Gaming Had the new Mario Kart 8 update fix the 59fps bug?

[Foxi4]

OK, ill give you that one

...you mean "those three"?

 

[DinohScene]

Wow, 1 fucking frame per second.
Only wankers will circle jerk about it.

 

[Snailface]

For those wondering how this 'bug' works, the game renders new frames at 60fps for 59/60 frames but the last one is duplicated. This is why it really shouldn't matter that much in regards to 'syncing' with your 60hz tv, but whether you notice the 'tick' once every second when the same frame repeats.

I can actually notice it, but only when I'm really trying to (i.e being a squinty eyed nerd instead of actually playing and enjoying the game)

 

[Bladexdsl]

Plasma TV master race

 

[FanLuigi]

Well, that's what I wanted to know, hte game stills the same, thanks everyone!

 

[RowanDDR]

Just wanted to add my experience...

I got my WiiU today and Mario Kart 8 (for my birthday).. hooray!!! But as I started playing, almost instantly I noticed that the game was "twitching" for want of a better word. The motion was not fluid. Noticeable "micro stutters" every second or so. Really annoying. (Actually the same kind of effect as when you play Triforce Mario Kart Arcade on a Wii from a slow SD card and it can't keep up, but not quite as bad.) So anyway, I figured it was just me, but I thought I'd Google it before I contact Nintendo. So I Googled "Mario Kart 8 stutter" And from that I happened upon this thread.

I also found other threads/forums where people were getting particularly angry and trolly saying childish things like "OMG cant f**king believe you care about 1fps no one can notice that unless you have robot eyes FFS get a life OMFG LOL" ..... I have to presume these people have never played Mario Kart 8, or if they have, either their eyesight or TV is poor quality (or both).

So anyway, I submitted a complaint to Nintendo... and their webform gave an error lol. Seems their website needs better QA as well as their games. So then I called them instead. The guy in their call centre said he'd never heard of the issue. I told him that its all over the internet, just Google "Mario Kart 8 stutter". He asked if I wanted to send my WiiU or disc back to him but I refused.. I said its not just me, hundreds if not thousands of others are reporting the same problem. It didn't sound like he could escalate the issue to anyone so he advised me to email Nintendo instead, to [email protected], which I did. I would urge anyone else who cares about this to do the same.

I've owned every Mario Kart game since the SNES original in 1992 and I've never experienced a problem like this that I've had to complain about. I'm shocked that this is a retail flagship game, with such an immediate, obvious "in your face" problem not fixed. I'm even more shocked that Nintendo are silent on the matter to date. The game was a gift but if I would have bought it myself I would simply return it, thats when companies start listening usually.

EDIT: for the record, I have the latest (as of today, 19 Jan 2015) system update and game update installed. The stutter was present before and after the various updates and is still present.

 

[the_randomizer]

For the record, it only happens on any mode with more than one player. Why, no one knows, can it be patched? I don't know either.

 

[Arras]

Just wanted to add my experience...

I got my WiiU today and Mario Kart 8 (for my birthday).. hooray!!! But as I started playing, almost instantly I noticed that the game was "twitching" for want of a better word. The motion was not fluid. Noticeable "micro stutters" every second or so. Really annoying. (Actually the same kind of effect as when you play Triforce Mario Kart Arcade on a Wii from a slow SD card and it can't keep up, but not quite as bad.) So anyway, I figured it was just me, but I thought I'd Google it before I contact Nintendo. So I Googled "Mario Kart 8 stutter" And from that I happened upon this thread.

I also found other threads/forums where people were getting particularly angry and trolly saying childish things like "OMG cant f**king believe you care about 1fps no one can notice that unless you have robot eyes FFS get a life OMFG LOL" ..... I have to presume these people have never played Mario Kart 8, or if they have, either their eyesight or TV is poor quality (or both).

So anyway, I submitted a complaint to Nintendo... and their webform gave an error lol. Seems their website needs better QA as well as their games. So then I called them instead. The guy in their call centre said he'd never heard of the issue. I told him that its all over the internet, just Google "Mario Kart 8 stutter". He asked if I wanted to send my WiiU or disc back to him but I refused.. I said its not just me, hundreds if not thousands of others are reporting the same problem. It didn't sound like he could escalate the issue to anyone so he advised me to email Nintendo instead, to [email protected], which I did. I would urge anyone else who cares about this to do the same.

I've owned every Mario Kart game since the SNES original in 1992 and I've never experienced a problem like this that I've had to complain about. I'm shocked that this is a retail flagship game, with such an immediate, obvious "in your face" problem not fixed. I'm even more shocked that Nintendo are silent on the matter to date. The game was a gift but if I would have bought it myself I would simply return it, thats when companies start listening usually.

EDIT: for the record, I have the latest (as of today, 19 Jan 2015) system update and game update installed. The stutter was present before and after the various updates and is still present.

It's not really an immediate, obvious in your face issue. Many people don't notice it at all and have no idea what this is all about.

