Sonic Lost World Wii-U pop-in: Is this normal for the game, and if not, how can I fix it?

[Chaos Warp]

(I apologize for my crap playing skills, I did this on 2 hours of sleep and I'm still not that used to the controls)

 

 

So, this is the kind of pop-in that happens for me in the Wii-U version of Lost World. It's pretty bad, as you can see. But the thing is, I've heard no one else mention it, and this isn't GTA 5 where it's apparently a common problem, so, is this normal for the game? If not, how can I fix it? Let me give you background info on my setup and other stuff, so you may be able to help me better. 

 

-This is my TV: http://imageshack.us/a/img32/7829/prf.JPG It's big and old, and I got it used. It has HD component plugs and RCA plugs, but no HDMI, and can do 480P, 480I, and 1080I. I'm pretty sure this is not the cause because I've had it for a while and it's never given me shit before. Also, the pop-up also happens on the GamePad. 

 

-This is where all the shit is plugged into in my room: http://imageshack.us/a/img850/7881/4ksy.jpg As you can see there's a ton of stuff. The Wii-U is plugged into the back power bar, and the GamePad plugs into the front. I figured it might have been this, but I tried the console in another room with much less stuff plugged in, and that did nothing. My mom said the outlets were loose, so it may have been that..............

 

-This is my Happuage HD PVR: http://imageshack.us/a/img32/5019/p4fo.JPG I tried unplugging this and routing the console directly to the TV, but that did nothing as well. Thought it was still worth including. 

 

-This is a shot of the back of my PVR, where the spare Wii component cables (used for the Wii-U) are plugged into the back of the PVR and where the PCR cables are plugged into to route back to the TV: http://imageshack.us/a/img30/7276/4p0.JPG Again, I figure it wasn't this: see above comment about direct TV plugging. 

 

-The other room I tried had much less plugged into it, only a clock, the TV: http://imageshack.us/a/img20/6755/qc34.jpg and the Wii-U. Fixed nothing. 

 

-This has happened to me with 3 new games so far (unwanted pop-in that most people don't get) It happened with GTA 5, but I wrote that off as that apparently that's a common problem with the game(I'm on a used 250 gig 360 Slim for that game BTW).T Then it happened with Fall OF Cybertron and Halo 3, 2 games which I know for a fact didn't have pop-in the last time I tried them (for FoC, before the beginning of summer and for Halo 3, I just know that that game's supposed to have no pop-in because every piece of footy I've seen has none, plus word from my friends who have the game. It's more minor in those games then in SLW and GTA though). Then it happened with LW and I was like, "Okay, there's a fucking unseen problem here, if it's happening with a brand new fucking console."

 

-Things I plan to try are: Take the console to my friend's house, unhook his Wii-U, and hook mine up to his cables and try it. I also plan to try the game itself on his Wii-U to see if it's my console for some reason. I also plan to try it, with my own Wii-U cables at my neighbor's house. 

 

Can anyone offer any possible causes/solutions if pop-up like this is not natural to Lost World? Also, if you want any more info on the problem, please ask.  I really need help on this, I want to be able to play games properly . 

Edited November 1, 2013 by Chaos Warp

[Willsy]

I'm having pop-in issues too. The demos didn't have them :/

[Tracker_TD]

Actually I noticed particularly in Tropical Coast 2 the pop in on the spherical planet with the watermelon is laughable. I don't think this is just you.

[Chaos Warp]

Actually I noticed particularly in Tropical Coast 2 the pop in on the spherical planet with the watermelon is laughable. I don't think this is just you.

Out of curiosity, what kind of gaming setup do you have?

[Tracker_TD]

Out of curiosity, what kind of gaming setup do you have?

 

I do have quite a lot of consoles in one power strip, Mega Drive/Master System (shared plug), PS3, Wii U (and it's charger), Dreamcast/Saturn (again, shared plug), in addition to my TV. But I doubt that'd have much bearing on it.

 

For one, I've not experienced the GTA pop in you mention often. I do reckon it's just the game.

[Autosaver]

I couldn't really tell from your video.

 

Maybe you just hate pop-in? A lot of games have them and I wasn't bothered by it in Lost World.

[Chaos Warp]

I do have quite a lot of consoles in one power strip, Mega Drive/Master System (shared plug), PS3, Wii U (and it's charger), Dreamcast/Saturn (again, shared plug), in addition to my TV. But I doubt that'd have much bearing on it.

 

For one, I've not experienced the GTA pop in you mention often. I do reckon it's just the game.

What kind of TV do you have? My friend reported no pop-in issues, and I know he was on an HDMI-compatible TV. My TV only has HD component, what does yours have?

[Autosaver]

Wait.. are you downloading anything in the background?
 

Just noticed some performance issues but then I remembered I'm downloading Wii Fit U.

[Chaos Warp]

Wait.. are you downloading anything in the background?

 

Just noticed some performance issues but then I remembered I'm downloading Wii Fit U.

No, I was not.

[The_Disney_Dork]

The hell is a pop in? Lol.

[Autosaver]

The hell is a pop in? Lol.

It's when things in the distance randomly pop up. It's a rendering technique to save processing power.

