WiiGeePeeYou (Hollywood) what IS it ?

[fearsomepirate]

I just got Geist recently. Anyone played this? It's not the best game ever (after Half-Life 1, how do we still have machine guns that sound like popcorn poppers?), but they did manage to put an interesting little graphics engine together. The framerate drops whenever there are a lot of transparencies, but they managed to put either a prebaked bump map or detail texture on every surface, detailed (for the Gamecube), accurate lightmaps so that everything casts a correct shadow, reflections, camera filters, fog, smoke, specularities, gloss maps, etc. Given how inexperienced the team was, it might be a nice case study to give some ideas of what Wii could pull off in the hands of a more experienced crew--or even N-Space when they have a second go.

 

[GwymWeepa]

Well I remember seeing early screens of that game and they were atrocious, but when the game released and saw some final videos, there was a huge upgrade.

Anyway, I'm still waiting for a Wii exclusive game with graphics on par with Resident Evil 4. Please do not mention Mario lol.

 

[fulcizombie]

Wow. A little narrow sighted are we?

From my perspective of playing games for roughly a gazillion yrs I'd say graphics importance is overblown. Once the initial hype and frothing quickly subsides, after release of the game, what's left is whether the game is fun or not. How many repeats of history do we need before this clicks in certain brains?

IMO, Oblivion was a huge disappointment. It doesn't even look very good and it doesn't run very well at all. It doesn't even do well as an RPG with all it's fake level scaling nonsense. I don't know much about those others you've listed except that they haven't proven anything yet. If you think otherwise, you yourself have fallen for hype.

Mass Effect at least looks neat. I'll grant you that almost all of the new games look neat. Doesn't mean all that much though. This forum is filled with technology enthusiasts though, not people necessarily looking for gameplay.

What's special about Wii? Well it has a new playing style that obviously comes from their experience and research of successes with new types of game control. All those drum pads and dance mats rocked the gaming world and N decided to try something really new with motion sensing. Wii is set to win all the price wars against the supposedly "next-gen" consoles. I can't wait to see how it all turns out. But you better believe that, come Xmas, parents will take note of a $250 price vs. a $400-$600 one. And, no, parents really aren't going to care about graphics. My father, definitely an old-school gamer, doesn't look at a Xbox game and go wow! He goes, "Zelda was better". Funny thing is he means Zelda 1, 2, and Link to the Past, cuz he hated what N did with N64. It got too cute and the control was too complicated. Actually I don't think he's played a game since I brought home Goldeneye 10 yrs back lol.

I don't really care if the Wii's graphics aren't in Sony and MS's bullshit "next-gen" marketing category. They will be good enough. And, if you really are a PS2 fan you shouldn't care much about graphics anyway. Hell, obviously consumers don't if DS is annihilating PSP. Actually I like PSP a lot more. Why? Cuz I can hack it and play SNES and LucasArts games on it.

I am not a ps2 fan,far from it,but truth be told the ps2 has nothing to do with Wii.The ps2 was similar with the xbox and only slightly inferior,but they were the same generation somethin similar with ps3/xbox360.The Wii is a generation behind the other consoles.

Oh and controlling games with a remote control doesn't seem as great as some nintendo fans are making it to be.Give me a great joypad over the wiimote anytime.

The rest,about parents and stuff,are not even worth replying...

 

[Ooh-videogames]

I am not a ps2 fan,far from it,but truth be told the ps2 has nothing to do with Wii.The ps2 was similar with the xbox and only slightly inferior,but they were the same generation somethin similar with ps3/xbox360.The Wii is a generation behind the other consoles.

Oh and controlling games with a remote control doesn't seem as great as some nintendo fans are making it to be.Give me a great joypad over the wiimote anytime.

The rest,about parents and stuff,are not even worth replying...

Yeah, I'd rather play Gears of War with a d-pad also. It is possible to ignore positive impressions from gamers that are not Nintendo fans?

