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Wii emulator can do 720p HD

MNC

Member
Eteric Rice said:
I wonder what the Conduit would look like on it as well. :D
That's... :O!


I love this. If I had a better PC/laptop I'd totally play my wii games on the pc, just for kicks.
 
Sushen said:
It means pirates (a.k.a thieves), nothing more nothing less.
excuse me, but I've bought all my Wii games, and I'd like nothing more than to be able to play them in 720p.

my only complaint with the Wii has been how it looks on an HDTV relative to its competitors. my eyes have bled since day 1.

I'd gladly buy future games and rip them just to play them in HD on a HTPC or something.
 

Nemo

Will Eat Your Children
Holy shit, I want to try this so bad. Does anyone know if it's at least as good as the PS2 emulator? What about the GC one, is that on par with PS2?
 

Mithos

Member
Mar_ said:
I find this hard to believe. I tried UltraHLE at some point in the N64s era (soon after release or a year after, can't remember) on multiple top gaming rigs (at Quake LANs etc), and it ran so terribly that it wasn't even worth trying to play the game.

As far as I remember. UltraHLE was a tech demo more than anything. Everyone thought it was cool that it was doing it. But you couldn't actually play anything on it with any degree of enjoyment.


I ran UltraHLE on my Pentium II 233Mhz, 64MB ram, Matrox G100, and Voodoo 2.

Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time was fully playable no problems or speed issues.

But one have to remember that UltraHLE was built upon those two games, and was pure HLE, compared to todays emulators that pretty much tries to emulate the entire N64 hardware, and thus requires much more hardware to play games at any decent speeds.
 

bee

Member
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wouldn't take too much notice of the fps, the guys running on a laptop with 16xaa
 

Eteric Rice

Member
Damn, really makes those old 3D games nice looking.

I hope Nintendo does this with a hardware revision. I just know they're going to do one in a year or so. I can feel it in mah bones. >_>
 
I don't get the surprise. I remember my (not so) old pc rendering Spyro the dragon at 1024x768 with AA everywhere. It looked gorgeous for the time!! Much better than any N64 game.

Obviously some wii games in HD with AAx16 MUST look gorgeous too. Thing is that as Wii is basically a GC, the emulators are much more mature for this console than for any console to date a couple of years after their release.
 

McLovin

Member
Holy crap you wii guys are really defensive. IMO wii games look really bad on HDTVs.. they actually look much better on SDTVs. Perfect example is Mario Galaxy.. it looks awesome on my STTV but when I plug it into my HDTV I get insane jaggies.. that and a stretched image or black bars.. I wouldn't mind playing some of my wii games on this.
 

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
So apparently LG 8164B DVD drives can read Wii discs ok?

That being the case, will Dolphin boot them from the drive?

Or will I have to dump them to my PC? Is this illegal, or am I allowed make a copy of my own Wii discs?

Is my own Wii games -> HDD -> Dolphin emu legal?
 

Eteric Rice

Member
McLovin said:
Holy crap you wii guys are really defensive. IMO wii games look really bad on HDTVs.. they actually look much better on SDTVs. Perfect example is Mario Galaxy.. it looks awesome on my STTV but when I plug it into my HDTV I get insane jaggies.. that and a stretched image or black bars.. I wouldn't mind playing some of my wii games on this.

This is what I hate. I don't care about textures, shaders, or lighting. To me, it doesn't make any big difference. It's the jaggies that seperate HD from SD to me. If they could do away with the jaggies on Wii games, I'd be perfectly happy.

So apparently LG 8164B DVD drives can read Wii discs ok?

That being the case, will Dolphin boot them from the drive?

Or will I have to dump them to my PC? Is this illegal, or am I allowed make a copy of my own Wii discs?

Is my own Wii games -> HDD -> Dolphin emu legal?

I think it's legal to make a back up of games you own. So long as you don't sell them.

I don't think Nintendo cares as long as you own a Wii, and are buying your games. How you play them is something they'll likely never know about anyway.
 

Bluth54

Member
McLovin said:
Holy crap you wii guys are really defensive. IMO wii games look really bad on HDTVs.. they actually look much better on SDTVs. Perfect example is Mario Galaxy.. it looks awesome on my STTV but when I plug it into my HDTV I get insane jaggies.. that and a stretched image or black bars.. I wouldn't mind playing some of my wii games on this.
My Wii is hooked up to a 52" CRT HDTV and games look great on it. :D
 

McLovin

Member
Bluth54 said:
My Wii is hooked up to a 52" CRT HDTV and games look great on it. :D
Well its CRT.. maybe plasmas look good too.. But I know for a fact that on my LCD it looks horrible.
edit-yeah 52" CRT would be Ginormous :lol
 

Eteric Rice

Member
grap3fruitman said:
They make 52" CRT HDTVs? WTF? Since when? That thing must be ridiculously huge and weight a ton.

Probably about half the size of a normal CRT actually. Samsung was making them a few years ago. Dunno which one that guy owns though.
 

