Super Mario Odyssey full tech analysis

Digital Foundry managed to get its hands on the final retail copy of Super Mario Odyssey. Today, the outlet published its technical findings pertaining to the game.

Digital Foundry first points out how Nintendo took great care in paying attention to Super Mario Odyssey’s smaller details. When rolling down a hill, for example, Mario will be covered in dirt. It’ll then wash off if you jump into a nearby pool of water. Mario also has real momentum this time, so he’ll slow up / speed down properly as he runs up / down hills.

Super Mario Odyssey does run at a smooth 60 frames per second with very small dips in certain areas. However, in some instances, some NPCs can animate at 30 FPS or even 20 FPS. They also appear as 2D sprites in the distance, and are exchanged for 3D models when you start to approach them.

Regarding resolution, when docked, Super Mario Odyssey features a dynamic resolution. The action can run at 1600×900 to lower resolutions like 1440×810 and 1280×720. Also, when quickly turning the camera in some areas, depth of field renders out at what seems to be quarter resolution.

When Mario stands still in Switch’s portable mode, the resolution is 720p. But when he moves, Nintendo appears to be jittering two 640×720 images together to form a whole.

There are other differences between docked and portable modes as well. Shadow resolution is scaled down further when playing on the handheld and a contrast in bloom lighting as it might be a bit stronger in portable mode. Overall, the differences aren’t immediately noticeable.

Watch the full analysis from Digital Foundry below.