 

[Squeak]

Anyway, I'm still waiting for a Wii exclusive game with graphics on par with Resident Evil 4. Please do not mention Mario lol.

Why?

 

[ninzel]

So what do you think the chances are that Nintendo and Ati slipped in a little dedicated physics chip while noone was looking? Nothing as powerful as PhysX,but just a little something that helps the CPU out a bit.
It seems that it might require some sophisticated physics to fully take advantage of the Wiimotes potential. Seeing as they already were willing to add a dedicated sound chip and the Wiimote capabilities are so imprtant to it's success.

 

[PeterT]

So what do you think the chances are that Nintendo and Ati slipped in a little dedicated physics chip while noone was looking?

I'd say the chances are approaching zero. From the left

But I've been known to be wrong before, and I'd be happy if they did. Still, looking at it rationally, it's about as likely as every other ZOMG-Wii-POWAH rumour on the 'net.

 

[GwymWeepa]

Why?

They are not comparable, they are such strikingly different styles. I want something which has a more realistic look that competes on every level with Resident Evil 4. But that game was a huge effort with GC, and considering that Wii is not too much more advanced, it will take a pretty big effort to get those level of graphics again. This is why I think the power level of Wii was a mistake, they really should have at least put in enough horsepower to make Resident Evil 4 trivial on the machine. That's just IMO.

 

[iNoV]

So what do you think the chances are that Nintendo and Ati slipped in a little dedicated physics chip while noone was looking? Nothing as powerful as PhysX,but just a little something that helps the CPU out a bit.
It seems that it might require some sophisticated physics to fully take advantage of the Wiimotes potential. Seeing as they already were willing to add a dedicated sound chip and the Wiimote capabilities are so imprtant to it's success.

I really hope they did, i also found this quote interesting from the ign COD3 interview

As a final note on the game's engine, Call of Duty 3 is essentially running an adaptation of the 360 engine (when looking at physics and visual effects), and features tons of destructible objects, motion/firing blurring which gives the experience a very solid feel, and the same smoke and dust effects found in the sister versions of Call of Duty 3.

http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/736/736563p2.html

And looking at the screenshots the smoke looks like its from a different game:

I think its the same with ultimate alliance the fire looks really good compared to everything else going on in the screenshots:

Makes me think those of the disaster clips from e3

 

[Fox5]

They are not comparable, they are such strikingly different styles. I want something which has a more realistic look that competes on every level with Resident Evil 4. But that game was a huge effort with GC, and considering that Wii is not too much more advanced, it will take a pretty big effort to get those level of graphics again. This is why I think the power level of Wii was a mistake, they really should have at least put in enough horsepower to make Resident Evil 4 trivial on the machine. That's just IMO.

I bet the Resident Evil game on the Wii looks just as good. Of course, it's another remake of the original Resident Evil so it's basically porting RE to the RE4 graphics engine.

Oh, and the smoke in COD3 and the fire in Marvel look just like high res textures, sort of like how goldeneye used high res textures for its explosions compared to the rest of the game.

 

[ninzel]

I'd say the chances are approaching zero. From the left

But I've been known to be wrong before, and I'd be happy if they did. Still, looking at it rationally, it's about as likely as every other ZOMG-Wii-POWAH rumour on the 'net.

I think the ZOMG-Wii-POWAH rumour is overblown. I know your joking around but in all seriousness,I've never met a Wii fan that actually thinks the Wii will be as powerful as the 360 or PS3. We just think it will be more than simply an overclock GC,but when we say that people take it wrong and think we think it's going to be a 360 kiiler. Not the case.

 

[ninzel]

I really hope they did, i also found this quote interesting from the ign COD3 interview
http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/736/736563p2.html

And looking at the screenshots the smoke looks like its from a different game:

I think its the same with ultimate alliance the fire looks really good compared to everything else going on in the screenshots:

Makes me think those of the disaster clips from e3

Hey that's cool I missed that. So either way the Wii can do good physics.

