# Framerate drops



## lars708 (May 30, 2020)

So I've seen the topic of framerate drops come up in several threads now so I figured I'd make an actual topic on it.

*What are framerate drops?*
Many  video games have a framerate capped at either 30fps or 60fps. The amount of fps (frames per second) meaning how many images the game displays per second. Thus, the higher the fps or framerate (the terms can be used interchangeably) the smoother the video will look. *Animal Crossing: New Horizons has its framerate capped at 30fps.* However it's quite an open game in the sense that it allows you to place either a lot of furniture around your island or none at all. This can create a ton of extra processing load for the console and if it becomes too much for the game to handle it'll slow down to catch up with the processing before displaying a new frame. This can cause a frame to appear twice as long as the previous ones, and is called a framedrop. It has an effect on the smoothness of the game and by extension, the user experience.

*Observations so far:*
So what's interesting is that on my island the framedrops occur quite consistently within a few areas. Those areas are also jam packed with furniture and other decorations so it makes sense for that to happen there. I'm personally quite sensitive to framerate issues and am a bit disappointed with this but I suppose it was unavoidable, and luckily it doesn't ruin the game.

However I've seen people report that it the issue occurs in fairly empty areas as well. So this makes me curious...


_Have you run into any framedrops yet? And when did they occur? Was it in a well decorated area or did it happen at a seemingly random moment?_

*Things we've learned:*

Flowers seem to have a considerate impact on the framerate. Try removing excess flowers if you can.
Having too many bugs and fish displayed can cause issues, as a workaround you can store them in your house or sell them to Flick/CJ.


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## UglyMonsterFace (May 30, 2020)

I've not experienced frame rate drops. However, sometimes when I walk into an area, furniture takes time to appear. So they'll just start popping up as I walk by. But I also have A LOT of clutter all over my island. I'm hoping that once I clean it all up, this will improve.


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## Ananas Dragon (May 30, 2020)

lars708 said:


> So I've seen the topic of framerate drops come up in several threads now so I figured I'd make an actual topic on it.
> 
> *What are framerate drops?*
> Many  video games have a framerate capped at either 30fps or 60fps. The amount of fps (frames per second) meaning how many images the game displays per second. Thus, the higher the fps or framerate (the terms can be used interchangeably) the smoother the video will look. However Animal Crossing: New Horizons is quite an open game which allows you to place either a lot of furniture around you island or none. This can create a ton of extra processing load for the console and if it becomes too much for the game to handle it'll slow down to catch up with the processing before displaying a new frame. This can cause a frame to appear twice as long as the previous ones, and is called a framedrop. It has an effect on the smoothness of the game and by extension, the user experience.
> ...


My framerate drops everytime I go into my field full of flowers

my island is full of flowers, like too many so i get the framerate drop everytime i go into a patch of flowers

its worse when there are trees too


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## lars708 (May 30, 2020)

UglyMonsterFace said:


> I've not experienced frame rate drops. However, sometimes when I walk into an area, furniture takes time to appear. So they'll just start popping up as I walk by. But I also have A LOT of clutter all over my island. I'm hoping that once I clean it all up, this will improve.


Pop-in is in essence different to framedrops but rather the game not being able to load in all the objects in time. It's also a result of Nintendo trying their best to keep the framerate consistent because loading and rendering too many objects at once CAN cause framedrops. They're related but not the same

Honestly the pop-in can be pretty bad even with nothing going on, if you place a floorlight and pay attention to it while walking to the north you can easily see the light shaft disappearing before it's actually fully off-screen

	Post automatically merged: May 30, 2020



Unhappyhome said:


> My framerate drops everytime I go into my field full of flowers
> 
> my island is full of flowers, like too many so i get the framerate drop everytime i go into a patch of flowers
> 
> its worse when there are trees too



Interesting, I'll see if removing my flowers will change anything. Now that I think of it, the areas with issues have a bunch of flowers planted. It would make sense because the flowers in this game are quite detailed, maybe unnecessarily so.


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## ecstasy (May 30, 2020)

Unhappyhome said:


> My framerate drops everytime I go into my field full of flowers
> 
> my island is full of flowers, like too many so i get the framerate drop everytime i go into a patch of flowers
> 
> its worse when there are trees too


I can support this, ive been there before and geez the lag is unreal


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## Neechan (May 30, 2020)

No frame drops, but pop Ins are more common when I come to my small community area..


