Shin’en Multimedia: Wii U Is Most Definitely A Next-Generation Console

[Mnementh]

TheJimbo1234 said:

Mnementh said:

TheJimbo1234 said:

The chipset might have the ability to run the same dx/openGL, but that doesn't mean it can properly. Take, for exmaple, Unreal 4. The WiiU does not have enough power to run many of its new features eg. high volume particle effects, dynamic lighting, tesselation, destructive scenery etc. To put it simple, just because a car has an engine does not mean it can pull 40 tons of frieght. Engines come in different shapes and sizes, and so does computing hardware.

Oh, and when devs get their hands into the new consoles, all previous consoles will look dated. That is guaranteed.

I am a programmer myself, and I can't make sense out of this. With modern 3D-engines many parts of games can be scaled, a reduction of resolution or framerate already substantially reduces the hardware-requirement. In difference to what JazzB said, also texture-resolution has to be reduced, because of the smaller RAM of the WiiU. Besides that the reduction may be not that significant. Let's wait for Watchdogs to get a better impression how PS360 - WiiU - XBone/PS4 will look against each other. Naturally it will look worse on WiiU than on XBone/PS4, but probably reduced resolution and textures and some removed effects and draw-distance might do the trick. We will have a better impression on how much worse it will look then. But the games should be possible to port, as long as the additional power is only used for better graphics. It might be different, if it is used for better physics or AI, as the gameplay really is impacted if these features are reduced. Unreal 4 don't get ported, because Epic expects the games of the usual companies licensing the engine to sell worse on Nintendo-platforms.

Some features can be scaled, others simply need the hardware implace to be able to do it. Seeing that the WiiU is running a 40nm gpu, it certainly won't have the power needed to do many of these functions at all, and this is what happens when you have an exponential power gain. Take the PS2 and xbox. The xbox was almost twice as powerful, but it was still feeble in terms of computing and the 100% extra power allowed it to do little more. Now, however, 100% more power is a phenominal amount of power as we are talking about a few more terraflops, not one or two gig more. This huge boost allows entire new features to occur that would have been to much of a system hog previously eg. real time particles. You also have the huge issue of memory bandwith which the PS4 has an unrivalled amount (even to PC's), not sure on the xboxone due to lack of info, but the WiiU isn't even on the horizon. Devs will be creaming themselves over this feature because as you'll know, it will make life very easy for them and allow a lot to happen in game.

Also as a side note, as TV resolutions grow/more people get 1080 screens, you can't afford to down scale anything. Textures need to be sersiouly upscaled along with shadows, polygon counts etc as the HD resoltion tears crappy graphics apart. If you then downscale the resoltuion, this will look very poor in comparison to the competition.

What do you talk about? 40nm-process? That is about the size of the structures. The same CPU or GPU can be manufactured in different structural-sizes. That has down- and upsides. I assume, that later revisions of the consoles will have the same chips on smaller structures, that will reduce costs, as these smaller processes gain enough output. But that will change nothing on the power. So you mentioning 40 nm has nothing to do with anything discussed in this thread.

Doubled power (+100%) will be doubled power. Yes, in absolute terms it will be more, but that doesn't matter, because doubled power for instance means the doubled framerate can be rendered, regardless if 10 years back or today. That was what we were talking about, reducing resolution and framerate. And yes, this probably has noticeable effects. As a programmer I can assure you, the lower res textures because of smaller RAM will have much more visible effect than the power itself.

EDIT: I don't deny stuff will look worse on WiiU, than on PS4/XBone. But I say it is basically possible to scale graphical effects. How much worse it looks we will have to see, Watchdogs may give some indications. As I said before, AI and physics will probably not scalable in the same way, as they really impact gameplay. We will see if games will use the additional power for AI and physics in this way.