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First Tech Info On Wii U/Controller, Wont Scale Wii Games, Singletouch, Same Room Use

G

Graphics Horse

Member
Should be obvious but the black 'Sensor strip' means you should be able to put the screen on a desk and play pointer games without a TV. A bit like Sony's hilarious PSP Move patent, but ideally you'd only be a foot or two away, maybe even in a chair!
 
M

Mr_Brit

Banned
Breaking News on CPU from Engadget:

Details were scarce about the IBM silicon Nintendo's new HD powerhouse was packing, but we did some digging to get a little more info. IBM tells us that within the Wii U there's a 45nm custom chip with "a lot" of embedded DRAM. It's a silicon on insulator design and packs the same processor technology found in Watson, the supercomputer that bested a couple of meatbags on Jeopardy awhile back. Unfortunately, IBM wouldn't give us the chip's clock speeds, but if it's good enough to smoke Ken Jennings on national TV, we imagine it'll do alright against its competition from Sony and Microsoft.
Click to expand...

Engadget
 
E

eznark

Banned
gerg said:
I think you're misunderstanding the focus of this device - as Iwata himself said, it isn't meant to be a handheld device. The focus is still definitely on console experiences, and as much as Nintendo has highlighted the ability to play games on the controller itself, a much larger focus is on using the controller simultaneously with a larger TV screen.
Click to expand...

Possibly, but I look at something that touts the ability to play my games on a device that is not tethered to the TV and I assume some level of mobility. I imagine Joe Consumer will as well, and will be disappointed when he realizes that the only thing this lets him do is play his game on a 6" screen while his wife/mom/kid watches TV right next to him. Great, so now I get to sit in the same room as someone while wearing headphones and ignoring them. Social!

Maybe the larger focus will be on using it with the TV, but Nintendo certainly did not make that case.

I mean, depending on price I will still get one because I cannot resist Mario and Zelda, but to me this is less interesting than the Wii.
 
A

apana

Member
Wii-mote is dead if it doesn't come in the box. Thanks a lot Nintendo. I wish the Wii could keep going. There was no need for a new console.
 
L

Luigiv

Member
rpmurphy said:
By the way, can capacitive screens detect the force at which the screen is being touched?
Click to expand...
Not directly, though if you know your users will be using their bare fingers then you can guess how much force they're using based of the surface area in contact. The harder you push, the more of your flesh will be touching the screen.
 
H

herzogzwei1989

Banned
I'd like information on the GPU, but I don't expect any :/






what?

Nintendo's new console, the Wii U, was finally unveiled to the world today at E3 2011, and we got a glimpse of its graphical prowess at the company's keynote. Details were scarce about the IBM silicon Nintendo's new HD powerhouse was packing, but we did some digging to get a little more info. IBM tells us that within the Wii U there's a 45nm custom chip with "a lot" of embedded DRAM. It's a silicon on insulator design and packs the same processor technology found in Watson, the supercomputer that bested a couple of meatbags on Jeopardy awhile back. Unfortunately, IBM wouldn't give us the chip's clock speeds, but if it's good enough to smoke Ken Jennings on national TV, we imagine it'll do alright against its competition from Sony and Microsoft.
Click to expand...
 
R

rpmurphy

Member
gofreak said:
My impression from his comments is that it needs a line of sight to the console, and this would make sense from a lag POV. That's why it would need to be in the same room, though it can be a large one perhaps.

Still disappointing though that they don't have some magic to make it work otherwise.
Click to expand...
However though, spatial diversity and distance does affect signal strength and throughput so it's an issue that faces in-room wireless transmission anyway. Not as much problem compared to communication through walls or reflections, but it's hard to say definitively yet how Nintendo is dealing with the technical challenges of wireless video streaming.
 
P

Pocks

Member
Sammy Samusu said:
Could EA be the thrid-party company working on Wii U online?
Click to expand...

When EA was on stage talking about online, it sure sounded like there was some sort of collaboration. It makes sense with the launch of Origin as well.
 
C

chris0701

Member
It is great to see the hardware spec gap between Wii_U and PS360 wold be bigeer than we expect,it will help to cover the initial shortcoming of Wii_U SDK on HD game develoment.
 
G

gerg

Member
eznark said:
Possibly, but I look at something that touts the ability to play my games on a device that is not tethered to the TV and I assume some level of mobility. I imagine Joe Consumer will as well, and will be disappointed when he realizes that the only thing this lets him do is play his game on a 6" screen while his wife/mom/kid watches TV right next to him. Great, so now I get to sit in the same room as someone while wearing headphones and ignoring them. Social!
Click to expand...

The idea of playing a game on the controller while someone else uses the TV is admittedly be anti-social (as you correctly point out), but it is equally anti-social whether or not you do that in the same social space or if you do it in two different rooms. (Actually, it's less anti-social when you share the same social space, as there's probably then a greater chance of interacting with other people in that same space.)

Maybe the larger focus will be on using it with the TV, but Nintendo certainly did not make that case.
Click to expand...

Erm... did you not watch the reveal video highlighting that in several ways?
 
D

DeaconKnowledge

Member
I'm really curious about what type of signals the Controller is sending/receiving.

In the video, they beamed a picture to the TV. Will I be able to beam images to the console? Would I say, be able to shoot pictures of my daughter over Wi-Fi from my PC/iPad to the console for view on the controller, or vice versa?
 
R

rpmurphy

Member
Luigiv said:
Not directly, though if you know your users will be using their bare fingers then you can guess how much force they're using based of the surface area in contact. The harder you push, the more of your flesh will be touching the screen.
Click to expand...
Good point. But since Nintendo seems to want to push the idea of drawing applications on the touch screen, resistive seems to have a technical advantage there. Still, too bad about single-touch though.
 