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## tajikey (May 30, 2020)

If it has happened to me, I couldn't tell.


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## lars708 (May 30, 2020)

tajikey said:


> If it has happened to me, I couldn't tell.


Fair, for the untrained eye it's kind of hard to tell. I'm very sensitive to it which probably means I play too many vidya gaems


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## Noctis (May 30, 2020)

My frame always drops when I make a left turn to my nooks also depending what direction I'm coming from my outdoor library takes a while to load. I've never experienced it before but now it's like a normal thing.


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## sunset_succulent (May 30, 2020)

framerate drops also occur when you have a lot of stuff on your island. glitches are made using this to their advantage and getting to places such as the fourth tier and the ocean.


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## lars708 (May 30, 2020)

RubyandSapphire said:


> framerate drops also occur when you have a lot of stuff on your island. glitches are made using this to their advantage and getting to places such as the fourth tier and the ocean.


Yes I've seen this actually, but that only really happens if you deliberately go out of your way to glitch the game out. During normal gameplay you (luckily) won't see such severe problems happening.


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## nammie (May 30, 2020)

Yes, the frame rate drops considerably in certain areas of my island. At first it was just in one area with some flowers (NOT covered in flowers, I have other areas that have considerably more flowers). I tried removing the flowers but the frame rate still drops in that area so I just put the flowers back. This has been happening for around a month now.

Recently the frame rate is also dropping in other areas of my island where I haven't changed anything in weeks now, and it kinda seems like it's.... spreading? from the original spot. And I haven't made any changes to any of these areas where it's happening, so it's just started randomly. Another area where the frame rate drops is super far away, and again I don't have that much stuff out there. It's strange because I DO have areas of my island full of furniture, flowers, trees, etc. but those areas are fine.


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## lars708 (May 30, 2020)

I can relate to that actually, it does seem to get worse as of late.

Kind of hoping it doesn't get too much worse than this as time goes on, because I don't know how much more I can tolerate before being turned off by it tbh... Hopefully future updates improve upon it!


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## Clock (May 30, 2020)

It happened to me a bit, although I saw someone on twitter with alot of framerate drops when they cluttered their island with bugs to sell to Flick, it was really laggy.


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## angiepie (May 30, 2020)

The only place I experience frame rate drops is my flower field and that’s understandable because there’s a lot going on in that area.


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## Olivetopia13 (May 30, 2020)

I just recently started having frame rate issues with an area next to my resident services which shouldn’t really happen because I haven’t changed the amount of furniture there in over 3 weeks and this only started happening about a week ago. I’m hoping if I pick up some dropped diys that we’re relatively close to that area that the problem will be solved.
It’s seriously annoying to feel like I’m running in slow motion when I go through that area to get to the campsite for a new villager!


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## brockbrock (May 30, 2020)

Yup, I definitely experience it on one section of my map. It's filled with decorations and villager houses so it's to be expected, but initially I was feeling quite disappointed about it. Now it doesn't bother me so much, though I do still notice it every time I run past.

I also had this happen in a very large flower field that I left unattended and that exploded with hybrids. I was lazy and didn't keep it in check, so every time I even walked through there I'd notice a drop in fps.


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## Rosch (May 30, 2020)

I experienced it on my island back when I was doing the campsite method. I forgot to fence my flowers so it covered my island. There were several hiccups while I was digging up the flowers. Framerate drops were gone when the flowers were slowly being cleaned up because there are finally more empty space than flowers.


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## lars708 (May 31, 2020)

So flowers seem to be the big issue huh, I wonder how the game would run if you were to fill up an entire area with a ton of furniture


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## Red Cat (May 31, 2020)

Crossing123 said:


> It happened to me a bit, although I saw someone on twitter with alot of framerate drops when they cluttered their island with bugs to sell to Flick, it was really laggy.


I have this exact problem. I desperately need Flick to show up soon.


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## dino (May 31, 2020)

Unhappyhome said:


> My framerate drops everytime I go into my field full of flowers
> 
> my island is full of flowers, like too many so i get the framerate drop everytime i go into a patch of flowers
> 
> its worse when there are trees too



absolutely this. more than 20-30 flowers and i see the framerate plummet instantaneously. when it's windy or there are other weather patterns - it gets even worse. it's not _not _understandable, but it's sorta confusing in a game that is about the experience of walking around outside surrounded by things?? lolkay


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## lars708 (Jun 3, 2020)

So I actually removed some flowers around my island and I definitely noticed the game running much smoother. I suppose I was just barely hitting the threshold of what the game could handle.


