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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Wii U graphics power finally revealed - "we can now finally rule out any next-gen pretensions for the Wii U"

ninjablade said:
Podings said:
"1080p resolution is around 2.5x that of 720p"

Nah. It isn't.

It is exactly 2.25x.

And what exactly does "complex 3D" even mean?

Because if it means Crysis 3, then that's pretty funny.

This is a rather loose analysis of the situation. And I don't understand why people still expect a Nintendo console to compete with your PC on game visuals. They tried that a few times, they found out it isn't where the money's at, end of story.

well nintendo used make  moderately powerful hardware till the wii era, then they stopped, it only worked for nintendo only one time so far, so its not exactly end of story till they do it again, if nintendo sells 40 million this gen, i will consider there idea a good decision and then it would be end of story, this really works.


I think that maybe you only think there's a difference now, because you didn't used to know much about hardware architecture.

It's true that until the Wii, Nintendo's machines generally had graphics output that was more comparable to other systems, but the GameCube was really the only time Nintendo tried to impress anyone with numbers that were comparable to a PC at the time, and they proceeded to sell less than they ever had.

All their previous systems were what you'd call "underpowered" compared to PCs of the day, and several times over also when compared to other consoles.

Nintendo's always been lucky enough to employ skilled graphics technicians and art directors, that ensure their games looking great in spite of this.

Nintendo might not sell 40 million Wii Us, but they don't have to. They make their money from selling games, and even if the system was more powerful, it's doubtful the average consumer would pay any more money for it, leading Nintendo to bigger losses on the system, and having to sell more games to make up.

True, the Wii was the first system to deliberately NOT take a visible step up from the system before it, but the Wii U does to some degree, while adding many many new features in general.

The notion that making an affordable, balanced system, that doesn't consume much power, doesn't compete on numbers, and primarily concerns itself with what new things can be done game-wise, is somehow a new thing for Nintendo is just not true.



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Podings said:
ninjablade said:
Podings said:
"1080p resolution is around 2.5x that of 720p"

Nah. It isn't.

It is exactly 2.25x.

And what exactly does "complex 3D" even mean?

Because if it means Crysis 3, then that's pretty funny.

This is a rather loose analysis of the situation. And I don't understand why people still expect a Nintendo console to compete with your PC on game visuals. They tried that a few times, they found out it isn't where the money's at, end of story.

well nintendo used make  moderately powerful hardware till the wii era, then they stopped, it only worked for nintendo only one time so far, so its not exactly end of story till they do it again, if nintendo sells 40 million this gen, i will consider there idea a good decision and then it would be end of story, this really works.


I think that maybe you only think there's a difference now, because you didn't used to know much about hardware architecture.

It's true that until the Wii, Nintendo's machines generally had graphics output that was more comparable to other systems, but the GameCube was really the only time Nintendo tried to impress anyone with numbers that were comparable to a PC at the time, and they proceeded to sell less than they ever had.

All their previous systems were what you'd call "underpowered" compared to PCs of the day, and several times over also when compared to other consoles.

Nintendo's always been lucky enough to employ skilled graphics technicians and art directors, that ensure their games looking great in spite of this.

Nintendo might not sell 40 million Wii Us, but they don't have to. They make their money from selling games, and even if the system was more powerful, it's doubtful the average consumer would pay any more money for it, leading Nintendo to bigger losses on the system, and having to sell more games to make up.

True, the Wii was the first system to deliberately NOT take a visible step up from the system before it, but the Wii U does to some degree, while adding many many new features in general.

The notion that making an affordable, balanced system, that doesn't consume much power, doesn't compete on numbers, and primarily concerns itself with what new things can be done game-wise, is somehow a new thing for Nintendo is just not true.


well i meant making a system on par with the competition, or at least in the sameball park, most of there systems were on par or better, with the wii, it was a drastic change. these days pc will always out class systems but i do expect nextgen consoles games to look ads good as the best pc cause of being in a closed box.



I do kinda wonder if the Japanese earthquake of 2011 really shaped some of the Wii U hardware decisions.

In Japan with that nuclear plant meltdown and a subsequent summer of planned blackouts for hours at a time, power consumption nowadays is a hot topic in Japan, and I wouldn't doubt it if Nintendo feels some sense of duty to make a power efficient console for that reason.



Soundwave said:
I do kinda wonder if the Japanese earthquake of 2011 really shaped some of the Wii U hardware decisions.

In Japan with that nuclear plant meltdown and a subsequent summer of planned blackouts for hours at a time, power consumption nowadays is a hot topic in Japan, and I wouldn't doubt it if Nintendo feels some sense of duty to make a power efficient console for that reason.

