Posted May 25, 2006 To be fair they have been developing it since 2004 and had most likely been using Cube systems or modified Cube systems. That's right. I've no doubt that the Wii is capable of far more than Metroid Prime 3 showed us. Metroid Prime 3 looked great, don't get me wrong, but it didn't look as though they were really pushing the Wii hardware. The reason for this is that they're still migrating from GameCube development to Wii development. The E3 demo only showed off higher resolution textures and some cool graphics effects - both shouldn't have taken them long to make on the Wii hardware. You don't really see the real benefits of working long with the final hardware in the demo, so I think they've only had a month or so to make a Wii demo. There's still plenty room for improvement left, and I think it'll look even better by launch. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted May 25, 2006 I think it's the opposite. You'll probably see games that are pushing the system to it's limits very early on. Just like with the cube. Metroid prime came pretty early, and there's only been slight improvements in graphics for the sequel. This is something that I read from EDGE on the early days of gamecube. The developers said that the developing for cube was so easy that they could push it to the limits easily. The N64 was different because it was a bitch to develop games for. But the games on E3 ran on modified cubes didn't they? So I expect the games to look a bit better in the final version. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted May 25, 2006 Cube improved quite a lot during its lifetime. Noone imagined games to look as great as Resident Evil 4 or Twilight Princess on the Cube. It's true that Metroid Prime 1 pushed the Cube quite early, but that was the only game to do so. Anyway what I meant to say is that Metroid Prime 3 is developed for the GameCube and they're only just moving it to the Wii, as the Wii development kits are only there for a few months. That's why it looks similar to Metroid Prime 1 and 2. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted May 25, 2006 Very few games push the GC, because devs are lazy to take advantage of its shaders and whatnot. GC can do more than XBOX imagine what good devs can do on an updated GC with much better RAM, more clockspeed and 9GB DVDs... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted May 27, 2006 ummmm quick question guys. i have been looking at some pics of the wiimote and something struck me as slightly odd. why is there a big black infra red cover on the front of the wiimote if it uses bluetooth? and im sure they wouldnt put it there just to make it 'look' more like a remote, would they? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted May 27, 2006 The infared is for the pointing device. The bluetooth is for the gyros, buttons and speaker/microphone. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted May 27, 2006 ummmm quick question guys. i have been looking at some pics of the wiimote and something struck me as slightly odd. why is there a big black infra red cover on the front of the wiimote if it uses bluetooth? and im sure they wouldnt put it there just to make it 'look' more like a remote, would they? The wiimote uses both. That's how they can combine all the functions. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted May 27, 2006 The wiimote uses both. That's how they can combine all the functions. The infra red is for sensing 3d positon. Bluetooth communicates data with the console Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted May 27, 2006 Infrared can't be used to sense position. It's terrible for that. I thought it was only used for turning the Wii on and off out of sleep mode, so the wireless hardware can be shut down. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted May 27, 2006 AFAI understand the wii-mote works in the opposite way as a remote control. The Wii's sensor bar emits an infra-red field with which the wii-mote senses and uses to figure out where it is in 3d space. - whereas a remote control emits an infra-red pulse that the telly picks up. I could be wrong though. I probably am so correct me if indeed i am. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted May 27, 2006 Probably no, as the only info that I have been able to dig up on that is the infrared field emitted by the bar. Someone will probably take the thing to pieces and find out how it works when the console is launched though. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted May 27, 2006 The infra red is for sensing 3d positon. Bluetooth communicates data with the console Well almost, sensing is not the best of terms here. Sensor bar is a misleading term. It just registrates distance. The bluetooth is used for the information from the wii-mote to the console, like button info, sound, etc. Holding the wiimote as in Exite truck, you will only use the Bluetooth functionality, and not the infra red. In Red steel, Metroid and zelda, you will use both. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted May 27, 2006 Miamoto said that you`ll be able to put your face in Wii Sports as he did on E3... Do you think there`s a built-in camera or something ? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted May 27, 2006 Yeah that's a good point. He did say characateur though, so it may be a "make yourself a face" editing suite. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted May 27, 2006 Miamoto said that you`ll be able to put your face in Wii Sports as he did on E3...Do you think there`s a built-in camera? no, as you saw they hadn't real photos textured in them... it's just the implementation of Stage Debut technology... here you go: -> http://cube.ign.com/objects/482/482801.html This stage debut technology was initially just a new implentation of Talent Maker for 64DD ported over for gamecube... As Nintendo Wii will probably have a bundle with all those features, called Mario Paint you'll probably edit stuff there (like you did on 64DD) and just import it to a game you want, last but not least... 