Factor 5 on their Wii engine.

Julian is obviously talking about the featureset, not the performance or visuals. He also confirmed that their Wii engine would be partially based on Lair technology, not on their old Gamecube engines. Notice that this comment was months ago, and they even ported their Gamecube engine over just for fun in the meantime, so they are probably working on the Wii engine for quite some time now.

 

The Wii is a SD powerhouse. Julian is simply saying that the Wii can do graphics/effects at SD resolutions that the PS3 can't do at HD resolutions.

 

You think so? even though the ps3 has to do 3 or 4 times the resolution, it also has a far more modern and capable cpu and gpu where the Wii basically has 5 to 6 year old tech in it. I really dont think it can manage efffects on a SD res the ps3 cant do in HD.

 

You're having a laugh, right? It can manage SD res with dithering, no AA, and limited 'shader' effects. Unless devs are just holding back...

 

Did you forget about the secret untapped power that nintendo build into it put is keeping till the moment they need to?

 

ahh yes. of course. after all, fans of every console ever produced have believed there to be "untapped power" (usually in the form of an untapped-power-percentage) and it has shown to be true every single time. I mean, the business sense that is showcased by having a console look gimpy compared to its peers for years and then to suddenly unleash the fury chained up within, so to speak, is obviously formidable.

Console hardware defies the laws of physics, conservation of energy, mass, etc. What you can fit into 90nm pinkie-nail-sized CPU and middle-finger-nail sized GPU dies is without boundaries.

 

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.

 

LOL Like the underpants gnomes, except in your Wii?

I do think however, devs are definetly holding back. Retro Studios said they were holding back some, focusing on the story and gameplay of Metroid 3 itself not making the effort to have the game driven by shaders, and Konami, who maid Dewy's Adventure said they were not using the system's full capabilities, either. Remember that Dewy's Adventure was the first Wii game to use (or at least confirmed to be using) normal mapping. Right now I think are only real testiment to what the Wii can do is probably Super Mario Galaxy. Considering it runs at 60 frames to boot, there must be more room than we think to develop with. If anyone can push the Wii to it's breaking limit and still maintain stable framerate, it's going to Factor 5, they seem to be more well versed on the GC hardware and the Wii's extension of it than anyone else.

 

Actualy,they did it.
In the GPU there is an arm processor with same memory,for encryption.
So,the extra die was only for the copy protection.
Of course,this is the status today.Sinces they break the boot of the machine they are able to see what is in the GPU.

 

I still see overinterpretation of Eggebrechts statements.
Again, he makes no comparison of graphical capabilities between platforms whatsoever.

Their middleware does a lot of housekeeping - saying that their Wii tools are at the level of their PS3 ones is not a statement about graphical capabilities. Particularly as when actually talking about graphics performance, he quite explicitly only makes comparisons with other Wii offerings.

 

I agree with Entrophy. I even said so in the first reply, although badly worded. But at the very least, we can expect something special graphically out of their next engine.

I do wonder... is Parallax Mapping possible on the Wii? That's probably asking for too much, though.

 

It's not a matter of what I think, it's what Julian implied with his statement. The Hollywood chip is still bigger than a die shrunk Flipper and the Wii itself is still a mostly unknown beast at this point. Keep in mind that the designers of the Gamecube had a philosophy that a console's performance is based on improving data flow than merely boosting clock speed, case in point the N64...

It is clear to me that Julian is saying that for example the PS3 cannot run a game like Super Mario Galaxy or Metroid Prime 3 @ 60fps in high definition without choking or crashing.

 

Julian only commented on his Wii engine, instead of PS3, in the article. Even then, there is no mention of his engine performance unfortunately.

IMHO, they should focus on playability and scope management first. Graphics was not their main problem in Lair.

 

IMO they've never made a good game. Graphics is never the problem. They make excellent technology, but the gameplay is always so simplistic and limited. The only game they've made that has depth is Indiana Jones for N64, and that was just a port from LucasArts. Everything else they've done has been incredibly overrated.

 

Turrican was excellent.

 

Didn't they port turrican though?

 

They created Turrican on the 16 bit computers.

 

Having played both of those games, I'd find that very hard to believe. They both look fantastic, but I think the hi-def systems would handle them very well at hi-def resolutions.

In my opinion, he just meant that the Wii could do most of the same things as the PS3, though obviously at a lower fidelity. For instance, he could make Lair on the Wii. It might not have the same number of enemies on the ground, and the physics and graphics would be toned down, but he could find a way to make the game work. Kind of an unclear off the cuff remark, but not much in the way of a story.

 

C64 (8bit) more like. The rest were inferior ports, heh.