable device with something like Forza Horizon 5 or Dirt 5 even on 720p and maybe via Game Pass ... that's the way to go! And I cannot understand people playing in docked mode or something, when even PS4/ XBO delivers a more exceptable picture than Switch does ...

[@sirdiesalot7626]

because some of us already have the game on the go and dont want to pay for it again to see it on the TV with better visuals

[@Nahtan123]

The switch isn't the issue here, it's the lack of effort to try and port the game. There are far better examples of ports which demonstrate the actual potential of what the switch can do, this is among one of the worst

[@bltzcstrnx]

@@Nahtan123 it's not a good port, but Switch is definitely part of the issue.

[@Nahtan123]

@@bltzcstrnx sure it's not as powerful but when we get games like this it's disappointing to see that it's not even being utilised to its full potential

[@bltzcstrnx]

@@Nahtan123 could be because this game is not an arcade like most racing games on Switch. I saw some comments saying even on their PC, this one is CPU heavy. Make sense to me for a simulation game.

[@BottomOfTheDumpsterFire]

I can name games from the early 2000s that look better than this, how did you mess up a port this bad? Was the engine overhead that much? Was everything still had to be models rather than flat textures? Why not bake the shadows?

[@forasago]

Apparently flat textures weren't in the budget either. No grass.

[@drewa4235]

the switch is not as powerful as folks think. The switch has horrible memory bandwidth (ddr4), and it's using a very stripped down gpu. I truly believe the 360 could give the switch a run for its money.

[@bltzcstrnx]

Probably the performance budget is spent on physics. Most good looking Switch/mobile racing games are arcade.

[@BottomOfTheDumpsterFire]

@@bltzcstrnx But that's CPU budget, not GPU. Also, doesn't really make that much sense since there were great simulators on the PS2, both looking and running, seems like it's the engine not being modified to run properly on the Switch and still tries to do everything dynamically as if it's a PS5/Xbox SX.

[@JackFrost-1856]

@@drewa4235 if the 360 could give the Switch a run for it's money, how come PS3/360 ports look and run better on Switch?????? And let's not even talk about PS4 ports on Switch that would be impossible to get running on PS3/360

[@T00muchF00Dchannel]

GRID is a MUST play for anybody that loves racing games and play on Switch. I have so much fun playing it.

[@E1235]

There's better looking PS2 games than this, and for good reason. Those games (or the better ones anyway) used good art direction to mask the hardware limitations and present an overall output that's still appealing. This game does none of that. It cuts back and cuts back and cuts back until it runs, but adds nothing back in to mask the demanding bits that it cut. That is not how you get an appealing game out of a severely underpowered machine.

[@DuckAlertBeats]

Ridge Racer on PS3! 1080/60 for instance, looks beautiful to this day. It's night and day compared to this. What year did that come out? 15 years ago??

[@DuckAlertBeats]

Oh you said PS2. Yeah you're probably right still

[@Alorso_]

@@DuckAlertBeats I just played RR7 recently, I couldn't believe how well it holds up, plus it's a launch game on a difficult af to develop for console, seriously impressive

[@shioyoutube9041]

The big problem with this is how lazy it is, they didn’t even try at all and that’s what ruins it. The earlier games on PS2 genuinely looks better.

[@IkesDaddelbox]

This is the dumb and ridiculous stuff I'm looking for in comparison videos. Always spectacular.

[@MastermindAtWork]

My goodness, the Switch version looks like a Unity Tutorial Project for how cut back it is.

[@Matheus_4812]

Wow... That switch version is just... Wow. That looks worse than a lot of PS2 games.

[@densetsu4286]

Are we sure this isn't a n64 port just running on switch via bc? This is freaking terribad. Looks straight out of the mid to late 90s. Hell apart of me think this could possibly rival some snes games with the superfx chip.

[@Auyx]

Seems Tom doesn't want to be too harsh but stuff like this could do with a bit more of a venomous response.

[@soulsynthesiscreations]

I wasn't quite prepared how bad it was going to look and I stand up for a lot of ports on switch.

[@soulsynthesiscreations]

Saying that it's pretty poor on ps4.

