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Wii games upscaled (not natively rendered in higher res) on WiiU

Raist

Banned
title-colon_v.png


Did not know about that. Interesting. Although I still wouldn't mention it as comparable to what the 360 does in any way. And does it still tax the same hardware used for the games, or is it truly dedicated like the 360's upscaler? If it was truly dedicated I can't imagine why more games wouldn't do this (seeing as how 960x1080 is not many more pixels than 720p). Unless it doesn't really look much better (which is probably the case since it's not many more native pixels, but it would still be nice to not rely on my TV's upscaler).

The only thing that is not comparable is that the 360 can upscale both horizontally and vertically.

I don't know which chip exactly does the scaling on the PS3 but I don't think it's the RSX.
edit: I think it was supposed to be done by the SCC because it definitely contains 2 scalers, but I don't know if it was ever proven or not.

On the 360, there were talks of that magical (H)Ana chip ages ago but that was debunked shortly after. As far as I know upscaling is done through the Xenos.
 
It's a wishfull thing, but if Wii U manage to output 720p image from the Wii game we can expect other minor improvements.
This isn't a real improvement, though; just added post-processing to the original result. The only way you'd get extra frames in this way would be to try to interpolate them like some TVs do.
 

Muffdraul

Member
Last night I popped in SMG and played it for a couple of minutes. [42" Sony Bravia, component cables.] At a glance, I thought it looked slightly better than it had running on the Wii. I checked my TV's display settings and was surprised to see that it was indeed running 1080p. It wasn't much of a difference, though. Nothing like what the 360 does when you pop in Halo 1 or 2, or what the PS3 60GB BC did with PS2 games, i.e. make them look considerably nicer on an HDTV. I don't know what those consoles did technically when upscaling games from the previous generation, but I would say they were clearly doing something more than what the Wii U does with old Wii games. I'm still looking forward to the inevitable "Super Mario Galaxy HD Collection", "Skyward Sword HD" and "Metroid Prime Trilogy HD" Wii U branded releases.
 
Because I have surround sound selected in the Wii U menu, the Wii U is continuing to output LPCM 5.1 to my audio receiver while in Wii mode. So Dolby ProLogic II audio won't work (I can only select PLII with a stereo source). None of the Wii games have surround sound with these settings. :(

EDIT: I just tried switching the Wii U to stereo. Now with the receiver set to PLII, I can hear that the system still isn't outputting the surround mix. It's just normal stereo audio being put through the receiver's ProLogic decoder and none of the surround effects are there. :/

This is awful. I can't believe it, the video and audio outputs of Nintendo consoles are always gimped in some way or another.

No analog audio with HDMI is also bullshit. smh

Sigh...

http://www.beyond3d.com/content/articles/16/1

tl;dr: Software upscaling of the back buffer is possible but very taxing. Developers can however render their games natively at 960*1080 (roughly the same as 1280*720) which gets upscaled to 1920*1080 by the hardware itself.

Assuming my TV/monitor has an average/decent scaler, would I get better IQ letting the PS3 upscale to 1080p (when the game allows it) or with 720p output?
 

FyreWulff

Member
Last night I popped in SMG and played it for a couple of minutes. [42" Sony Bravia, component cables.] At a glance, I thought it looked slightly better than it had running on the Wii. I checked my TV's display settings and was surprised to see that it was indeed running 1080p. It wasn't much of a difference, though. Nothing like what the 360 does when you pop in Halo 1 or 2, or what the PS3 60GB BC did with PS2 games, i.e. make them look considerably nicer on an HDTV. I don't know what those consoles did technically when upscaling games from the previous generation, but I would say they were clearly doing something more than what the Wii U does with old Wii games. I'm still looking forward to the inevitable "Super Mario Galaxy HD Collection", "Skyward Sword HD" and "Metroid Prime Trilogy HD" Wii U branded releases.

Halo 1 / 2 were emulated, but they also slathered full screen AA across the entire image, so it actually resulted in some detail being lost, like the wrinkles in Chief's undersuit:



 

Muffdraul

Member
Halo 1 / 2 were emulated, but they also slathered full screen AA across the entire image, so it actually resulted in some detail being lost, like the wrinkles in Chief's undersuit:

Interesting to know those details. Personally I'm willing to concede making a minor sacrifice or two when the overall image quality is so vastly improved on my Bravia.
 
