Hardware Vigil: Wii U hardware "on par with current generation"

[spotanjo3]

but, you know, that really has, the only problem that's been for us is, you know, not having an actual release date. But once we know when the Wii U has, when Nintendo has commited to a firm date, you know, we will be able to commit to a date for Darksiders II,

General rumor again ? Oh boy. Anyway...

Don't you find annoying when someone say "you know" so much?

 

[Deleted_171835]

Well if this is true, that's err pretty dissapointing. I guess I'll have to get another console alongside the Wii U (which I'll get eventually). Or I'll just stick with my PC (Radeon 6670) and see how long that'll last for the next five years.

The news is from yesterday and it's from developers who have been working on the Wii U hardware. At this point, it'd seem like a complete dumbass move to go to all their developers and say "Hey, we changed our hardware a bunch, have fun scrapping your progress!" What they're working on in terms of hardware is most likely the final hardware we'll be playing on.

They don't have to scrap everything just becuase Nintendo releases more powerful dev kits. Just run the existing games on those.

Wasn't this already common knowledge? After all, the footage they've used for it so far has almost entirely been rendered using Xbox 360's.
....Which actually raises another question: Did Nintendo use XNA, and does this mean that they've got some kinda agreement with Microsoft?

The Zelda demo and the bird demo had lighting and effects that surpassed anything made for the 360/PS3. They were made on Wii U hardware. It was only the game footage montage that used PS3/360 footage.

 

[chris888222]

On par in terms on developmental difficulty or power of console?

You know, so far the hardware's been on par with what we have with the current generation's. Based on what I understand, the, you know, the resolution and textures and polycounts and all that stuff, we're not going to being doing anything to uprez the game, but we'll take advantage of the controller for sure.

It does kinda say that it's same hardware (aka power of the console) and not development difficulty.

I'm assuming this article was too long and you didn't read it.

Yeah. Just skimmed through the article.

I don't really bother about home consoles anymore. I'm more on handheld gaming.

 

[Valwin]

i think the guy is just using a older devkit from past news we know Nintendo haves been changing them to more powerful ones

 

[PolloDiablo]

you know

 

[Arm73]

You know.......(I couldn't resist either )

I think for a couple of years at least , the Wii U will be treated as the PC in past few years.
I mean the PC is clearly, and without a shadow of a doubt, much more powerful then any Xbox360/PS3 glued together, right ?
Yet, most of the mainstream PC content today is being ported from consoles.
Even though the PC is capable of much more, there is a lowest common denominator for big budget game developing, that being the Xbox360.
A game HAS to be able to run on the 360, then ported to the PS3 ( or viceversa ) and/or the PC.
Usually PC ports are almost identical, with the added benefit of higher res and smoother framerate in some cases , with faster loading times.
In other words, even though they could do something much more complex for the PC, they have to make sure the game runs on current gen consoles as well.

Enter now the Wii U.
According to Reggie, it's a 1080p box. Natively capable of outputting nice 1080p graphics ( which is almost never the case with PS360).
Besides, it has a great controller that I can't wait to get my hands on, and if gameplay is gonna be anything like the DS, I'm already sold.

I predict that for the first couple of years, we'll see pretty much the same content on all three platform , save for the individuals exclusives, and the Wii U will have smoother framerate and actual 1080p graphic ( being the game developed with less powerful consoles in mind it can only run smoother/faster on the new hardware ) and also depending on the developers, a better control scheme.
After the next gen of consoles is out, developers will still develop games with the lowest common denominator in mind , in this case the Wii U, which will likely have sold millions of units by that time , will still be able to run those games, with the PS4/720 maybe having some added effects like better textures or even higher resolutions ( IF they come up with better TV sets by that time, otherwise , better then 1080p can't be done ).

Anyway, let's wait and see what E3 has in store for us this year.
Regardless of what some random developer can say, I know I'll get a Wii U and I will enjoy it.

 

[Deleted_171835]

This reminds me that the Wii U has a R770 series GPU that is similar to the 4850. The 4850 can push 1.2 teraFLOPS while the 360's GPU can only push 0.25 TFLOPS. This would make the Wii U at least four times as powerful as the 360 in terms of GPU performance. And last year, an AMD spokesperson said that the Wii U's GPU is capable of more than 1TFLOPS. Perhaps they are just working on an older devkit?

 

[DiscostewSM]

For all we know, they did a Konami-MGS3D in terms of porting.

 

[Cyan]

What I understood is that they "could" have use better graphics but they decided to keep it on par with other consoles.
They will take only advantage to the new controller.