[@yugorisfriwan]

man this graphic comparison got me nostalgic, the switch reminds me of how my games looked on my underpowered PC back in the year 2004, and the ps4 looks like how i saw it in the trailer

[@dhivydhimanth1960]

It's baffling to me that Nintendo didn't even consider any upgrade to the Tegra X1 core of the Switch when they released their OLED model... Seeing such severe cutbacks on multi platform games would make you think that Nintendo wouldn't like the comparisons painting such a bad light on the console but that's Nintendo for you i guess

[@trixniisama]

Did you heard of a little something called shortages ?

[@chop46878]

@@trixniisamadoing that would be very inefficient to developers having to work with two different hardwares when majority are already on the weaker original. Not worth it from a financial and labor point of view unless it was a next-gen hardware in itself but it wouldn’t have been. All it would’ve done would cause more games to be delayed further.

[@alexandrebelair4360]

@@trixniisama Tegra cores are not really affected by the shortage. A bit but not much.

[@paulszki]

I think it doesn't matter. That this is such a bad looking game isn't really Nintendo's fault. There are plenty of games that look excellent on switch. The publisher just forced a lazy port of a modern game on hardware that doesn't run it well by turning off all modern graphic features. It's not like Nintendo is awesome. They DO sell overpriced outdated hardware and have a shit online store etc., but this is entirely on the developer. Excellent looking games on Switch exist. Excellent ports exist. This just is a lazy port, that looks worse than about any mobile racing game on Android/iOS of the last couple years.

[@Alex-pk1iy]

The switch can handle GRID: Autosport and Burnout Paradise, but this was the limit?

[@leviharris6944]

snorted coffee out my nose at the Voldemort reference -- who do I send the bill to for my new monitor that's now coffee-covered?

[@trallakid]

damn mobile games really be looking leagues ahead of the switch version

[@crestofhonor2349]

That's because the switch runs an 8 year old chip and modern smartphones are a lot faster, even ones from 4 years ago

[@crestofhonor2349]

@@mikeuk666 Well of course they do when the processor made is far more expensive to produce

[@HStark]

Seems like Switch is more suitable for last gen ports. NFS, Burnout, Bioshock, Diablo 3, Skyrim, etc. All look great on Switch, while the likes of Doom and Wolfenstein looks passable at best(still impressive work). Then we have V-Rally and WRC, which look straight up horrible.

[@matttheshadowman2790]

This shows that ports to the Switch need to be made with care. Grid Autosport shows it's possible but really Fast RMX still stands out to me, not only as an enhanced Wii U port but as a launch title and it still looks better than games coming out on the system 5 years later. Truth is though that unless you use excellent art design and an engine made with the Switch in mind it really is going to struggle with ports from other consoles now. As for WRC 10 it's far from the worst example we have seen (ARK: Survival Evolved is hard to top in terms of terrible Switch ports) but it really does show a lot of the Switch's weaknesses too.

[@dun0790]

? Pretty sure fast rmx wasn't a switch launch game m8 I could be wrong

[@paulustrucenus]

@@dun0790 I'm pretty sure it was.

[@dun0790]

@@paulustrucenus dam yeah sorry you were right m8

[@p0lybius755]

Reminds me of WRC5 on PSVita, very cut back but kind of impressive at the same time.

[@XDLugia]

It's insane that the Switch is technically far superior to an Xbox 360, but games like Forza Motorsport 4 absolutely dumps on this game in terms of visuals and performance.

[@melxvee6850]

Unfortunately switch tech is outdated for the engines used to make these games

[@antonkirilenko3116]

@@melxvee6850 It's not outdated, it's just severely underpowered. But still, there are some impressive ports on it and it's down to each developer to make the most out of the hardware at hand.

[@WeinerTouchy]

@@antonkirilenko3116 Kind of a bad take when Nintendo can't even get their first party games running at a playable performance these days. The handheld is outdated and a "pro" model needed to be released yesterday to keep any interest in development for the system at a peak.

[@ZackSNetwork]

@@WeinerTouchy Bad take, look at the Switch sales the device is as successful as it is underpowered.

[@ZackSNetwork]

Very ignorant of you to compare a Xbox 360 exclusive to one of the worse ports on the Switch that goes along with Ark. compare exclusives to exclusives and best ports clown.

[@fixorbricks]

At 5:16 when you compared tutorial stages I also noticed the car on the switch side looks a bit squished, is that from the video edit or is the aspect ratio or FOV on the switch slightly different too?

