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The similarities between the Nvidia Shield and Nintendo Switch have been pointed out countless times since the console's launch. Especially due to the Tegra X1 chip. When it was revealed that select Nintendo Wii games would be ported to the Shield (for China only), it got people wondering how well they would run, and if its emulation would be passable enough for use on the Nintendo Switch.

Digital Foundry, a team of reporters that are dedicated to finding how well games run thanks to frame-by-frame comparisons, have decided to tackle Super Mario Galaxy for Nvidia Shield, to test how well the game runs. You can see their entire analysis in the video above.

If you'd rather see a written report, the parent company of Digital Foundry--Eurogamer has done an in depth article on it as well.

Based on our tests, Nintendo and Nvidia's emulation work has a lot in common with Xbox One X's enhancement of Xbox 360 games, in that Super Mario Galaxy benefits from a 3x increase in resolution on the X and Y axis, resulting in a 9x boost to pixel count overall. That yields a curious 1920x1404 resolution - a 30 per cent boost over standard 1080p that's downscaled to the display output. It's a curious state of affairs, but almost certainly down to the fact that Wii games usually operate at around 640x480, with the emulator stretching out the horizontal resolution for widescreen support. The emulator effectively works in reverse, running natively on the X axis and downscaling the vertical instead.

There are other aspects of the presentation worthy of comment too. Looking at Xbox 360 titles enhanced for Xbox One X, we often see a mixture of upscaled 2D bitmaps and vector-based fontography that scales up to the emulator's chosen resolution. Super Mario Galaxy has native type and even some native resolution bitmaps that are subtly different to the originals, while other elements are still based on the 480p core art from the Wii release. It's unclear whether this game received a Chinese launch originally, so there may well be new artwork injected here - there's certainly proof here of a clear improvement over the Western code running under the Dolphin emulator.

Source

 

[Kafluke]

Very interested in this. I've been trying to get 1080p on Mario galaxy using crappy hardware and dolphin... but I do have a switch!

 

[Psionic Roshambo]

I just hope Nintendo allows this to be released outside of just China, I would buy this for Shield TV for sure

 

[comput3rus3r]

I hear ya, but the pointer actually works.

the IR is at the bottom of the joycon. is not even meant to be pointing at the switch. on top of that there's no receiver.

 

[NyaakoXD]

Do keep in mind that Android OS is also very well known for having issues for games. Even Digital Foundry said it themselves that Android OS can cause some weird performance issues thanks to having a lot of background processes running at the same time. And despite the lower clock speeds of the Tegra X1 on Switch, Nintendo could make do with it since the Switch's OS is not even close to Android OS if they were to try and do it.

 

[eriol33]

How do we know whether it's an emulation, not a remake?

 

[the_randomizer]

How do we know whether it's an emulation, not a remake?

Because they said in the video that it's emulation, a remake wouldn't have microstutter or framerate issues. It's emulation, the video can be trusted.

 

[weatMod]

maybe the movement but not the pointer. I still very much like my wiimote+nunchuck setup for many wii games.

you can get an adapter to get wii mote working on switch and you don't need a sensor bar
just 2 infrared LED's and battery is all you need, people have even used 2 tea lights set atop their television too

the wii sensor bar connection to the wii is strictly for DC power nothing more
the wii mote only needs 2 infrared light sources , one on either side of the top of the TV for calibration/tracking
you could make you own sensorbar for next to nothing with a couple of LED's harvested from a broken infrared remote control and battery box from some dollar store LED lights
then all you need are some adapters/converters
hopefully homebrew will solve the need for the adapters/converters and give us more native support for wiimotes with out all the redundant hardware

 

[eriol33]

Because they said in the video that it's emulation, a remake wouldn't have microstutter or framerate issues. It's emulation, the video can be trusted.

I was quite suspicious because they were able to change the gamepad scheme, maybe it's a combination of a very good emulation and some changes in the original ROM file. Here hoping the dolphin team can grab the code

 

[Radius4]

If it gets hot, it will throttle, no matter if you run SwitchOS, ubuntu, atmosphere, horizonos, lakka or --insert witty name here--.

 

[the_randomizer]

I was quite suspicious because they were able to change the gamepad scheme, maybe it's a combination of a very good emulation and some changes in the original ROM file. Here hoping the dolphin team can grab the code

It's whatever nVidia and Nintendo programmed, given the framerate dips, it has to be emulation.

