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You recently made positive statements about the Wii U, on its more modern GPU, its computational power that allows more enemies in Nano Assault Neo, and that you only used a fraction of its capacity. What are globally the advantages in graphics, physics, AI, to develop on Wii U in comparison to the Wii and the 3DS too which, albeit obviously weaker, also has relatively modern graphical functions? Describe us how your team felt when you first worked on the console dev kits while you were accustomed to Wii technology?
When testing our first code on Wii U we were amazed how much we could throw at it without any slowdowns, at that time we even had zero optimizations. The performance problem of hardware nowadays is not clock speed but ram latency. Fortunately Nintendo took great efforts to ensure developers can really work around that typical bottleneck on Wii U. They put a lot of thought on how CPU, GPU, caches and memory controllers work together to amplify your code speed. For instance, with only some tiny changes we were able to optimize certain heavy load parts of the rendering pipeline to 6x of the original speed, and that was even without using any of the extra cores.The 3DS and Wii U GPU are totally different. The 3DS GPU is very specialized while the Wii U GPU is quite open. For both designs you have to choose wisely how to use them. Both can generate great visuals and have lots of options.
More specifically, we’ve heard rumors about the CPU, that it’s supposedly the weakest link of the system. Word has spread that it’s some sort of Broadway (Wii CPU) but in a three-core configuration and improved. Others have argued that based on its reduced size seen in recent pictures and the overall low consumption of the unit, it is not very powerful. Have you encountered any problems during your development because of this component or is it efficient enough?
We didn’t have such problems. The CPU and GPU are a good match. As said before, today’s hardware has bottlenecks with memory throughput when you don’t care about your coding style and data layout. This is true for any hardware and can’t be only cured by throwing more megahertz and cores on it. Fortunately Nintendo made very wise choices for cache layout, ram latency and ram size to work against these pitfalls. Also Nintendo took care that other components like the Wii U GamePad screen streaming, or the built-in camera don’t put a burden on the CPU or GPU.
In comparison to the Wii, the Wii U has much more potential for optimizing. On Wii you knew what was possible and used that power. On Wii U you can take many different approaches to tackle a problem. Fortunately you already have lots of power at hands without digging deeper. So i’m pretty sure we will see many cool stuff on the Wii U when developers are understanding it better.
Concerning the graphical aspect, are the features supported satisfactory for you? Is the system allowing a good amount of effects not present or not really used on current gen consoles, such as tessellation? Iwata has promoted the GPGPU side of the chip, have you taken advantage of this?
For Nano Assault Neo we already used a few tricks that are not possible on the current console cycle.
Due to the modern GPU architecture you have plenty of effects you can use to make Wii U games look better than anything you have seen on consoles before.
The console also includes a DSP (a chip specialized in audio) like on previous Nintendo systems. Shin’en is known for the quality of its music, its sound effects, you have made the soundtracks for more than 200 games and developed audio middleware. What does this DSP bring for sound creation on Wii U?
DSPs in current hardware are mainly used to take tasks away from the CPU. As we take audio in our games very seriously we were happy to see that the DSP can handle all the tasks we throw at it. We use it for 3D audio, lowpass filtering and many other things.
You talked about the console memory earlier. It contains 2GB of ram which is a lot, with 1gB set aside for gaming. This should be a remarkable leap for your team in contrast to the amount you had on Wii.
In fact we simply forgot to think about the memory size in the Wii U. There was always enough there. We never had to cut anything down due to memory restrictions.
On the lauded general organization of the system memory, surely you’re referring in part to the important role of the edram in the Wii U? And about the ram, are other parameters than latency such as bandwidth favorable compare to current platforms?
I can’t detail that but for us as a developer we see everything works perfectly together. Many systems in the past forced the programmers to shift around their data and code quite a lot to fight against latency.
All this information is very impressive! But as actors within a global industry, you may be aware of the capabilities of competing next gen consoles as well as the technical evolutions seen in PC hardware or upcoming middleware like Unreal Engine 4. From what you’ve experienced on Wii U, do you think the system is future-proof, does it have the required feature-set of the next generation games (we’re talking about direct x 11/OpenGL 4 level features) and that it will run titles available on its rival platforms? Some players are afraid of living a situation similar to the Wii which couldn’t handle engines and software released on Xbox 360 and PS3.
We can’t be too specific on the Wii U hardware but you can’t compare anyway an OpenGl/DirectX driver version to the actual Wii U GPU. I can only assure that the Wii U GPU feature set allows to do many cool things that are not possible on any current console. The Wii U has enough of potential for the next years to create jaw-dropping visuals. Also remember the immense improvement we saw on the PS3 and XBOX360 over the years. I’m really excited to see what developers will show on the Wii U in the years to come.
http://www.notenoughshaders.com/2012/11/03/shinen-mega-interview-harnessing-the-wii-u-power/
