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[AceBandage]

I have a question..

Did the Japanese Garden Demo and or Zelda HD Demo have real time sound effects running along side the graphic engine?

Yes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27Lf4uVuE50

 

[AzaK]

Oh

More evidence points to Wii U November 18 release date

I seriously hope it's not Nov 18.

It was actually on store shelves seven years ago.

Ba-dum-chaaa!

So
I'm rather tempted to send an email to gaming sites.
I can send it through an exchange mail server that doesn't need credentials. So I can spoof the sender and return address completely. I do it at work and fool people into thinking the CEO wants tea making
I can word the email from EA and say the WiiU is awesomely underpowered and we're considering holding back from release or something.... lol.
I'm just not sure whether the spam filter will label it on the way out as it doesn't internally
Would be fun....lol

Do it. Eventually the perception of Wii U as no more than a repackaged NES had to get through to Nintendo and they will counter

 

[ViewtifulJC]

Man, I still remember those E3 2011 threads. Iwata talking DEEPER AND WIDER, then hinting at the CAFE, then saying "a little later". What a tease.

Then that name drop

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=432783&page=104

 

[IdeaMan]

...

I understand the frustration of some, in regard to these recent "flood" of bad rumors concerning the Wii U power.

But i'm in a weird situation, because for me, it's clear that this system isn't on par, it's superior, i already explained how, and how much (and a lot of other gafers had done it). And i even demonstrated how some of these negative-at-first-sight statements aren't contradicting the bigger portrait of the Wii U capabilities that we have been drawing until recently.

I don't have the urge to counter these rumors, because what i could say, i already wrote it a lot of time before. And i'm hallucinating in front of this lately "hardware power pinball" where 50% of gafers are like the little metallic ball, swayed frenetically between the underpowered believers camp on one side, and the fairly to very powerful team on the other one, depending on interview releases.

for the nickname, well, my purpose when registering to Gaf was mainly to share ideas, but in dedicated threads, so while waiting to be a member, i participate here and there. Happily i was able to talk to 3 sources working in 2 big studios, 2 of them are "old" contacts from my gaming website writer days, from november to now (with the main bulk of data gathered from january to mid-march), so i'm relaying with some "filters" (because i don't want to endanger them, and spoon-feed interesting subjects of speculation by saying "it's like that, that's all folks!") what i've been told.

And no problem, we are friends

sorry for the offtopic guys

 

[Sadist]

Well Ideaman, what's your take on these dev comments then? Working with older devkits, middleware which hasn't been updated or maybe another explanation?

 

[ozfunghi]

I understand the frustration of some, in regard to these recent "flood" of bad rumors concerning the Wii U power.

But i'm in a weird situation, because for me, it's clear that this system isn't on par, it's superior, i already explained how, and how much (and a lot of other gafers had done it). And i even demonstrated how some of these negative-at-first-sight statements aren't contradicting the bigger portrait of the Wii U capabilities that we have been drawing until recently.

Ideaman, you told me before you didn't have any concrete knowledge about the GPU. Which is vital in order to determine the overall power/competence/performance of the console. So, do you feel confident to say WiiU will contain a GPU (as well as a CPU for that matter) superior (if only slightly) to that of the current HD consoles? Judging by what you've seen or heard? Because so far i have the impression your comments have been about RAM and optimization only.

 

[Gahiggidy]

Yes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27Lf4uVuE50

Thanks dude. That's the clearest video of Zelda Hd I've seen. Almost looks like direct feed. I wish their was a version tt good for the Garden Demo.

 

[Hobbestetrician]

Whether or not they are true, I will never understand why some people are so happy about these rumors of the Wii U's (possible) lack of power.

 

[IdeaMan]

Well Ideaman, what's your take on these dev comments then? Working with older devkits, middleware which hasn't been updated or maybe another explanation?

Already commented them here and there lately

btw

Re: Comments on the CPU

In almost all real-world in-game scenarios with properly optimised code, the Wii U's CPU should outperform the XBox360's CPU, even if it's clocked as low as ~2.5GHz. That's even ignoring the impact of the dedicated I/O processor and DSP.

As far as I can see, there are three reasons a developer could come away with the impression that the Wii U's CPU is less capable:

1. They're working on early dev-kits.
2. They're working with poorly-optimised middleware.
3. They're not very smart.

Point 1 is very plausible, as not every developer will have the latest round of dev-kits yet, and we know there's a bump in performance with them.