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## Feraligator (Jun 3, 2020)

I just posted in another thread about this—good to know it's flowers causing the problem. My framerate drops so much that it hurts my eyes and I have to put the game down after short times which doesn't happen with other games. It's annoying but I guess I'm pushing what the game can handle. Unfortunate because I like flowers a lot


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## Solio (Jun 3, 2020)

Might this be caused by memory leaks?
Some games tend to accumulate unused data when run for a long time without closing (sleep mode doesnt count), which causes performance issues over time. 
Maybe turning of the switch completely might help to 'clear the cache' if thats the case.


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## Mayor-of-Bliss (Jun 3, 2020)

Yes and its really annoying. 
I have my vullager homes with trees in a line.
Trees in front and back. Soon as I go up the ramp to the area it drops dramatically.

I kind of feel like maybe that area was always that way? I'll see if today I can do anything for it I guess. 
It just...gets annoying to the point I walk through it so its less noticable.


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## Baroque (Jun 3, 2020)

Been getting some of these. The framrate drops a bit when I pass by a very specific place in my villager that has all the elaborate kimono stand and a waterfall nearby, for some reason? Not sure if that's related...


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## lars708 (Jun 3, 2020)

Solio said:


> Might this be caused by memory leaks?
> Some games tend to accumulate unused data when run for a long time without closing (sleep mode doesnt count), which causes performance issues over time.
> Maybe turning of the switch completely might help to 'clear the cache' if thats the case.


Could be but honestly I've played the game all day many times now and I never really notice any significant differences after 10 hours of playing for example. So I think it's pretty safe to rule that out. And if it is the issue it must be super minor, not like Xenoblade Chronicles 2 where framerate consistently goes down until it's in the low twenties and rebooting the game fixes it all.

Good thinking, though


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## toadsworthy (Jun 3, 2020)

so i have some frame rate drops and while yes its in areas with a lot of furniture... I wouldn't say its overly cluttered, like i prioritize having 2 spaces wide for walkways and such. They always seem to be around my nooks cranny too


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## Licorice (Jun 3, 2020)

I must be doing something right because I have never experienced this lol


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## Noel_in_Sunrise (Jun 3, 2020)

I would be curious to know if it makes any difference if the game is installed physical, digital internal storage, or digital sd card.

My mom and I both play with it installed in the internal storage with at least 3GB of internal storage free (don't know if that makes a difference). Neither of us has lag yet. Her island is more than half covered in flowers.

I am super worried about having this problem in the future and wonder what to do to minimize it. Density of items, variety of items and polygon count could all be a factor. As well as less obvious things like extra lighting and amount of  transparency calculations. I don't know anything about the engine, so it is hard to know.


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## Fruitcup (Jun 3, 2020)

I'd understand if it were because of many items placed outside but having it be cause of flowers is ridiculous. I have a patch of flowers with all the hybrids put together and it's a shame that it's causing such a problem.


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## GalacticGhost (Jun 3, 2020)

I have a large field of flowers on my island which causes the framerate to drop all the time. I was already wishing I could put them in my storage, because those flowers are preventing me from terraforming and putting stuff in that area - when I realised they were also affecting the framerate it just made me want to be able to put them away even more. :/


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## Hay (Jun 3, 2020)

The fact that it caps on 30 FPS bothers me.. idk whats in the system or if it cant run past 30 but 60 would have been soooo much better


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## RedPanda (Jun 3, 2020)

My carnival takes forever to load the items but I never noticed a frame drop. I'm curious now if it does and I hope I can't tell or it will bug me, haha!


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## Xane_MM (Jun 4, 2020)

For me, I haven't noticed any framerate drops, but I mainly play in handheld mode, where it seems to be capped to a lower framerate anyways. I must not have enough flowers and trees around yet to cause it to do that.





lars708 said:


> However it's quite an open game in the sense that it allows you to place either a lot of furniture around your island or none at all.


