Hacking Would it be possible to mod the vWii to uprender Wii games?

[warpio]

Currently Wii games look like a blocky mess on my TV when playing them on the Wii U's vWii mode. This is because the vWii renders Wii games in 480p and the Wii U upscales that 480p picture to your TV's native resolution... it looks so bad that I've resorted to playing them solely on the gamepad screen.

However, I've heard that the Wii U is actually powerful enough to render Wii games in 1080p like Dolphin does, but Nintendo forcefully limited it to 480p so that it would more accurately represent a real Wii system... I really don't know much about the inner workings of the vWii system, but is it theoretically possible for a vWii homebrew mod to remove this limitation and allow Wii games to be rendered in a higher resolution?

 

[Jayro]

I think it would requite some extensive sysmenu modifications, which might not even be possible. I'm actually not sure why Nintendo limited the vWii to 480p though, that was almost a deal-breaker for me, because I was hoping it would internally render Wii games in 1080p... Brawl looks so god-damn gorgeous on Dolphin... ;-;

 

[Goku Junior]

Currently Wii games look like a blocky mess on my TV when playing them on the Wii U's vWii mode. This is because the vWii renders Wii games in 480p and the Wii U upscales that 480p picture to your TV's native resolution... it looks so bad that I've resorted to playing them solely on the gamepad screen.

However, I've heard that the Wii U is actually powerful enough to render Wii games in 1080p like Dolphin does, but Nintendo forcefully limited it to 480p so that it would more accurately represent a real Wii system... I really don't know much about the inner workings of the vWii system, but is it theoretically possible for a vWii homebrew mod to remove this limitation and allow Wii games to be rendered in a higher resolution?

Yeah, it is possible I think, if the Wii U can run GameCube games, it can run Wii games at 1080p, at least without jaggies, but yes, I think it is possible, a Wii emulator could be possible too, my PC emulates the Wii games good (some ones only) and the Wii U is more powerful than my PC after all, so yes.
But for me the games looks very well compared to Wii, they are upscaled to 1080p and Super Mario Galaxy looks very jagged, but still beutiful.

 

[FAST6191]

Wii U mode, I would not bet against it.
vWii without full Wii U homebrew, I would not hold my breath.

Either way it would be far quicker and probably not all that expensive to get a PC capable of running the emulator and wire it into your TV.

 

[Goku Junior]

Oh, I forget to tell... it's very probebly we will need the full hardware to get it work because now the vWii have the same hardware as the original Wii, we need to have the full hardware in vWii such the Tri-core CPU, the full features of the GPU with the 32MB the eDRAM, the whole 2GB ram, after we get the full hardware, it could be possible.

 

[Marionumber1]

we need to have the full hardware in vWii such the Tri-core CPU, the full features of the GPU with the 32MB the eDRAM, the whole 2GB ram, after we get the full hardware, it could be possible.

Apart from the tri-core CPU, which is already available but supported by no official software yet, none of that hardware can be accessed from vWii mode. The only way that it might work would be running a modified version of cafe2wii, which requires IOSU kernel access in Wii U mode.

 

[Goku Junior]

Apart from the tri-core CPU, which is already available but supported by no official software yet, none of that hardware can be accessed from vWii mode. The only way that it might work would be running a modified version of cafe2wii, which requires IOSU kernel access in Wii U mode.

So, marionumber1, to have the hardware we need to modify the Wii U Mode?, It's a shame you don't have kernel access yet .

 

[Oxybelis]

Wii U probably has GPU of a real Wii for backcompat (Nintendo likes to do hadware bc). So Wii U has same Wii capabilities as a real Wii.
But maybe if new Wii U GPU is powerful enough there is a way to emulate Wii GPU increasing game resolution in Wii U mode.

 

[Supercool330]

Honestly the prospect of playing gamecube and wii games on native hardware at 1080p with off screen gamepad support is by far the most exciting aspect of Wii U hacking to me. I would LOVE to play Xenoblade at 1080p on native hardware (not that I have anything against dolphin, I just like running games on real hardware for some reason).