From what i know, the "V5" dev kits aren't such an improvement in hardware capabilities that middleware running badly on V4 would struggle far less on them. It's really more relevant to an optimization matter.

 

[Hiltz]

Nintendo confirmed that is has recruited Hirokazu Yasuhara, game designer and the co-creator of Sonic the Hedgehog , to work for Nintendo of America for NST. Neither one said what his actual role will be there.
He's worked on most of the Sonic games from the 90's as well Jak 2-3 , and the Uncharted trilogy.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...campaign=Feed:+GamasutraNews+(Gamasutra+News)

Nintendo sure seems to be acquiring several former staff from Naughty Dog. By the way, NST made games such as Crystalis, Pokemon Puzzle League, Ridge Racer 64, Wave Race: Blue Storm, Zelda: Collector's Edition and Master Quest, 1080 Avalanche, Metroid Prime Hunters, Mario vs. Donkey Kong: March of the Minis, Aura-Aura Climber, as well as the cancelled Project H.A.M.M.E.R. title.

 

[ASIS]

Ideaman, do you have any info about the next generation consoles from Sony and MS? If yes then how does WiiU stand against them?

I just need small hints, no need for extra elaboration (that is if you have the info in the first place )

 

[cyberheater]

Yes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27Lf4uVuE50

The more I watch that vid, the more I see the low poly models, the limited texture resolution and the fact that only a few lights affect the scene.

The animation, and camera work are great though.

 

[IdeaMan]

Ideaman, you told me before you didn't have any concrete knowledge about the GPU. Which is vital in order to determine the overall power/competence/performance of the console. So, do you feel confident to say WiiU will contain a GPU (as well as a CPU for that matter) superior (if only slightly) to that of the current HD consoles? Judging by what you've seen or heard? Because so far i have the impression your comments have been about RAM and optimization only.

I've talked about the CPU and GPU also. But whereas i was told the exact quantity of ram "aimed by Nintendo in retail version" at a specific moment in time, i don't know the specifics about the GPU (its "class", etc.). Nevertheless, yes, they are superior. And for the GPU, it's not slightly (as "highest on par" "+10/+15%). Really, imagine a current gen HD game at solid 720p, at least stable 30fps, + a 3D scene on the 480p tablet screen rendered at the same time + additional effects and image quality like anti-aliasing and texture filtering, and with that in mind, you can't believe Wii U CPU & GPU will be only on par or slightly better than their PS360 counterparts.

 

[cyberheater]

Really, imagine a current gen HD game at solid 720p, at least stable 30fps, + a 3D scene on the 480p tablet screen rendered at the same time + additional effects and image quality like anti-aliasing and texture filtering, and with that in mind, you can't doubt that the CPU & GPU will be on par or just slightly better.

That's what I'm expecting. I do feel disappointed though. I was hoping for so much more.

 

[ViewtifulJC]

not even a rubber ducky demo....

all cg, ps2 level cg at that...

Wow

 

[Gahiggidy]

If wii u was really on par with current gen than the case would be much smaller. Smaller than the original wii.

 

[Javier]

My sources tell me that Wii U is going to be more powerful than the Atari 2600.

 

[IdeaMan]

That's what I'm expecting. I do feel disappointed though. I was hoping for so much more.

I've corrected the wording of the last sentence as it could have been misunderstood. With that in mind, you CAN'T believe that Wii U CPU & GPU will only be on par or slightly superior

And that's in a specific context, really. Expect to be blown away by first-party titles.

 

[cyberheater]

I've corrected the wording of the last sentence as it could have been misunderstood. With that in mind, you CAN'T believe that Wii U CPU & GPU will only be on par or slightly superior

And that's in a specific context, really. Expect to be blown away by first-party titles.

I really hope you are right. I want to be wowed.

 

[Gahiggidy]

The more I watch that vid, the more I see the low poly models, the limited texture resolution and the fact that only a few lights affect the scene.

The animation, and camera work are great though.

Does the great animation and camera work say good things about the GPU/CPU combo?

 

[Shiggy]

So why are some devs saying that Wii U is not as powerful as 360/PS3? How did they get this impression? Any clue?

