Jim Merrick speaks about Revolution...

[Shifty Geezer]

Yes, but DS is only a few megabytes. We're looking at tens of megs at least, and for storage for level data surely 100's of megabytes. Unless only a few simple games actually support this and it doesn't apply to all games. eg. Consider the next Metroid Prime. For something that look as good as XB360 or PS3, surely there's going to be lots of data dtreaming into 256/512 MBs RAM. I'd be surprised if 50 MB's were enough for a basic game. Now consider a player at home who owns and hosts the multiplayer, and 5 friends connecting to play multiplayer. They'll need to access 50 MB each of host player's game data. He's going to be uploading 50 MB's x 5 players on a 256 Kb upload. I make that over 2 hours of uploading!

DS can boradacst to multiple local consoles at a time, at faster rates than typical broadband uploading, and for much smaller amounts of data. World of difference it seems to me.

 

[jvd]

Oh yes? Someone with a Rev will be uploading gigabytes of data up over their 256 MBit uplink?

Prob wont be to much fun. But i'm sure after 2-3 mins of streaming to a portion of the flash ram built into the console it wouldn't be that bad. Or it could be 1 copy just for wifi users .

 

[fearsomepirate]

Yes, but DS is only a few megabytes. We're looking at tens of megs at least, and for storage for level data surely 100's of megabytes.

Executable files remain pretty small. What's Doom 3's .exe, isn't it a few hundred K?

Consider the next Metroid Prime. For something that look as good as XB360 or PS3, surely there's going to be lots of data dtreaming into 256/512 MBs RAM.

It doesn't have to look that good because it's free. It's quite possible to tailor the free download-play levels to be small enough to transfer quickly over a network or even the Internet. For example, if you make a room for a Doom 3 deathmatch with Quake 1-style geometry, single-layered medium-quality textures, a few lights here and there, and only a few normal maps, your map won't be very big, maybe just a couple megs. I don't think you've quite grasped that single-disc multiplayer isn't the full multiplayer game. A freebie doesn't have to look as good as the full version because it's free. The complex, really good-looking levels would only be accessible to someone already owning the disc. Does that make sense? Have some simple levels for download play, and have complex levels for standard everyone-owns-a-copy multiplayer.

DS can boradacst to multiple local consoles at a time

So will Revolution...Xbox made LAN parties easier. DS and Revolution are going to make them a lot cheaper. Merrick also didn't specify whether this would be possible for online gaming or only for local LAN gaming. If it works anything like DS, it would be only local.

 

[Refreshment]

Again we are talking local area for the sharing and not over the net.

Edit: my response wasnt directed to fearsome, just the guies above you. Just in case

 

[OtakingGX]

LAN play with just one copy of a game would be great. The last time I even attempted networked play was with a Japanese Gundam game on my PSX. The cable to network the PSX's was $20 alone. Luckily the game came on two discs, and each one supported multiplayer.

The Revolution is supposed to come with 512 MB of flash memory for storing downloaded NES/SNES/N64 games. Perhaps a portion of this (50-100 MB) can be reserved for LAN downloads. With 802.11g it wouldn't take more than a few seconds to completely transfer this much data.

 

[Refreshment]

Kind of "of topic". Since we are talking graphics withouth knowing a single spec of the rev.

I was watching the Famitsu pics of Virtua Fighter 5 and the game is quiet impresive, anyway for what i understand the game is running on the Lindbergh (SP?) board, wich in itself is a PIV 3.0 ghz with Nvidia based graphics (not sure wich series) and 1gb of RAM. What im trying to express is that this board is obviously inferior (save for the RAM) to the 360 and the PS3, yet the results are satisfactory for a next gen game. Plus its coded on standar PC hardware, yet with enough atention from developers the results speack for themselves.

So, can we expect the Revolution be in the same level of performance as the Linbergh?

 

[Rur0ni]

I expect same level of graphics(provided thats what a developer is shooting for), at a lower resolution. SD vs HD. Though 'late game', nearing the end of the consoles lives, I expect PS3 to be kicking a bit of butt. In regards to rev anyway.

 

[<nu>faust]

Revolution isn't the size of 3 DVD cases stacked together. It'll be around twice that size. Still very small compared to the other consoles, but then so was GC (it was also much cheaper then PS2 and XBox). Also Merrick said there won't be any significant difference in graphics, he didn't say Revolution will have the exact same processing power. What he's saying is that Revolution's graphics won't look out of place next to the other two systems, it will look next gen. Just like GC's graphics weren't out of place this generation next to PS2 and XBox.

i see your point but still imo what they promising sounds too good to be true. From what i have read, nintendo basically promises 1- a really fast machine which will be in the same league with competitors' big boys (contrasting their earlier statements about rev's specs being be only 2-3 times faster than cube) 2- a really small machine,many times smaller than their competetion (which is a cost increasing, spec limiting factor) 3- the cheapest machine(with advanced capabilities like has a built-in wifi,wiless gyration controller..) .From my perspective,to deliver that kind of machine either a-they will have to receive a a huge loss per unit or b-they will have to sacrifice from power and/or capabilities.