Pssst, Sony is a Japanese company too, and the PlayStation 4 is more powerful.



ninjablade said:
Podings said:
ninjablade said:
Podings said:
"1080p resolution is around 2.5x that of 720p"

Nah. It isn't.

It is exactly 2.25x.

And what exactly does "complex 3D" even mean?

Because if it means Crysis 3, then that's pretty funny.

This is a rather loose analysis of the situation. And I don't understand why people still expect a Nintendo console to compete with your PC on game visuals. They tried that a few times, they found out it isn't where the money's at, end of story.

well nintendo used make  moderately powerful hardware till the wii era, then they stopped, it only worked for nintendo only one time so far, so its not exactly end of story till they do it again, if nintendo sells 40 million this gen, i will consider there idea a good decision and then it would be end of story, this really works.


I think that maybe you only think there's a difference now, because you didn't used to know much about hardware architecture.

It's true that until the Wii, Nintendo's machines generally had graphics output that was more comparable to other systems, but the GameCube was really the only time Nintendo tried to impress anyone with numbers that were comparable to a PC at the time, and they proceeded to sell less than they ever had.

All their previous systems were what you'd call "underpowered" compared to PCs of the day, and several times over also when compared to other consoles.

Nintendo's always been lucky enough to employ skilled graphics technicians and art directors, that ensure their games looking great in spite of this.

Nintendo might not sell 40 million Wii Us, but they don't have to. They make their money from selling games, and even if the system was more powerful, it's doubtful the average consumer would pay any more money for it, leading Nintendo to bigger losses on the system, and having to sell more games to make up.

True, the Wii was the first system to deliberately NOT take a visible step up from the system before it, but the Wii U does to some degree, while adding many many new features in general.

The notion that making an affordable, balanced system, that doesn't consume much power, doesn't compete on numbers, and primarily concerns itself with what new things can be done game-wise, is somehow a new thing for Nintendo is just not true.


well i meant making a system on par with the competition, or at least in the sameball park, most of there systems were on par or better, with the wii, it was a drastic change. these days pc will always out class systems but i do expect nextgen consoles games to look ads good as the best pc cause of being in a closed box.

And I expect you to be right.

In fact I expect many of the games to look considerably better than their PC-counterparts, if their even WILL be PC versions.

What I also expect  is the Wii U to muster games that look better than ANYTHING we've seen before, simply because of art direction, and the machine, while not as powerful as Durango/Orbis in raw numbers, still is about 20 times more powerful than Wii, which did have a couple extraordinarily good looking games, like Metroid Prime 3, Mario Galaxy, and Skyward Sword.

I also react a little strongly in my original post to clearly wrong assumptions like "we probably won't see many complex 3D games running in 1080p", when on launch day, Black Ops 2 ran in 1080p on the big screen WHILE streaming full 480p widescreen to the GamePad.

I do not necessarily see this whole thing as Nintendo lagging behind the competition in hardware as much as the competition setting unreasonable goals for what hardware should do, and what it should cost.

Consoles begging to be home for PC-native AAA engines is a very recent development, only applying to Xbox in 6th gen, and to 360 and PS3 in 7th gen. With Nintendo coming out of that whole ordeal with much more money in their pockets than Sony and Microsoft, I am not surprised to see them continue their efforts in highly proprietary hardware and graphics technologies.

Take a look at the Wii U GPU die over in the other thread. Nintendo's going to utilize that thing in ways no 3rd party ever will, and fans will not be disappointed with how the games look.



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PS3 and 360 have been, and still are capable of high quality graphics. WiiU has slightly improved hardware, so wheres the problem? WiiU should be able to output graphical capabilities that are better than whats currently on offer,Thats fine and dandy by me.
Wouldnt gaming be boring if all 3 consoles were carbon copies of each other, WiiU will be different and offer something the others cant and vice versa, Its nice to have choice.



Podings said:
ninjablade said:
Podings said:
ninjablade said:
Podings said:
"1080p resolution is around 2.5x that of 720p"

Nah. It isn't.

It is exactly 2.25x.

And what exactly does "complex 3D" even mean?

Because if it means Crysis 3, then that's pretty funny.

This is a rather loose analysis of the situation. And I don't understand why people still expect a Nintendo console to compete with your PC on game visuals. They tried that a few times, they found out it isn't where the money's at, end of story.

well nintendo used make  moderately powerful hardware till the wii era, then they stopped, it only worked for nintendo only one time so far, so its not exactly end of story till they do it again, if nintendo sells 40 million this gen, i will consider there idea a good decision and then it would be end of story, this really works.