W

wsippel

Banned
Mashing said:
Embedded DRAM? Does that mean a large cache?
Click to expand...
Probably. One of the unique things about Power7 (compared to other Power architecture CPUs) is that it uses large amounts of eDRAM as cache, instead of SRAM.
 
D

DECK'ARD

The Amiga Brotherhood
So concerns about the streaming were right then.

To get round the latency, same room use (probably one of the line-of sight solutions then) and only one of the new controllers per system (to avoid all the bandwidth/sync'ing problems)?

Quite surprised by all this for Nintendo, unlike their other consoles this doesn't seem built round a game in mind. The contrast with the Wii which was built round Wii Sports from the start. This is more like thrown this idea together and will see what results come from it. Wait until more word comes out about the tech-demos, but surprised there was no killer-app to demo it.

And if it's only one controller per system, I'm not sure how this is going to open many new gameplay ideas this is going to open up. Very underwhelmed so far :/
 
E

eznark

Banned
gerg said:
The idea of playing a game on the controller while someone else uses the TV is admittedly be anti-social (as you correctly point out), but it is equally anti-social whether or not you do that in the same social space or if you do it in two different rooms. (Actually, it's less anti-social when you share the same social space, as there's probably then a greater chance of interacting with other people in that same space.)
Click to expand...

My wife gets way more annoyed when I read a book in the car than when I watch a ballgame in my office. Proximity assumes interaction.



Erm... did you not watch the reveal video highlighting that in several ways?
Click to expand...

Yep, highlighted roughly as much as streaming games to the system.

That processor news has me mildly optimistic.
 
A

alterno69

Banned
DECK'ARD said:
So concerns about the streaming were right then.

To get round the latency, same room use (probably one of the line-of sight solutions then) and only one of the new controllers per system (to avoid all the bandwidth/sync'ing problems)?

Quite surprised by all this for Nintendo, unlike their other consoles this doesn't seem built round a game in mind. The contrast with the Wii which was built round Wii Sports from the start. This is more like thrown this idea together and will see what results come from it. Wait until more word comes out about the tech-demos, but surprised there was no killer-app to demo it.

And if it's only one controller per system, I'm not sure how this is going to open many new gameplay ideas this is going to open up. Very underwhelmed so far :/
Click to expand...
That's the impression i get, ses to me like Nintendo is reacting to what MS and Sony are doing, kinda half assing it.
 
McHuj

McHuj

Member
wsippel said:
Probably. One of the unique things about Power7 (compared to other Power architecture CPUs) is that it uses large amounts of eDRAM as cache, instead of SRAM.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I'm assuming that gives them a power savings.
 
K

kaiwing

Member
I don't think it needs line of sight. The video showed a girl moving over to the side to check herself on the balance board. It's probably bluetooth type tech with a max distance of 25ft. You can take it to the bathroom but not upstairs.
 
A

alterno69

Banned
gofreak said:
Where's the suggestion of one controller per console coming from? I'm sure that's not right.
Click to expand...
Watch the trailer, even in splitscreen multi only one person was using the new controller and the rest where using wiimotes.
 
W

WrathOfOtaibah

Banned
Wow the Wii U gets worse and worse with every new bit of news, I'm not buying this shit. The 3DS will be my go to nintendo hardware for the foreseeable future.
 
T

Thunder Monkey

Banned
AceBandage said:
Why not?
It'll come with one controller. You can bet on that.
Click to expand...
No they seem to think it's only one of those controller that works on the platform. Can't use two.

Probably because they didn't show off any demos that used more than one.
 
T

Tron 2.0

Member
gofreak said:
Where's the suggestion of one controller per console coming from? I'm sure that's not right.
Click to expand...
The spec sheet Nintendo posted online.

It mentions up to four traditional Wii remotes, but no mention of multiple new controllers.

All of their demos use a single new controller. Even the multiplayer ones.

It's possible you can use multiple, but Nintendo hasn't said so.
 
G

gerg

Member
eznark said:
My wife gets way more annoyed when I read a book in the car than when I watch a ballgame in my office. Proximity assumes interaction.
Click to expand...

Ultimately I think that removing games from the TV screen entirely will end up being a relatively minor point of the WiiU's appeal, and I don't think that only being able to stream the video feed within the same room as the console will be a very limiting factor. I suppose time will tell, especially as we get new information on the console.

Yep, highlighted roughly as much as streaming games to the system.
Click to expand...

My impression is otherwise, I guess.
 
G

Graphics Horse

Member
gofreak said:
Where's the suggestion of one controller per console coming from? I'm sure that's not right.
Click to expand...

It's a guess right now, but showing off assymetrical gameplay ideas and no shots of multiple controllers hints at it.
 
A

AceBandage

Banned
AltogetherAndrews said:
Again, new systems are supposed to feel like alien tech when they are revealed. Damn it, everything is going to the wrong way.
Click to expand...


How are the concepts shown here not alien tech?
If you're talking specifically graphics, then you're going to be disappointed forever. Consoles will never match PCs again. They'll always be behind.
 
R

Rahxephon91

Banned
GJS said:
Why would you want games that support 480p maximum stretched and upscaled to 1080p by the console, it won't look any better.
Click to expand...
Well ideally we would want them to have the same effect that Dolphin does. But I guess it was too much of Nintendo to actually do something cool.

AceBandage said:
How are the concepts shown here not alien tech?
Click to expand...
I'm sorry playing a console game in my lap is not amazing or even needed. What is the point? Guess what if someone else is watching the tv, I'll go do something else.
 
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