Factor 5 on their Wii engine.

[Mobius1aic]

Even though this is Factor 5 of course hyping themselves, I do think they will deliver.

I also do think that they fully intend to make an engine not just for their own use, but to actually market and license it to other Wii developers, considering most Wii developers lack the real knowledge to make great looking as well great playing games.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

That would be the smartest business decision they could probably make this entire generation...

 

[fearsomepirate]

For me they were just bad arcade game teases of a more "simulation"-oriented X-Wing-style game.

As far as arcade-style flight games go, F5's Rogue Squadron series is quite good, maybe among the best. If Rogue Squadron is your idea of bad arcade-style flight combat, what exactly is your standard for the genre? They weren't ever intended to be flight sim games, any more than Halo was intended to be a tactical infantry/vehicle combat simulator. If you only like flight sims and find more arcade-style games boring, fine, but don't hate on a developer for not making a sim. You may as well complain about Nintendo not making Zelda more like an Elder Scrolls game.

 

[swaaye]

If Rogue Squadron is your idea of bad arcade-style flight combat, what exactly is your standard for the genre?

It's a genre for folks to who don't want to get into complex gameplay, stories, or actually like fighting scripting to get points and little medals. It's space invaders gone 3D twisted. I don't like the gameplay, and thus don't care all that much for the "genre" or its games. The only reason I've played them at all is because I am a (declining) Star Wars fanatic. If you like them, well ok. But I'm not going to come out and say "Factor 5 makes great games" when, in my view, they have never made a game that impressed me in any way other than visuals and audio.

They are kinda like id Software. Great at tech, but not so impressive at gameplay. It's too bad they seem uninterested in doing more middleware. They had Musyx back with Cube & N64, but that's where they stopped with tech licensing it seems.

 

[fearsomepirate]

Then I might as well say that Blizzard has never made a good game, because MMOs hold no interest for me, and I really don't like RTS's, either. I could say that Starcraft was just a bad, chaotic tease of a deeper, more methodical, more cerebral game like Panzer General. Every ***craft iteration fails to push the genre in terms of micromanaging units, detailed planning, and methodical strategy. But those would be unfair statements, because people who like the RTS and MMO genres think highly of Blizzard. The RTS genre doesn't focus on the same things TBS games do. The problem isn't "Blizzard doesn't make good games," the problem is "Blizzard doesn't cater to my interests." You conflate a game's quality with your own interests, which makes "bad" mean nothing more than "I personally am not interested in it."

 

[DeadlyNinja]

Then I might as well say that Blizzard has never made a good game, because MMOs hold no interest for me, and I really don't like RTS's, either. I could say that Starcraft was just a bad, chaotic tease of a deeper, more methodical, more cerebral game like Panzer General. Every ***craft iteration fails to push the genre in terms of micromanaging units, detailed planning, and methodical strategy. But those would be unfair statements, because people who like the RTS and MMO genres think highly of Blizzard. The RTS genre doesn't focus on the same things TBS games do. The problem isn't "Blizzard doesn't make good games," the problem is "Blizzard doesn't cater to my interests." You conflate a game's quality with your own interests, which makes "bad" mean nothing more than "I personally am not interested in it."

I really don't know what's up with people blasting F5 after 1 so-so game, and 1 disaster. Nobody's perfect, nor is there a single game out there that's loved by everyone, but suddenly, F5's become public enemy number 1. Again, F5's skills with hardware is undeniable even if you hated every single game they're ever made. They've delivered technologically on whatever they did. I'm just very curious to see just what exactly can they do with this system.

 

[Flux]

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/02/12/factor-5-wii-engine-does-everything-the-ps3-did-and-then-some/

Is he simply trying to attract some attention to his project by being sensationalist,or is there something to his comments?Obviously the Wii is not as powerful as the PS3,so I wonder what he means.

Possibly they will optimise the engine for what Wii can do.
Like scale down to SD and add a Shader2TEV plugin or something.

 

[DeadlyNinja]

Well, it seems Squareenix just ported their White Engine to the Wii. It's being called Crystal Tool now. Take that for what you will. God knows what it'll be like.

 

[swaaye]

You conflate a game's quality with your own interests, which makes "bad" mean nothing more than "I personally am not interested in it."

Yeah maybe you're right. My dreams of having a new space shooter in a similar class to those formerly-glorious PC games blinded me to the insanely bright bulb of innovation present within F5's arcade shooters!

So, Rogue Squadron, Battle For Naboo, Rogue Leader, and Rebel Strike are some of the finest games made, worthy of being labeled as classics not only for their graphics engines, but for inventions and pushing forward the "arcade shooter" genre? I see. I wonder: if they weren't Star Wars, would they have sold at all? Why would I rather play R-Type? hmmm

Ignoring my apparently-limited-scope-view that there is little beyond graphics to those games, what perhaps bothered me most was how hard it was to hit dark grey TIE Fighters against a black starry space backdrop. Apparently years of space sim developments on PC were not adequate reminder of the need for a targeting box to aid in this visual challenge.

BTW, did you know that their Indiana Jones game will lock up occasionally?