I like that New Horizons handles this differently than older games. I don't like the random arbitrary meters and object limits that level editors had, so it's good to see a console game that doesn't stop the player from doing whatever they want. (I've seen Wild World apparently had a limit on furniture in a room, which I never encountered myself, but there's proof that even Animal Crossing put limits on players indoors.)


lars708 said:


> if you place a floorlight and pay attention to it while walking to the north you can easily see the light shaft disappearing before it's actually fully off-screen


The lighthouse is worse. I can usually see it appearing from nowhere when I'm running horizontally towards it but below it so it's on the horizon. I think there the game's just taking slightly longer to load it than other objects, though. Fossils can easily disappear when barely off-screen based on their shadows, though I guess that'd be hard to cover up due to the new, more realistic shadows.


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## JellyApples (Jun 12, 2020)

I got it last night out of the blue after adding a stair case to a plaza. I am going to destroy it and see if it goes back to normal but that is the moment I saw the change.


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## Le Ham (Jun 12, 2020)

The two times I have noticed framerate drops:

- filling the room to max item capacity doing wedding photos
- walking through campsite forest which has lately been carpeted with flowers

I really appreciate the time they took to make flowers have more of a 3D presence in NH, but now it means you can't carpet your island with them without losing a little quality. Granted most casual gamers (like myself) won't care or notice lol. 

Also, with my internet connection and games I've played in the past, I'm used to BAD lag (where things will drop to like <5 fps) so even when I notice it I think the game handles it really well, since it doesn't affect my ability to play. I guess I'd hate framerate drops a lot more if I were into games like Smash where I need quick response to succeed?


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## Hobowire (Jun 12, 2020)

mine dips when I play on the TV because it runs on a higher resolution.  It dips also when I run in handheld.  I have too much crap outside.  It was worst before they nerfed the bugs.  I was so sad because all of the flowers i had was for bugs.


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## GEEBRASS (Jun 12, 2020)

So far it only seems to happen on my island when I'm around a lot of flowers, but especially a lot of gold roses. Wondering if their light reflectivity is a factor.


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## Stella-Io (Jun 12, 2020)

I have encountered this multiple times across my island and it's super annoying. Foe a game that let's you place furniture outside, this shouldn't be as rampant as it is. Not only that, but even when I don't have that many flowers out, I still experience it.

Another area I experienced it was an area heavy with bamboo, flowers, water falls and the hedge fencing, which moved in the wind so walking throu that area was a nightmare.


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## John Wick (Jun 12, 2020)

My island has been so lagged the past few days.

It really should be higher than 30 for a switch game.


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## Clock (Jun 13, 2020)

I remember posting here, but lately I’ve experienced a frame rate drop near a villagers house. Whenever I walk or run there I noticed that the game lags a bit since there was many flowers there.


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## NyattaSama (Jun 13, 2020)

I seem to have a different experience from most people on this thread. I first encountered frame rate drop in a marketplace area that I crammed a lot of furniture and stalls and arcade machines, a lot of which had animation in them, and fish tanks as well. It got really bad at one point that I decided to tear it all down and downsize it. But it didn't help. It's not as bad as before but it's still very choppy whenever I go through the area. Then at one point I start to get frame rate drop around my nooks and ables, where I only placed a couple of items and bushes/fences. I have a medium-sized orchard behind them where I have about six of each kind of fruit trees. Could the trees be causing the lag? Idk. I have my museum area to the left of my marketplace and now it starts to get choppy over there as well. It seems like the fps drop is slowly spreading to other areas.
However, the only place that I don't experience any fps drop is my flower field. I have a very big field with 10 of each color, base and hybrid, but going through that area is totally fine and I don't experience any lag at all. Same with my campsite and graveyard where I put down a lot of cedars and bamboos.
I really hope this could be patched somehow. The lag is really bothering me and makes me want to flatten my island and re-design the whole thing.


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## Chris (Jun 13, 2020)

Solio said:


> Might this be caused by memory leaks?
> Some games tend to accumulate unused data when run for a long time without closing (sleep mode doesnt count), which causes performance issues over time.
> Maybe turning of the switch completely might help to 'clear the cache' if thats the case.



This could be the case. I've gone to some very jam-packed islands (and have flowers everywhere on mine) with no visual issues. But I close the game entirely and then completely switch off the console after every usage.


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## Alienfish (Jun 13, 2020)

Haven't noticed actually, but thanks for heads-up. Only think that bothers me is the thinking lag when you're about to check the mail "please wait a few seconds"... more like half a minute lol.


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