A
AirRaid Mach 2.5
with grain of salt in hand, you can read some VERY interesting,
though very much unconfirmed, and even possibly bogus, technical
information (very simple stuff) regarding the ATI "Hollywood" graphics
processor (GPU) for the Nintendo Revolution, now known as the Nintendo
Wii.
As well as Broadway's (the CPU) power compared to other CPUs, and the
console's performance overall. Plus the amount of RAM embedded into
the Hollywood GPU. They're saying 8 MB total (embedded) which is
significantly more than the 3.12 MB of 1T-SRAM embedded into Gamecube's
Flipper GPU.
coincidentally / incidentally, the Gamecube, when it was known as
Dolphin, was SUPPOSED to have AT LEAST 8 MB of 1T-SRAM embedded into
the Flipper GPU. but when Gamecube spec was fully revealed in August
2000 at Space World, a less powerful console had emerged with less main
memory and less embedded memory in Flipper, than what was expected when
the console was known as Dolphin.
back to these POSSIBLE revelations regarding Wii's graphics and overall
processing capabilities, it suggests that Wii is significantly more
powerful than 1.5x ~ 2x Gamecube, roughly closer to 4x, in some areas,
such as pixel fillrate.
Gamecube - Flipper fillrate:
648 Mpixels/sec (4 pixel pipes * 162 MHz)
Wii - Hollywood *possible* *estimated* fillrate:
~1944 Mpixels/sec (8 pixel pipes * 243 MHz)
the nicest comment is, supposedly all games are being targeted towards
60fps (in 480p). This is something I've wanted since the Dreamcast, but
it has not happened so far. not on PS2, Gamecube or Xbox, and not even
with "next-gen" Xbox360 games and upcoming PS3 games. I was spoiled
on consistant 60fps games from Namco and SEGA in the arcades, beginning
with Ridge Racer in 1993, continuing through the Sega MODEL-2 and
MODEL-3 generation arcade games of the mid-late 1990s.
Even if this Nintendo Wii "news" turns out to be true, the Nintendo Wii
would still NOT be as powerful as either Xbox360 or PlayStation3,
though significantly better than a "Gamecube 1.5x" ....many gamers
have been upset, up in arms about the strong indications from IGN that
this would be the case.
okay without further delay, here is the SUPPOSED interview with the
SUPPOSED new info on Wii hardware, especially the ATI graphics
processor:
http://www.easynintendo.net/viewtopic.php?t=9
QUOTE:
_________________________________________________________________________
Easy Nintendo: First i would like to thank you for this interview, it
really means alot to us here at Easy Nintendo.
Red Steel got alot of attention at E3 this year, what is Ubisofts
reaction to that?
Xavier Poix: Well we are very happy that everyone got to experience it
for themselves and that many of them came away pleased.
EN: How is the online multiplayer going to work? how many players, what
sort of modes will it have?
XP: Unfortunately i cannot comment on anything new in regard to
multiplayer at this time other than to say it will have most if not all
of the standard modes you would expect from a first person shooter.
EN: Can you comment on the price?
XP: (laughs) Sorry.
EN: How about the Wii hardware? What are the specs?
XP: Although i cannot give you exact numbers at this time i can give
you a rough idea about the power of the machine. I would compare the
graphics chip to somewhere inbetween the ATI Radeon X1400 and the
Radeon X1600, and the CPU to between the AthlonXP 2400+ and the
AthlonXP 3000+.
EN: Can you tell us how much memory at what speed the Wii has?
XP: I cannot say how much memory the Wii has, but its running at
650mhz.
EN: As we saw in many current-gen titles, 480p can result in
significant jaggies. Can we expect AA and AF from Ubisoft's Wii titles?
XP: Red steel will have 4x Antialiasing and 8x Anisotropic Filtering.
EN: What's been your favorite thing about working on Red Steel?
XP: The controller, easily.
EN: What was the biggest challenge?
XP: Not telling the world about it back in january (laughs). Honestly
the biggest challenge has been making sure the control is just right.
EN: Will Rayman on the Wii be a port of the current-gen game with new
controls, or will it have new art assets for Wii?
XP: Its not a port, other than that i cannot say.
EN: We've been hearing a lot of consistent talk about 60fps at 480p
widescreen from other developers. Is this something we'll see a lot of
on Wii?
XP: I believe so yes.
EN: Why is this target so easy to hit?
XP: The hardware is totally free of bottlenecks, nothing is slowing us
down.