 

[StefanS]

Friendly Mod Reminder

To quote Bugs Bunny: "That's all, folks". If you want to continue this discussion, I'd be an honour for me to export your posts to a new thread in the Console Games forum. But right here in the Console Technology forum this is off-topic and needs to stop

 

[Squeak]

I will crap my pants if I see a developer pull parallax mapping off on the Wii in real time. It could be programed to do it, I'm pretty confident, it's a question of doing it fast enough. My favorite example of parallax mapping was the bullet holes in FEAR considering it was very noticeable and I could just gauk at it when I first saw it and really notice the parallax effect. But then again the Wii GPU is a whole other animal, especially when it comes to programming shaders for it.

You could definitely do something with the EMBM hardware of the Hollywood. It would just be variation on the regular EMBM (without the environment map), but after all isn't that what parallax mapping is (in its most basic form with no z-occlusion)?
The TEV is an array of predefined hardware "boxes" that can be flipped on or off, so it's not really very flexible, but it's small and very fast at what it does do.

 

[Teasy]

To quote Bugs Bunny: "That's all, folks". If you want to continue this discussion, I'd be an honour for me to export your posts to a new thread in the Console Games forum. But right here in the Console Technology forum this is off-topic and needs to stop

Why not just move the whole thread?

 

[Mobius1aic]

You could definitely do something with the EMBM hardware of the Hollywood. It would just be variation on the regular EMBM (without the environment map), but after all isn't that what parallax mapping is (in its most basic form with no z-occlusion)?
The TEV is an array of predefined hardware "boxes" that can be flipped on or off, so it's not really very flexible, but it's small and very fast at what it does do.

Yeah that's what I've come to understand, and honestly parallax mapping is kinda overrated, it's not always needed, but it's a nice effect. Energy thrown into parallax mapping I'd rather seen thrown at the normal mapping or lighting/shadowing engine........

Now if someone was to get a decent version of FEAR running on the Wii, I'd be all for that, as long as it runs smooth, controls nicely, maintains decent visuals (most importantly the procedural shadowing system) and even if it means backing down the physics a bit, I'd could live with it. As long as the soldiers are running ragdolls with gibbing, it would be all good

 

[Flux]

I will crap my pants if I see a developer pull parallax mapping off on the Wii in real time. It could be programed to do it, I'm pretty confident, it's a question of doing it fast enough. My favorite example of parallax mapping was the bullet holes in FEAR considering it was very noticeable and I could just gauk at it when I first saw it and really notice the parallax effect. But then again the Wii GPU is a whole other animal, especially when it comes to programming shaders for it.

Can't you do parallax mapping on the TEV units?

 

[ken_masters]

Something new about the Factor 5 projecto? I need to see what can do the guys from the marvelous Rogue Squadron II-III with a little of powerfull than GC. :smile:

 

[Iron Tiger]

Something new about the Factor 5 projecto? I need to see what can do the guys from the marvelous Rogue Squadron II-III with a little of powerfull than GC. :smile:

I seem to remember Julian Eggebrecht saying something along the lines of a 200% increase in the Gamecube's specs would be his dream system. I can't find the quote anywhere now (and it isn't all that weighty anymore, after they've worked on the PS3), but I'm interested in seeing what they could do with a 150% increase + a buttload more RAM.

 

[ken_masters]

I seem to remember Julian Eggebrecht saying something along the lines of a 200% increase in the Gamecube's specs would be his dream system. I can't find the quote anywhere now (and it isn't all that weighty anymore, after they've worked on the PS3), but I'm interested in seeing what they could do with a 150% increase + a buttload more RAM.

I want a remake of Rogue Leader with a LAN game option!!

 

[Flux]

Why is there dithering on the Cube/Wii anyway? I always thought that color limitations disappeared by the time we reached the PS1 era.

BTW, what you just mentioned are also things not seen in a Factor 5 Wii game. Both Star Wars games use 2x AA with 24 bit color with tons of shader effects.



Nintendo was able to fit a little midget int the extra space in the die to overclock the thing. Once you trigger the super midget overlocking tool, the midget will run around in a hamster wheel to generate more power for the graphics. The midget also serves as a anti-piracy tool. He'll jump out of your Wii and beat your ass if you try to play pirated games on the Wii.

Its the DSP on the GPU that software clocks both the GPU/CPU used for I/O and piracy protection.


Midget ="Starlet" ARM9 DSP on the GPU.

Well documented on Wiibrew's wiki.

http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Starlet

 

[Teasy]

I seem to remember Julian Eggebrecht saying something along the lines of a 200% increase in the Gamecube's specs would be his dream system. I can't find the quote anywhere now (and it isn't all that weighty anymore, after they've worked on the PS3), but I'm interested in seeing what they could do with a 150% increase + a buttload more RAM.

Yeah I think he said twice as powerful as GC. Well I'd say that 50% more processing power plus 260% more ram and 210% more memory bandwidth would make for at least twice the system power. So lets see what he does with his dream system

 

[Flux]

What are you questioning someone that is closer to developing on the Wii than you?