Based on what I understand [...] the resolution and textures and polycounts and all that stuff, we're not going to being doing anything to uprez the game, but we'll take advantage of the controller for sure.

 

[prowler]

What I understood is that they "could" have use better graphics but they decided to keep it on par with other consoles.
They will take only advantage to the new controller.

Based on what I understand [...] the resolution and textures and polycounts and all that stuff, we're not going to being doing anything to uprez the game, but we'll take advantage of the controller for sure.

You left out the other part..? "so far the hardware's been on par with what we have with the current generation's"

 

[Master Mo]

For me it sounds more like they don`t care on using more resources to maybe show what the WiiU graphic-wise could do... What he said is, that the games runs on all systems with the same polygon-count, resolution and textures. He didn`t say what the system could do as I said. Also apparently it is a whole different team that is handling the WiiU-version so if those guys are instructed to port the game over who knows what they could do if the work on it from scratch!

Also marketing-wise I think they`re doing it correctly: the resonance will be better if they do something unique with the controller instead of showing of how better the visuals are.... Though I don`t know what they could do with it. Batman on the other hand with all the gadget could benefit from it so hopefully it won`t be forced!

 

[Cyan]

yes I left it on purpose, both parts are a little contradictory.
The hardware is on par, but they could have improved it visually but decided not to.

 

[Deleted_171835]

What I understood is that they "could" have use better graphics but they decided to keep it on par with other consoles.
They will take only advantage to the new controller.

Based on what I understand [...] the resolution and textures and polycounts and all that stuff, we're not going to being doing anything to uprez the game, but we'll take advantage of the controller for sure.

You left out the other part..? "so far the hardware's been on par with what we have with the current generation's"

A while ago, they said that the exact opposite.

At the very least, Vigil believes that gamers can look forward to ports to Nintendo’s new console that are not inferior to every other version of the game. When we asked Bonstead if he thought it was possible that the Wii U version of Darksiders II would be the best version of the game, he said, "Yeah, just because the hardware is more powerful and it will have some extra features that I think will actually be useful to people playing the game. With it’s controller, [the Wii U version of Darksiders II] might be the best version of the game."

http://www.neogaf.co...ad.php?t=432939

Two contradictory statements by the same dev.

 

[Foxi4]

He does say that they won't be doing anything to uprez the game. They *could* though, they're just lazy. I don't think it's fair to call the WiiU "on par" when it's clearly blowing the 360 and the PS3 specs wise.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

He does say that they won't be doing anything to uprez the game. They *could* though, they're just lazy. I don't think it's fair to call the WiiU "on par" when it's clearly blowing the 360 and the PS3 specs wise.

But I'm rather sure the Wii U specs aren't released and he said that "the [Wii U's] been on par with what we have with the current generation's," not "We're lazy and we don't want to uprez our game because the Wii U is ungodly powerful".

 

[shakirmoledina]

i really in the very beginning tht the wii u slightly powerful than the ps3. if that be the case, i feel what he wanted to mention is that our game worked as well as it does for other current gen sys.
i feel the wii u is more powerful as the specs said so.

Also read epiccreation's and cyan's posts and they seem to be right on (at least with me)

 

[Guild McCommunist]

i feel the wii u is more powerful as the specs said so.

Could someone point me to these officially released specs that everyone is referencing so I can compare it to the current generations? Maybe I missed this whole crop of crucial news about the system but I can't, for the life of me, remember any specs getting released officially.

 

[Deleted_171835]

i feel the wii u is more powerful as the specs said so.

Could someone point me to these officially released specs that everyone is referencing so I can compare it to the current generations? Maybe I missed this whole crop of crucial news about the system but I can't, for the life of me, remember any specs getting released officially.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/14/wii-u-has-last-gen-radeon-inside-still-more-powerful-than-ps3-a/

 

[Foxi4]

i feel the wii u is more powerful as the specs said so.

Could someone point me to these officially released specs that everyone is referencing so I can compare it to the current generations? Maybe I missed this whole crop of crucial news about the system but I can't, for the life of me, remember any specs getting released officially.

http://www.engadget....ful-than-ps3-a/

He used an argument that you cannot refute as Nintendo itself didn't release "official" specs, in fact, I'm pretty sure no company ever has for any console of theirs.

Still, I would assume the "leaks" are accurate.

 

[chyyran]

So what? It has a touch screen. Ergo it is innovative.

^

Touch Screen < Graphics IMO

However, if the XBOX720 comes out with some Tegra 5 or whatever, I'll be pissed.

Then again, Nintendo did start early with the console, so, I assume that they wouldn't have access to more powerful hardware anyways. However, the relatively early launch might win it some market share.