Feld0

Hello all I joined this forum because I found that a lot of people don't understand the terms used when describing the Wii U's console "Power" and a lot of people don't really understand how console hardware and software work in relation to the Wii U, I decided to start voicing this knowledge so I joined this place!

I'll be making a tech FAQ thread after I answered some questions from users, as there's no good place for that, anyone want to ask me something in relation to the Wii U or other console programming? I will take intelligent speculative guesses too and give reasoning behind them.

I'm a C++ video game programmer and a computer science enthusiast, this includes consoles because it facinates me how consoles are developed for.

I hope I can help a few people in understanding the console a bit more

ugh... fiiine... *stalks off*

Dude, why did you even bring this up? I'm 99% certain that we already had a thread like this. You couldn't even look it up to see what the answer was, could you? There's no reason to be mad. Feld0 pointed out that the reason why this whole forum exists is it's based off of the blog. Guess what? If you could comment here on stories, then 90% of the traffic to the blog would outright die. Do you want that?

What have you done?

When AMAC sees this, we're all gonna have to take cover in the chat box!

Wow, that looks really great, Hinkik. I've always been hopeless at 3D modeling, but the detail in your model is evident even without the button textures. Mind if I feature this on my blog when you finish it?

Thank you very much. Of course you can feature this on your blog. I will post the finished model with textures very soon.

How many times can the princess be caught before she fires the gaurds and hire the navy seals....some people are taking this too serious the topic was intend to open up your imaginations to the thought of a mature line up from nintendo. We know nintendo would never sacrifice the image of Mario or Link, but we as gamers should be able to discuss the possibility of making those games mature and not have to worry about people who are so loyal to a franchise that the very though of changing how their favorite franchise would automatically be horrible, or it would kill the franchise. Use your imagination or does the thought of your favorite Plummer wielding an AK ruin the purity of the "GAME" for you.

Listen. I get this was supposed to open our minds. Problem is you titled this thread like a douche, and then when people bite back, you act like it's theoritcal. Don't write a title that is so outright accusatory unless you are willing to face the fire.

It's not an issue of change. It's an issue of major change. I personally thought I was going to hate Pokemon Black and white because of the changes, believing it would destroy Pokemon. It didn't, as it wasn't a radical change. Swapping out Mushrooms for Bullets would not go over well. What you are suggesting is akin to taking the Godfather/Rambo and aiming it entirely at kids. It's a move that would both alienate the fanbase that kept the franchise alive and would most likely crash and burn.

About your purity of the game, Mario with guns would ruin it. Mario is so simple that anyone can pick up and play it. It litterally only requires a means of control and 2 buttons. A shooter adds close to 4 more buttons, which ruins the simplicity.


Seriously, next time, at least try to troll

Link and Mario was meant to be entertaining to EVERYONE, not some fanboy who only wants to see blood and guts flying over the screen. If you want "mature" games, then stick to the elder scroll series or fps games or some other super popular M rated game from 360/PC/PS3.

Hi this is my model of the wii u controller it took ages to model and isn't 100% done yet. I need textures to the buttons and the shoulder buttons and some stuff on the back.

I hope you like it!

And of course feel free to criticize my rendering and model.
I used Cinema 4D and Photoshop for this one.

Banned because lol it reminds me of this:

Internet is being evil and the page just won't load, so I'm going to assume we're speaking of this video.


Reasons to believe it's real time:

1) There's lag. I doubt there's a 1080P camera with framerate issues. For CG, what would be the point of pre-rendering at that choppy framerate?
2) Control streaming. Self explanatory.

The fact that they didn't show this as a graphics demo is making me doubt it's real time.

There's only one type of HDMI cable. The ones that you get for your PS3 and Xbox 360 just have Microsoft's or Sony's logo on them - but they are just plain and simple HDMI cables, so they'll work with anything.

On that note, gold-plated HDMI cables are worthless and do not actually improve the picture or sound quality. You'll be fine with any cable claiming to be an HDMI one.

I find it funny when people who don't know better think otherwise of these two comments. Funneh!

Apple tried that with the Pippin. It flopped harder than Virtual Boy.

Considering how beloved the Miis are, they should definitely stick around, but all the more improvements they can make to them, the better. They should be central in our online identity - just as we have a Mii set as our personal identity on the 3DS too - and they should definitely make sure that they retain the kind of charm they have now and the same level of creativity in design.

Going for an ultra-realistic push and basically trying to follow Sony and Microsoft - which went off a cliff together financially in pursuit of the so-called 'hardcore' - would be one of the biggest mistakes Nintendo could make. As would be a full on refocus away from the Wii remote, nunchuk, and motion controls that made the Wii so popular this generation - they've already confirmed they'll still be used, which is a first positive - to instead fixate on a return to 'traditional' game controls with some basic touchscreen enhancements with the new tablet controller. We've seen for some time now how traditional controls and increasingly conservative adherence to them - as we've seen with Sony and Microsoft - lead to inevitably unintuitive and intimidating controllers with too many buttons and a distinct lack of real progress in gameplay design.

