keyword: Series X

How Nvidia’s DLSS could make the new Nintendo Switch better

You’ve probably seen the acronym “DLSS” appearing in more gaming and tech stories recently. You might know that it’s an Nvidia graphics thing, and that it might be coming to the new Nintendo Switch console that’s rumored to release later in 2021, according to a report from Bloomberg. But, really, what is it, and why does it matter?

DLSS stands for deep learning super sampling, and it’s a way for Nvidia’s RTX graphics cards to work smarter, not necessarily harder, by running games at a lower resolution, then using dedicated AI cores to improve visual quality with less of the usual performance cost. The deep learning component works on the fly to make your game look as if you haven’t lowered its resolution at all. This feature only works with supported PC games, of which there are over 20 at the time of publishing, including Cyberpunk 2077, Fortnite, Monster Hunter World, Control, and others.

On PC, the technique has proven itself to yield a sizable performance boost. Especially with the advent of ray tracing tech, DLSS has been a boon for letting gamers experience all of the latest visual effects on high-resolution displays without having to shell out an exorbitant amount for a GPU. It’s available for GPUs that (nominally) cost just a few hundred dollars, like the RTX 3060, as well as the previous-gen RTX 20-series cards (not that you can find any of them available right now). For a device like the Nintendo Switch that can’t cram in that much horsepower to begin with, you can imagine why it might be an amazing fit.

Nintendo’s current Switch uses a shrunken-down version of Nvidia’s Tegra X1 system-on-a-chip from 2015. Most games run at sub-1080p resolution when docked and usually less than the 720p resolution of the Switch’s display when in portable mode. Developers for the Switch are already used to making some sizable compromises to get their games working well on the portable console.

Doom Eternal running on the Switch.

Panic Button’s porting work on Doom and Doom Eternal, for instance, heavily rely on visual tricks like dynamic resolution, motion blur, and lower-fidelity textures to mask the Switch’s inherent weaknesses compared to other consoles — and to get them running at a playable 30 frames per second even on the Switch’s 720p screen, much less 4K. Other games struggle to come close to rendering at that resolution — Wolfenstein: Youngblood usually runs at a 540p resolution in portable mode, according to Digital Foundry — and even Nintendo’s own The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has notable slowdown, though the company has a few other shining examples that manage 60 frame-per-second gameplay.

With all of this context in mind, the recent rumors that the next Switch will tap DLSS to help it avoid those compromises has me excited. We don’t know whether Nvidia truly plans to stick an RTX-style graphics chip with Tensor Core AI processors into a Switch just to achieve DLSS, but doing so would make the next generation of Switch games (and perhaps preexisting games) look and run much better, whether in portable mode or displaying a higher resolution while docked.

Of course, games on the Nintendo Switch would likely need to be individually patched to support DLSS, like the fairly small amount of games on PC have been. If games that have DLSS support on PC get a Switch port, will that DLSS work carry over, I wonder? Or, unlikely as it seems, can Nintendo and Nvidia work together to make every game compatible with DLSS in some way to ensure boosted performance across the board?

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

DLSS 2.0 is the current version that’s available on PC, and it brought better performance and efficiency of RTX AI cores versus the first iteration. TweakTown cites a YouTube video from channel Moore’s Law is Dead claiming that a newer DLSS 3.0 version could be in development for GPUs built with the latest Ampere architecture. It’s said to automatically deliver AI enhancements to any game with temporal anti-aliasing (a technique that removes the flickering aliased edges of textures — especially when the camera is in motion), not just the games that have been patched for support. If true, it could make Nintendo’s job a lot easier bringing DLSS features to more games.

To get a sense of how the next Switch could benefit from DLSS without requiring immensely powerful hardware, check out this informative video below that the folks at Digital Foundry put together. It focuses on the game Control running with DLSS enabled at different resolutions. The bit that really stood out to me was when it showed just how good DLSS can make a 540p rendering of the game look when reconstructed into a 1080p image with ray tracing effects and everything set to ultra settings. I’ve time-stamped the video to that exact location.

If that’s what a PC can do with 540p, a Switch with DLSS might not need a huge overhaul to make its own collection of sub-720p games look a lot better than they do today, particularly on the Switch’s relatively small screen where DLSS’s minor wrinkles might be even easier to forgive than they are on a PC monitor. If it gets additional graphical muscle, it’s not a stretch to imagine today’s games competently running at a simulated 4K when docked to a TV as well. This kind of thing would be perfect to showcase at the launch of the sequel to Breath of the Wild, Splatoon 3, or Metroid Prime 4.

