News: E3 2007 News | Wii HD Discussed by Nintendo Page 1

Darkflame 16.07.2007#1

meh. I still dont want it.

The Wii's processing power is better spent on other things.
Higher resolution = reduced fillrate = worse polycount/effects.

To make the Wii HD and not look worse in other ways the power would have to be increased, making a two-teir system.

HD is overhyped anyway.
Its just a resolution.
I prefer framerate myself, but you dont see the xbox360 and ps3 boasting about that anymore.

60fps anyone?
Why is it still so frecking rare?

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GR781 16.07.2007#2

Speak for yourself. I would love for games to be HD compatible, but it won't work- nintendo have bollocksed it up by not making it compulsory from the start. Games haven't been programmed to run in 720p, let alone 1080p, and I severely doubt that nintendo will force developers to do so in future.

Martin_ 16.07.2007#3

Some Wii games can't even run in progressive scan, let alone HD.

tiamat1990 16.07.2007#4

Yeah I'm pretty sure it could. The Xbox and the PS2 could somehow output in 720p in like a couple of games.

Mandown 16.07.2007#5

The HD userbase "should" increase enough for Nintendo to make a revision in the hardware for future HD games some time down the line. It will be brilliant when they do. Shame that games like SMG will miss out for now, but knowing Nintendo they will probally release a special edition. {LS]

russraine 16.07.2007#6

Interesting thing is though, unlike the Snes, N64, GC - the wii doesn't have a high speed expansion port, only USB.
So it's unlikey we will see a HD add on drive like the X360.

So either it could be a feature of a Wii 2.0 - or a firmware update, but the Wii can't read HD discs, so then only downloadble games in theory could be HD. In short, unlikely!

Stulaw 16.07.2007#7

I think it may be possible for the wii to be HD, Nintendo could release a disk and hard-drive to save firmware upgrades so it can produce atleast 720p. theres an xploder disk that does it for the ps2.

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Marzeee 16.07.2007#8

I thought this was about a hard drive for the Wii at first, but obviously it's not. Smilie

I can't really comment about High Definition on the Wii, as I have yet to experience HD. I don't think it's going to happen anyway and there wouldn't be that much point, as the Wii was designed to be standard definition from the start.

I'd much rather have a hard drive for the Wii; I personally think it's more important than bringing HD to the system.

beamrider2600 16.07.2007#9

I'm disappointed, I thought by HD they were talking about a hard drive. I couldn't care less about high definition.

Martin_ 16.07.2007#10

That firmware Xploder disc kills the PS2, though. It's not viable to run say, San Andreas on PS2 at 768p when it was already pushing it at 480i. Same goes for Wii. If you tried to run Mario Galaxy at HD, the machine would grind to a halt.

Raff 16.07.2007#11

Darkflame said:
meh. I still dont want it.The Wiis processing power is better spent on other things.Higher resolution = reduced fillrate = worse polycount/effects.To make the Wii HD and not look worse in other ways the power would have to be increased, making a two-teir system.HD is overhyped anyway.Its just a resolution.I prefer framerate myself, but you dont see the xbox360 and ps3 boasting about that anymore.60fps anyone?Why is it still so frecking rare?

You can't seriously be suggesting that they'd implement it out of the exact same hardware at the cost of other things? It's such an idiotic thing to suggest that there's a rank stench of spin around here...

It's going to be shit and you jolly well know it.

Martin_ 16.07.2007#12

What's 'spin', grandpa?

JoshSL 16.07.2007#13

It sounds nice enough, but I think Shigsy is just saying another "I could do Halo if I wanted to" thing. Even if Nintendo do go through with HD only the 2nd half of Wii games will probably use it. Or it could end up like WiFi & only have a few games that use it :-/

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Martin_ 16.07.2007#14

The Wii hasn't really got what it takes for any proper HD gaming, though. Perhaps the odd fighting game or something, where the in-game conditions or constant enough for them do make HD viable, like Soul Calibur on Xbox.