Mamesj

Banned
gofreak said:
So apparently LG 8164B DVD drives can read Wii discs ok?

That being the case, will Dolphin boot them from the drive?

Or will I have to dump them to my PC? Is this illegal, or am I allowed make a copy of my own Wii discs?

Is my own Wii games -> HDD -> Dolphin emu legal?


you talk like you're being watched by the FBI, jesus just do whatever you want. :lol
 

Xellos

Member
Wow, Wii/GC games clean up good. I really hope that Nintendo takes the emulation route when implementing BC for their next console.
 

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
Mamesj said:
you talk like you're being watched by the FBI, jesus just do whatever you want. :lol

I like to know what I'm doing is legal :p

From a 'moral' POV I think it's perfectly fine since I'm paying for the software, I have a Wii, everyone's got 'paid' as far as I'm concerned.

But I just like to know it's all good legally.

Working under that presumption, I think I'm going to try and acquire one of those LG drives, and a compatible bluetooth adaptor.

For non-Wii owners it does sort of present the interesting opportunity to play Wii games for the cost of a LG drive/wii-motes/bluetooth adaptor, assuming the Dolphin emu's non-requirement of system software copies etc. means it can be used by non-Wii owners legally (which I think it probably can, assuming it's not relying on copies of the BIOS/system software).
 

Eteric Rice

Member
Xellos said:
Wow, Wii/GC games clean up good. I really hope that Nintendo takes the emulation route when implementing BC for their next console.

If we're lucky, they'll release a Wii with a hardware revision that does what this emulator does.

Sort of like the DS > DS Lite in a big way. Lol.
 

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
Eteric Rice said:
If we're lucky, they'll release a Wii with a hardware revision that does what this emulator does.

Sort of like the DS > DS Lite in a big way. Lol.

I'd really like that...if demand slackens a little, and if they drop the current Wii drops down to $200, there'd be an opportunity for a 'HD' SKU at $250 or $269 even. It ought not to be so expensive to put a hollywood variant in there that can simply render more pixels (?) Every dev would have to work around the per pixel capabilities of the original, of course, just one SKU would render at a higher res. Maybe throw in a bigger SD card with it too for extra premiumness.

In the meantime this looks like a really nice alternative..even if some games aren't working properly with it.
 

Bluth54

Member
grap3fruitman said:
They make 52" CRT HDTVs? WTF? Since when? That thing must be ridiculously huge and weight a ton.
It's a GE.
Surprisingly it's not that heavy. If I need to get to the connections on the back of the TV I can easily slide it by myself.
 

Xellos

Member
Eteric Rice said:
If we're lucky, they'll release a Wii with a hardware revision that does what this emulator does.

Sort of like the DS > DS Lite in a big way. Lol.

I could see them doing this. They need to relaunch the Wii in Japan anyway.
 

Eteric Rice

Member
Xellos said:
I could see them doing this. They need to relaunch the Wii in Japan anyway.

This is my theory, I just don't know if it's actually possible without using completely different hardware all together.
 

MNC

Member
I'm actually more impressed by the other screens than the Brawl 1080p screens :( Brawl has realley awesome texture work but is really low on shader stuff.

Aspect ratio of other screens look off but are amaaaazing.
 
gofreak said:
So apparently LG 8164B DVD drives can read Wii discs ok?

That being the case, will Dolphin boot them from the drive?

Or will I have to dump them to my PC? Is this illegal, or am I allowed make a copy of my own Wii discs?

Is my own Wii games -> HDD -> Dolphin emu legal?

It's legal if you backup the game yourself. It's illegal if you download a rip of the game, even if you own it.
 

Mamesj

Banned
gofreak said:
I like to know what I'm doing is legal :p

From a 'moral' POV I think it's perfectly fine since I'm paying for the software, I have a Wii, everyone's got 'paid' as far as I'm concerned.

But I just like to know it's all good legally.


I doubt think there's a statute that covers such a specific situation, but it'd be interesting to see if there's case law precedent for it--if someone got sued by the RIAA when they already had copies of a CD or something.
 

Eteric Rice

Member
hateradio said:
Because they didn't have to.

The more and more I think about it, the more and more I think they were just waiting until HD was big enough. When that time comes, they'll release a Wii that can do what this emulator does. I mean sure, it won't have the power to do what some HD games do, but it will likely be fine for most people with HDTVs.

Hopefully if they do, they do it well.
 

markatisu

Member
Eteric Rice said:
The more and more I think about it, the more and more I think they were just waiting until HD was big enough. When that time comes, they'll release a Wii that can do what this emulator does

Big enough and cheap enough, remember Nintendo is still all about profit so if it was not going to turn revenue from Day 1 they were not going to do it, and HD was not going to turn them revenue from Day 1.
 

Eteric Rice

Member
markatisu said:
Big enough and cheap enough, remember Nintendo is still all about profit so if it was not going to turn revenue from Day 1 they were not going to do it, and HD was not going to turn them revenue from Day 1.

