Hardware RUMOR: 3DS update fixed framerate problems/load times in some software

[Deleted_171835]

Over at neogaf and r/3ds, some folks have been saying that certain 3DS game have seen improvements in framerate and load times after the latest update. Supposedly Rayman 3D is now very smooth and has significantly decreased load times. Ridge Racer is said not to stutter occasionally anymore, Bit. Trip Saga is apparently running smoother.

So I just stumbled upon this thread and happen to have my Pika 3DS(5.1) alongside my old original blue XL (4.5).

Rayman is definitely a bit improved. Tested the first level and things are all around smoother. Certainly still some slowdown on 5.1, but it's noticeably smoother. Went to the same level (the first one) and did the same things. Also there's a pan down when the main menu is loaded. On the 4.5 DS is stuttered. On the 5.1 DS is was smooth as silk.

Bit Trip Runner is also smoother - no lag when 3D is on.

I don't think this is placebo (honestly, I wasn't even sure if my Blue was updated or not until I checked it).

Seems pretty verified to me - at least based on Rayman and Bit Trip.

Tested RE: M3D for 5 minutes and the improvements are huge! I played as Jill and being close to one of the monks holding a shield gave me a bit slowdown using the machine gun. With several enemies or monk with shield you notice the game slow downs a bit when the machine gun shoots at them (a kind of delay in the played animation if you know what I mean). This was with the original 3DS with pre update.

Now when I played on my 3DSXL I got the same slowdown in the RE4 town in the house if you look around at the corner near the window. But upon shooting several monks and one with a shield didn't even give any slow down like it did pre patch. Man this is some sort of voodoo!

Also loading times are better too!

3DS pre patch: 12 seconds
3DSXL post patch: 9 seconds.

It feels like its a brand new game!

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=538221
http://www.reddit.com/r/3DS/comments/1c4hwg/latest_update_improves_performance/

 

[Ergo]

Yeah, I checked this on an older, non-updated 3DS, and my XL and, yeah, there's a difference, if not quite a spectacular one (I mostly notice it in that there's less stuttering during streaming loads).

(That said, I don't have Rayman 3D which is said to be a massive improvement and I haven't tried Bit.Trip yet.)

 

[Corbra1020]

Oh Hell no thats gotta be BS i played Bit Trip and the frame rate/lag is still the same and im on the latest to.

 

[Issac]

Unless there's some really recent update that I've missed, Bit.Trip.Saga is still laggy. I was really sad to notice that :/ I love Runner, but it's really hard to play such a timing based game with lag and stutter :o (turning off the 3D helps)

 

[RodrigoDavy]

I demand video proof!

 

[WiiUBricker]

Well, surely the latest update increased the performance of the 3DS menu. It may well be possible that some games are affected, too.

 

[TripleSMoon]

Sounds to me that maybe since Nintendo was already working on Wii U updates to increase menu and transition speed anyway, they figured might as well do the same to the 3DS. Not bad.

 

[granville]

I came across this when someone posted it on the Gamefaqs boards a few weeks ago (near the end of March, before this or the Neogaf thread). Someone posted on the forums that the March firmware update improved the Sonic & Sega Allstars Racing Transformed framerate problems. And some other people said it helped other games as well.

I didn't believe a word of it, until I tried one of my own games that is notorious for its nasty framerate issues, Kingdom Hearts 3D. I was very much on guard for this being BS. Was completely not expecting it to be different and was prepared to assume that if I noticed any slight changes that it was just a placebo effect or some crap. Well sure enough I noticed a change, but it was way too large to assume it was all in my head. There's definitely a massive improvement. It doesn't completely remove all the slowdown in the game, but it's absolutely an extremely clear and blatant improvement. I have played KH3D extensively and am well acquainted with its performance, I can easily tell there's an improvement. I even went online to some videos of it being played on pre-update 3DSes to compare side by side with my own copy on my updated 3DS, and that further backed up that I was seeing a major improvement. So I can personally confirm that KH3D runs better and very noticeably so.

I used to own Rayman 3D as I purchased it at launch. While I don't have my copy anymore, I vividly remember the performance issues it suffered from almost constantly. A guy on Gamefaqs uploaded a video at my request to see the improvement in framerate. It's not the best quality as it's shot with another 3DS, but it's clear enough to see that the game runs immensely smoother than it did before the update-


You can compare it with another video of the game that ran on a pre-update 3DS, like this one (scroll a bit through the video to get to the same level shown above and you should be able to see how big of a difference it is)-


Just walking around that first area in the Fairy Glade level was enough to bring the 3DS version to its knees at a sub-20fps teen rate. From the newer video however it is quite clear that the lag is either gone or reduced to such an extent that I can't see it anymore (at least in comparison to the video's framerate). Rayman 3D has the potential to run at 60fps. And while there's no way to tell whether it runs that smoothly now due to youtube (and like the 3DS recording software) capping videos at about 25-30fps, the game is not dropping below the framerate of the camera itself in that level. That alone is enough to show that the game is improved immensely performance wise.

