Wii U hardware discussion and investigation *rename

[Inuhanyou]

Wait, were you saying they were culling assets from AC Karazamov? Or that the assets(IE models) that they used for the tech demo were similar to their AC counterparts?

I thought it was the former, i may have misinterpreted what you said.

 

[Blazkowicz]

Again though, in a closed environment like a tech demo, anything is possible to be prettied up.

Yeah, I thought the impressive zooming out hides the fact that 99% of the city is not detailed down to the streetview level (only a couple area of interests are), and they must have done a ton of special culling (when your camera is on a scripted railroad that helps)

 

[joesiv]

With the Wii launching in 2006, we had it fully deciphered in maybe 2003/2004* but didn't realise that until 2006.

*Depending on when we fully understood GameCube.

I was under NDA at the time, so I knew the specs when our dev house got the documents, far before launch. Days maybe weeks later there were people talking about portions of the specs online, though noone believed it, people were still going on about PPU's and Ghz CPU's.

It was quite shortly after launch when the detailed specs were unearthed, I believe anantech might have even did a post about it.

 

[ERP]

It was quite shortly after launch when the detailed specs were unearthed, I believe anantech might have even did a post about it.

And a year later people were still arguing that the information was incorrect, from early devkits or being misinterpreted in some way.

IME most information leaks very quickly and most people discount it because it doesn't align with there expectations followed with it being swamped by "pseudo rumors", people regurgitating their own misinterpretation of the facts, or people just making stuff up.

 

[Exophase]

And a year later people were still arguing that the information was incorrect, from early devkits or being misinterpreted in some way.

IME most information leaks very quickly and most people discount it because it doesn't align with there expectations followed with it being swamped by "pseudo rumors", people regurgitating their own misinterpretation of the facts, or people just making stuff up.

And for years after its release people were claiming Nintendo DS had a 200+MHz ARM9, and some people still want to believe that 3DS has 800-1000MHz ARM11s.

Looks like a fair rule of thumb that generally the least impressive sounding leaks are the most likely to be true..

 

[Karamazov]

Wait, were you saying they were culling assets from AC Karazamov? Or that the assets(IE models) that they used for the tech demo were similar to their AC counterparts?

I thought it was the former, i may have misinterpreted what you said.

i meant that they used the model from the movie, but of course not with the same level of detail.

 

[SoreSpoon]

We can assume that atleast, the 720 and PS4 will have the ability to do 1080p native for the average game on the hardware out of the box.

That's much more than we can say for the Wii U already, no amount of optimization is going to fix that.

The Wii U at its best will probably surpass 360's visuals, but not to any kind of exceptional degree.

I'm not including PS3 in that, because the console is such a variable when a game optimized for offloading GPU processes onto the Cell comes into play in comparison to 360's relatively normal CPU and GPU set up. You get a game like GOW3, Last of Us, Beyond or Killzone 2/3 and compare it to Wii U games in even 5 years time, we'll see how it holds up.

So you're saying that the PS3 is most likely overall more powerful than Wii U?

 

[artstyledev]

So you're saying that the PS3 is most likely overall more powerful than Wii U?

Those games on ps3 just didn't magically happen. It took between 50-100 million to build a ground up engine to develop games on. There are so many variables and unknowns when it comes to the Wii U. But I would have to think if Nintendo was to put that much in and invest in an engine to push Wii U to its limits yeah I don't think it would have a problem outclassing the best from ps3. I'm looking forward to seeing what Nintendo in house hd engine will be capable of. It's rumored that Retro are the ones making it so it seems it may be in great hands. But for sure I think we all are awaiting Wii U first graphic Intensive game. Me personally since they were mentioned loved the bird and Zelda hd demos. When I saw them I said if this console can achieve those on regular basis or at least for Nintendo 1st party titles I'm good for graphics of the console. Now it's funny because I still see people saying those demos wasn't impressive and could easily be achieved on ps360. But now you are hearing that those demos ran on pc's and wii u in final form can't replicate those demos. All I know is I spoke with someone that just didn't see a video but was there at E3 and CES the next year and played the demos. This person reviews games for a living and isn't a biased fanboyish gamer. Told me what he saw was definitely beyond what ps360 could achieve In real time. Said it looked like a CGI. I'm just hoping the best of Wii U will reach those level and I'm satisfied no matter what the newer Sony and Microsoft console are capable of.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Those games on ps3 just didn't magically happen. It took between 50-100 million to build a ground up engine to develop games on.

Argentine Pesos?

There are so many variables and unknowns when it comes to the Wii U.

Just make some numbers up then. That's the most common approach to discussion.

But I would have to think if Nintendo was to put that much in and invest in an engine to push Wii U to its limits...

Yeah, but that's not in Nintendo's best interests. They're better off keeping that money in the bank and making their console look bad.