Refocusing on the so-called 'hardcore' and trying to follow Sony and Microsoft's current self-destructive path with a return to traditional controls over forward-thinking ones - and even the Wii U unveil trailer focused on trying to find forward-thinking ways to use the new tablet controller as opposed to the same old - would be the worst turn Nintendo could take going into this next generation. The 'hardcore' can complain about Nintendo all they want, but appealing to the mass market is far more important with a broad variety of games, gameplay styles, and visual styles, as well as appealing, accessible controls. Rather than pursuing the PS3 and 360's destructive, conservative path, the Wii U definitely needs to follow a path much like the 3DS is - pursuing 'core' gamers more aggressively, certainly, and working on getting the third party support that the Wii earned but never received (Hence the awful financial state much of the video game industry is now in, the average PS3 and 360 title these days not making a profit, where a small number of major western blockbusters actually do each year), but essentially continuing the spirit of the Wii and DS going forward and retaining their mass appeal while working to bring the competition's support on board.

We're already seeing this with the 3DS visibly taking off in the mainstream now with more mass market titles hitting and the 3DS functioning as not just a successor for the DS, but the PSP as well in Japan - the only region where the PSP ever actually took off. The 'core' or 'hardcore' audience and 'casual' or otherwise mass market audience are in no way mutually exclusive as they're often treated. DS game sales and even Wii game sales - as little credit as they ever get for the fact that 'core' games made money far more consistently on the Wii than PS3 and Xbox 360 - proved this, as did PS2 software sales (Though the system suffered a relatively low attach rate despite its massive market penetration, in clear part due to the average person's discomfort with how clunky and unintuitive the Dualshock controller was - a clear example of the traditional controller becoming too complicated for the mass market. Simplicity is always important in controller design - the Wii in particular reminded of that.), and the PSX, SNES, and NES. The mass market is always the most important market, and it wasn't until this generation that we saw the industry trying to artificially divide itself while sneering at so many of its potential customers in the process with all the 'hardcore' and 'casual' nonsense we've heard this generation.

So, in summation, what Nintendo needs to do is not to 'focus on the hardcore,' but simply work themselves and with third parties to absorb an even larger audience from the competition again - like they are with the 3DS - but to continue to focus on the same mass market appeal the Wii and DS have enjoyed and figure out new ways to keep the mass market engaged. And making bolder use of Miis in all sorts of games and allowing people to socialize more online through them - as in my Miitropolis idea in a previous thread on this board - would definitely be a good leap forward to take with the huge leap they're preparing to take with their online services this year. The Miis should be an evolving concept, and the more they can be used to appeal to the mass market audience that loves them, the better.

Nintendo pulled off mass market motion controls where Move was pretty much dead on arrival and Kinect saw very mixed results and less than a full year of real mass market interest. Nintendo pulled off the only avatar system that really endeared itself to the mass market and saw meaningful extensive use this generation with Miis, where avatars were a largely unwanted feature on the 360 and Home didn't exactly take off in any big way on the PS3 either. Going into this next generation, as with the DS, Nintendo has the brand advantage and a good impression on the mass market all around - we've already seen that Sony hasn't learned anything from their mistakes with the Vita's dire opening, and Microsoft hasn't exactly demonstrated that they have any understanding of how to make money in the industry either, with the Xbox brand a little over a decade old now and still without any actual profit to show for it, and only a very narrow audience. Both are launching into next generation without a hint of understanding how to appeal to - or any real evident respect for - the wider market after their cynical attempts to draw their interest with Move and Kinect this generation didn't take long to go south, and they're caught between a rock and a hard place in terms of hardware design: PS3 and 360 game development was simply too expensive, demanding far too many millions of dollars in investment per game and game sales that both platforms' narrow audiences could not keep high enough to make the majority of games profitable, with very few types of games actually seeing the 1.5+ million copies sold needed on average to break even, let alone turn a profit.

Similarly, the Vita's facing the burden of raising costs dramatically on both developers and customers at a point at which much of the industry is absolutely battered by all the money lost across the PS3 and Xbox 360, as they attempted to work with Sony and Microsoft respectively to force customers away from the Wii, with financially catastrophic results instead. The industry as a whole isn't in a good position to start supporting a very expensive new portable - as we're seeing with incredibly little proven Vita support - let alone one with extremely little audience. Sony and Microsoft are under incredible pressure from their current followings to launch new consoles that take another gigantic leap forward in hardware power, ensuring many billions in losses for both companies and another huge surge in development costs, the likes of which the industry cannot afford when it couldn't even afford the PS3 and 360's costs on average this generation. Thus, all the developer collapses we saw this generation, as well as all the mergers, and the financial reports with many companies formerly thought to always be healthy crumbling internally and laying off tons of employees thanks to the losses incurred through Sony and Microsoft support that few had the wisdom to halt. This generation became a losing war of brandname loyalty and 'hardcore' identity nonsense fought against the mass market and sustainable budgets - hence the average Wii game actually making money, and for a long time, Wii development being used to finance big budget PS3 and 360 flops. When that stopped happening and most third parties tried to drop the Wii entirely over the past couple of years, developer and publisher bottom lines fell through the floor as they still failed to actually make money on most PS3 and 360 releases.