I doubt visual quality will change much for most people, unless your TV's upscaler really sucks.

The largest benefit to me is the removal of input lag. A lot of TV's have noticeable input lag when upscaling a 480p or lower image. This can heavily affect gameplay depending on how bad it is. If the Wii U does the upscaling for you, your TV now has almost no work to do, and can usually display the picture with extremely minimal input lag, if any at all.

Also this explains why I have to change display modes on my TV to get the Wii to not have black bars on the sides. That's crazy that its native output is not a complete 16:9 aspect ratio.

Good point. I should try out Rhythm Heaven whenever I get a Wii U.
 

Sanctuary

Member
It does look cleaner on WiiU. Not ZOMG DOLPHIN good, but its quite evident when they show links face split down the middle.

The only thing that's noticeable about that is that the colors look different. Not actually better or worse either, simply different. Then when it shows the shadow creature, it actually looks much worse and the black becomes a washed out, dark grey. There's absolutely no difference in the aliasing either.

Placebo effect is strong in this thread. I just loaded up Skyward and Xenoblade on the Wii, then the Wii U, and they still look like crud (comparatively speaking of course).
 

codhand

Member
Good day to pick up some old Wii games for the Wii U, gamestop is having b2g1, not sure if it's national or not....
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
The only thing that's noticeable about that is that the colors look different. Not actually better or worse either, simply different. Then when it shows the shadow creature, it actually looks much worse and the black becomes a washed out, dark grey. There's absolutely no difference in the aliasing either.

Placebo effect is strong in this thread. I just loaded up Skyward and Xenoblade on the Wii, then the Wii U, and they still look like crud (comparatively speaking of course).
Well, there IS actually a difference but I suspect most people won't notice. On a properly ISF calibrated display, the difference is very pretty subtle. The primary difference is simply a reduction in edge ringing that was inherent in the Wii image. The Wii U produces a cleaner image overall and even handles interlaced content properly!
 

Sanctuary

Member
Well, there IS actually a difference but I suspect most people won't notice. On a properly ISF calibrated display, the difference is very pretty subtle. The primary difference is simply a reduction in edge ringing that was inherent in the Wii image. The Wii U produces a cleaner image overall and even handles interlaced content properly!

Are you considering component vs composite vs HDMI, or just composite vs HDMI? I know what edge ringing is, but are you actually only going to notice that in a "properly calibrated" set? Because it doesn't look any different on my plasma in standard, game or THX mode (which is as close to ISF calibration you can get out of the box). I never paid $$$ to have mine professionally calibrated, and maybe you have.
 

Stewox

Banned
... upscaled by the Wii U, or upscaled by your TV?

That's the first question I wanted to ask when I finally checked this thread, and that's the first thing I though when I saw this in the news earlier this week.

Today's HDTVs have a shitton of processing going on ... it's also the cause of "input lag"


This should be tested with a 1080p high-end no-tv PC Monitor.
 

Medalion

Banned
When switching to Wii mode

Your TV will still be receiving a 1080p signal , and that comes from the Wii-U itself, but the game mode is 480p in nature, there is a conversion, but from which source is not 100% apparent
 

AlStrong

Member
Halo 1 / 2 were emulated, but they also slathered full screen AA across the entire image, so it actually resulted in some detail being lost, like the wrinkles in Chief's undersuit:

It's a texture streaming bug. MSAA doesn't affect textures.

Nothing like what the 360 does when you pop in Halo 1 or 2, or what the PS3 60GB BC did with PS2 games, i.e. make them look considerably nicer on an HDTV. I don't know what those consoles did technically when upscaling games from the previous generation, but I would say they were clearly doing something more than what the Wii U does with old Wii games.

For all 480p games, they apply 4xMSAA then upscale.
 
All I wanted to know is if the WiiU removes that kind of "Vaseline" look a lot of Wii games tend to have.
I can live with jaggies and bad textures, but what always annoyed me about my Wii was that the games looked like someone had messed with my TV settings.
 

