Wii Developer Info

[SpinesN]

Just snapped these pics a few seconds ago. Please enjoy

 

Pics:

No I don't know what those libraries are (specifically) and yes that is my hand :p

[phez_boy]

hmmmm very interesting... if only i could understand all that techniqual jargon.

[SpinesN]

Well I did a bit of research on CRI

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRI_Middleware

And from what I can tell I think the CRI middle ware will mainly be used for virtual console games. The CRI ROFS is an image management system (think CD ISOs) so I presume that the only images needed will be those of virtual console games (since wii games will have the real disk present). Reading ADX and Sound Factory further my belife since they seem to be aimed at low cpu usage and simpliciy (real wii games will still need to be complex to take full advantage of hardware). Sofdec is an interesting one for one reason, it claims multistreaming. I am not really sure what that is but I would guess it means streaming being able to have more than one game world on screen at once (again virtual console since wii games will by in large be to stressing on the hardware to have two of them at once).

 

Nice to have more middleware available but I think it will be used more for virtual console games than new games. It should also be noted that almost no games are made using middleware. Anyway hope this has been a help and remember it's just my view that nintendo wanted this for VC uses

[DCK]

Using Havok FX and GPU technology, developers will be able to implement a range of physical effects...

I'd say it's pretty definite now that there's physics acceleration on the Wii's shaders.

[SpinesN]

Indeed unless that is some major spin being put on those words :p

[goku21]

and havok fx runs only on sm 3.0 hardware!!!!!!!!!!

[ndreamer]

i don't think so, maybe it has some extensions in flipper to do physics.

[SpinesN]

and currently havok fx runs only on sm 3.0 hardware!!!!!!!!!!

Fixed that for ya :p

 

Also physics calculations would require much more than a few extensions to the flipper. This is a whole new chip.

[Konfucius]

I haven't read the article (yet) but gamestar.de reports that C.E.O. Dave Orton said there won't be any physic calculation on an ATI GPU for the next 9 to 12 month.

 

Could this mean that the Wii will have a PPU after all?

[SpinesN]

I haven't read the article (yet) but gamestar.de reports that C.E.O. Dave Orton said there won't be any physic calculation on an ATI GPU for the next 9 to 12 month.

 

Could this mean that the Wii will have a PPU after all?

 

Havok FX is not "true" physics. It is simply effects physics (the new objects don't interact with anything) so this will be used for dust, water, etc... things that do not need to interact with the rest of the game world.

[DCK]

I haven't read the article (yet) but gamestar.de reports that C.E.O. Dave Orton said there won't be any physic calculation on an ATI GPU for the next 9 to 12 month.

They won't be putting it in their PC hardware anytime soon because they don't feel it's worth the investment, especially considering their low end cards would really suffer from the extra calculations on the shaders.

 

The Wii is a console with a specific design and games made for that specific design. It would only make it better to have it have physics acceleration. ATI has proudly shown off a shader physics engine and they didn't do it for nothing.

 

Also, the text specifically says GPU technology - that means the technology is actually onboard the GPU, which would mean physics on shaders. That would imply Shader Model 3 technology in the Hollywood, which in its turn means quite some redesigns in the Flipper design.