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The Wii U Speculation Thread VI: The Undiscovered Country

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Why would you need NFC for anything?

If the "gamer card" rumors are true, it would be awesome to just put your card next to your controller and have all the data it collected instantly transfer to the Wii U.

I can't see how it can enhance any games, however. It's just a way to drain money from the consumer.
 

StevieP

Banned
superannuation has elaborated on his/her rationale for the Rayman Legends speculation: Ubisoft has a new Montpellier sub-studio dedicated to Wii U development.



And this resume refers to "Nintendo WiiU's Rayman Legends," with no mention of any other platforms.

This is the same thing that happened for Wii - separate port teams. Don't know if you should look at that as any more. Ubisoft is doing the same thing for AC3, for example.
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Exactly.

If NFC is going to be used I want it either to be something functional and valuable to the user, that enhances the gameplay without exploiting the consumers.

If it's going to be used for gimmicky bonuses, I'd rather them be truly gimmicky. EG: Game specific hats for your Mii tied to 3DS game carts.
 
I would be down for character unlocks for Smash 4 if they were full blown action figures and not just figurines.

Going forward I would want *all* devices and as many objects as posible to have NFC tags describing themselves, either directly or by UUID plus details accessed networkedly. I want to press my controller against my couch so a replica appears on screen for Travis to sit on. I want to read in the specs of my refrigerator and have it appear in a Smash Bros. game for Donkey Kong to throw at people. I want a racing game that'll read the identity of whatever car I have in real life, access that manufacturer's specs database for general model and color, and create a reasonable replica for me to tear down city streets in.

I mean, come on, just because we know Nintendo will just use this tech as a cash grab and to limit users doesn't mean we can't have fun speculating what could be possible with the protocol, guys! This is still a speculation thread for like another twelve hours at least! :)
 

Gahiggidy

My aunt & uncle run a Mom & Pop store, "The Gamecube Hut", and sold 80k WiiU within minutes of opening.
M5eHJ.gif


^^^
This shot is from GAF in April 2006, from teh WayBackMachine.
The talk of community and what topics people like to see on the Gaming forum made me curious if my memory of what it used to be is the same as what it was. It mostly confirmed my memory. The thread titles are much shorter and thus easier to read. Plus there is little in the way of games and news I've never hear about before. :p
 
I know this is a bit of a stretch but I want to play a bit of a game here....

taken from here

For PS2, I can only think of a handful of games with good polygon models, and these are lacking in overall polygon count. So allow me to revise my statements, with actual numbers:

Raw FLOPS (translates to vertex, 32-bit only) output:
Xbox (twin-vertex shaders), GC (fixed hardware T&L), PS2 (Emotion Engine)
Xbox(10 flops * 2 * 233 mhz) = 4.660 GFLOPS (32-bit, programmable)
GC(w/o lighting) = 3.726 GFLOPS/ (32-bit ops, fixed)
GC(w lighting) = 9.4 GFLOPS (32-bit & 20-bit ops, fixed)
PS2 (VU 1) = 3.08 GFLOPs (32-bit, fully programmable)
PS2 (VU1/VU0/CPU FP) = 6.2 GFLOPS (32-bit, fully programmable)

http://www.segatech.com/gamecube/overview/

But this may be inaccurate, excluding non-programmable XGPU hardware. Lets try total GFLOPS (minus pixel shaders, not including CPU for Xbox and GC):

Ranking (raw, peak, vertex-GFLOPs)
Xbox (21.6 GFLOPS - 2.932 FLOPS (CPU) - 7.456 GFLOPS (pixel shaders, 24-bit)) = 11.2 GFLOPS (32-bit and other, programmable & non-programmable)
Gamecube = 9.4 GFLOPS (32-bit and other, non-programmable)
PS2 = 6.2 GFLOPS (32-bit, fully programmable)

The 21.6 GFLOPS I retrieved from a book (Opening the Xbox), which is Xbox's total system power. For the pixel shaders (3 vector, 1 scalar, * 2 madd * 4 shaders). The rest should be the vertex shaders and related hardware. These comparisons are without any nifty optimizations of course (early z-checks). With CPU (lighting, animation), Gamecube is at 11.3 GFLOPS, making Xbox and GC almost exactly equal in polygon performance, without the XCPU (which isn't contributing to T&L). I'd say GC is better though, because of the aforementioned, probably existing, early z-check, and the fast z-clear (xbox might have fast z-clear as well).