MrMephistoX

Member
I was pretty impressed with Wii Sports resort. It looked a lot crisper and almost on par with my BC PS3: hopefully Nintendo can build upon it slightly to add in smoothing and other features like Sony did after the PS3 launch till they scrapped BC altogether. Still remember the thread on Neogaf and all the recriminations from videophiles going back and forth: eerily similar to this thread in fact.
 
Forgive my ignorance, but my question is that is possible (technologically) that ninty can create an update that improves the smoothing and up scaling of wii games played on wii u (similar to ps2 games on ps3 back in its first year) or it just cannot happen/this is as good as it gets? Thanks
 

Medalion

Banned
I just did a test

I used an HD PVR2 to record the signal direct from the Wii-U to the capture device while in Wii mode

Played back the results on my computer instead of my HDTV

The results were informative

I found the capture quality of the video to be, almost exactly as if I had been watching the game on the Wii itself in 480p mode, it was low res, jaggy, and tons of dithering on a game like Skyward Sword...

It really kinda made me aware of how much post-processing my HDTV does to make the image look so much better than the signal it is actually receiving

The signal being received was 1080p from the Wii-U, but the output image quality was definetly 480p, and without some post processing to make it look better, it really doesn't look much different had I played it on the Wii or not...
 

jooey

The Motorcycle That Wouldn't Slow Down
Forgive my ignorance, but my question is that is possible (technologically) that ninty can create an update that improves the smoothing and up scaling of wii games played on wii u (similar to ps2 games on ps3 back in its first year) or it just cannot happen/this is as good as it gets? Thanks

Knowing Nintendo, such an "update" would be a new system board revision that comes in after a couple of years without anyone knowing until someone buys a new/replacement Wii U and posts on GAF about what they notice.
 

MrMephistoX

Member
Pretty darned impressed with Skyward Sword and Tatsunoko vs Capcom as well. If Nintendo is as progressive about slightly improving things like Sony was at one time and adds in a shader option this will be a pretty nice little bonus overall. Wii over component on the same HD set I'm using looked like ass same thing with my PS2 games on PS3 before Sony patched in smoothing and up scaling to 1080p a while back.
 
I'm unable to check at the moment, but has anyone done any disc drive comparisons between Wii and WiiU for Wii games? I can remember certain titles would hit the drive constantly and it actually could get pretty loud and annoying. Could be another added bonus.
 

Medalion

Banned
Maybe that's why they opted for the softer edges discs for the Wii-U lol

But in all seriousness, the Wii-U is oddly noisy, but not loud... per se, but it is noticeable noise coming from the machine constantly
 
Well, the Wii isn't Dreamcast levels of loud, but I did find it noticeable in some games. If those games are quieter when played on the WiiU that would be pretty sweet.
 

TUROK

Member
I just did a test

I used an HD PVR2 to record the signal direct from the Wii-U to the capture device while in Wii mode

Played back the results on my computer instead of my HDTV

The results were informative

I found the capture quality of the video to be, almost exactly as if I had been watching the game on the Wii itself in 480p mode, it was low res, jaggy, and tons of dithering on a game like Skyward Sword...

It really kinda made me aware of how much post-processing my HDTV does to make the image look so much better than the signal it is actually receiving

The signal being received was 1080p from the Wii-U, but the output image quality was definetly 480p, and without some post processing to make it look better, it really doesn't look much different had I played it on the Wii or not...
If what you're saying is true, seems like the WiiU has a very basic upscaling method, and any differences between Wii and WiiU output is mostly thanks to the use of an HDMI cable and better video processing by the WiiU.
 
I just did a test

I used an HD PVR2 to record the signal direct from the Wii-U to the capture device while in Wii mode

Played back the results on my computer instead of my HDTV

The results were informative

I found the capture quality of the video to be, almost exactly as if I had been watching the game on the Wii itself in 480p mode, it was low res, jaggy, and tons of dithering on a game like Skyward Sword...

It really kinda made me aware of how much post-processing my HDTV does to make the image look so much better than the signal it is actually receiving

The signal being received was 1080p from the Wii-U, but the output image quality was definetly 480p, and without some post processing to make it look better, it really doesn't look much different had I played it on the Wii or not...

Sounds interesting. If you don't mind, can you post some screens?
 