EN: For us graphics whores, what kind of sweet graphical effects will
we see in Red Steel or Rayman that we haven't
seen in Gamecube games?
XP: We have alot of self shadowing going on, also we will have some
normal maps and bump maps things like that.
EN: Will there be any innovative uses of physics in Rayman?
XP: Quite a few interesting things with physics in both Red Steel and
in Rayman. We've got ragdoll in Red Steel for
example.
EN: You said that you were using FEAR as inspiration for Red Steel's
AI. How is that shaping up?
XP: Yes, we loved FEAR and we tried to draw alot from it in terms of
AI. In Red Steel the AI will throw grenades
back at you, it will duck for cover and also try to flank you. Many
things.
EN: Will we see any sort of single disc network play like you have on
the DS?
XP: No comment.
EN: Will Sam Fisher be making a return to Nintendo's home console?
XP: At some point.
EN: Lost Magic was one of the first compelling 3rd-party games for the
DS in a while. Does Ubisoft have any more big
plans for the handheld?
XP: We do, keep an eye on the Tokyo Gameshow.
EN: What was your favorite Ubisoft Gamecube title?
XP: Prince of Persia (all of them)
EN: Speaking of Prince of Persia, will we be seeing more acrobatic
platforming adventures on Wii?
XP: No comment.
EN: Metroid Hunters was an amazing feat on the DS. Any chance that Ubi
will enter the fray with an FPS of their own?
XP: Possibly.
EN: Could you possibly tell us anything specific about the Wii GPU?
XP: I can tell you that it has double the number of pixel pipelines (of
gamecube), and that it processes physics. It really takes a huge load
off of the cpu.
EN: Is the T&L setup fixed function like it was on the gamecube?
XP: No, fully programmable.
EN: How much Edram does it have?
XP: 2MB for the framebuffer 2MB for the Zbuffer and 4MB for texture
cache. Unfortunately I am out of time, id like to come back for another
interview sometime.
EN: Thank you very much Mr. Poix.
________________________________________________
it'll be interesting to see if this supposed info holds up, and how it
compares to whatever the truth really is regarding Nintendo Wii's
performance (lol that sounds ****ing funny) specifically *graphics*
performance/capabilities.
Wii shall see, won't wii ?
though very much unconfirmed, and even possibly bogus, technical
information (very simple stuff) regarding the ATI "Hollywood" graphics
processor (GPU) for the Nintendo Revolution, now known as the Nintendo
Wii.
As well as Broadway's (the CPU) power compared to other CPUs, and the
console's performance overall. Plus the amount of RAM embedded into
the Hollywood GPU. They're saying 8 MB total (embedded) which is
significantly more than the 3.12 MB of 1T-SRAM embedded into Gamecube's
Flipper GPU.
coincidentally / incidentally, the Gamecube, when it was known as
Dolphin, was SUPPOSED to have AT LEAST 8 MB of 1T-SRAM embedded into
the Flipper GPU. but when Gamecube spec was fully revealed in August
2000 at Space World, a less powerful console had emerged with less main
memory and less embedded memory in Flipper, than what was expected when
the console was known as Dolphin.
back to these POSSIBLE revelations regarding Wii's graphics and overall
processing capabilities, it suggests that Wii is significantly more
powerful than 1.5x ~ 2x Gamecube, roughly closer to 4x, in some areas,
such as pixel fillrate.
Gamecube - Flipper fillrate:
648 Mpixels/sec (4 pixel pipes * 162 MHz)
Wii - Hollywood *possible* *estimated* fillrate:
~1944 Mpixels/sec (8 pixel pipes * 243 MHz)
the nicest comment is, supposedly all games are being targeted towards
60fps (in 480p). This is something I've wanted since the Dreamcast, but
it has not happened so far. not on PS2, Gamecube or Xbox, and not even
with "next-gen" Xbox360 games and upcoming PS3 games. I was spoiled
on consistant 60fps games from Namco and SEGA in the arcades, beginning
with Ridge Racer in 1993, continuing through the Sega MODEL-2 and
MODEL-3 generation arcade games of the mid-late 1990s.