[@MrPoeGhost]

Quit calling it a handheld; it's a hybrid, which means it's intended to be considered at least 50% of a home console, which makes this port even less excusable as the developer (and by extension, Nintendo) are basically saying that this is acceptable to be played on a TV, which it isn't.

[@pan5001]

It's called a handheld because that's exactly what it is. The fact it can be connected to a TV is irrelivant.

[@ahsankhan-zg6gr]

Lol I love a bit of comedy dashed in with Larry Bernard and Voldemort

[@purenatural5736]

Looks like pre-alpha version.

[@XZ-III]

woah this took me to the days of playing WRC on N64 but back then N64 was more on par with PS1 more than Switch is on par with PS4. I'm a lil mad that the switch has more exclusives that im interested in for that reason alone i mean yeah i can buy it with a paycheck but part of me feels it's still just not worth it

[@DanielD.mp3]

I have to say that I LOVE all this new racing game content

[@will891410]

This franchise was always subpar in graphics dispite the hardware.

[@SG710]

They went full "LowSpecGamer" on the Switch port...

[@switchinlanes8786]

This is making me quite worried about the Switch version of Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown.

[@Hzuuuu]

I've always hated the idea of Nacon forcing every single one of their game studios to develop their games for every single platform. They should just keep it current gen. They're not an AAA publisher either. They can't even give their studios enough money to stop making games looking like games from 2010 in 2022. I like their games but I absolutely hate their greed.

[@rickrodriguez6244]

Anyone surprised by this needs to remember that the Switch is running on the original Tegra chipset designed for cell phones 7 years ago... In fact, play almost ANY modern racing game on a newer cell phone and it will blow the switch out of the water from a visual standpoint. Nintendo really needs a refresh. A newer Nvidia chipset that supports DLSS would be the perfect solution.

[@getitstandswithukraine6637]

This is an obvious optimization issue. The switch is more powerful than a 360 and if you look at racing games from that generation and compare them to this you know it can look way better than this and has proven to do so. Also racing games are way easier to optimize due to their linearity than something more open world like say witcher 3 on switch.

[@goncaloduarte4683]

@@getitstandswithukraine6637 360/PS3 racing games look way better because back then they didn't use the heavier graphical effects that we see today, they were made with slower hardware, so they used lighter graphical effects and designed the art around that. Here the switch is still doing those heavy effects, the problem is that it doesn't leave enough resources for the rest and they couldn't cut them without breaking the game in some way. It's not an optimization issue, it's just a game that shouldn't ever be ported to the Switch

[@getitstandswithukraine6637]

@@goncaloduarte4683 How would removing graphical features break the game? And even if it did. Thats part of the optimization: changing or improving technical aspects and sometimes core code to make a game run well. If it were purely cpu bound and part of the gameplay I would maybe understand it. But there are other games that are just as complex if not more that were made for the ps4 generation and were made playable through optimization : Witcher 3 Wolfenstein Doom 2016 And if you really want an example of how much optimization can do on switch compare outerworlds day one version with the latest patch on switch. And other than that grid on switch shows how good a racing game can look and play on the console.

[@getitstandswithukraine6637]

@@goncaloduarte4683 what im saying is: yes, of course its an optimization issue.

[@bjornspindel6249]

This is a software issue, not a hardware issue

[@mitchelljenkins4815]

At what point does DF just say: This looks like crap. Please avoid it at all costs. This actually give me a headache to watch. "Is WRC 10 for Switch really as bad as people said it is?" Clearly yes and those people were obvious being nice.

[@JMartinni]

3:33 tbf PS1 era for racing games (similar to other sports games) would have been cardboard cutouts, whole rows of spectators in one texture.

[@211ryo112]

This shows how ancient Nintendo is. You can run CMR3 in 4k with analog triggers with less popups and way better fps. But best regards to devs of this port to push this device to it's limits

[@ZackSNetwork]

The Switch is running mobile hardware from 2014 that is heavily under clocked and memory bandwidth limited. Pair this with an incompatible engine that does not work well with the Switch’s low performance and likely less development time.

[@franzusgutlus54]

Is this a "LowSpecGamer" video?