Sixfortyfive

He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
What does the Wii U's upscaler really look like in action? You be the judge. I capped a bunch of direct-feed screenshots below. Each group has 3 separate shots in the following formats:

- Wii, component, 480p (16:9)
- Wii U, HDMI, 480p (16:9)
- Wii U, HDMI, 720p

If you're wondering why the 480p shots look squished, that's because the 480p standard is actually 720x480 (3:2), which is adjusted by your TV to display in either 4:3 or 16:9. I could have stretched the images below to fill out a 16:9 ratio to more closely resemble what you'd see in the end result, but that would kind of defeat the point of showing exactly what picture your console is sending through its output. (EDIT: If you want to go to the trouble of doing so yourself, you can stretch the width of the 480p images to 854 pixels to get the correct aspect ratio.)

The images below are a pixel-for-pixel match with what the console outputs, with no lossy compression or post-processing. I used a set of Monoprice multi-system component cables for the Wii and the pack-in HDMI cable for the Wii U.

Personally? Can't say I notice a difference in quality between the different display methods, but as long as the Wii U's upscaler is fast (and it seems to be), it's an appreciated feature.

Super Mario Galaxy

http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/galaxy1_wii.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/galaxy1_wiiu_480.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/galaxy1_wiiu_720.png

http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/galaxy2_wii.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/galaxy2_wiiu_480.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/galaxy2_wiiu_720.png

http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/galaxy3_wii.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/galaxy3_wiiu_480.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/galaxy3_wiiu_720.png

http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/galaxy4_wii.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/galaxy4_wiiu_480.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/galaxy4_wiiu_720.png

Super Smash Bros Brawl

http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/brawl1_wii.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/brawl1_wiiu_480.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/brawl1_wiiu_720.png

http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/brawl2_wii.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/brawl2_wiiu_480.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/brawl2_wiiu_720.png

http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/brawl3_wii.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/brawl3_wiiu_480.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/brawl3_wiiu_720.png

http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/brawl4_wii.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/brawl4_wiiu_480.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/brawl4_wiiu_720.png

New Super Mario Bros Wii

http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/nsmbw1_wii.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/nsmbw1_wiiu_480.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/nsmbw1_wiiu_720.png

http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/nsmbw2_wii.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/nsmbw2_wiiu_480.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/nsmbw2_wiiu_720.png

http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/nsmbw3_wii.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/nsmbw3_wiiu_480.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/nsmbw3_wiiu_720.png

Sin & Punishment: Star Successor

http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/sin1_wii.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/sin1_wiiu_480.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/sin1_wiiu_720.png

http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/sin2_wii.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/sin2_wiiu_480.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/sin2_wiiu_720.png

Tatsunoko vs Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars

http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/tvc1_wii.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/tvc1_wiiu_480.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/tvc1_wiiu_720.png

http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/tvc2_wii.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/tvc2_wiiu_480.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/tvc2_wiiu_720.png

http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/tvc3_wii.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/tvc3_wiiu_480.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/tvc3_wiiu_720.png

http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/tvc4_wii.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/tvc4_wiiu_480.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/tvc4_wiiu_720.png

http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/tvc5_wii.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/tvc5_wiiu_480.png
http://www.sixfortyfive.com/temp/wiiu_upscale/tvc5_wiiu_720.png

--------------------------------------------------

For kicks, and since I already went to the trouble of hooking this up, I decided to do some direct comparisons between NSMB Wii and NSMB U to see how much the HUD was actually changed to be less-overscan friendly.

 

M3d10n

Member
The output looks pretty much the same.

The difference some people might be noticing is most likely caused by differences in how their TVs process and upscale analog signals compared to HDMI.
 
What does the Wii U's upscaler really look like in action? You be the judge. I capped a bunch of direct-feed screenshots below. Each group has 3 separate shots in the following formats:

- Wii, component, 480p (16:9)
- Wii U, HDMI, 480p (16:9)
- Wii U, HDMI, 720p

[...]

Thanks for these direct feed screens!

First of all, the Wii U images seem to accurately resemble what Wii is rendering. No enhancements nor incorrect or different parts to be seen, which further hints at a true hardware based backwards compatibility.