Since the original Nintendo Switch launched, 4K TVs have become more widely adopted. So, it’ll make sense if Nintendo wants to use hardware that’ll look better on modern televisions. And whatever the company chooses to put in its next Switch, it’ll ultimately still be a mobile processor with limitations compared to what the likes of the Xbox Series X and PS5 can do. Though, hopefully, it will be enough to ensure that future Switch games look far better than they currently do for years to come.

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It Takes Two is Josef Fares’ latest attempt to show the power of co-op gaming

Josef Fares has strong opinions. The director of Hazelight Studio — whose latest co-op game, It Takes Two, is out today — rocketed into the spotlight at The Game Awards in 2017 with an off-the-cuff, impassioned speech about the joys of interactive video games that culminated in his meme-worthy “Fuck the Oscars!” line.

Years later, Fares (who, ironically enough, started off as a filmmaker) is still standing firm on his pro-game stance. “Look, my background is a filmmaker. The whole thing with ‘fuck the Oscars’ was actually kind of special,” he tells The Verge. “One, you have to remember when I was there on the set, everybody was talking, ‘Oh this like the Oscars, it’s like the Oscars.’ And I was like ‘Fuck the Oscars!’ because I was actually saying ‘Fuck the Oscars — because we should celebrate gaming now.’ It’s not that I have anything personal about the Oscars.”

It Takes Two is Fares’ third game, following Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons and A Way Out. Hazelight’s latest game takes a similar tack to A Way Out, in particular: it’s an exclusively co-op game that you can’t experience at all unless you’re willing to play with a friend or partner (either next to you on a couch or over the internet). According to Fares, the studio never even considered adding any sort of AI companion.

“They are designed from the beginning like that, so you have to communicate with someone,” he says. “It’s not possible to play with a random [person]. It’s not a matchmaking game where you are just randomly connected. If you want to play with someone you don’t know at all, you must have the ability to talk because if you’re not talking, you can’t progress.”

Communication is a fitting foundation for It Takes Two, which sees a husband and wife on the verge of divorce who are then magically transformed into a pair of Pixar-esque dolls and forced by a magical talking book to work out their differences.

A Way Out offered a thematically compelling narrative pulled out of a crime novel that was let down by dull gameplay that didn’t actually do much to take advantage of the cooperative nature of the game. It Takes Two flips the script: it offers a bizarre, almost nonsensical story lifted up by clever cooperative mechanics. Each of the two characters tends to split up their abilities between levels. For example, an early level gives players a pair of guns — one character can fire sap, while the other ignites it.

The more diverse gameplay isn’t an accident. “We’ve become better at finding cold co-op mechanics that can be combined,” says Fares. “So you really feel the need of co-oping. Also, I talked a lot about marrying the story and the gameplay… we tried to connect the abilities to the character as well. With May, for instance — it’s her toolbox, so she has the hammer.”

The result, though, is that It Takes Two is a much more complex game than A Way Out. To start, it’s a platformer. And while it won’t demand the kind of pixel-perfect skills as something like Celeste or Spelunky, it’s a harder game to get into than the relatively simple A Way Out. Add in the (admittedly more interesting) new mechanics that change from level to level, and the game runs the risk of overwhelming newer or less experienced players.

Still, the resulting game is a unique one, despite the uneven storytelling. As Fares rightly comments, there’s almost no one else out there making these kinds of games. “Of course there are co-op games out there that have your campaign and your add-on co-op campaign and so on, but none are actually designing, writing everything from the beginning as we do at Hazelight.”

“I think that opens up… both creatively, but also the dynamics between the characters that you’re playing, that you’re using different abilities, how you can cooperate, and also what’s going on on the couch,” says Fares. “I think there’s so much stuff to explore there.” He views the experience as similar to watching a movie or a TV show: it’s something you do together. “So why not enjoy a story together in a game?”

And it’s that level of interaction that helps games stand out to Fares from film. “The whole idea is understanding that making the interactive experience [for a game is] totally different than a passive experience as a movie,” he says. “So I sometimes hear when they talk about ‘We should bring on more movie people [to make games].’ Sure, we can be inspired on how they tell stories and so on, but we need to find our own way to tell stories in an interactive way.”

And while Fares won’t give too many details on what Hazelight’s next project will look like or if it’ll be another co-op experience, he definitely thinks there’s more room for other developers to join in — and not just with optional cooperative experiences, like with survival games or shooters like Borderlands or Halo.

“We should have our single-player narratives; I love those. But I think there’s a market here, and I think people really appreciate this type of game, you know. To play something with someone that you love or a friend or a father or a mother or whatever — just experience something together and not just a shooter game, you know what I mean?”

It Takes Two is available now for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X / S.