 

[Goku Junior]

Wii U probably has GPU of a real Wii for backcompat (Nintendo likes to do hadware bc). So Wii U has same Wii capabilities as a real Wii.
But maybe if new Wii U GPU is powerful enough there is a way to emulate Wii GPU increasing game resolution in Wii U mode.

First at all, did you see some Wii U Tearsdowns? it never showns the Wii GPU, so forget it.
Second, it is capable to support 1080p Wii games, but not in vWii mode while it's emulating a Wii GPU.

 

[boomario]

Wii U does not emulate nothing about vWii, as i know the processor architectures are basically the same since gamecube (IBM PowerPC). If you want to classify vWii mode that would be something like a virtual machine (like running linux inside windows, a bad comparison but it's enough for the moment).
Also, it is possible to run vWii mode in higher resolutions but it will require a fully working hacked Wi U mode and tons of hard work.

 

[Oxybelis]

Wii GPU is inside Latte die most likely.

 

[Goku Junior]

Wii GPU is inside Latte die most likely.

I don't think it could be possible that, the Wii GPU is larger, Wii U GPU = 45nm , Wii GPU = 90nm it only have some components to backwards compatibility.
Anyway, where do you read that?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latte_(graphics_chip) here it doesn't say nothing about a Wii GPU in Latte die.

 

[FAST6191]

Honestly the prospect of playing gamecube and wii games on native hardware at 1080p with off screen gamepad support is by far the most exciting aspect of Wii U hacking to me. I would LOVE to play Xenoblade at 1080p on native hardware (not that I have anything against dolphin, I just like running games on real hardware for some reason).

Had to quote that one as I found it quite amusing.

 

[Oxybelis]

I don't think it could be possible that, the Wii GPU is larger, Wii U GPU = 45nm , Wii GPU = 90nm it only have some components to backwards compatibility.
Anyway, where do you read that?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latte_(graphics_chip) here it doesn't say nothing about a Wii GPU in Latte die.

And PS3 GPU was 90 then 65, 40 now. It does not matter. Marcan assumes it is done this way. I'm inclined to think so too.

Nintendo always opted for hardware bc. Even 3DS has core of DSi for bc. Wii GPU and Wii U GPU are very different.

 

[Goku Junior]

And PS3 GPU was 90 then 65, 40 now. It does not matter. Marcan assumes it is done this way. I'm inclined to think so too.

Nintendo always opted for hardware bc. Even 3DS has core of DSi for bc. Wii GPU and Wii U GPU are very different.

Yeah I know that, the Wii GPU and Wii U GPU are very different, but it's designed to be backward compatible with Wii, It has somethings that makes the Wii compatibility works, see Wikipedia.
It says it has components to the backward compatibility, uses 2MB to framebuffer, but it never says that it has the Wii GPU, it only is designed to be backwards compatible.

 

[uyjulian]

Just grab the OpenGL backend off Dolphin and convert Nintendont to use that?

Of course we need kernel access to ARM.

 

[Goku Junior]

Just grab the OpenGL backend off Dolphin and convert Nintendont to use that?

Of course we need kernel access to ARM.

That's for the GameCube games, but good idea, I want GameCube games in 1080p without jaggies too xD

 

[Oxybelis]

Yeah I know that, the Wii GPU and Wii U GPU are very different, but it's designed to be backward compatible with Wii, It has somethings that makes the Wii compatibility works, see Wikipedia.
It says it has components to the backward compatibility, uses 2MB to framebuffer, but it never says that it has the Wii GPU, it only is designed to be backwards compatible.

That something probably is a Wii GPU pipeline. AMD said Wii U GPU is more off the shelf than PS4/Xbone GPUs. And Wikipedia is a bad source. It is already has erroneous info.

 

[Goku Junior]

That something probably is a Wii GPU pipeline. AMD said Wii U GPU is more off the shelf than PS4/Xbone GPUs. And Wikipedia is a bad source. It is already has erroneous info.

Where you read that it says that Wii U have Wii GPU? I can't believe that, Wikipedia have the sources, such Eurogamer,Neogaf,Nintengen,Nintendoeverything and others, the sources are reliable so they are almost true.

It says in the inside the die are the DSP, the eDRAM and the component for backward compatibility.
Most of Latter information in Wikipedia are from Neogaf, and I think we are going a little off topic here...