 

[shinkodachi]

I also found other threads/forums where people were getting particularly angry and trolly saying childish things like "OMG cant f**king believe you care about 1fps no one can notice that unless you have robot eyes FFS get a life OMFG LOL" ..... I have to presume these people have never played Mario Kart 8, or if they have, either their eyesight or TV is poor quality (or both).

Trust me, it's not just you. I have good vision and I can notice the stutters. Anyone trying to say the human eye can't see up to 60fps should just shut up. However, I believe most people won't notice it due to their TV. Often TVs have lots of shenanigans enabled by default, e.g. motion smoothing or "240Hz mode" or some other crap that makes the picture quality "better" while completely butchering it. Sadly a lot of people fall for these settings. I had my family compare the TV set I bought 2 years ago with the factory default settings and professionally calibrated settings (which essentially had all filters and effects turned off). All of my family members said the picture quality was better and smoother with the factory default settings.

Playing Mario Kart 8 with the calibrated settings and true 60Hz output I notice the stutters quite often and it's annoying. It's much the same kind of annoying as noticing plasma flicker, which some people definitely notice while others don't. No other game I've tried causes this effect. E.g. Super Mario 3D World runs at 60fps beautifully. I know it sounds like a 1st world problem to complain about a stupid 1fps difference, but it can actually make or break the game for me depending on the mood I'm in. I actually enjoy playing Mario Kart 8 with 3 or 4 players locally as the framerate is fixed at 30fps, which is much easier on my eyes.

 

[RowanDDR]

For the record, it only happens on any mode with more than one player. Why, no one knows, can it be patched? I don't know either.

Don't think thats true. I've only played 1 player mode and as I say, I notice the stutter constantly.

 

[RowanDDR]

It's not really an immediate, obvious in your face issue. Many people don't notice it at all and have no idea what this is all about.

Thats because... what shinkodachi said. Most people have those nasty "soap opera" effect, "smoothing" (blurring) etc filters and cadence molestering settings enabled. I don't care about those people, I care about this real problem that many people can see, and what Nintendo has to say about it.

 

[prowler]

send an sd card with the save in to get it fixed

 

[mightymuffy]

There still isn't anything concrete on this, but all signs point to the 'dropped frame' being something to do with a timing/programming issue linked with CPU drivers... there's no issue in either 4 player split screen or online racing (or TTs)... thus the problem is clearly not a performance one, as in, the Wii U can't handle that 'dropped frame'. Might even have something to do with MKTV as well.... Clearly it's not something they can fix easily as, due to the amount of complaints they've no doubt had, it would've been fixed in the first patch surely.
Not exactly AC:Unity or LBP3 either let's be honest.......

 

[Arras]

For the record, it only happens on any mode with more than one player. Why, no one knows, can it be patched? I don't know either.

No, it only happens on modes with AI enabled.

 

[RowanDDR]

send an sd card with the save in to get it fixed

Where is this advice coming from please?

 

[the_randomizer]

No, it only happens on modes with AI enabled.

And yet there's nothing they can do to patch it.

send an sd card with the save in to get it fixed

That has nothing to do with the framerate.

 

[NicEXE]

For every 64 frames, the next frame is the same as before. That means that an that particular image stayed for twice as long on the screen.
Each frame should stay for 1/60th of a second. That frame stayed for 2/60th of a second. This is the same as how long frames stay at 30 frames per second (1/30th of a second).
Mario Kart 8 is blasting 60 frames at your face. Each frame is almost identical to the previous. Now when 2 frames are identical, can you really tell while playing?

PS. Stop XORing the frames you captured and start looking the games with your eyes.

 

[the_randomizer]

For every 64 frames, the next frame is the same as before. That means that an that particular image stayed for twice as long on the screen.
Each frame should stay for 1/60th of a second. That frame stayed for 2/60th of a second. This is the same as how long frames stay at 30 frames per second (1/30th of a second).
Mario Kart 8 is blasting 60 frames at your face. Each frame is almost identical to the previous. Now when 2 frames are identical, can you really tell while playing?

PS. Stop XORing the frames you captured and start looking the games with your eyes.

It's pretty damned noticeable, there's no denying there's an issue, don't tell us what to do lol.

 

[shinkodachi]

I think this needs to be said: if the game ran at true 59fps, it wouldn't pose as much of a problem (though other problems would probably arise). However, the game runs at "60fps" with 59 actual frames and that last frame duplicated to become the 60th frame. That means you see one frame at 1/30th of a second and the other 59 frames at 1/60th of a second. This is different from if all frames were visible at 1/59th of a second. Understand this difference and appreciate the fact that it doesn't bother you if that's the case because it does bother quite many others out there.

 

[RowanDDR]

FWIW I got another reply from Nintendo today:

With regards to your query, please be assured that your feedback will be forwarded to the relevant department for future reference, as it is possible there may be a patch released soon that will resolve this issue.

However, to best assess whether there is an underlying issue with the console or game, we would suggest sending the console and game into our repair centre for a free assessment. If you wish to do this, please contact our Customer Support team via the website or on the number below.

We apologise for any inconvenience this matter has caused and if you have any further questions or queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.