 

[TheExplodingHead]

I've talked about the CPU and GPU also. But whereas i was told the exact quantity of ram "aimed by Nintendo in retail version" at a specific moment in time, i don't know the specifics about the GPU (its "class", etc.). Nevertheless, yes, they are superior. And for the GPU, it's not slightly (as "highest on par" "+10/+15%). Really, imagine a current gen HD game at solid 720p, at least stable 30fps, + a 3D scene on the 480p tablet screen rendered at the same time + additional effects and image quality like anti-aliasing and texture filtering, and with that in mind, you can't believe Wii U CPU & GPU will be only on par or slightly better than their PS360 counterparts.

So why not just spill the beans on the RAM? I mean it's not exactly a capital offense to repeat what you've heard about RAM capacity through a grapevine, I doubt anyone would kick down your door and the sun would indeed rise again.

I just don't get all the vague, subtle hints and approximates lots of "people with sources" like to trot out. This is videogames and message boards we're talking about, not Cold War espionage. But anyway, I always like reading your posts and feel like what you've said is pretty realistic and consistent.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

The processor thing seems weird to me, since some developers are specifically praising the processor.

 

[guek]

So why are some devs saying that Wii U is not as powerful as 360/PS3? How did they get this impression? Any clue?

Has any dev come out and said those things publicly? Gearbox said today that it's more powerful than PS360 but no one is paying attention to that it seams.

 

[Gahiggidy]

So why not just spill the beans on the RAM? I mean it's not exactly a capital offense to repeat what you've heard about RAM capacity through a grapevine, I doubt anyone would kick down your door and the sun would indeed rise again.

I just don't get all the vague, subtle hints and approximates lots of "people with sources" like to trot out. This is videogames and message boards we're talking about, not Cold War espionage. But anyway, I always like reading your posts and feel like what you've said is pretty realistic and consistent.

Maybe every single dev kit has a different, unique amount of RAM, so that Nintendo can track back to which developer leaked the spec.

 

[Sadist]

Seriously guys, I wish I could sleep for 61 days and wake up a day before the press conference.

All these comments are exhausting.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

May bey every single dev kit has a different, unique amount of RAM, so that Nintendo can track back to which developer leaked the spec.

I don't want to say who, but a producer of middleware once did this with fact sheets from their closed-door conference.

The fact-sheets were included in folders you had to sign for.

 

[wsippel]

So why are some devs saying that Wii U is not as powerful as 360/PS3? How did they get this impression? Any clue?

Early tools, early middleware, too lazy or stupid to use the dedicated silicon.

 

[capslock]

The more I watch that vid, the more I see the low poly models, the limited texture resolution and the fact that only a few lights affect the scene.

The animation, and camera work are great though.

Man, I need to get better at looking at these things. I missed all of them.

 

[TheGreatMightyPoo]

well, I hope you're right. But I doubt. I mean: still today there are complaints about Wii's graphical performances

Well, the Wii U will blow away the Wii as hardware so only those with agendas will rip on it for its graphics.

It may be a weaker console than the other guys' are putting out(meaning the next generation of consoles) but it's Nintendo's most advanced console yet and in HD.

Look at Prime and Mario Galaxy.

Those two games in HD would not look terrible or embarrassing at all among the games of today.

Now imagine them with a much beefier system.

 

[IdeaMan]

So why not just spill the beans on the RAM? I mean it's not exactly a capital offense to repeat what you've heard about RAM capacity through a grapevine, I doubt anyone would kick down your door and the sun would indeed rise again.

I just don't get all the vague, subtle hints and approximates lots of "people with sources" like to trot out. This is videogames and message boards we're talking about, not Cold War espionage. But anyway, I always like reading your posts and feel like what you've said is pretty realistic and consistent.

For the memory, it's heavily related to the following "surprising OS/Background room occupation" post of mine that may have been a bit overlooked.

Currently, in dev kits, there is a large part of the total amount of ram not available to developers for their games. My sources told me of an OS/Background reservation, an "imprint" in advance if you like from which they can't tap on. Search a post with X, Y, Z figures on thread 2 to better understand that.