Second, the 720p upscaling seems decent to me. For comparison, I resized the 480p image with a few different interpolation methods myself (bilinear, hermite, bell, bspline, gaussian, mitchell, lanczos, hanning). The closest match was lanczos, but with the Wii U's scaling still being a tiny bit sharper without introducing more ringing artifacts.
You can try it yourself with the image viewer of your choice (I used XnView).
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
For kicks, and since I already went to the trouble of hooking this up, I decided to do some direct comparisons between NSMB Wii and NSMB U to see how much the HUD was actually changed to be less-overscan friendly.
Well, the HUD is slightly pushed out on Wii U, but the main difference seems to be the additional overscan present in the original Wii game (black borders).
 

Neff

Member
I've started playing some Wii games on my Wii U and it's definitely a step-up from the Neoya (the best image quality I've been able to get out of my Wii to date). Everything is very clean and crisp and scaled nicely, colours are rich and contrast is deep. The only bummer is that it's even more of a task to select 480p to stop REmake Archives edition defaulting to the horrible anamorphic legomen mode, but hey. PAL games are automatically 60hz if the game has it. All in all, Very nice.

img0938bq.jpg
 
Has anyone tried any of the PAL VC games that were never patched for Componant Cables?

I still have a few that I could never play (Gradius, Super Ghouls 'N' Ghosts, R-Type III, Kid Icarus) and would love to know if they play at all.
 

boiled goose

good with gravy
I've started playing some Wii games on my Wii U and it's definitely a step-up from the Neoya (the best image quality I've been able to get out of my Wii to date). Everything is very clean and crisp and scaled nicely, colours are rich and contrast is deep. The only bummer is that it's even more of a task to select 480p to stop REmake Archives edition defaulting to the horrible anamorphic legomen mode, but hey. PAL games are automatically 60hz if the game has it. All in all, Very nice.

img0938bq.jpg

wow. i always forget how gorgeous prime is.
 

JimboJones

Member
Has anyone tried any of the PAL VC games that were never patched for Componant Cables?

I still have a few that I could never play (Gradius, Super Ghouls 'N' Ghosts, R-Type III, Kid Icarus) and would love to know if they play at all.

Mines work, Streets of Rage and Golden Axe never got the componant patch either but they seem to work on the WiiU.
 
I tried some SMG last night and the image quality does look better with the WiiU upscaling and output over HDMI. The component inputs on my TV combined with its internal upscaler made all my Wii games look like a washed out mess but this looks really good.

The only thing I have to figure out now is why I'm getting such massive underscan when in Wii mode. I guess I'll play around with my TV settings, it may be a combination of being in game mode + just scan or something.
 
The only thing I have to figure out now is why I'm getting such massive underscan when in Wii mode. I guess I'll play around with my TV settings, it may be a combination of being in game mode + just scan or something.


Could the underscan just be black space? Could the reason the output looks better be because the Wii U is doubling 480p to 960p and adding black space to the top and bottom (and sides) to build up to 1080p?

I have no idea what I'm talking about.
 

Eusis

Member
Could the underscan just be black space? Could the reason the output looks better be because the Wii U is doubling 480p to 960p and adding black space to the top and bottom (and sides) to build up to 1080p?

I have no idea what I'm talking about.
I think it's just that the Wii's UI was designed with overscan in mind, it looks fine on my TV with always on overscan. And on other displays with overscan options it fits those too when the option's on.
 

Josh7289

Member
There ya have it. Three posts up from yours.

I'm so, so sorry. I think this is my biggest gaffe on GAF so far. HA! Does that make up for it?! oh god please don't hurt me

So, 480i-only games. I wonder if it de-interlaces them, or if it somehow forces them to run in 480p natively...
 

Eusis

Member
Aren't there some 480i-only Wii games? How are those handled by Wii U's scalar?
There seems to be an odd effect when scrolling in Mega Man 9 and 10, but otherwise it looks fine. This probably won't stick out as badly in something like MadWorld.
 

Eusis

Member
It probably has a deinterlace filter applied to it.
It's not quite like what I see with some Youtube videos, but yeah, the fact it's being de-interlaced is undoubtedly to blame. Your best bet if you want it in "HD" is still the 360 or PS3 versions, but if you got it on Wii I think this should be acceptable. Shame you can't force 4:3 in the Wii U settings for Wii stuff, hopefully they add that eventually.
 
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