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Fnatic React+ Gaming Headset Review: Bargain Surround Sound With Premium Quality

Our Verdict

With clear audio, a great microphone and an understated but attractive design, the Fnatic React+ is aimed at eSports gamers, but it’s a great all-around headset for media and working from home too. The bundled USB sound card adds great-sounding 7.1 virtual surround sound to PC gaming, and a 3.5mm jack means you can use it with other gaming devices too.

For

  • Very good virtual 7.1 surround
  • Simple, attractive design
  • Superb microphone clarity
  • Swappable ear cushions
  • USB-A and 3.5mm

Against

  • Vestigial inline volume/mic switch is redundant when using USB
  • No software
  • Earcups don’t swivel

The Fnatic React+ adds virtual surround sound to the feature set that made the original React popular with gamers: large, clear drivers with very good gaming audio quality and excellent stereo separation, a design that remains comfortable throughout long gaming sessions, and a microphone with top-of-its class clarity. All that is wrapped in an understated design that looks cool enough for eSports gaming but subtle enough for teleconferencing.

The React+ pairs the original React headphones with Fnatic’s XP USB sound card (no relation to Windows XP), which adds 7.1 simulated surround sound at the touch of a button, and an extra set of earpads. Yet, the cans are still cheaper than many of the best gaming headsets, at just $99.99 as of writing. The resulting package, while not without its quirks, offers superb performance for a headset in its price class.

Fnatic React+ Specs

Driver Type 53mm
Impedance 23 Ohms
Frequency Response 20 – 40,0000 Hz
Microphone Type Cardioid boom, detachable
Connectivity 3.5mm or USB Type-A
Cables 3.9 feet (1.2m) 3.5mm cable
3.3 feet (1m) USB cable
6.5 feet (2m) extender/mic splitter
Weight 0.8 pounds (348g)
Lighting None
Software None
Extra 1x extra set ear cushions

Design and Comfort

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

For a design marketed directly at the eSports crowd, the Fnatic React+ headset has a tasteful, understated aesthetic that lacks any elements you’d likely describe as bling. There’s no RGB lighting here, just a tasteful matte-black plastic finish with white accents. There’s a Fnatic logo on each earcup, and the company name is subtly embossed on the side of and on top of the headband.

The one hint of color is the soft, bright orange mesh fabric inside the earcups, helpfully stamped “R” and “L” to assist in putting them on correctly when the microphone is unplugged. The React+ ships with comfortable, memory foam-filled, faux leather-covered earpads installed. But you can also swap these for the included velour earpads. Those will feel more airy, particularly helpful for gamers who get warm while playing.

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The oval, enclosed earcups are mounted on adjustable metal hangers, which feel very solid and should hold up well to regular use. The earcups completely enclose your ears, providing very good passive noise isolation. They can swivel vertically for comfort when being worn, but there’s no horizontal swivel axis to fold them out and flatten them for easier transport or storage.

With either set of pads in place, the React+ headset was comfortable even on my rather large head. At 0.8 pounds, it’s not as lightweights as some wired headsets. The similarly specced MSI Immerse GH61, for example, is 0.6 pounds. Thankfully, the React+ didn’t feel overly heavy in use. The clamping force is solid enough to provide good noise isolation without becoming uncomfortable over time, which is not always the case with my big noggin. Meanwhile, a strip of memory foam padding across the inside of the headband aids in comfort.

When using the microphone, it snaps solidly into the left earcup, but if you’re playing a solo game, listening to music or watching a movie, you can easily pop it out.

The React+ also includes Fnatic’s XP USB sound card, which the company also sells separately for $23. The sound card is enclosed in a small, oval controller with a 3.5mm jack on one end and a 3.3-foot-long USB-A cable on the other. Its matte black design matches the headphones, with rocker switches for headphone volume and microphone level, a button to toggle 7.1-channel surround sound and a microphone mute switch on the side. The controller adds little weight to the headphone setup, and the rockers are well-positioned for quick adjustment when gaming.

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Overall, it’s well-designed, but an additional analog volume dial and microphone switch near the top of the headphone cable (left over from the original design that didn’t include the sound card) can cause frustration if you accidentally brush the analog volume dial and wonder why the volume dial on the soundcard suddenly won’t go high enough. That said, if Fanatic had omitted the analog controls from the React+ bundle, they’d be unavailable when using the headphones sans soundcard with other devices.

The headset also comes with a 6.6-foot extension cable that splits the microphone and audio jacks for devices that don’t support both on a single connector.

The one design element I’d change, if given the chance, is that the 3.5mm cable is permanently attached to the headset. Without a removable cable, the headphones will be rendered useless if the primary cable is damaged by your cat, kids, or other sinister elements.