[Thigolf]

I got that pop in too, I thought it was normal for this game.

[Tails spin]

I'm a little slow on this. but what in the video do you consider a pop in. All I caught on to was those chickens disappearing when your near them.

[Chaos Warp]

I'm a little slow on this. but what in the video do you consider a pop in. All I caught on to was those chickens disappearing when your near them.

See Autosaver's definition. 

[Cyrus]

It's not so bad from what I'm seeing in the video. Just be glad that it's not as bad as the portable version's terrible pop in graphics.

[Tracker_TD]

What kind of TV do you have? My friend reported no pop-in issues, and I know he was on an HDMI-compatible TV. My TV only has HD component, what does yours have?

 On an LG, HD compatible. 

[Chaos Warp]

 On an LG, HD compatible. 

Are you connecting the Wii-U through HDMI or component cables?

[Mr Loopone]

I haven't noticed any pop-in when playing the game, then again it is played on a small cheap LCD TV with a HDMI connection (its either that, SCART or composite for that one, just used the standard Wii U cable) and have fairly bad and slow eyes wearing glasses. Looking at the slowed down video though, I can see some parts where the object comes later such as the waterfalls so chances are that it is the game and many modern games do have textures not loading or loading slower than they should problems. It might be a decision chosen by Sonic Team to keep at a steady frame rate.

 

Just in case that it isn't the game (but a high chance that it is), there are a couple of questions:

 

Is the game on a disc or downloaded to the system memory? Judging by the known 360 GTA V problem, it was due to being installed on a hard drive with the install data conflicting the loading pattern (installing via a USB or just using the disc solved the problem though). If it is the disc, it might be the access speed of the Wii U disc drive.

 

Do you know anyone that has an HDMI connection on their TV? If you do, try that option since the TV might be rendering/refreshing the game quicker than expected (don't really know to be honest but it is a guess since it is the first time I've see a HD CRT). It does seem to be a culture difference, where I come from SCART and RF were used with some TVs having composite as well and older TVs being RF only until HD where HDMI is used. There are a few TVs that do have component as well as HDMI in terms of HD but they seem to be more high end sets or older HD TVs. Strange to see a CRT TV (a good quality one too) with HD sockets though unless that is more common in the US/rarer in Europe.

 

Also if you are able to spot pop-in while other people might not notice, it might be either a sign of really good vision or really noticable on details like these.

 

In the early 3D games, pop-in was known as pop up where an object suddenly appears and draw distances were quite close to the player. Unlike some modern games, pop up was easy to spot and even very powerful 3D arcade machines of the early 90s had pop up such as Virtua Racing and Daytona with the Saturn version being the easiest to see the pop up. Pop up and slowdown were fairly common on some PS1/N64 games. By the Dreamcast/PS2/Xbox/Gamecube era, this became less of a problem but still happened in some games.

[JezMM]

Pop-in is not just something games do automatically.  The pop-in distance will not be a variable that changes depending on what stress the system is under, not in a console game.  It'll be something that's hard programmed.  It is physically happening in the game world's 3D space.  It's not like frame-rate issues or map loading times.  If you run a PC game on full settings on a slow computer, you'll get minimal pop-in, as that is a hard coded thing that you've told the game to do, but the game might have a bad framerate, an external factor to the game world that is being displayed at the fidelity requested.

 

Note how at 1:38, you backtrack to try and show those geysers popping in again... and the camera switches so you can't see.  In that case, it seems that the camera is meant to mask that pop-in, but they didn't consider that you could come to that section from multiple angles, and just programmed it to consider the camera angle for the easiest route.

 

 

Stuff like downloading or having extra things plugged into the same socket would not affect pop-in in a game.

 

 

 

Anyway I checked my copy and had the exact same level of pop-in as your video.

Edited November 2, 2013 by JezMM

[Conando]

Like JezMM says, pop-in is hard coded into games. It has nothing to do with hardware issues or with TV setup. It is definitely something they implimented to keep 60 FPS.

[Dario ff]

If I may add some info...

 

If it's anything like Generations (which it seems to share the engine with anyway), the pop-in distance is the variable <Range> in each object on the files. Probably not hard-coded by definition, but certainly not configurable until the game is moddable. Increasing the ranges too much would likely cause a lot of lag anyway, as they set them pretty low for that reason. We actually set these a bit higher than normal for the unleashed levels due to the hardware freedom.

 

There's nothing wrong with your game, system or setup.

Edited November 2, 2013 by Dario ff

[Autosaver]

Stuff like downloading or having extra things plugged into the same socket would not affect pop-in in a game.

Downloading while playing games can cause performance issues and odd graphical glitches. I just tried it not too long ago with the Wii Fit U download.

 

Anyways, Chaos wasn't downloading anything. I think he's just a little sensitive to pop-in and notices it more. It's just something we have to live with.

[PSI Wind]

I hate the Pop-in as well, but it hasn't made me miss a platform or ruin a jump so it's more of a jarring thing than a major problem.

[Chaos Warp]

Well, if this is indeed the game.................that's actually really fucking atrocious on ST's part. They need to seriously optimize their graphics engine better next game, It's not like this game is that graphically demanding outside of possibly the framerate.