Said it looked like a CGI. I'm just hoping the best of Wii U will reach those level and I'm satisfied no matter what the newer Sony and Microsoft console are capable of.

Must be true. All those professional CGI studios using massive, expensive render farms really missed the trick when Nintendo's 40 Watt machine can render CGI quality in realtime.

 

[function]

So you're saying that the PS3 is most likely overall more powerful than Wii U?

I should think it's pretty clear by now that which console is most "powerful" may vary depend on what you're trying to do and how you're trying to do it.

And that's been true since, like, the 1980s. Or maybe earlier, but I can't remember any further back.

 

[Inuhanyou]

So the question still remains then, does Nintendo think its worth going with the average AAA development format to make a game that wow's the players? I mean there were plenty of third party developers at the very least who make it their mission to push Wii as far as it could go(Monolith and the Conduit guys) but are there such people for the Wii U? Monolith could probably do it getting funding from Nintendo now...but we'll have to see what they comeup with.

 

[XpiderMX]

So the question still remains then, does Nintendo think its worth going with the average AAA development format to make a game that wow's the players? I mean there were plenty of third party developers at the very least who make it their mission to push Wii as far as it could go(Monolith and the Conduit guys) but are there such people for the Wii U? Monolith could probably do it getting funding from Nintendo now...but we'll have to see what they comeup with.

Retro Studios?

 

[Inuhanyou]

True true...and i heard that Nintendo was going forward with pretty big restructuring effort starting with taking Miyamoto off of head of development...don't know how that's going to turn out

 

[function]

The Wii U loses again: Tekken Tag 2.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-tekken-tag-tournament-2-on-wii-u-face-off

Simplified motion blur, a couple of simplified stages, frame dips at hectic moments. Also, doesn't like foliage, but it's not the first time we've seen that.

Reeeeeeally not looking like the Wii U has a big GPU advantage over the 360, is it?

 

[Inuhanyou]

Well the bandwidth would probably render any GPU advantages pretty moot.

 

[function]

In which case, why spend the cash on a fast GPU? That wouldn't be very Nintendo like (or very sensible) would it?

 

[Inuhanyou]

I would not call a lot of hardware choices of Nintendo's over the years "sensible".

 

[TheWretched]

Didn't Namco say that they had problems, because of the weak CPU? I seem to remember something of that sort, but I am not entirely sure of it.

 

[Inuhanyou]

Didn't Namco say that they had problems, because of the weak CPU? I seem to remember something of that sort, but I am not entirely sure of it.

Harada said that his dev team needed to come up with "creative solutions" to get around the CPU for TTT2 because it was "a little slow". Now keeping in mind translation issues and whatnot, we can decipher that there is a CPU issue at hand. Whether it is the clock speed of the CPU, or the actual weakness of the CPU itself is unknown.

Eurogamer's Analysis seems to confirm the CPU issue, and infact, a majority of their face offs have detected a consistent lag in multiplatform games on Wii U when it came to CPU related issues like characters on screen and "busy" artifacts like transparencies.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-tekken-tag-tournament-2-on-wii-u-face-off

 

[artstyledev]

Harada said that his dev team needed to come up with "creative solutions" to get around the CPU for TTT2 because it was "a little slow". Now keeping in mind translation issues and whatnot, we can decipher that there is a CPU issue at hand. Whether it is the clock speed of the CPU, or the actual weakness of the CPU itself is unknown.

Eurogamer's Analysis seems to confirm the CPU issue, and infact, a majority of their face offs have detected a consistent lag in multiplatform games on Wii U when it came to CPU related issues like characters on screen and "busy" artifacts like transparencies.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-tekken-tag-tournament-2-on-wii-u-face-off

Yes he was misquoted. He stated as much right here.


Speaking about the Wii U, many people are worried that it isn’t a next generation console, mainly saying that the graphical horse power of the Wii U is comparable to the consoles of thisgeneration. What are your thoughts on people saying that the Wii U isn’t really a ‘next-generation’ console?
I’m a bit reluctant to talk about the Wii U specs, when I mentioned something earlier it got totally blown out of proportion and twisted. However while developing Tag 2, since it’s very graphic intensive because of the multiple characters on screen, there was still some power left over for graphic capabilities so the graphics chips seems to be pretty decent. But to be honest, that’s not really even relevant because people seem to be focusing too much comparing the raw specs to other hardware. You really have to be looking at the capabilities and what features it has. For example, if you’re playing Tag 2 on the Wii U at home and your parents get mad at you for taking up the TV too much, you can just take it to your bed and start playing there. Being able to take a high end game and play it in your bed is something that’s really unique so that’s the thing people are kind of missing.

And there was another situation when he said something about the gamepad that someone misquoted him. Just websites looking for hits trying to make the whole wii u is not better than this gen claim. I wouldn't think the CPU is weak just clocked slower, shorter pipeline, ooOe, etc.