 

[DeletedMember411838]

If it gets hot, it will throttle, no matter if you run SwitchOS, ubuntu, atmosphere, horizonos, lakka or --insert witty name here--.

thats easy though, little LM tim on the Tegra, maybe a Alu back shell for the switch and some Heat Transfer tape, and boom cooling issues solved.

Honestly with all the bent switch issues ect, I am amazed no one has released a Alu back shell yet. But there is every color of transparent plastic.... Before someone tries to tell me, that switches dont get hot and bend, I own a bent switch that was not bent when bought, and it is now.

Im praying someone will come with that soon. Brushed Anodized black Alu backplate, mhmmmmm smexy, I will buy 3 in a heartbeat (2 for my each of my switches and another for backup!). Not only would that be gorgeous it could help with temps.

 

[Lazyboss]

No need! The right joycon has an IR sensor on the bottom!

Wasn't that meant only for eating burgers ?

 

[mbcrazed]

Wasn't that meant only for eating burgers ?

I believe it was used for the World of Goo port as well

 

[Bladexdsl]

awesome how do you get a wii remote to work on the shield tv though? if i had this i wouldn't even need the wiiu anymore because basically i just keep that for vwii

 

[Jayro]

I wish there was a way to get these on a regular Shield. It's such a great device.

I have a Shield Portable, and love it... but the batteries finally crapped out and need replaced.

 

[TheDarkGreninja]

Looks great. However lack of Wiimote makes the star bit aiming too difficult. Now if they could come out with a sensor bar adapter for switch and give it wiimote support that would be awesome.

Switch has a gyro which is pretty superior to the wii's IR based pointer.

Edit: The gyro doesn't require a receiver, meaning you don't even need to point it at the screen.

 

[comput3rus3r]

Switch has a gyro which is pretty superior to the wii's IR based pointer.

Edit: The gyro doesn't require a receiver, meaning you don't even need to point it at the screen.

I'd like to see how they're going to implement that into controlling a cursor on screen.

 

[TheDarkGreninja]

I'd like to see how they're going to implement that into controlling a cursor on screen.

The same they did with Skyward sword (Yeah, that wii game never required the sensor bar since it used the gyro in the motion plus), Splatoon 2, Splatoon 1 and Breath of the wild.

 

[comput3rus3r]

The same they did with Skyward sword (Yeah, that wii game never required the sensor bar since it used the gyro in the motion plus), Splatoon 2, Splatoon 1 and Breath of the wild.

Well then sounds to me like the wii/wiiu had both gyro/ir receiver. I hope it can be done as you say. As I stated before I really like the motion controls in the wii games. I know it's not popular opinion but it was very satisfying to me to swing the wiimote like a sword in Skyward sword.

 

[granville]

For similar reasons as @the_randomizer I'm skeptical this would work on Switch. Someone can correct me if i'm mistaken, but according to reports i've read the Switch's CPU is heavily underclocked compared to the Shield TV. I heard around half the speed, something like Switch being around 1ghz vs the Shield's 2ghz? That is a substantial drop and I don't see them being able to work around that. The game already constantly struggles to hit 60fps, seeming to jump around 55-58fps.

It's technically true that Nintendo could unlock the CPU and run it at 2ghz, it IS using a stock Tegra X1 identical to the Shield (just underclocked). But I don't think that would be likely. Not only would that impact the battery life (which people already complain about), but it would also bring some potentially serious heat problems that might even damage the hardware. Even at its normal underclocked speeds, there have been reports of the Switch plastic warping from heat when docked. Raising the speed even further could make this even worse and very possibly cause even worse damage. Also at the Switch's small and thin form, thermal throttling would likely kick in faster than a Shield TV and reduce performance anyway.

GPU is less important in emulation, but it still probably factors in somewhat in this case. For Switch, i've also heard the GPU is clocked between 30%-75% what the Shield TV is (lowest being portable, highest being docked).

It's still neat given the Shield TV's specs however. It's running at a performance well beyond what Dolphin is capable of. Though i'm also certain they made a ton of game-specific tweaks to get Galaxy running this well, possibly at the expense of this emulator not working so well with a lot of other GC and Wii games. That's how it was with the Virtual Console as well. Speaking of VC, it would also be interesting if it was possible to inject other GC and Wii games into this emulator to see how they work.