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Soundwave on 06 April 2012
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kitler53 said:
HappySqurriel said:
teigaga said:
...


The hardware has improved as much in the period 2005 to 2012 as it did from 1999 to 2006, but the software has not; and the primary reason for this is based in business not technology. If the majority of game sales comes from console versions of your game you're not going to dramatically increase the budget of your game to push the latest and greatest PC graphics technology. High end graphics cards can run most of the same games as consoles at their highest detail settings, at resolutions far above 1080p and still maintain frame-rates above 100fps or 120fps.

 

To understand what I would expect from the Wii U based on this Dreamcast to Wii model, I wouldn't be surprised in the Wii U could run a game like Crysis 2 at the highest possible detail level at a resolution of 720p @ 30fps. Certainly, the resolution and frame-rate would be lower than people would desire, but I doubt people would be upset about the visuals produced:

 

but upset is purely a relative.  3DS specs launched and we had our posts about how 3DS is better speced than psp and it shows how nintendo is going for core and high processing power and all that jazz.  then vita announced a bit later and 3DS specs look laughable in comparison.

people will be happy with these visuals all the way up until something better comes along.  then it will look dated.  so the real question is...how long after wii U launches will sony/ms launch?   if it is only a year as many are specualating and they are actually targeting the samaritan level specs...people will definetly be upset about the visuals produced.


Hence why I think the add-on/expansion slot route is not a bad way to go for Nintendo. 

I suspect the first year of PS4/720 games will be a lot like 360/PS3 games running at 1080p + a good deal more effects, but by 2014/2015 is when you'll see games that are really built for that level of tech and then the situation will be more like CoD being a very different game on the 360/PS3 versus the Wii version.

Also something like this could also let developers actually do something with that Wii U controller screen other than just use it as a HUD/item select thing for graphically intensive games. With the upgraded chip, developers could do things like have say one player play Battlefield 3 on the big screen, but a second player playing at the same time on the sub-screen with no compromise in the engine fidelity. Or in the case of Mario Kart, you could have three friends over with their Wii U tablets, and then one person playing on the big screen .... all off one system without a hitch. That'd be nice.