GR781 16.07.2007#15

If they do a hardware revision, surely they can just put some more powerful kit in there? I.E. Run the same standard graphics, but with enough power to output higher definition video. The old wii's could then run the same games at lower resolution, and possibly the HDwii could upscale old games and run new ones at at least 720p.

I don't think its a hardware issue; its more that, knowing nintendo, they won't force developers to make 720p games as standard- just like they are not implementing proper standards regarding progressive scan at the moment.

To be honest, I'd love it if they did it, because a lot of wii games look like crap on my HD set- especially Zelda, but I think given their current direction it isn't likely to be a good business decision, and it isn't likely to be implemented if they do somehow end up making it.

Martin_ 16.07.2007#16

It's very definitely a hardware issue, GR. The Wii is reportedly only 1.5 times as powerful as the GC, which would bring it in line with the Xbox, roughly (perhaps a tad more). It's not powerful enough for true HD support across all games. It's not that Nintendo aren't forcing it on devs, it's that Nintendo didn't put powerful enough guts inside the machine.

GR781 16.07.2007#17

Did you not read my post? I said they would release new hardware... that seems to be what is being suggested anyway. I.E. Incorporate HD into a new release of wii hardware. I'm just saying that it wouldnt be impossible for old wii's to play the new games; they'd just run them at a lower res.

Martin_ 16.07.2007#18

Misunderstood you, sorry. They could do that I suppose, but then that'd shun all the people who've already bought one.

GR781 16.07.2007#19

It would, presumably, be the only feasible way of doing it though, no? Unless they sold an extra processor for handling HD video that conncected via USB?

( Edited on 16.07.2007 14:46 by GR781 )

Satoshi 16.07.2007#20

Well the PS2 and Xbox phat managed it with some games, so the Wii is capable of doing so...but i'd much rather see awesome 480p games (currently theres only like 3...Mario,Smash & Metroid) than time being wasted trying to produce High def on a Wii.

Oni-Ninja said:
Some Wii games cant even run in progressive scan, let alone HD.

That more the lazyness of developers.

And USB would probably be the only way to add processing power...but is USB is no way fast enough to be relied upon as a processor.

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Martin_ 16.07.2007#21

Yeah, USB wouldn't be viable.

James2t3 16.07.2007#22

The odd wiiware game might run in HD but in the end no one will ever buy a Wii for it's HD abilities even if it does add it to a handful of games.
Addons are messy so that won't work, It has to be a misunderstanding perhapes he was talking about Wii as in the brand, wii2 (or whatever it will be called) will most definitly be HD.

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Darkflame 16.07.2007#23

". Games haven't been programmed to run in 720p, let alone 1080p"

That dosnt actualy mater that much.
PC graphic cards can force higher resolutions then games are designed for.
Anything 3D can be rendered at any res.
The problem is any raster overlays.

"

So either it could be a feature of a Wii 2.0 - or a firmware update, but the Wii can't read HD discs, so then only downloadble games in theory could be HD. In short, unlikely!"

Discs have nothing to do with it.
The Xbox360 uses the same format DVD's as Wii does.

"That firmware Xploder disc kills the PS2, though. It's not viable to run say, San Andreas on PS2 at 768p when it was already pushing it at 480i. Same goes for Wii. If you tried to run Mario Galaxy at HD, the machine would grind to a halt."

Exactly.

For a finite amount of system power, you can have only a certain amount of polygons per second rendered to the screen.

You want HD forced?

Fine.

You will get less framerate.

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JoshSL 16.07.2007#24

Blade2t3 said:
The odd wiiware game might run in HD but in the end no one will ever buy a Wii for its HD abilities even if it does add it to a handful of games.

Agreed, though I do like the sound of that, having HD for Wiiware & VC would be cool, like what they do with XBLA...

Still, noone would buy the Wii for it's HD capabilities, like you said. If people really cared about HD capabilities, they'd have gotten a PS3 or a 360. Though I guess it may encourage people to choose Wii as a 2nd console.

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