So the ranking (polygon output):
Gamecube (11)
Xbox (11)
PS2 (6)

Xbox and Gamecube are tied, but when Xbox is overloaded with shader effects, like you said, Gamecube wins. With high complexity (requiring lots of z-culling), Gamecube wins. Actual PS2 optimization is limited to VU1, which is at 3.08 GFLOPS. And the Xbox DirectX configuration can slow things down quite a bit, unless push-buffers are used. And I've seen PS2 use good tesselation algorithms. Early Z-checks on the PS2 is hard, but continuous LOD isn't, as well as other software optimization. GC and PS2 will not have the texture resolution on its polygons that Xbox will have.

Ranking (polygons, ingame performance, out of 10):
Gamecube (10)
Xbox (6/7, with pushbuffers)
PS2 (3/4, with VU1 only, assuming good optimization)

Where would N64 be though?
Reality Co-Processor - 4 32-bit ops * 2 (madd) * 62.5 mhz = 500 MFLOPS

Right on the money, as Silicon Graphics told the press that N64's coprocessor could do 500 MIPS.

Ranking (polygons, ingame performance (moderately complex*), out of 10):
Gamecube (10)
Xbox (6/7, with pushbuffers, moderate pixel shader utilization)
PS2 (3/4, with VU1 only, assuming good optimization)
N64 (.5,

Ranking (w/N64, polygons, ingame performance (exception being N64, with no known performance inhibitors; moderately complex), out of 10):

Gamecube (10)
Xbox (6/7, with pushbuffers, moderate pixel shader utilization)
PS2 (3/4, with VU1 only, assuming good optimization - partial VU0 and CPU optimization)
Dreamcast (1.4 SH4 GFLOP capacity - 1.4)
N64 (.5)
PSX/Saturn (<.5)

*complex - many layers of interaction in the 3D scene

I'm not sure about Saturn and PSX...I can't find any FLOP performance for them. If you would like to learn more about these systems, you are bound to find tons of information at any major search engine just using the names of the GPU and CPU of the systems.

The gamecube was a very, very balanced machine so much so that it was "on par" graphically with xbox. If we had a normal generational leap from gamecube to Wii and xbox to xbox 360 we probably would have had something around 2x performance for every 18 months at roughly the same costs from the previous 18 months so if wii were to release in november 2007 (i know it released in 2006) it should be around 6 years which would be about 8x the power of gamecube if it released in november 2007 at a price of $199 at break even and $250 with a packin game and the wii remote and nunchuck as extra costs. 8x gamcube would be around 90.4 GFLOPS

If we extrapolate from that and do another three moores law generations we would be in the vincinty of 64X the GFLOPS of the GC for what would theoretically be what the WiiU would be this year if it were released for $250 add in $50-100 and we are in the range of around $299-349 for the WiiU depending on the extra cost of components not atributed to the console but the tablet itself and the extra controller.

I would say that it would be safe to assume that Nintendo would break even at $299 (including tablet) with something 64x the power of the gamecube going from the beginning of designing their 1998 GPU to the start of designing their GPU in 2009.

64x Gamecube = 723.2 GFLOPS
From this it is in my view safe to assume that nintendo will at least break even at $299 (depending on tablet price) with something exactly 3x the gpu power of xbox 360. This also kind of shows hwo the XBox 360 was about a generation and a half over what would have been affordable to do at $250

Lets go to 2009 and find a gpu roughly 3x the power of the xbox 360 and we have one candidate released at the end of 2008 and widely available at the start of 2009 so that nintendo can begin to redesign and customise and die shrink thew chip ready for taping out sometime in June 2011

Radeon HD 4830 (released Oct 21, 2008)
RV770 LE (55nm)
1024MB GDDR4 900mhz
575mhz core clock
736GLFOPS
TDP 95 watts
640SPU

in 2011 AMD released this chip on 40nm die I would also assume that nintendo would have also gone to 40nm in design and we now have two candidates available

