Actually, my question WAS Wii related, even though I asked it in general terms. I wanted to know how the faster RAM would help compared to the slow A-RAM in the GC.
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Actually, my question WAS Wii related, even though I asked it in general terms. I wanted to know how the faster RAM would help compared to the slow A-RAM in the GC.
As the A-RAM wasn't used for graphics, the simple answer is 'in every way imaginable' 
I wonder how such a segmented memory subsystem can help/hurt the machine. Before, with Cube, we had the main 1T-SRAM pool and the edram basically. ARAM was useless for the real meat of the software. Now they have a decent bit of sorta fast RAM in addition to the Cube 1T-SRAM pool....
Not much bandwidth to it, and GDDR3 has awful latency (like CAS 10 on graphics cards). GPUs can hide latency. A CPU can't really, from my understanding.
Not much bandwidth to it, and GDDR3 has awful latency (like CAS 10 on graphics cards). GPUs can hide latency. A CPU can't really, from my understanding.
2 x 4GB/s isn't all that bad, considering that large parts of the data is stored and transferred in compressed form and the GPU has it's own local cache. Also, I believe the GDDR3 will be mostly used as VRAM, the 1T-SRAM as system RAM and for the GPU FIFO.
Whaaaa? You're telling me that the most impressive looking GC games only had 24 MB of RAM to work with? Crazy! That makes the 64 MB of GDDR3 RAM look much nicer in comparison.
Still, even though I like Nintendo, it really sucks coming into this thread futilly hoping that there's some magical secret in the hardware that will make games look as good as on the 360/PS3, but alas. Guess I 'm a glutton for disappointment.
In machines starved for memory (as PS2 and Cube were...heck, so was Xbox), an extra megabyte here or there helps. Don't discount the A-RAM entirely. Maybe 16 MB was more than they needed, but I'm going to guess that having 16 MB dedicated for sound and caching sure beat having zero.
Anyway, here are some comments by Hudson on Wing Island:
I wouldn't read too much into that statement, but it's nice to know that Wing Island was targeted at Cube and that they feel that they have a good bit of legroom left on Wii.
http://wii.advancedmn.com/article.php?artid=9079
Anyway, here are some comments by Hudson on Wing Island:
I wouldn't read too much into that statement, but it's nice to know that Wing Island was targeted at Cube and that they feel that they have a good bit of legroom left on Wii.
http://wii.advancedmn.com/article.php?artid=9079
It's not that they had any choice in that matter. Based on the SDK leak, they didn't have much choice at the time as it only exposed Gamecube functionality + the additional RAM, the NAND flash and the controller.
Metal_Spirit
Regular
Whaaaa? You're telling me that the most impressive looking GC games only had 24 MB of RAM to work with? Crazy! That makes the 64 MB of GDDR3 RAM look much nicer in comparison.
Still, even though I like Nintendo, it really sucks coming into this thread futilly hoping that there's some magical secret in the hardware that will make games look as good as on the 360/PS3, but alas. Guess I 'm a glutton for disappointment.
Why disappointement??? Graphics were never the point. PS2 sold in the millions of games and in themillions of consoles, and it had sucky graphics compared to a PC or a Xbox.
Graphics are not the most important thing, but gameplay and titles quality.
The Wii has the power and the memory to be far superior to everything we saw on the previous generation. Textures can be sharper, and worlds can be bigger. We are not seeing it yet since as producers say, they are programming for a gamecube and not for the wii (the SDK is at fault here).
Resident Evil 3 is, in my oppinion one of the best games I ever played, and it has great gfx, using only 24 MB of ram. Now imagine the same game using a far more powerfull console (even if only in Mhz, and I bet there are more diferences) and 88 mb of Ram, and you can have an idea of what the Wii can do.
But people are so strange... Just before Xbox 360 and PS3, PS2 and Xbox was great. Now all from that generation sucks! Why is that? Is Shadow os The Colossus sudently became a bad game? Or Metal Gear Solid 3? Or Resident Evil 3?
I can only judge for what I see, and look, PS3 european launch tile games had a maximum score of 8 in a PT magazine that reviewed them. Yet Legend of Zelda for the Wii had 9.
I can say that games like motorsports look impressive, but that is just visuals. I never judged a game by visuals. If I did, I would never had bought a Nintendo DS, and would have bought a PSP.
And after playing in both consoles, I can say, I'm happy I choose the DS.
BTW... I´m no kid, I have 35 years old.
I think it's more that to a lot of people, the Xbox's graphics didn't look all that much better, and we've all discussed the reasons one might choose console gaming over PC.
The_legend_of_drtre
Newcomer
Hey check these out...
http://boards.thewiire.com/index.php?showtopic=19907
Looking really good. The bump mapping on those rocks is really good and it appears to be normal mapping on the shovels. Nice looking game.
http://boards.thewiire.com/index.php?showtopic=19907
Looking really good. The bump mapping on those rocks is really good and it appears to be normal mapping on the shovels. Nice looking game.
tongue_of_colicab
Veteran
Besides that you cant tell that much from such small screens I dont think it looks very impressive. Now I cant tell weater or not something has a bump/normal map on it but those rocks look pretty much flat to me.
Regarding the 16Mb A-RAM in the Cube: Remember that on N64 16Mb used to be more than enough for a whole game with decent graphics music and animation. Banjo Kazooi and Rocket: Robot on Wheels was 16 Mb for example.
If only a level or part of it needs to be contained within those 16Mbs think of the level of detail that is possible with the right compression.
Software truly is like a gas; it expands to fill the space available.
If only a level or part of it needs to be contained within those 16Mbs think of the level of detail that is possible with the right compression.
Software truly is like a gas; it expands to fill the space available.
Well, that machine was also incapable of using large textures at all, thanks to its pathetic texture cache and standard RAM amount (4MB). And, obviously we can't have textures even of typical 'Cube quality today or it will be considered awful looking.
brain_stew
Regular
Yes I am, apologies.
You don't need to be sorry about that bro just making sure things are lined up right in thought.
Well, looks can be deceiving, the game supposedly has some pretty "nifty" AI, and it has to create animations due to its robust alien customization. Not exactly simple stuff.
Metal_Spirit
Regular
I seem to have made a double post, so I´ll edit this one with a link to one Wii Image I think it´s worth looking
http://wiimedia.ign.com/wii/image/a...ngels-squadrons-of-wwii-20070301041333701.jpg
http://wiimedia.ign.com/wii/image/a...ngels-squadrons-of-wwii-20070301041333701.jpg
Spore is getting a DS port of some type, or at least is planned to.
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