And this quantity of RAM not available to developers, and not for debugging purposes either, is so huge, that i doubt it will be the final size of the applications running at the same time than games. So i expect optimizations in this area, and this is why i'm cautious with the aimed amount of memory told by Nintendo, because if they manage to lower this OS/background occupation, maybe then they'll decide to lower the system memory as much as the space liberated, but with games having the same dedicated quantity of RAM available for them as before.

 

[TheGreatMightyPoo]

Man, I need to get better at looking at these things. I missed all of them.

Probably because you were taking in the demo rather than dissecting it.

 

[Shiggy]

Early tools, early middleware, too lazy or stupid to use the dedicated silicon.

So we can expect quite a few 3rd party titles to look like cheap 360/PS3 ports. Business as usual.

 

[BY2K]

So we can expect quite a few 3rd party titles to look like cheap 360/PS3 ports. Business as usual.

Don't worry, Ubisoft won't disappoint on that front.

 

[magash]

So we can expect quite a few 3rd party titles to look like cheap 360/PS3 ports. Business as usual.

Of course. The only games that will look better are exclusives just as always.

 

[DefectiveReject]

Probably because you were taking in the demo rather than dissecting it.

Or as a gamer I want to spend more time playing a beautiful Zelda than counting pixels and polygons.
If Nintendo released that I couldn't care any less if someone baulked that Link is low poly.... he's God.damned beautiful..... ooooosh

 

[TheExplodingHead]

For the memory, it's heavily related to the following "surprising OS/Background room occupation" post of mine that may have been a bit overlooked.

Currently, in dev kits, there is a large part of the total amount of ram not available to developers for their games. My sources told me of an OS/Background reservation, an "imprint" in advance if you like from which they can't tap on. Search a post with X, Y, Z figures on thread 2 to better understand that.

And this quantity of RAM not available to developers, and not for debugging purposes either, is so huge, that i doubt it will be the final size of the applications running at the same time than games. So i expect optimizations in this area, and this is why i'm cautious with the aimed amount of memory told by Nintendo, because if they manage to lower this OS/background occupation, maybe then they'll decide to lower the total amount of RAM as in the end, games will have the same room.

I'm actually really interested in what and how the OS/background functions for the Wii U. Because if there are always system resources for features/services/background OS always be available through the Upad (sort of like the 360/PS3 guide overlay but much more substantial) that could theoretically be a large drain of memory resources and even processing.

To be honest I'd rather the system be able to offer this stuff, and have a full interactive feature suite always in your hands no matter what game you are playing even if that means less resources. I just hope the OS itself isn't badly designed, slow or convoluted.

 

[Gahiggidy]

For the memory, it's heavily related to the following "surprising OS/Background room occupation" post of mine that may have been a bit overlooked.

Currently, in dev kits, there is a large part of the total amount of ram not available to developers for their games. My sources told me of an OS/Background reservation, an "imprint" in advance if you like from which they can't tap on. Search a post with X, Y, Z figures on thread 2 to better understand that.

And this quantity of RAM not available to developers, and not for debugging purposes either, is so huge, that i doubt it will be the final size of the applications running at the same time than games. So i expect optimizations in this area, and this is why i'm cautious with the aimed amount of memory told by Nintendo, because if they manage to lower this OS/background occupation, maybe then they'll decide to lower the total amount of RAM as in the end, games will have the same room.

Is Nintendo going to include a tv tuner?

 

[TheGreatMightyPoo]

Or as a gamer I want to spend more time playing a beautiful Zelda than counting pixels and polygons.
If Nintendo released that I couldn't care any less if someone baulked that Link is low poly.... he's God.damned beautiful..... ooooosh

Yeah, I said that if the game looked similar to that consistently throughout the adventure, I couldn't ask for anything more.

Except for a more unique boss, spiders are so passe now.

 

[ozfunghi]

I've talked about the CPU and GPU also. But whereas i was told the exact quantity of ram "aimed by Nintendo in retail version" at a specific moment in time, i don't know the specifics about the GPU (its "class", etc.). Nevertheless, yes, they are superior. And for the GPU, it's not slightly (as "highest on par" "+10/+15%). Really, imagine a current gen HD game at solid 720p, at least stable 30fps, + a 3D scene on the 480p tablet screen rendered at the same time + additional effects and image quality like anti-aliasing and texture filtering, and with that in mind, you can't believe Wii U CPU & GPU will be only on par or slightly better than their PS360 counterparts.