 

[nachoscool]

Is this fixing regular DS games too?

 

[granville]

Is this fixing regular DS games too?

DS games already didn't perform any differently (at least for me) on the 3DS as they did on the original DS. They are unlikely to have received any improvements at all if they didn't already. Even without taking into accounts the performance enhancements this update provided to certain 3DS-specific software, the 3DS was still MASSIVELY more powerful than the DS. If just being played on the pre-update 3DS already didn't help DS game perform any better, this update isn't going to do anything to help them either.

 

[Sicklyboy]

-sigh-

I was about to sarcastically ask if the pixel density of the upper screen had changed, making DS games clearer.

I just tried out Runner in Bit.TRIP Saga. I've stopped playing once I hit Stage 1-11, because there were parts of the level that did have a noticeable framerate drop, even with 3D turned off (with 3D on, forget about it). Even with 3D on now I'm not noticing anything other than the occasional stutter on a single frame.

 

[Rydian]

Just a note, Youtube timescales everything to ~30FPS. If you upload a 60FPS video, the converted file stored on youtube's servers and sent to the players is ~30FPS.

 

[granville]

Just a note, Youtube timescales everything to ~30FPS. If you upload a 60FPS video, the converted file stored on youtube's servers and sent to the players is ~30FPS.

Yeah I think most people know youtube caps videos at 30fps. Which again is why I said there's no way to tell whether the update actually got Rayman running at a solid 60fps (which is the game's maximum cap, though it rarely reached that prior to the update and often dropped well under 30), the video can't show any more than the 30fps cap.

As I said though, it's still useful in this case because Rayman frequently dropped well below 20fps, and you could spot these situations in videos because it would occasionally stutter well below even the 30fps cap. The second video I posted above showcases some of these drops that appeared prior to the update, they happen quite frequently and are an easy contrast from where the game actually plays at a normal rate. The first video I posted shows the same level on an updated 3DS and the game keeps up with the 30fps video cap. Granted it may not be constantly running at the game's intended 60fps potential (no way to tell that unless I still owned the game myself), but it certainly still shows how much better it runs than before (dropping frequently well below 20fps).

The game I personally tested, Kingdom Hearts 3D, is capped to 30fps anyways (not 60).

 

[DSoryu]

Another one to add to the list: Castlevania Mirror of fate. Well, I don't have this one, but had played the demo, before update it was very laggy in some points, very noticeable in the battle with the gost armor.

 

[Chary]

Pretty interesting. Rayman DOES run better.

 

[Jiehfeng]

I have Ridge Racer, so I'll check it out now.

 

[Rizsparky]

Anyone see any differences in MGS 3D? That game had the worst framerate ive seen in a commercial release.. until Sonic Racing Transformed came along

 

[Saken]

I didn't believe a word of it, until I tried one of my own games that is notorious for its nasty framerate issues, Kingdom Hearts 3D. I was very much on guard for this being BS. Was completely not expecting it to be different and was prepared to assume that if I noticed any slight changes that it was just a placebo effect or some crap. Well sure enough I noticed a change, but it was way too large to assume it was all in my head. There's definitely a massive improvement. It doesn't completely remove all the slowdown in the game, but it's absolutely an extremely clear and blatant improvement. I have played KH3D extensively and am well acquainted with its performance, I can easily tell there's an improvement. I even went online to some videos of it being played on pre-update 3DSes to compare side by side with my own copy on my updated 3DS, and that further backed up that I was seeing a major improvement. So I can personally confirm that KH3D runs better and very noticeably so.

This very much excites me, now that i am doing another playthru

 

[indask8]

Maybe the guys at 3dsbrew can tell if there was a change in the cpu/gpu clock speed since the last update.

 

[Eerpow]

Maybe the guys at 3dsbrew can tell if there was a change in the cpu/gpu clock speed since the last update.

It's not clock speed, it's code optimizations in the firmware to make it less taxing.

This is entirely possible as previous firmwares have had an impact on games before, ridge racer was mistakenly made unplayable (freezing problems) in with an older firmware update for example.