Nintendo 3DS hardware thread

Well, didnt Capcom port their MT framework?

 

The physics really are easily a generation below DOA2.



I've also been unable to shake the sense that character animations in gameplay are somehow wrong. The speed ramp and weight on some moves I've seen hundreds of times in other entries feels lacking or even absent, as though they were missing frames or being interpolated poorly.

 

This is exactly where I suggested Nintendo's greediness for using a weak CPU would pay dearly: physics, number of on-screen objects and AI.

It doesn't matter what engines are ported to the console, it'll always be severely limited by its hardware, and the difference in visuals between Vita + smartphones and 3DS will increase greatly, with 2012 being flooded with smartphones with 3D screens..

Sigfried1977's post was just another confirmation of what I suspected, even the most good-looking 3DS games so far aren't really a generational leap from the PSP.

Too much greediness: it's all I can think about the 3DS right now.

 

Fortunatly for nintendo the past 25 years have proven time and time again that specs are not the key to a succesfull handheld.

 

True. However in the past there weren't a multitude of 3D capable mobile devices available, especially smart-phones. Still any smart-phone (or even tablet) isn't directly comparable with a handheld-console for many reasons, but it's still an aspect I wouldn't as easily overlook even more so for the future.

 

And what would you say of a Xperia Play 2 handset with a 3D 3.8" WVGA touchscreen and dual analog sticks (similar to PSP Go), with an exclusive PSN market for AAA games, coming out in 2H 2012?
Or equivalent "TWIMTBP-certified" handsets from several vendors with Tegra 3/4 coming out in the same timeframe?

Or even better, Atom and Fusion-equipped handhelds with a X360 button layout coming out in 2013 with Windows 8 and the capability to play windows games?



Specs are not the (sole) key to a succesfull handheld, but failing to adapt to the modern times and excessive greediness has brought many giants down..

 

What I find the more bothering is how 3DS development seems to have been completely unrelated with the WiiU one. I was a bit deceived that Nintendo did not move either from the double screen set-up.
For the specs well underwhelming is the world.

 

Sigfried1977

I agree, Street Fighter 3DS doesn't beat the best PSP games in every single way, its just clearly better overall, same goes for DOA. Both first attempts on the system by the way. I also agree that Ridge Racer is a very disappointing port, Namco should have done far better with it.

By the way, Zelda is an upgraded N64 game so there's no point in using it to judge the hardware capabilities of the system.

 

ToTTenTranz

Should we have expected a generational leap over a system which was bleeding edge and lost money per unit for years?

Which PSP game are you comparing it too geometry/texture wise?

I agree that Revelations does look better then Mercenaries (a game that already looks better than anything on PSP).

 

6 years later, for $250? I'm damn right we should!

Let me ask you the following: in March 2011, should we expect anything below a 1GHz Cortex A8 + 256MB RAM + OpenGL ES2.0 GPU for a $250 gaming handheld?

And we already know the battery life excuse is kinda BS... The console has poor battery life nonetheless, mainly because the battery is small and cheap (and there's enough space inside the console to put 2 of those).

 

Tekken 5 DR and Ridge Racer (which never drops below 60fps) were first efforts on the PSP as well. As for Zelda: sure, it has N64 roots, but it was nonetheless built from the ground up. From the textures to the animation to the complexity of the geometry, everything has been bumped up a couple of notches over the N64 version, so it's not just a mere port. Still, my comparison was a bit unfair I guess. The team that created Birth By Sleep was enormous after all.

Calling Street Fighter better overall is a bold statement. As far as I'm concerned the balance between the character models and everything else is completely off. (not to mention it's completely ill-suited for the system's control options) Dead or Alive fares quite a bit better here despite the poor physics (the last downloadable dress for Hitomi looks and animates like an umbrella)

Seriously, those are some hideously bad textures:

 

Come on, the battery is not small. And there isn't much space for it left in there for other either.

 

For a device that's as large as that? Sure it is.
BTW, check the space by yourself:
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nintendo-3DS-Teardown/5029/1

There's lots of hollow space, both in the top and the bottom.

 

How confident are you that this will actually exist? For years there have been many x86 UMPCs and MIDs but nothing with anything particularly close to real gaming controls (much less XBox 360 level) Few in the market see mixing game controls with PC software on a mobile to be a very interesting prospect. There's a little bit coming from Korea but I'm not holding my breath; for the XBox 360 layout part of the bargain I'm expecting controls that don't suck and not just some attempt at controls.

That and I'm not so sure Fusion will be low power enough even in 2013..

 

I'm pretty confident because:

-The services and interface for the "Games for Windows" are practically merged with XBox Live.
- Seeing how Windows 8 adopted the Metro UI and is supporting ARM, I honestly believe that Microsoft's plan will be to eventually merge Windows Phone with Windows, to have one OS to "rule them all" -> the biggest difference being that x86 devices will support "legacy" software. I don't think there'll be a Windows Phone 8. I think there'll eventually be Windows 8 handhelds.
- Microsoft hasn't shown any interest in launching a gaming handheld so far, and I believe it's because Microsoft prefers and is really close to have OEMs building gaming-oriented versions of Windows 8 handhelds. It'd be their best bet to counter the "Playstation Certified" Android handhelds.

Fair enough, but in 2013 there'll be 22nm Atoms for handhelds.
AMD wants to be in that race too, for sure.

 

All I can add is having played 3DS extensively at E3 I was extremely impressed. The graphics in Mario Kart, Luigi's Mansion and Resident Evil all looked great and were beyond what I've personally experienced on the PSP. Especially in 3D.

 

SoCs sampling or devices on shelves? It would definitely be interesting to see 22nm Atom embedded SoC powered devices side by side with 28nm embedded SoC powered devices from others, but it still looks like that there will be a timeframe intermitting the two. In that regard one should rather ask under which manufacturing process Intel intends to use Series6/Rogue. Sorry for the OT by the way.

Point taken. However why is a past generation handheld with a current generation handheld comparison exactly relevant? Is the Nintendo 3DS set to compete against the original PSP?

 

Well it's pretty obvious that Vita will decimate the 3DS when it comes to graphics performance but in the end I think the 'good enough' visuals plus 3D are a compelling combination to the vast majority of people. And don't forget these are launch games. Graphics will undoubtedly get better with time.

 

Great discussion here, I only would prefer to call it "Stereoscopic" or just "Stereo", instead of "3D", as traditional monoscopic 3D games are still 3D, just not stereo.

 

Tried it yesterday. Autostereoscopic 3D effect on 3DS is neat but tires the eyes within minutes, worse than glasses 3D. May not be the game changer I expected.

Vita is fanciful. Fate hinges on Sony's execution. I think the playing field is still open. Perhaps the games will differentiate them again.