Audio Performance

The 53mm drivers Fnatic uses in the React+ are calibrated for gaming, with a separate chamber for bass frequencies to help separate them from mids and lows. This helps keep bass from explosions and gunshots from overwhelming other game sounds. Though the sound is relatively pure, mids and highs are slightly boosted, and the result is much better audio clarity from complex game soundscapes than you’d expect in headphones in this price range. Playing Metro 2033, Call of Duty: Warzone and Apex Legends, environmental sound and voices remained clear even in heavy combat situations.

This clarity isn’t lost when engaging the React+ virtual surround sound by pressing the surround button in the center of the USB sound card controller. The effect is convincing and adds a more enveloping quality to the audio without changing it to the point where clarity is lost.

Playing Watch Dogs: Legion, the surround sound significantly enhanced immersion as I walked and drove around the city. Even in the sedate environment of Microsoft Flight Simulator, the directional audio as I panned around my plane in external views was noticeably more enveloping than the default stereo audio heard with surround disabled.

The in-game soundscape of the React+ is excellent because the bass separation, large drivers and clarity across frequencies means you won’t miss important dialogue or environmental sounds in the heat of play. It’s a significant improvement over using headphones geared for music playback while gaming, where heavy bass emphasis can muddy the audio.

These cans also sound great when watching movies on the PC, as those same characteristics also keep audio clear during film and TV action sequences.

Conversely, the one area where the cans are more pedestrian is music. Albums like Logic’s The Incredible True Story and Kenrick Lamar’s DAMN. benefit from the boosted bass on more music-oriented headsets, and Pink Floyd’s classic Dark Side of the Moon sounded off with emphasized mids and highs of the React+ when compared to my (admittedly more expensive) Sennheiser Momentum 2.0 wired headphones.

With the leatherette ear cushions, the passive noise isolation from the large earcups is excellent; in my home office I only heard the loudest outside sounds when playing games. They also do a good job of keeping the noise from leaking out and disturbing others nearby. It is passive isolation, though, so if you use these to listen to music on your next flight, they can only block out so much. The velour cups are slightly less isolating than the leatherette.

Microphone

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

The detachable cardioid microphone includes a pop filter and has a flexible but stiff arm that stayed in position well and never came loose during gaming. There’s no noise cancellation, but it targets the mouth well enough that it didn’t pick up environmental sounds when I was gaming.

Fellow players reported that my vocals were very clear. And when I listened to audio from the microphone recorded on my PC, it sounded very pure, although perhaps a tiny bit higher in pitch than natural. As you’d expect from a headset marketed squarely at the eSports market, Fnatic does a great job with the microphone here.

In addition to a microphone mute switch, the XP sound card controller includes a mic level adjust rocker as well. This is great when you’re in-game, and your teammates complain about your mic’s volume. It’s much easier to quickly adjust mic sensitivity with the rocker instead of having to tweak it using audio settings on your computer.

Features and Software

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The headset uses a 3.5mm TRSS plug to connect to the USB sound card. You can omit the sound card and use the plug to connect to other devices. Fnatic says the headset is compatible with Macs, as well as Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and (if you still have a headphone jack or adapter) mobile phones. The USB adapter is only fully supported under Windows, but we found the headset worked well plugged directly into an Xbox Series X controller and a Switch, though we missed the surround sound and the ability to adjust microphone levels.

There’s no bundled software, so you won’t be able to adjust equalization in-game. That said, the ability to toggle surround sound and adjust microphone and volume levels using physical buttons is more convenient when in-game than having to switch to an app.

Bottom Line

For a penny under $100, the Fnatic React+ performs like a more expensive headset. Audio is clear and sharp, both in your ears and coming from your microphone. The addition of effective, clear virtual 7.1-channel surround sound addresses the chief complaint about the original React (if you bought that, Fnatic offers a $29.99 bundle that includes the XP USB sound card and velour earpads to bring it up to React+ level), and the additional volume controls on the USB soundcard are a godsend if you need to quickly make adjustments during a frantic battle.

I’d love for the primary headset cable to be removable though. Not only would that make it less susceptible to being taken out by cable damage, but then we could omit the analog volume dial and microphone mute switch, which are redundant when using the USB sound card.

Overall, the Fnatic React+ offers superb audio for gaming and movies, decent–if unexceptional–music playback, and the headphones look cool without turning your head into a light show. So you’re not going to get strange looks if you’re wearing them during a Zoom call. The React+ also offers stiff competition to some of the best gaming headsets too, such as the HyperX Cloud Alpha. The React+ comes in at around the same price but adds 7.1 surround sound to the mix.

You can certainly find headsets with more features, but not in the React+’s price range. For gamers on a budget, this is a top choice.