Splinter Cell Launching With Wii.

[The fish]

Folks on IGN boards say these are Xbox360 screens because the Wii has worse ghapics than a xbox.

 

On account of their stupidity, airstrikes have been arranged:awesome:. Time to targets: 2 minutes 37 seconds...

[DCK]

:shock: Those screenies are rather arousing. Though I could imagine they're 360 shots.

[mario_jr]

So wait, BigTac was right? I think this decision has been made very recently though...

 

Right about what? Remind me?

[pedrocasilva]

Supposedly the Xbox has the ability to do things built into its hardware that the Wii cant do, since Wii is an extension of the Gamecube and although the Gamecube and Xbox weren't that far apart in power before, there were things the Xbox could do and the Gamecube couldn't respectively. It seems to have something to do with stuff like certain forms of texture mapping or something.

That's in no way hard to pull on GC, Factor 5, Capcom, Nintendo and others did those. through diferent methods but the capability is definetly there.

 

Factor 5 interview:

Planet GameCube: How flexible and useful is Gekko in assisting Flipper with custom lighting and geometry? Are you using this feature? Does it compare to the vertex and pixel shaders on the Xbox's graphics chip?

 

Julian Eggebrecht: Maybe without going into too much detail, we don’t think there is anything visually you could do on X-Box (or PS2) which can’t be done on GameCube. I have read theories on the net about Flipper not being able to do cube-mapped environment maps, fur shading, self-shadowing etc... That’s all plain wrong. Rogue does extensive self-shadowing and both cube-maps and fur shading are not anymore complicated to implement on GameCube than on X-Box. You might be doing it differently, but the results are the same. When I said that X-Box and GameCube are on par power-wise I really meant it.

Source: http://www.planetgamecube.com/specialArt.cfm?artid=1906&CFID=11151805&CFTOKEN=aa2c549f1ef80fd7-7CB32E68-C09F-3E62-05BF68C7F058F7E6

 

We've gotta see that GC is a custom graphics chip, that does not obey to PC standards like a Geforce 3 did. But it doesn't mean it's any harder to push the same result, it means though that a port from, say, Xbox, has to be adapted. but that holds true for pretty much every port.

 

There's more things that GC did and Xbox could only dream about, than the other way around.

 

The achiles heel of GC was the total amount of RAM, lack of mini-DVD space, and the fact that, unlike Microsoft, Nintendo wouldn't support the extra cost of PS2 ports featuring better graphics.

 

Xbox strenghts is applying 4x AA with less hit, being able to do higher resolution output (also with less hit), and arguably a "toy story" color pallete that gives the models a much more "plastic look" due to flashier colors (over the top, if I might add) that is commonly misunderstood as "better graphics", but it isn't, GC has the best color pallete out of last generation consoles. (much better for games like Resident Evil 4) PS2 for instance had the darkest color pallete.

 

Other than that... GC hardware could do so much more.

 

Ubisoft promised back when Splinter Cell came out on Xbox that "gamecube version would be just s bit as good", but it wasn't because ubisoft asigned montreal to do a Splinter Cell 2 instead of the ports, those were done by shangai. And we got the PS2-based port... now... GC was the only of the console versions to run at a fixed 60 fps... and it had the best looking water... is that coming from a inferior system? or a inferior port?

[DCK]

Yeah, IGN mentioned that the Wii couldn't do normal mapping while Rebel Strike did it it with barely any hit on the hardware. The Cube could do virtually anything shader-wise as long as it didn't stress the hardware too much. I suppose, considering the Wii can't do normal mapping traditionally, that the Wii's shader hardware is similar to the Cube's, but seeing SMG and Red Steel it's expanded tremendously.

[N-Man]

Hi new here,

 

Who is this BigTac guy you all talking about? What did he say about Ubisoft?

[DCK]

He's some guy that posted all these vague facts on Nintendo, mainly before last E3. It was all minor news that was likely to be announced anyway, and there was little to prove him wrong. There was little to prove him right though.

[pedrocasilva]

Yeah, IGN mentioned that the Wii couldn't do normal mapping while Rebel Strike did it it with barely any hit on the hardware. The Cube could do virtually anything shader-wise as long as it didn't stress the hardware too much. I suppose, considering the Wii can't do normal mapping traditionally, that the Wii's shader hardware is similar to the Cube's, but seeing SMG and Red Steel it's expanded tremendously.

IGN are dorks though... They often talk gibberish about what they don't know, and suddently all the industry takes it as the inevitable truth, or something.

 

GC doesn't do nearly as many RAW polygons as Xbox's Geforce 3 (the RAW number Microsoft gave are inflated though), but what matters is textured polygons... now... GC does a shitload more of textured polygons than Xbox simply because it takes little hit in doing so, with any kind of texture maps, that's not even a contest.

 

As for Red Steel... I don't see it as a system pusher, it looks good, but just a few months ago it was a GC game and although it looks better it's still a game that with a little tune down could run on GC, at a fixed 30 fps, sure they are using the extra power on CPU/GPU, extra memory, and the wiimote, but it still isn't a game made from ground for it, and a game who pushes it in every possible way. There will be better looking games on Wii. (great for launch though, and we don't know how much it'll improve till it launchs).