I think that maybe you only think there's a difference now, because you didn't used to know much about hardware architecture.

It's true that until the Wii, Nintendo's machines generally had graphics output that was more comparable to other systems, but the GameCube was really the only time Nintendo tried to impress anyone with numbers that were comparable to a PC at the time, and they proceeded to sell less than they ever had.

All their previous systems were what you'd call "underpowered" compared to PCs of the day, and several times over also when compared to other consoles.

Nintendo's always been lucky enough to employ skilled graphics technicians and art directors, that ensure their games looking great in spite of this.

Nintendo might not sell 40 million Wii Us, but they don't have to. They make their money from selling games, and even if the system was more powerful, it's doubtful the average consumer would pay any more money for it, leading Nintendo to bigger losses on the system, and having to sell more games to make up.

True, the Wii was the first system to deliberately NOT take a visible step up from the system before it, but the Wii U does to some degree, while adding many many new features in general.

The notion that making an affordable, balanced system, that doesn't consume much power, doesn't compete on numbers, and primarily concerns itself with what new things can be done game-wise, is somehow a new thing for Nintendo is just not true.


well i meant making a system on par with the competition, or at least in the sameball park, most of there systems were on par or better, with the wii, it was a drastic change. these days pc will always out class systems but i do expect nextgen consoles games to look ads good as the best pc cause of being in a closed box.

And I expect you to be right.

In fact I expect many of the games to look considerably better than their PC-counterparts, if their even WILL be PC versions.

What I also expect  is the Wii U to muster games that look better than ANYTHING we've seen before, simply because of art direction, and the machine, while not as powerful as Durango/Orbis in raw numbers, still is about 20 times more powerful than Wii, which did have a couple extraordinarily good looking games, like Metroid Prime 3, Mario Galaxy, and Skyward Sword.

I also react a little strongly in my original post to clearly wrong assumptions like "we probably won't see many complex 3D games running in 1080p", when on launch day, Black Ops 2 ran in 1080p on the big screen WHILE streaming full 480p widescreen to the GamePad.

I do not necessarily see this whole thing as Nintendo lagging behind the competition in hardware as much as the competition setting unreasonable goals for what hardware should do, and what it should cost.

Consoles begging to be home for PC-native AAA engines is a very recent development, only applying to Xbox in 6th gen, and to 360 and PS3 in 7th gen. With Nintendo coming out of that whole ordeal with much more money in their pockets than Sony and Microsoft, I am not surprised to see them continue their efforts in highly proprietary hardware and graphics technologies.

Take a look at the Wii U GPU die over in the other thread. Nintendo's going to utilize that thing in ways no 3rd party ever will, and fans will not be disappointed with how the games look.

black ops 2 ran sub hd on the wii u, just like 360 and ps3. i'm sure nintendo will make some nice looking games, i'm not sure they will be stunning us cause they are new to hd graphics and might need sometime to get used to it, many japanese devs failed to deliver amazing garphics in the hd era, i'm interested to see how nintendo games look.



Wii U 7.5 Gen confirmed!  Just like Wii was a 6.5 Gen, Dreamcast a 5.5 gen, and 3DO and Jaguar 4.5 Gens.  Expect the next Ninty console in late 2015 about the time when Wii U's sales realy fall off due to all the Top Third Party titles being 720 and PS4 exclusives!



ninjablade said:
black ops 2 ran sub hd on the wii u, just like 360 and ps3. i'm sure nintendo will make some nice looking games, i'm not sure they will be stunning us cause they are new to hd graphics and might need sometime to get used to it, many japanese devs failed to deliver amazing garphics in the hd era, i'm interested to see how nintendo games look.

Really? I can only seem to find evidence to the contrary. I'd very much appreciate a link to something about this.

 

I think many felt they had to appeal to western gamers on what was typically popular over here, so they stopped experimenting as mush with stylization, and their games became rather bland looking as a result. Hopefully even more power on competing systems will also have other developers worry less about tech and more about art.



baph7667 said:

Wii U 7.5 Gen confirmed!  Just like Wii was a 6.5 Gen, Dreamcast a 5.5 gen, and 3DO and Jaguar 4.5 Gens.  Expect the next Ninty console in late 2015 about the time when Wii U's sales realy fall off due to all the Top Third Party titles being 720 and PS4 exclusives!

Where's the evidence to this though?

If it's in th same situation as the Wii, why wouldn't live as long as the Wii, or any other Nintendo system for that matter?

What you're saying is what Pachter said about Wii HD, which didn't actually happen.