Radeon HD 6570 (released April 19 2011)
Turks PRO 40nm
1024MB DDR3
650mhz core clock
624 GFLOPS
TDP 44 Watts
480SPU

Radeon HD 6670 (released April 19 2011)
Turks XT 40nm
1024MB GDDR5
800mhz core clock
768GFLOPS
TDP 66 watts
480SPU

If we were to look at TDP only these GPU's would be too much power to go in a case like the WiiU (assuming the current box will not get bigger) we would need something around 40-45 watts.
Since the WiiU GPU taped out around April-June 2011 it is possible that 32nm is now available and at roughly the same cost. the 6570 is a little underpowered but is already 44 watts a little tweaking and a die shrink could get it there but I am more inclined to go for the 6670.

I am starting to think that Nintendo will at least try to break even at $299 and the only maximum GPU candidates would be something along the lines of a 4830-6670 but on a 32nm die shrink so that the TDP would not exceed 45 watts.

I believe that the architecture for the WiiU GPu will exceed that of the first candidate and probably exceed that of AMD's own update of their 2009 design and run at 45 watts. SO to all those who believe that the GPU will only be 360GFLOPS then you are probably expecting the WiiU to release at $199 for those that believe in at least 720GFLOPS then you should expect a price point of $299 and be safe to make profit.

Is it possible to go beyond the 64X Gamecube or 3X xbox 360 performance? Ofcourse but you have to pay more money for that gpu. at $349 you can probably get ~1000GFLOPS or 1TFLOP but then you would be looking at maybe a slight increase in box size not much but it might be needed (though I am not an expert on airflow) to allow for that kind of power.


3x XBOX 360 performance doesn't seem a lot but it is up to standard in how nintendo would have normally gone to at least be profitable from day one with their console. what does 3x xbox 360 gpu performance get us visually? If we stick with the same visual fidelity but just increase from 720p@30fps -1080p@30fps then 3x will be able to do it including 2 tablets plus a little more to spare. This is where you will get the "on par" calls that many have been touting. It is not lying it is on par but just higher resolution. same effects same frames same looks just higher resolution and ability to run 2 tablets. Many PS3 and 360 ports will be like this.

If we stick with 720p but at @60fps then we can still run the same game on one tablet also running at 60fps but if we want two tablets then there might be some tricks needed to get all thre devices running at 60fps asit would push the GPU to over 110% but maybe still possible. But this is also still on par with xbox 360 as it is using the same effects and same rsolution only the frame rate is increased. Many ps3 and 360 ports in the next two years will be like this.


If we stick with 720p@30fps just like xbox 360 then it is possible to get double the visual effects on two tablets and the mainscreen or three times the effects on the main screen and a tablet using minimal effects. here is where you will find a game like the new zelda and many exclusive titles going to put the 3x power to use o rmany single player only games.

This is what being on par and at the same time being more powerful means. Nintendo will provide "on par" performance to the current hd twins but be able to provide 3x the player experience on the same console locally and online or more powerful performance for a singular online experince. Social gaming at its finest? I think so. Remember when I talked about assymetrical gaming being the gamechanger? I really believe this is what we will be seeing more of in the conference. People playing the same game together in the same room but playing in sometimes three completely different styles at the same time while providing HD gaming that is now gained popularity since 2011.

If Nintendo hopefully goes to $349 at around 1.2TFLOP then good on them, but having something 5x the performance of the xbox 360 might prove costly with getting the consumers to market, but time will tell and we will find out in just over 12 days.

Feel free to rip apart my speculation. It was just a thought that occured to me so if I am way off base let me know.
 

lednerg

Member
While I couldn't care less about NFC-infused Happy Meal toys or whatever, I do like the idea of having an NFC card linked to my online cloud account. I could go to a friend's house, tap my card on the controller (and type a password), and then I'd have my game saves, settings, web bookmarks, etc available to me immediately. It's a small thing, but it's a lot easier than having to make a new profile, set up the controls, and go through all of that. Hopefully this is something they're doing with NFC, because the toys thing gets a big meh from me.

That card info is getting rejected as "invalid". ??

It expired on the same non-existent month it was issued. Stupid Visa.
 