[N-Man]

oh another one of those guys who seem to know things before E3 06.

 

But what was some of the things he said directly on Ubisoft in relation to Wii.

[DCK]

As for Red Steel... I don't see it as a system pusher, it looks good, but just a few months ago it was a GC game and although it looks better it's still a game that with a little tune down could run on GC, at a fixed 30 fps, sure they are using the extra power on CPU/GPU, extra memory, and the wiimote, but it still isn't a game made from ground for it, and a game who pushes it in every possible way. There will be better looking games on Wii. (great for launch though, and we don't know how much it'll improve till it launchs).

That's true, Red Steel is too sloppy with graphics it seems, even though they've now licensed the Unreal Engine 2.5 to do the work. The game however does seem rather shader intensive, and I doubt screens like these could've been made if the Cube's shading system wasn't upgraded:

It looks so shiny :awesome:

[pedrocasilva]

oh another one of those guys who seem to know things before E3 06.

 

But what was some of the things he said directly on Ubisoft in relation to Wii.

 

13-11-2005

I can not say(nda). But as far as 3rd party support Ubisoft is just killing it on the Revolution. Of course I don't know what every developer is doing but from what I have seen Ubisoft seem to be very close with Nintendo since they found out about the Revolution earlier this year. I visit Ubisoft in January.

Source: http://www.n-europe.com/forum/showpost.php?p=43710&postcount=13

 

16-11-2005

This is what I know on titles being developed Ubisoft= 2-3 titles including a exclusive.

Source: http://www.n-europe.com/forum/showpost.php?p=45644&postcount=9

 

17-11-2005

Ubisoft = 5 titles / 3 for launch date. I think this number will of course increase, from what people at Ubi have talked to me about system. I think Ubisoft will have lots of people talking when they show off their Revolution software.

Source: http://www.n-europe.com/forum/showpost.php?p=46336&postcount=1

 

02-03-2006

As you know in January I visit Ubisoft and came back here and announced/confirmed titles they have coming to the Revolution. In early Febuary I recieved word from them that some of the things they revealed to me have changed a bit. But unfortunatly I am not allowed to talk about what they told me. I am expeting that IGN will be updating with a few more Ubisoft titles very soon, along with some other 3rd parties.

Source: http://www.n-europe.com/forum/showpost.php?p=98094&postcount=1

 

Take your own conclusions

 

EDIT:

That's true, Red Steel is too sloppy with graphics it seems, even though they've now licensed the Unreal Engine 2.5 to do the work. The game however does seem rather shader intensive, and I doubt screens like these could've been made if the Cube's shading system wasn't upgraded:

It looks so shiny :awesome:

No doubt, it's now using the Wii hardware to his advantage, the shadows of the NPC's are also very good.

 

they're probably also using extra the CPU power mainly for AI (they said the AI would be pretty good) and all, it's just that descarted from these, it's perfectly possible in GC with those polycounts. We're bound to see better.

 

EDIT2: just noticed in that pic you've shown... they still havent fixed the bushes, they're still vertical cardboards... I sure hope to see those fixed upon release.

[gj15987]

 

w00t! He's wearing converse lol!

[Dante]

On IGN wii boards a person is saying we should blank 3rd parties games on wii because you can buy the better graphics version on a xbox360.

Hope folks on here dont think the same as this person?

[pedrocasilva]

On IGN wii boards a person is saying we should blank 3rd parties games on wii because you can buy the better graphics version on a xbox360.

Hope folks on here dont think the same as this person?

That is just a typical dork, they exist pretty much everywhere.

 

Wii's selling point is the diferent gameplay, for people with Wii and a PS3/X360 the questions is: if the gameplay happens to be diferent for the better, or the gamer just wants a diferent experience... he should go with the wii version, if he wants HD graphics... well, I think the answer is obvious.

 

Still there's always people who only have one console per generation and will support Wii attemps...

 

Also this "gamer" is bound to have a PS2 this generation, maybe, it's his only console, as most gamers in the world... this console had very inferior graphics... but did people pass on it's third party attemps for a console with better graphics? I think not.

 

In the end it's what he thinks, but not how it works alltogether, and if Wii manages to have a big userbase... there's nothing he can do about it.

[DiemetriX]

I have a 360 and a will get a Wii.

So when a game is multiplatform It's going to be a hard choice. Most of the time I will go for the 360 version :/ But if a game if better on Wii gameplay vise I will buy it on Wii.

[DCK]

It seems the Wii version is much like a ported GameCube Splinter Cell. The 360 version is a dedicated one with more missions it seems, so I'd go for that one. Splinter Cell doesn't play that badly with a traditional controller.

[Owen]

I have a 360 and a will get a Wii.

So when a game is multiplatform It's going to be a hard choice. Most of the time I will go for the 360 version :/ But if a game if better on Wii gameplay vise I will buy it on Wii.

 

I have the same dilemma!

 

Call of Duty 3 was a tough choice, but i'm going for the 360 version. I want a multiplayer and i want the most realistic graphics for that, because it adds to the feel of being at War.

 

I will miss out on the innovative Wii controls though...but hey!

 

I may buy Splinter Cell on the Wii though...not sure. Hopefully they will use the controls to the best of there ability.