Even if this Nintendo Wii "news" turns out to be true, the Nintendo Wii
would still NOT be as powerful as either Xbox360 or PlayStation3,
though significantly better than a "Gamecube 1.5x" ....many gamers
have been upset, up in arms about the strong indications from IGN that
this would be the case.
okay without further delay, here is the SUPPOSED interview with the
SUPPOSED new info on Wii hardware, especially the ATI graphics
processor:
http://www.easynintendo.net/viewtopic.php?t=9
QUOTE:
_________________________________________________________________________
Easy Nintendo: First i would like to thank you for this interview, it
really means alot to us here at Easy Nintendo.
Red Steel got alot of attention at E3 this year, what is Ubisofts
reaction to that?
Xavier Poix: Well we are very happy that everyone got to experience it
for themselves and that many of them came away pleased.
EN: How is the online multiplayer going to work? how many players, what
sort of modes will it have?
XP: Unfortunately i cannot comment on anything new in regard to
multiplayer at this time other than to say it will have most if not all
of the standard modes you would expect from a first person shooter.
EN: Can you comment on the price?
XP: (laughs) Sorry.
EN: How about the Wii hardware? What are the specs?
XP: Although i cannot give you exact numbers at this time i can give
you a rough idea about the power of the machine. I would compare the
graphics chip to somewhere inbetween the ATI Radeon X1400 and the
Radeon X1600, and the CPU to between the AthlonXP 2400+ and the
AthlonXP 3000+.
EN: Can you tell us how much memory at what speed the Wii has?
XP: I cannot say how much memory the Wii has, but its running at
650mhz.
EN: As we saw in many current-gen titles, 480p can result in
significant jaggies. Can we expect AA and AF from Ubisoft's Wii titles?
XP: Red steel will have 4x Antialiasing and 8x Anisotropic Filtering.
EN: What's been your favorite thing about working on Red Steel?
XP: The controller, easily.
EN: What was the biggest challenge?
XP: Not telling the world about it back in january (laughs). Honestly
the biggest challenge has been making sure the control is just right.
EN: Will Rayman on the Wii be a port of the current-gen game with new
controls, or will it have new art assets for Wii?
XP: Its not a port, other than that i cannot say.
EN: We've been hearing a lot of consistent talk about 60fps at 480p
widescreen from other developers. Is this something we'll see a lot of
on Wii?
XP: I believe so yes.
EN: Why is this target so easy to hit?
XP: The hardware is totally free of bottlenecks, nothing is slowing us
down.
EN: For us graphics whores, what kind of sweet graphical effects will
we see in Red Steel or Rayman that we haven't
seen in Gamecube games?
XP: We have alot of self shadowing going on, also we will have some
normal maps and bump maps things like that.
EN: Will there be any innovative uses of physics in Rayman?
XP: Quite a few interesting things with physics in both Red Steel and
in Rayman. We've got ragdoll in Red Steel for
example.
EN: You said that you were using FEAR as inspiration for Red Steel's
AI. How is that shaping up?
XP: Yes, we loved FEAR and we tried to draw alot from it in terms of
AI. In Red Steel the AI will throw grenades
back at you, it will duck for cover and also try to flank you. Many
things.
EN: Will we see any sort of single disc network play like you have on
the DS?
XP: No comment.
EN: Will Sam Fisher be making a return to Nintendo's home console?
XP: At some point.
EN: Lost Magic was one of the first compelling 3rd-party games for the
DS in a while. Does Ubisoft have any more big
plans for the handheld?
XP: We do, keep an eye on the Tokyo Gameshow.
EN: What was your favorite Ubisoft Gamecube title?
XP: Prince of Persia (all of them)
EN: Speaking of Prince of Persia, will we be seeing more acrobatic
platforming adventures on Wii?
XP: No comment.
EN: Metroid Hunters was an amazing feat on the DS. Any chance that Ubi
will enter the fray with an FPS of their own?
XP: Possibly.
EN: Could you possibly tell us anything specific about the Wii GPU?
XP: I can tell you that it has double the number of pixel pipelines (of
gamecube), and that it processes physics. It really takes a huge load
off of the cpu.
EN: Is the T&L setup fixed function like it was on the gamecube?
XP: No, fully programmable.
EN: How much Edram does it have?
XP: 2MB for the framebuffer 2MB for the Zbuffer and 4MB for texture
cache. Unfortunately I am out of time, id like to come back for another
interview sometime.
EN: Thank you very much Mr. Poix.
________________________________________________
it'll be interesting to see if this supposed info holds up, and how it
compares to whatever the truth really is regarding Nintendo Wii's
performance (lol that sounds ****ing funny) specifically *graphics*
performance/capabilities.
Wii shall see, won't wii ?