ReyVGM

Member
My Crow T Robot 'Is it 11:30/time for lunch yet?' skit and the Seinfeld gif with Jerry and George sitting in the diner "talking about the conference" both subliminally pushed me to go to a sit down restaurant and have an old fashioned burger and fries.

foreveralone.gif? :p
 

NeoRausch

Member
If all publisher go the figurine way...

i just put them all in one big ass box, splash my UPad in there here and there and see what happen.

("Ultimate Raiden unlocked!!" in "My cuddly Petz Zoo")

...
...
...

a man can dream.
 

test_account

XP-39C²
superannuation has elaborated on his/her rationale for the Rayman Legends speculation: Ubisoft has a new Montpellier sub-studio dedicated to Wii U development.



And this resume refers to "Nintendo WiiU's Rayman Legends," with no mention of any other platforms.
I guess that is because he only worked on the WiiU version. I will be very surprised if this game is a WiiU exclusive (maybe time exclusive, but not exclusive forever).
 
If all publisher go the figurine way...

i just put them all in one big ass box, splash my UPad in there here and there and see what happen.

("Ultimate Raiden unlocked!!" in "My cuddly Petz Zoo")

...
...
...

a man can dream.

Don´t! My uncles best friend, who knows somewhone who has heard, that someone has has been told that an anonymous developer had a cousin that had a friend that had a brother who had an uncle whos wife knows this guy who heard that if you put more than 5 figurines near the Pad... It opens the gateway to hell!
 

Gahiggidy

My aunt & uncle run a Mom & Pop store, "The Gamecube Hut", and sold 80k WiiU within minutes of opening.
Has it been confirmed that the NFC is read only and can not send NFC signals to other read-devices?
 

DrWong

Member
It would be for Ubi's best interest to have Rayman Legends exclusive, at least for a while. If people buy the PS360Vita versions instead of the Wii U version, then they stand to make less money by not being able to sell all those NFC figurines due to the other consoles not having the NFC feature.

If it's exclusive to Wii U these NFC stuff would be a really good reason and following this line of speculation, we could even explain the "Exclusives Wii features" of the leaked fake trailer with a console exclusivity: Wii U SKU with its exclusives features and PC SKU.

You are on to something

NFC might be that x factor to sway publishers to invest in exclusive WiiU games.
Putting their money in merchandising versus extra console versions.

But this means Nintendo has to deliver enough consoles in the hands of consumers.
Nintendo might then sell the WiiU under 300 and take the loss.

Nintendo is creating a trifecta of options that publishers cannot ignore:
NFC, the Tablet Controller, and a publisher friendly online service.


I see a snowball effect of games heading to WiiU.
The minute one third party publisher starts making big money on merchandising and NFC...

Right and it's why - coming-back to the GTA V case and the like - I think it's useless for Nintendo to pay for ports or exclusivities. If they'are not able to charm third parties then their strategy (or its execution) is wrong. But as far as I know (your trifecta), Nintendo looks more and more attractive.
 

blu

Wants the largest console games publisher to avoid Nintendo's platforms.
How would I go about calculating the GC or xbox performance in GFLOPS? or is there just some written documentation somewhere where it states this information.
GFLOPs on those machines were mainly vertex/general-purpose related. Comparing the GFLOPs of those machines to the GFLOPs of a unified shader GPU (plus CPU) is fairly pointless.
 

test_account

XP-39C²
Nintendo is creating a trifecta of options that publishers cannot ignore:
NFC, the Tablet Controller, and a publisher friendly online service.
I wonder what publisher friendly online service mean. I know that this is what Nintendo said, but they havnt really elaborated anything on what it exactly means.
 

Izick

Member
I wonder what publisher friendly online service mean. I know that this is what Nintendo said, but they havnt really elaborated anything on what it exactly means.

Guessing something where they have a strong online marketplace, ads for games/DLC, and more features always bring in more customers, which brings in more business.
 
Has it been confirmed that the NFC is read only and can not send NFC signals to other read-devices?

That's kind of along the lines of what I was asking about. The tagged devices shouldn't be able to do anything advanced. They're just like those things you put in your car window so you don't have to stop your car for the toll man.

