Anyone than can't tell that I'm being sarcastic should not be allowed on the Internet.
YAY! I don't need to leave the internet!
Anyone than can't tell that I'm being sarcastic should not be allowed on the Internet.
YAY! I don't need to leave the internet!
Grey area.
Define best techs...
I just hope that it will be objective facts instead of subjective speculation.
The online gaming landscape has changed a lot since 2008 when the title shut down.
Time for a reboot?
A news concerning the dev kits (models, availability to developers, etc.)
One month and half ago, i told you that big third-parties were noticed by Nintendo that they should receive the development kits following the V4 ones that they used since late last year/start of january, at the end of march/beginning of april. These "V5" dev kits seemed to be tagged final or near final, and see a slight increase in their performances.
Here's the message which i'm referring to
Nearly all this post's infos are STILL relevant, except the time schedule. It appears third-parties were waiting for these dev kits during all april. There has been a delay of at least one month in the supply of this equipment by Nintendo.
But finally, they just received them
Another important news: they are the mass produced dev kits.
_________________________
Here's some bits of my previous message in regard to this subject, but updated:
- Except maybe big japanese studios (like Capcom), i doubt that other third-parties received these dev kits (much) earlier. It's likely that my sources are one of the firsts to be granted of the latest revisions. This means that all the declarations, the news, from foreign developers, that you've read until now, were certainly in a V4 dev kit framework, before the release of these newest ones.
- A previous post of lherre indicated that Nintendo guys were testing an engine and saw slightly improved results on the "V5" compare to V4.
Context: it was posted 2 month and half ago, when lherre decided to come out of his lair in answer to my very first message to confirm that Wii U was clearly closer to "2x than 5x xbox360". And he basically added that the expected more advanced dev kit in Nintendo headquarters at the time that i've talked about will not change dramatically the Wii U power status. So he surely knew of these engine benchmarks before my intervention, maybe some days, maybe some weeks.
Assumption: considering the at least 3 months interval between these internal tests and the V5 delivery to third-parties (minus the dev kits assembly and shipping), there's a good chance that the V5 dev kits in the hands of foreign studios have received even more hardware refinements and optimizations than the models used for these Nintendo tests some time before.
__________________
- Third-parties have one month to adapt to these new dev kits and to what they bring (in terms of performances increase, hardware modifications, and new features) until E3.
- As they are tagged "Mass Production", they are final. Maybe there will be later revisions with small refinements here and there, but nothing drastic, except changes of plans from Nintendo. So the hardware is stable now.
- One of the dev kit aspect (in comparison to the v4 ones) is... original
- Teasing part: besides possible improvement of the system power (slight to moderate though), there is at least one additional good news that come with them. It's not necessarily the obvious ones
Still interesting to know that they are the mass produced ones, and are supplied to third-parties just now.
- One of the dev kit aspect (in comparison to the v4 ones) is... original
- Teasing part: besides possible improvement of the system power (slight to moderate though), there is at least one additional good news that come with them. It's not necessarily the obvious ones
Hype.Hype?
So with devkits having double the normal console RAM, that means 512 GBs of RAM for the console. Meh, not good enough.
SIX TRIGGERS!?- One of the dev kit aspect (in comparison to the v4 ones) is... original
Well the last post above was good, it's just the super vague hinting ones that are kind of annoying...cause they're vague enough that they're not necessarily helpful.I already had a talk with IdeaMan about that in private, that is just not his style so I respect that. He is having fun and we get little bits of hints out of it so let him have his fun and post the way he wants to present the info
- Teasing part: besides possible improvement of the system power (slight to moderate though), there is at least one additional good news that come with them. It's not necessarily the obvious ones
Hype train.
SIX TRIGGERS!?
(I'm joking but honestly wouldn't mind another shoulder/trigger if implemented well, like for stuff that gets relegated to the sucky click sticks cause there's no other buttons left)
Well the last post above was good, it's just the super vague hinting ones that are kind of annoying...cause they're vague enough that they're not necessarily helpful.
- Teasing part: besides possible improvement of the system power (slight to moderate though), there is at least one additional good news that come with them. It's not necessarily the obvious ones
Ideaman in gif form:
so much teasing! >_<
Fascinating stuff though nonetheless. What I find interesting is that, iirc, dev kits often ship much closer to launch dates (in this case rumored to be in november). I'm willing to be the farm that the added "good news" that Ideaman is hinting at is OS based, perhaps having to do with NN and online multiplayer, perhaps social tools such as video chatting or whatnot. Features that nintendo probably told devs to expect but haven't really been in presentable condition until just recently. It makes sense for nintendo to release tools for OS features now because devs can easily advertise at E3 that their games will make use of them at release without having to go to great lengths to demo them within their own games.