[@chriswy697]

I was hoping to see WRC10 vs 9 & 8 on the switch. Both of those seemed to look better than 10 to my eyes

[@csl02]

While I do understand the arguments it is still interesting that it looks worse than WRC 9 (8 looks better but runs worse - to me at least) and it's supposed to run on the same engine. Seems like they want to maximize gains over losing the license after this, a shame since I highly doubt EA will allow codemasters to port theirs to switch, specially if they would allow feral to give it the grid autosport treatment.

[@InnuendoXP]

The timeline from where Codemasters is due to release their first WRC game, it'll likely to be a next-gen console exclusive. By that time, surely a Switch Pro will be out at least, if not a Switch 2.

[@csl02]

@@InnuendoXP since codemasters seemingly dropped dirt 3 development (maybe repurposing it as WRC '23) it may come out next year but the switch will be 6 years old by then and even if viable (100 million devices make a compelling argument) I can't see EA going through the effort then if they didn't do it by now.

[@InnuendoXP]

@@csl02 I guess part of if they even bother with a PS4/Xbone version will depend on the state of the chip shortage.

[@csl02]

@@InnuendoXP with Sony reactivating the PS4 for being unable produce as many PS5 as they want I believe Nintendo will keep the switch longer (last year they say it entered it's mid phase) but big publishers (like ea in out thought exercise here) were reluctant in the early days and are reluctant now because of time passed as well. I own all but WRC 8 and 9 both on pc and on switch and I still prefer the switch despite the lack of analogue triggers (having played a lot of WRC 3 and 4 on Vita helped a lot to familiarise myself) and ea makes it hard to believe we'll see whatever codemasters makes on switch.

[@InnuendoXP]

@@csl02 If Nintendo doesn't step up with a Switch replacement, I see more portable PCs like Steamdeck taking off, particularly with AMD's Raphael APU coming up, maybe that will give you the experience you're after? It's one thing to keep scaling down to the PS4, it's something else entirely to scale down to the Switch as you're basically working with an Xbox360's graphics performance at that point. Loads of people say the same thing, the Switch is their preferred way to play 3rd party games, but the hardware limitations (which are also old as sin now) are a massive barrier to this continuing in a remotely timely manner if at all, where non-indies are concerned anyway.

[@JorgeMartinez-dp3im]

The switch is likely less powerful than the phone I'm typing on. This looks about as good as I'd expect to be honest.

[@swayamkrishnan8273]

Hey DF, can you please include Steam Deck as part of these comparisons? Thank you

[@Gazeycovers]

Why? Steamdeck is essentially a handheld ps4 pro with minor ray tracing capabilities. Basically you already know what you would see

[@dausthrowaway4349]

Finally! ive been waiting for a WRC10 switch breakdown before i purchase it

[@Koen1702]

Awesome looking ps2 game on switch!

[@azazelleblack]

I legitimately think GT4 looks better than this mess. LOL

[@DatMarkan]

Oh wow. Targeting 30 fps when looking this bad? Crazy.

[@coldxlordx]

I'm impacient for the new video of PS5 VRR.. but more for Life of the black tiger in PS5! pleasee

[@okaybutwhythough7456]

It'd be really nice to see a high quality experience like this that's actually designed for the hardware rather than being scaled down. They're vastly different games, but even Asphalt 9 on Switch, which is originally a phone game, runs at 720p portable, 1080p docked, and targets 60fps (though unstable). With all that, the visuals are just incomparably better in every aspect and there's much more going on on screen. And it's not like it lacks in content either. Obviously it's on the absolute opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to realism, but it shows what can be done if you take full advantage of mobile hardware.

[@ShadowsBehindU]

We all know switch's hardware isn't even close as performant as a base ps4, but to release a game that effectively looks worse than CMR3, a 20 year old game, that's something else. Damn I need to bleach my eyes.

[@owenling]

The way they have tried to scale things back by reducing the quality of very demanding graphical features is why this looks so bad. The geometry in the tracks has been reduced but rather than flattening out walls and falling back to textures to create the feeling of a bumpy surface it looks like entire meshes have been interpolated to reduce polygon count. The cars and cockpits could definitely be reduced polygon wise and still look good. The shadow mapping looks awful and is going to be demanding, prebaking some shadows into the textures, especially for the distance and even falling back to some sky boxes for further away elements would help this game do a lot better visually. Ultimately you can tell this was a project that was built with newer hardware in mind, judging by what looks like automated polygon reduction, I'm not sure this port had the budget or time to implement these fall backs, but maybe the outcry will see the next version have a different approach

[@wegiTLS]

We're now in the timeframe where only Nintendo makes serviceable Switch Games. These ports shown here are completely forgettable

[@sonicadv27]

Their last game wasn't exactly the best showcase for the Switch either. Kirby looks like a late PS2 era title and runs at 30fps. The Switch just isn't capable of running these latest games. They're basically trying to run PS5 titles on a PS3. Developers need to put in the work to adjust their games or they should just not bother.