64DD allowed you to send a photo by e-mail import it and edit it on the software... probably Wii supports that aswell as SD cards and maybe wireless LAN acess to your PC for photo's, they can't go wrong as long as they play their cards right. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted May 27, 2006 no, as you saw they hadn't real photos textured in them... it's just the implementation of Stage Debut technology... here you go: -> http://cube.ign.com/objects/482/482801.html This stage debut technology was initially just a new implentation of Talent Maker for 64DD ported over for gamecube... As Nintendo Wii will probably have a bundle with all those features, called Mario Paint you'll probably edit stuff there (like you did on 64DD) and just import it to a game you want, last but not least... 64DD allowed you to send a photo by e-mail import it and edit it on the software... probably Wii supports that aswell as SD cards and maybe wireless LAN acess to your PC for photo's, they can't go wrong as long as they play their cards right. ha!, this Wii console is going to be so much fun! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted May 27, 2006 Miamoto said that you`ll be able to put your face in Wii Sports as he did on E3...Do you think there`s a built-in camera or something ? Yeah, I think it's quite likely, I actually made a post about the possibility of it sometime this morning, can't remember which thread though. If not built in then as an extra, having it built in would make the Wii cost more.. Maybe it'll be under the flap? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted May 28, 2006 Maybe it's something to do with that camera add-on, that was meant to come out on Gamecube, way back! Who Knows?!? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted May 28, 2006 IGN confirmed some time ago that development kits for Wii would be significantly cheaper, as well as Reggie. With an updated look, warioworld.com now confirms it, by allowing the possiblity of ordering Wii dev kits, with an estimate price that ranges from 2,500$ to 10,000$. Even in its highest price form, it is still cheaper than other development kits of other systems. http://www.warioworld.com/apply/wii.html Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted May 28, 2006 Maybe you put your face onto Wii Sports and others by tracing your face with the FHC. Sure would look silly but hey ho. Yeah camera is more likely, but lets think outside the box. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted May 28, 2006 Some bad news, from the most recent Wii podcast at IGN which can be found here Apparently the Wii doesn't support "shader effects" such as "normal mapping", effects that are actually available on Xbox. This isn't a case of power really here, in this case apparently it's because of the fact that since the Wii hardware is an extention of the Gamecube's, it basically can do the same kind of stuff, but due to the extra power it can do more of it, with some more polygons and higher resolution textures and what not. Before anyone goes off calling this fake or any rubbish again by the way, Matt and Mark make sure to clarify many times, very clearly that they would not be saying anything like this if they weren't near 99.9% sure it was absolutely true. He also talks about how the documentation of the system specs developers have been working with has not changed at all in a very long time and does not appear that it's going to change. What this also means by the way is that you can't expect Metroid Prime 3 to change much. It's not going to, because quite simply the effects to make it look much more impressive like you're looking for simply aren't there. The game is going to have improved lighting over the Prime games, much larger areas, more enemies, some fancier visual effects like the charge beam, voice acting, maybe slightly higher polycounts and higher res textures and possibly other improvements that extra disc space allows, but it is not going to look like a different game completely compared to the Prime's and it is not going to change very much from now until release. On another random note, Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam was definitely running on advanced Wii hardware apparently, make of that what you will. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted May 28, 2006 Some bad news, from the most recent Wii podcast at IGN which can be found here Apparently the Wii doesn't support "shader effects" such as "normal mapping", effects that are actually available on Xbox. This isn't a case of power really here, in this case apparently it's because of the fact that since the Wii hardware is an extention of the Gamecube's, it basically can do the same kind of stuff, but due to the extra power it can do more of it, with some more polygons and higher resolution textures and what not. Before anyone goes off calling this fake or any rubbish again by the way, Matt and Mark make sure to clarify many times, very clearly that they would not be saying anything like this if they weren't near 99.9% sure it was absolutely true. He also talks about how the documentation of the system specs developers have been working with has not changed at all in a very long time and does not appear that it's going to change. What this also means by the way is that you can't expect Metroid Prime 3 to change much. It's not going to, because quite simply the effects to make it look much more impressive like you're looking for simply aren't there. The game is going to have improved lighting over the Prime games, much larger areas, more enemies, some fancier visual effects like the charge beam, voice acting, maybe slightly higher polycounts and higher res textures and