Switch 2 Welcome Tour uses Dynamic Resolution Scaling to optimize display output

Switch 2 Welcome Tour is an experience designed to teach you all about the underlying tech of the Switch 2. As it turns out, Welcome Tour itself makes use of some pretty neat tech that wasn’t advertised! That tech is known as Dynamic Resolution Scaling, and the game makes use of it to ensure that everything runs smoothly, while hitting higher resolutions on a variety of possible displays.

Essentially, what this feature does is allow Switch 2 Welcome Tour to run at a lower internal resolution, which is then dynamically upscaled to the final resolution of the TV it’s displayed on. For example, on a 4K TV, the game will actually be rendered in 720p internally, before being upscaled to 4K for the final output. On a TV with a lower resolution, the internal rendering and output will do the same thing but at lower thresholds (i.e. 360p upscaled to 720p).

This detail was discovered and revealed by Digital Foundry in a recent episode of their podcast. It doesn’t appear as though this technique is being utilized in any other Switch 2 games at this time, but this demonstrates that the potential is there. It’s possible it could pop up in future games or even be patched into existing ones to allow for things like improved framerate.

We’re still in the very early days of the Switch 2, so it’s hard to say exactly what the console is capable of or how much magic Nintendo will be able to work with it for their games. For now, you can revisit Welcome Tour and marvel at what it’s doing behind the scenes.