 

[sfried]

I am not a ps2 fan,far from it,but truth be told the ps2 has nothing to do with Wii.The ps2 was similar with the xbox and only slightly inferior,but they were the same generation somethin similar with ps3/xbox360.The Wii is a generation behind the other consoles.

Oh and controlling games with a remote control doesn't seem as great as some nintendo fans are making it to be.Give me a great joypad over the wiimote anytime.

The rest,about parents and stuff,are not even worth replying...

In what way would you say "a generation behind other consoles," considering the PS2 was definately alot LESS like the XBox in that it didn't have any dedicated graphics chip. GC and XB are more closer to each other, IMO.

 

[GwymWeepa]

I bet the Resident Evil game on the Wii looks just as good. Of course, it's another remake of the original Resident Evil so it's basically porting RE to the RE4 graphics engine.

Oh, and the smoke in COD3 and the fire in Marvel look just like high res textures, sort of like how goldeneye used high res textures for its explosions compared to the rest of the game.

I had in mind games of RE 4's quality from other developers. Naturally Capcom has the RE 4 engine and doesn't really need to do too much to get a game to look nearly identical. Nothing else i've seen approaches that game (with similar styling, meaning something semi-realistic).

 

[ninzel]

Oh, and the smoke in COD3 and the fire in Marvel look just like high res textures, sort of like how goldeneye used high res textures for its explosions compared to the rest of the game.

So does this contradict what the people who are making this game said about the smoke,or is your assertion an add on to what they said?

 

[fearsomepirate]

I bet the Resident Evil game on the Wii looks just as good. Of course, it's another remake of the original Resident Evil so it's basically porting RE to the RE4 graphics engine.

It's not a remake of Resident Eivl. It's a loosely-connected story arc that fills in various gaps spanning everything rom Resident Evil to Resident Evil 4. It's got 4 "missions," each one set in a locale from one of the original RE games.

 

[Squeak]

In what way would you say "a generation behind other consoles," considering the PS2 was definately alot LESS like the XBox in that it didn't have any dedicated graphics chip. GC and XB are more closer to each other, IMO.

Wrong.

They are not comparable, they are such strikingly different styles. I want something which has a more realistic look that competes on every level with Resident Evil 4. But that game was a huge effort with GC, and considering that Wii is not too much more advanced, it will take a pretty big effort to get those level of graphics again. This is why I think the power level of Wii was a mistake, they really should have at least put in enough horsepower to make Resident Evil 4 trivial on the machine. That's just IMO.

It's not really difficult to extrapolate some technical info from the screens and videos no-matter the style of the game. Texel to pixel ratio, framerate, geometric detail, blended overdraw, TEV effects etc. are examples of stuff that is easily discernable.

 

[Fox5]

So does this contradict what the people who are making this game said about the smoke,or is your assertion an add on to what they said?

It probably does contradict, but I can't see what's considered so great looking about the effects. They look very 2dish on top of 3d, the same way most flame and smoke effects have been done for years. Where do the pixel shaders come in, using them to dynamically alter the texture to create a much more dynamic effect rather than just multiple textures that are resized over time?

 

[ninzel]

It probably does contradict, but I can't see what's considered so great looking about the effects. They look very 2dish on top of 3d, the same way most flame and smoke effects have been done for years. Where do the pixel shaders come in, using them to dynamically alter the texture to create a much more dynamic effect rather than just multiple textures that are resized over time?

Is smoke one of those things that needs to be seen in motion to fully appreciate? I find that with certain things. I've looked at games in screenshots and not been too impressed only to have my mind changed once I play it.

 

[ninzel]

http://www.gfdata.de/archiv10-2006-gamefront/2313.html

So it looks like Ati is putting thier symbol on the Wii again.
And the system does have a fan at the back,I thought it was going to be completely fanless.