For the first time, the industry's getting ready to move into a new generation wherein the industry as a whole is in very rough shape, in no way enjoying the surplusses the PS2 era ended with. If Sony and Microsoft launch the incredible powerhouses their followings demand, they would be too expensive for both developers and customers - much as we're already seeing with Sony's Vita falling on its face right out the door - especially taking into account the awful state of the global economy. Gaming platforms are in no way sustainable as 'premium' or 'luxury' items, like Sony and Microsoft have tried to make them, and the financial catastrophe this generation has been for pretty much everyone but Nintendo and the few companies more focused on supporting them has made that very clear. After a straight decade of billions in losses with the Xbox line so far, one has to wonder how much more Microsoft's shareholders will take before the product line is eventually ended - much like the Zune was last year - and in Sony's case, between the PS3 eating the PSX and PS2's profits and the PSP in no way subsidizing the rest of their losses (The company has more debt than they're bringing in money by miles), it would be incredibly foolish to launch a PS4 anytime soon with the current state they're in, and the Vita's visible trajectory.

If Sony and Microsoft try to launch another pair of huge-leap-forward 'premium' consoles like the PS3 and 360, we're going to see third parties devastated further and more companies go out of business, while surging development costs set virtually impossible to meet sales requirements for profitability.

Nintendo, on the other hand, has made clear that while the Wii U will be more powerful than the PS3 and 360, they're designing it to keep development on lower budgets than on the PS3 and 360 viable, and to allow a place for small companies to continue onward on consoles, where the PS3 and 360 shut them out. At this point, the next generation is pretty much Nintendo's to lose so long as they continue to learn from both their own mistakes and those of the competition, forging their own path forward with the 3DS and Wii U like they did with the DS and Wii. Affordability to both developers and customers is vital, as is avoiding the ridiculous image bickering over nonsense like 'casual' and 'hardcore' labels. We're already seeing a surprising number of major western PS3 and 360 titles slated for the Wii U this year, many developers and publishers visibly eager for what Nintendo's powerful new platform represents in contrast to Sony and Microsoft - the possibility of a huge HD console that has a definite good shot at being the market leader this next generation too, allowing a lot of the kinds of games made for the PS3 and 360 this gen to find a full-on mass market audience at last with Nintendo. As for the rest of the third parties, it's largely a matter of letting go of the 'casual' and 'kiddy' nonsense they tried to cling to with the Wii while the PS3 and 360 were burning them and refocusing on where the market actually is - just as we're seeing with many titles expected for the PSP and Vita audiences instead going exclusively to the 3DS now. If Sony and Microsoft try to launch new consoles in 2013 or 2014 that aren't premium, but a slight jump ahead to try to match the Wii U's hardware, they'll inevitably arrive too late to compete or make much of a difference, and they'll see their own respective audiences furious that they didn't push the graphical ceiling as high as they could again, suicidal cost to developers be damned. Going into this next generation, both are in a significantly worse position than Nintendo, just as we've seen playing out with the new portables already.

The new generation is, in many ways, Nintendo's to lose.

... I suppose since I've gone through the trouble of making an account here I should have the courtesy to introduce myself.

Greetings, salutations, good day, and all of that various assorted nonsense.

With that out of the way, please allow me to introduce myself; I am zoop. I have stumbled upon this fine corner of the internet after a certain individual (who, I can assure you, will remain anonymous) lamented that he didn't seem to be appreciated by anyone here. It is my sincerest hope that we can, as a collective whole, all come together and not appreciate him together as one big family.

I kid, I kid.

To speak upon my own person, I consider myself to be an arrogant, spiteful, conceited, and at least somewhat narcissistic twit; I consider my status as being of such to be a fact of life, despite the fact that I've recently ran into a decent number of individuals that have attempted to convince me otherwise. Personally, I think they're all quite insane.

As I'm sure that the avatar (and soon-to-be-signature) has implied, I am indeed a member of the dread pony collective; but fear not - I am not the sort to push my unhealthy obsessions on to others, be it religious, political, of ponious.

In addition to watching - and somehow enjoying - cartoons made for little girls, I am also a fan of various and assorted vidya games and other such things.

And that is me. While I do not know how active I'll be on this side of Azuras, I may float in and haunt the place from time to time when I need a break from the candy-colored equines.

I used to be top poster like you...











































then I took a Skyward Sword to the Wii.

What, were you expecting something else?

Fixed