For the memory, it's heavily related to the following "surprising OS/Background room occupation" post of mine that may have been a bit overlooked.

Currently, in dev kits, there is a large part of the total amount of ram not available to developers for their games. My sources told me of an OS/Background reservation, an "imprint" in advance if you like from which they can't tap on. Search a post with X, Y, Z figures on thread 2 to better understand that.

And this quantity of RAM not available to developers, and not for debugging purposes either, is so huge, that i doubt it will be the final size of the applications running at the same time than games. So i expect optimizations in this area, and this is why i'm cautious with the aimed amount of memory told by Nintendo, because if they manage to lower this OS/background occupation, maybe then they'll decide to lower the total amount of RAM as in the end, games will have the same room.

Thanks. Just to be clear, when you are talking about "current gen games in 720p @30fps + uPad + AA" etc... you are talking about a current gen PS360 (quality) game and not a PC game, right?

And this "huge" amount of RAM for OS... How huge is "so huge"? I would think anything less than 128MB would be small, between 128-256 would be expected, over 256 would be rather plenty and over 512 would be huge... do you agree with that sentiment?

 

[guek]

I'm in the last home stretch of my first run of Skyward Sword and I gotta say I know I'm going to have a ton of good times with the Wii U. I really, really want it to be capable of garnering a good amount of third party support, but that's only because I don't want to shell out again for a high end PC.

Haters will hate for all eternity but that's never made any real difference.

 

[-Pyromaniac-]

Am in the last home stretch of my first run of Skyward Sword and I gotta say I know I'm going to have a ton of good times with the Wii U. I really, really want it to be capable of garnering a good amount of third party support, but that's only because I don't want to shell out again for a high end PC.

Haters will hate for all eternity but that's never made any real difference.

same. I don't want to have to pay for a new video card lulzz.

 

[lednerg]

Like I've said before, it's not like plugging in the same numbers into different calculators and measuring how quickly they give answers. There are way too many variables involved due to the completely different design philosophies between hardware vendors. These aren't like cars where you can measure horsepower and torque and call it a day. They also aren't like PC's with graphics cards, where things can be benchmarked with the same software to give reliable, real-world figures. Consoles achieve their results using different methods from one another, especially ones designed over half a decade later than the others.

As with the start of any generation, it takes time for low-level programmers making engines to dig into the machines and get the most out of them. This is why you see 1st gen games performing so much worse than 2nd or 3rd gen games, no matter what the relative "power" of a console is. For the first year or so, we are most likely not going to see results that are too dramatically different from the PS3 or 360. For 3rd parties who are aiming for consistency with multi-platform games and have limited budgets, such as Vigil, this is doubly so. Right now it's going to be up to 1st/2nd parties who are focused solely on the one platform to get the most out of it, and to then update the SDKs with what they figured out. Unfortunately, it's those 1st/2nd parties who will be the least likely to leak any early info to us.

tl;dr - Wait until E3, when we'll see what the 1st/2nd party games are like.

 

[BY2K]

Are we seriously going to get one of those negative rumours once a day until E3, now?

I'll have to start sooner, then...

 

[Penguin]

Its days like today, you have to wonder how BurntPork is coping with all of this?

I wonder if he is ranting into the air or posting on twitter under something like Daniel.

 

[Gahiggidy]

9 Weeks! *sigh*

I'm hoping that May issue of Game Informer has something like Killer Freaks as its cover story. In May '06 they got an exclusive on Revolution's Red Steel, also an Ubisoft product. So there is precedent.

 

[Indyana]

Has this been posted?

Rumor: Nintendo's Answer To Gran Turismo And Forza In Development - Details

 

[BY2K]

Has this been posted?

Rumor: Nintendo's Answer To Gran Turismo And Forza In Development - Details

They re-post the WoW eShop rumour as back-up for this? Bogus.

But HOLY CRAP if true.

 

[guek]

Has this been posted?

Rumor: Nintendo's Answer To Gran Turismo And Forza In Development - Details

:-(

I'd give it a moments thought if it was reported by just about any other site.

 

[ASIS]

Has this been posted?

Rumor: Nintendo's Answer To Gran Turismo And Forza In Development - Details

If this means anything other than Mario Kart I'm not interested .