- One of the dev kit aspect (in comparison to the v4 ones) is... original
- Teasing part: besides possible improvement of the system power (slight to moderate though), there is at least one additional good news that come with them. It's not necessarily the obvious ones
.
My teases announcing future posts about particular subjects are vague by choice (fun & hype building & nurture the speculation). But once i write the promised messages, they are rather clear with a lot of details & explanation about the context, etc.
I understand why the hints can annoy some people, but it's an entertainment business guys
Oh and for the "original" bit, it's not the DRC, it's the dev kits, meaning the big box used to develop games.
If I weren't already buying the Wii U, I'd buy it just for that.Built in waffle maker is true!
I'm guessing they added in Wii Games upscaling in HD like Dolphin!!!
Please be true!
Ideaman, one of your recent posts stated that devs have little to no access to the OS so know barely more about it than we do. Does that apply to these latest mass-produced dev kits, or the previous versions?
I think that's a good guess that it has something to do with the OS. Another possibility is that Nintendo has significantly reduced the OS's RAM footprint, opening more up for developers to use.
well, that would be disappointing because, to be perfectly honest, dolphin emulations look crummy to me. If you don't have the extra geometry to fill up the expanded scene the visuals look hollow.I'll just go ahead and pretend that this is Dolphin-like upgrades when playing Gamecube games BC.
Seriously, though, I look forward to figuring out what this is.
...
My teases announcing future posts about particular subjects are vague by choice (fun & hype building & nurture the speculation). But once i write the promised messages, they are rather clear with a lot of details & explanation about the context, etc.
I understand why the hints can annoy some people, but it's an entertainment business guys
Oh and for the "original" bit, it's not the DRC, it's the dev kits, meaning the big box used to develop games.
I think that's a good guess that it has something to do with the OS. Another possibility is that Nintendo has significantly reduced the OS's RAM footprint, opening more up for developers to use.
Which is French code for megaton.
A complete guess, but this could be a built in hard-drive. Given the focus on downloads (including potentially 20GB+ retail game downloads), Nintendo might have just decided to bite the bullet and actually build-in a HDD. Don't know if that fits your definition of "original", though...
This news would make me a happy panda.
Am I the only one who can't ever understand what the hell ideaman is talking about. And I'm not referring to technical language.
A complete guess, but this could be a built in hard-drive. Given the focus on downloads (including potentially 20GB+ retail game downloads), Nintendo might have just decided to bite the bullet and actually build-in a HDD. Don't know if that fits your definition of "original", though...
Oh and for the "original" bit, it's not the DRC, it's the dev kits, meaning the big box used to develop games.
There are some interesting features.
No way. I can't see nintendo seeing that as anything other than a massive unnecessary cost. They'd have to redesign the entire console in order to accommodate the thermal foot print and size of an HDD. The profit margin or loss is going to be razor thin on the Wii U as it is. I see them mandating USB 3.0 support as the bare minimum for externals before I see them putting in a built in HDD.
No way. I can't see nintendo seeing that as anything other than a massive unnecessary cost. They'd have to redesign the entire console in order to accommodate the thermal foot print and size of an HDD. The profit margin or loss is going to be razor thin on the Wii U as it is. I see them mandating USB 3.0 support as the bare minimum for externals before I see them putting in a built in HDD.
My understanding is hit-or-miss, depending on how hurried I am. I have to concentrate, so running around here at work and then ducking my head into the thread periodically doesn't help.Am I the only one who can't ever understand what the hell ideaman is talking about. And I'm not referring to technical language.
I agree with you, sadly. But I'm skeptical they'll even support USB3.0/eSATA, which will lead to a big bottleneck for the current DD/DLC/install landscape, especially for dev's. If I was a dev consulting Nintendo on my studio's wants and desires, a mandatory (or optional SATA) built-in HDD in every box would be near the top of the list. It just adds a better consistency and value to the product, instead of needing to assume that X users will be running off DVD, Y users will be running of USB 2.0, Z users will be running possible 3.0, etc. Especially when we get into talking about loading DLC/DD games from these drives to run in conjunction with the stock DVD drive speeds.
Profit margins on downloadable software are much higher than retail, though. Such sales will be far higher if there's a HDD built-in vs sold separately, so if they expect the long-term benefits of those extra download sales to outweigh the costs of including hard-drives then they could go with it.
Profit margins on downloadable software are much higher than retail, though. Such sales will be far higher if there's a HDD built-in vs sold separately, so if they expect the long-term benefits of those extra download sales to outweigh the costs of including hard-drives then they could go with it.
It's just a guess, though, to be honest I'd be pretty surprised if they went with it.
- One of the dev kit aspect (in comparison to the v4 ones) is... original
- Teasing part: besides possible improvement of the system power (slight to moderate though), there is at least one additional good news that come with them. It's not necessarily the obvious ones