[@crestofhonor2349]

@@sonicadv27 Kirby looks way better than a PS2 title. It looks far more like a late PS3/360 era title than a PS2 game

[@sonicadv27]

@@crestofhonor2349 i disagree. The only thing stopping Kirby from looking like a 2007 game is the 1080p resolution. But considering we've seen other great looking Nintendo games on Switch, Kirby felt really dissapointing to me in terms of performance and graphics.

[@ufodeath]

1:14 that side by side comparison is the difference between a very early 2000's driving game and a driving game from roughly 15 years later (on PS4 it looks relatively dated).

[@jordanredd2519]

The switch really did age like some fine milk.

[@MegaCygnusX1]

The Switch version legit reminds me of V-Rally on the PS1. Good times. At least back then lol.

[@SteamPunk96]

Interesting port, blatantly paired back to near non-recognition, but also doesn't seem like a complete cash grab, someone definitely wanted their game on switch and made it happen. Thanks for the video as always Tom.

[@kenmasters2231]

Has Nintendo banned Digital Foundry from doing Switch comparisons with Steam Deck?

[@erenyeeagah204]

could you gyus do like a short analisys fo Switch Sports? Im mainly interested about the AMD Superresolution that theyre supposedly using for this game

[@Jsteeeez]

Why its just a spatial upsampler. Its not going to look good at lower resolution. Switch already can do temporal upsampling which will look better in practice. Its not something that is magically going to give a game playable frame rate without huge sacrifices to image quality. Its just a spatial upscale.

[@Zeemas]

Sous chef: "Chef, we can't afford sugar, butter and heavy cream for our gourmet cakes, just eggs and flour." Chef: "Just make it" Cake:

[@SeanLumly]

At certain points, it looks like a good looking Sega Dreamcast game..

[@chriscroft2323]

I think daytona 2001 looks better

[@THENAMEISQUICKMAN]

I disagree because Dreamcast games often had artstyles instead of "attempting realism" as the artstyle like this and modern racers do

[@mixey01]

Switch is the epiphany of the most successful underpowered console ever

[@mouseDown83]

big Harry Potter fan here, I’ll definitely pick this game up, thx Tom!

[@KizaruB]

This is another of those games where I think “you brought it to the switch, but at what cost”

[@m4r71n2006]

Looks more like a psp port, in sure the switch could do better than this

[@marcw3852]

With Grid Autosport on the handheld system I'm surprised Codemasters haven't tapped up Feral Interactive to port over a PS360 era DIRT game for the Switch. DIRT 2 or 3 would blow these terrible WRC games out the water.

[@no1DdC]

This is easier said than done, because they would have to renegoiate licenses for every car and other brand in the game, which would be a costly and lengthy process.

[@TheDV-ANT]

I don't feel bad for people that bought this on switch.

[@narlzac85]

Brake/accelerate on right stick was my setup for GT 1-4 which is also the most I've ever played any racing games, so I don't consider that a loss

[@krazislav]

Some of these Switch downgrades remind me of Half Life 2 for the original xbox.

[@x7bsytchannel]

Hope you cover Wreckfest when it launches on Switch (June 21). That would be interesting.

[@saturn6458]

amazing port by the lowspecgamer!

[@92juanreus]

"Scalable". Any engine is scalable at some point if you start stripping features until it works at a desired framerate. But being unrecognizable in most aspects when doing it kinda throws the concept out of the window. This game isn't the most beautiful to start with in ps5, and its artistically horrendous on switch, even if it runs decently. It's just an attempt in selling more units without the work honestly.

[@Hzuuuu]

I blame Nacon for this. Every single Nacon game even in 2022 looks like a game from 2010 and they're forcing every single of their game dev studios to release on every single platform that's still selling today.