 

[Titanio]

Remember that Nintendo in one respect (pixel-shading power) only requires a fraction of the power of the other systems to be competitive, because it'll only be dealing with a fraction of the resolution. From that perspective, they can "look the same", without need for nearly as much power.

In other respects - CPU/vertex shading etc - well, we'll see.

 

[fearsomepirate]

(contrasting their earlier statements about rev's specs being be only 2-3 times faster than cube)

Nintendo never made an official statement stating anything about Rev's specs being triple that of the Cube's (not that a 1.5 GHz G5 with a 485 MHz SM 3.0-based GPU and 3x the pipelines of Flipper would be all that bad for 480p games). That was a something Perrin Kaplan, who by her own admittance knows nothing about hardware (she's in marketing--if you've ever worked with marketing people, you know they're rarely tech savvy), threw out there because she thought it would sound good. Obviously, she was wrong, as spec whores want to hear 30x and 25x more powerful and multiple teraflops. The "two to three times" number means NOTHING. It's the kind of number my mom might throw out if she compared my Gamecube and my N64.

 

[pc999]

Remember that Nintendo in one respect (pixel-shading power) only requires a fraction of the power of the other systems to be competitive, because it'll only be dealing with a fraction of the resolution. From that perspective, they can "look the same", without need for nearly as much power.

In other respects - CPU/vertex shading etc - well, we'll see.

In memory BW they should need much less too, and high speed memory is a one of the pricier components.My worrys are on the CPU side of the things.

 

[v0rt3x]

I figure i'll post it here since it hasn't been posted...

Miyamoto interview in Businessweek.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_45/b3958127.htm?campaign_id=rss_magzn

nothing new except this caught my eye...

In the future, what do you think video games will be like?
It's convenient to make games that are played on TVs. But I always wanted to have a custom-sized screen that wasn't the typical four-cornered cathode-ray-tube TV. I've always thought that games would eventually break free of the confines of a TV screen to fill an entire room. But I would rather not say anything more about that.

 

[nihilistcanada]

I figure i'll post it here since it hasn't been posted...

Miyamoto interview in Businessweek.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_45/b3958127.htm?campaign_id=rss_magzn

nothing new except this caught my eye...

Hush now children, god is speaking.

 

[rabidrabbit]

And they say Kutaragi's ideas are far-fetched and crazy

But I like these kind of both feet high off the ground scifi visionaries.

 

[V3]

i see your point but still imo what they promising sounds too good to be true. From what i have read, nintendo basically promises 1- a really fast machine which will be in the same league with competitors' big boys (contrasting their earlier statements about rev's specs being be only 2-3 times faster than cube) 2- a really small machine,many times smaller than their competetion (which is a cost increasing, spec limiting factor) 3- the cheapest machine(with advanced capabilities like has a built-in wifi,wiless gyration controller..) .From my perspective,to deliver that kind of machine either a-they will have to receive a a huge loss per unit or b-they will have to sacrifice from power and/or capabilities.

Or launch on 65nm when that's available at later date.

 

[Teasy]

i see your point but still imo what they promising sounds too good to be true. From what i have read, nintendo basically promises 1- a really fast machine which will be in the same league with competitors' big boys (contrasting their earlier statements about rev's specs being be only 2-3 times faster than cube) 2- a really small machine,many times smaller than their competetion (which is a cost increasing, spec limiting factor) 3- the cheapest machine(with advanced capabilities like has a built-in wifi,wiless gyration controller..) .From my perspective,to deliver that kind of machine either a-they will have to receive a a huge loss per unit or b-they will have to sacrifice from power and/or capabilities.

But Nintendo haven't promised not to sacrifice power to some degree. As you said they have promised it will be in the same league, that's all. Which is why its not to good to be true.

 

[mckmas8808]

I figure i'll post it here since it hasn't been posted...

Miyamoto interview in Businessweek.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_45/b3958127.htm?campaign_id=rss_magzn

nothing new except this caught my eye...

This is the type of stuff I love about the Japanese developers. Hi-tech scifi thinking. Miyamoto and Ken Kutarugi are in the same league and on the same page in my book.

 

[pc999]

I figure i'll post it here since it hasn't been posted...

Miyamoto interview in Businessweek.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_45/b3958127.htm?campaign_id=rss_magzn

nothing new except this caught my eye...

Nice, cant waint for that

 

[PC-Engine]

They are already working on that...why do you think Miyamoto said "But I would rather not say anything more about that.
"?