possibly other improvements that extra disc space allows, but it is not going to look like a different game completely compared to the Prime's and it is not going to change very much from now until release. On another random note, Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam was definitely running on advanced Wii hardware apparently, make of that what you will. I thought Prime 3 looked great anyway, so I don't really mind this. And Tony Hawks on advanced hardware....hmmm Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted May 28, 2006 To be honest, I don't really trust Matt's indside opinion on the hardware front now. Anyway just because it doesn't support "some" shader effects doesn't mena that it won't be supporting others or have other specialised technologies. It doesn't mean that MP3 won't change that much. Adding a mass load of extra lighting effects, level design and game design are gonna have a lot more of an impact than a couple of shading effects. This is why I hate tech talks.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted May 28, 2006 Some bad news, from the most recent Wii podcast at IGN which can be found here Apparently the Wii doesn't support "shader effects" such as "normal mapping", effects that are actually available on Xbox. This isn't a case of power really here, in this case apparently it's because of the fact that since the Wii hardware is an extention of the Gamecube's, it basically can do the same kind of stuff, but due to the extra power it can do more of it, with some more polygons and higher resolution textures and what not. Before anyone goes off calling this fake or any rubbish again by the way, Matt and Mark make sure to clarify many times, very clearly that they would not be saying anything like this if they weren't near 99.9% sure it was absolutely true. He also talks about how the documentation of the system specs developers have been working with has not changed at all in a very long time and does not appear that it's going to change. What this also means by the way is that you can't expect Metroid Prime 3 to change much. It's not going to, because quite simply the effects to make it look much more impressive like you're looking for simply aren't there. The game is going to have improved lighting over the Prime games, much larger areas, more enemies, some fancier visual effects like the charge beam, voice acting, maybe slightly higher polycounts and higher res textures and possibly other improvements that extra disc space allows, but it is not going to look like a different game completely compared to the Prime's and it is not going to change very much from now until release. On another random note, Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam was definitely running on advanced Wii hardware apparently, make of that what you will. although nobody knows for sure (ATI is still working on Wii components) it's pretty much a no go for shaders. Shader effects can be done with software, but that will consume a lot of working power. The Gamescube didn't support it either and develloping for the Wii is the same as develloping for the Gamecube. I'm still hoping for it though (but i;m also still hoping for HD support and 5.1 digital surround.) What is shocking to me is that Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam is running on Wii hardware... That's the ugliest game i've seen in years..... We'll probably have to wait untill the TGS in september what the Wii is finaly capabel of in terms of graphics. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted May 28, 2006 gamecube has shaders it just does them on other way than the standard Xbox/PC way... but compared to Xbox they are better, how do you think they can make skinning, volumetric fog, fur effect? GC does them much better than Xbox... also games like Wind Waker would be impossible without shaders... IGN is being pretty ignorant, again... and for the record as far as I recall Nintendo didn't show final hardware on E3, on the GPU's side, how can IGN know so much about a incomplete chip? only Nintendo knows about that... yes they might be right, but they are being stupid when GC HAD shaders... look at Mario Galaxy, and Metroid Prime 3 (who has confirmed bloom) and say it lacks shaders... yeah right! the maximum they could say is that it doesn't have shaders complaint with Pixel Shader x.0 lol, just like GC is not compliant with Pixel Shader 1.3 but it does everything it does in a diferent way, but... not more dificult... that's means it's the same damn thing to me. god I hate those assholes at IGN, each time they talk I've got to explain why they are wrong with people overacting in the forums. Shader effects can be done with software, but that will consume a lot of working power. The Gamescube didn't support it either and develloping for the Wii is the same as develloping for the Gamecube.they aren't done on software on GC, infact they are much faster than on Xbox... allow me to explain GC process... Fixed T&L -> programmable ISA, so they just program direcly into the ISA like if it is a vertex/pixel shader, with awesome results, the games I menationed above wouldn't even be possible without that, and Xbox has a lot of problems with fur effect, conker has nowhere near as fur as SFA and the fur(ed) areas have bigger fur because more than that and Xbox simply couldn't handle it, Kameo on Xbox (before X360) was completly stripped out of fur effect. GC shaders are not complaint with computers but it doesn basically the same thing, so it means shaders. What is shocking to me is that Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam is running on Wii hardware... That's the ugliest game i've seen in years.....Red steel was ported in 2 weeks for Wii, so Tony hawk must be the same, it's almost a direct port and you don't gain polygon counts or texture resolution just by doing that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