But Clapping Simulator* would require that the active side of the protocol be able to communicate with another of the same type. That's what I was wondering.



* >_>
 

Ryoku

Member
So who all is still going to check in here once this thread does get moved to community?

Pretty sure the big-name people will still visit regularly as they have done so far. I, of course, will be visiting as well, since this thread (and Project Cafe announcements) is the main reason I joined NeoGaf.
 

cyberheater

PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 Xbone PS4 PS4
So who all is still going to check in here once this thread does get moved to community?

With the avalanche of rich and detailed information that we're going to get from Nintendo at e3. We won't need this speculation thread.
 

BY2K

Membero Americo
Guys, I'm sick.

Sick of those threads, week after week, claiming either one extreme of the Wii U potential power (on par with/less powerful than PS3/360 and more powerful than etc...)

I don't even think this last one even has a right to exist, since Vigil has been saying the Wii U version of Darksiders II looks at least as good as the other since last E3.

I'm just sick of those. Each new one tells the opposite of the last. Bottom line, we're still at square one.

Thank God there's less than 2 weeks left until E3.
 

Hiltz

Member
Has this been posted?

Ubisoft LinkedIn Yoan Fanise's profile states that pre-production development of Killer Freaks from Outer Space started back in October 2009.

Killer Freaks - Wii U
Ubisoft
Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; FR0000054470; Computer Games industry
October 2009 &#8211; September 2010 (1 year) Montpellier Area, France

Original FPS
Pre production audio direction, Sound effects creation, Music and voice direction.

https://twitter.com/#!/supererogatory
 

Izick

Member
Guys, I'm sick.

Sick of those threads, week after week, claiming either one extreme of the Wii U potential power (on par with/less powerful than PS3/360 and more powerful than etc...)

I don't even think this last one even has a right to exist, since Vigil has been saying the Wii U version of Darksiders II looks at least as good as the other since last E3.

I'm just sick of those. Each new one tells the opposite of the last. Bottom line, we're still at square one.

Thank God there's less than 2 weeks left until E3.

Like I said, nobody really knows anything when it comes to it's graphical capabilities.
 

Thraktor

Member
I don't really see why people are so bothered about the move to community. We'll only be there for less than two weeks before E3 hits, and then we'll have a conference thread, a thread for the software showcase, a thread for the round table, a thread for the developer discussion, a thread for each of the games that get announced, and probably a thread for whatever crazy console functionality that square button controls. The gaming forum will be swimming in Wii U threads. There won't be any need for a general purpose Wii U speculation/discussion thread on the gaming forum by that point, and any discussion thread we create post-E3 to follow on from these ones will be a community thread by any definition of the word.

Anyway, on a somewhat more on-topic topic, there's one crazy exclusive on my gigaton bingo card that I actually wouldn't be that surprised to appear at the conference: a Rockstar San Diego Wii U exclusive game. We haven't heard a peep from them since Red Dead Redemption in May 2010 (well, except for Undead Nightmare a few months later), which is exactly when Nintendo would have been going around third party studios trying to find partners to work with on Wii U titles. We also know that Nintendo's made a big deal about getting Rockstar on board in the past, so there's no doubt they were approached, and with a game as critically and commercially successful as RDR behind them, I'm sure Nintendo would be very happy with a R* San Diego devved game on their hands. The only question is whether Nintendo and Rockstar could come to a deal. Ordinarily I'd say no, but if Nintendo is really as serious about bringing western games to the console as they say they are, you never know. It'd also make the perfect launch title, given about two and a half years in development.
 

ReyVGM

Member
Guys, I'm sick.

Sick of those threads, week after week, claiming either one extreme of the Wii U potential power (on par with/less powerful than PS3/360 and more powerful than etc...)

I don't even think this last one even has a right to exist, since Vigil has been saying the Wii U version of Darksiders II looks at least as good as the other since last E3.

I'm just sick of those. Each new one tells the opposite of the last. Bottom line, we're still at square one.

Thank God there's less than 2 weeks left until E3.

Vigil saying DS2 is on par with the PS360 versions means they just didn't make the effort to put better 'graphx' and not that the Wii U is on par with the PS360. However, people have taken it as such, even when they have other devs saying the Wii U is more powerful.
 
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