I guess the question is, can they add enough "oomph" to the Wii's hardware to make upscaling to HD with anti-aliasing possible? And, can they do it without changing the Wii's price very much?

It's been a little over two years now, I'd imagine they can now.
 

Dacvak

No one shall be brought before our LORD David Bowie without the true and secret knowledge of the Photoshop. For in that time, so shall He appear.
The Wii is probably my primary system
*sigh*
, and I can honestly say this excites the hell out of me.

The only reason I ever use emulators is to up the resolution (and sometimes textures, if available). Perfect Dark in 1080p looks PHENOMENAL.

Unfortunately I probably won't have a computer that can successfully run this Wii emulator perfectly for another 3 years, but I really look forward to then, because this is mad awesome.
 
It seems easy enough for Nintendo to release a slightly more powerful Wii; I'd really appreciate the capability to play my Wii and GCN games at 720p or higher.

I just wonder if they would. The fact that they have no qualms about splitting the DS/DSi market gives me some hope though the obvious issue is that the Wii is nowhere near as popular.
 

Eteric Rice

Member
Rancid Mildew said:
It seems easy enough for Nintendo to release a slightly more powerful Wii; I'd really appreciate the capability to play my Wii and GCN games at 720p or higher.

I just wonder if they would. The fact that they have no qualms about splitting the DS/DSi market gives me some hope though the obvious issue is that the Wii is nowhere near as popular.

The question is what kind of hardware upgrade would it need? I don't think the Broadway chip can get much better than it is.
 

Karish

Member
Has anyone posted a how-to for this stuff... even the gamecube emulation? Also, what specs do we need to be able to play this stuff at a solid frame-rate?
 

M3d10n

Member
Eteric Rice said:
I guess the question is, can they add enough "oomph" to the Wii's hardware to make upscaling to HD with anti-aliasing possible? And, can they do it without changing the Wii's price very much?

It's been a little over two years now, I'd imagine they can now.
*sigh* Did you skip over all posts explaining the difference between upscaling and higher resolution rendering?

To make it simple: no, Nintendo will not release a Wii revision capable of rendering Wii games at higher resolutions natively. Why? Here's why:

1) Overriding the game's original resolution can result in visual glitches in some games. It would require intensive game-by-game testing (playing them from start to end), with game-specific tweaks or hacks for the affected ones.

2) The hardware would need a higher spec in order to keep the same performance at higher resolutions. Determining how much faster it would need to avoid introducing new slowdowns (or even glitches) isn't easy. Too low and games might slowdown, too high and you have an expensive machine. Also, it's unknown if the Wii architecture can be clocked up further than it already is without moving to a new CPU and GPU. Which would break the native BC and require emulation BC (which needs even more power).

Now, a Wii capable of upscaling is entirely possible, since the VI chip (which handles the final video output) could be changed without the games even knowing about it. But with more and more TVs coming with decent scalers, would it be worth it for Nintendo? Maybe an HDMI Wii. Maybe.
 

Raistlin

Post Count: 9999
Guybrush Threepwood said:
You can argue that Wii hardware isn't "current-gen" hardware, but this is still astounding.

Certainly is impressive ... but the argument does kind of make this a special case.
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
What kind of filtering is being applied to the textures? They look pretty good for being upscaled.
 

pakkit

Banned
Eteric Rice, you think Nintendo's going to release an upgrade/redesign, ala Gameboy/DS models? Since they didn't do it with the Gamecube, I just kind of wrote it out of my memory. I think an updated Wii with Motion+ integrated Wiimotes, 780p, and a beefier internal harddrive would be an absolute nerdgasm, but I really doubt it'll happen. Maybe if sales start dipping this year, now that supply has outweighed demand, Nintendo might have to consider some sort of stimulus, but I see them saving their money and just lowering the Wii console to 200 dollars, a price which still turns them a profit.
 

Eteric Rice

Member
M3d10n said:
*sigh* Did you skip over all posts explaining the difference between upscaling and higher resolution rendering?

To make it simple: no, Nintendo will not release a Wii revision capable of rendering Wii games at higher resolutions natively. Why? Here's why:

1) Overriding the game's original resolution can result in visual glitches in some games. It would require intensive game-by-game testing (playing them from start to end), with game-specific tweaks or hacks for the affected ones.

2) The hardware would need a higher spec in order to keep the same performance at higher resolutions. Determining how much faster it would need to avoid introducing new slowdowns (or even glitches) isn't easy. Too low and games might slowdown, too high and you have an expensive machine. Also, it's unknown if the Wii architecture can be clocked up further than it already is without moving to a new CPU and GPU. Which would break the native BC and require emulation BC (which needs even more power).

Now, a Wii capable of upscaling is entirely possible, since the VI chip (which handles the final video output) could be changed without the games even knowing about it. But with more and more TVs coming with decent scalers, would it be worth it for Nintendo? Maybe an HDMI Wii. Maybe.

How well would upscaling work, though? What would that look like?

And lets say they did do a system that could render in HD, couldn't they just patch in fixes for games that glitch?
 
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