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[Captain Smoker]

While it isn't new that Vidyo provides the video chat technology for the Wii U: http://www.vidyo.com/2012/11/vidyo-powers-video-chat-service-in-nintendos-wii-u-console/

I searched on google and found a Vidyo-PDF file. I don't know if it should be public (that's why I won't link to it), but I'll quote what the Wii U specific page said (pdf is published on 14.12.2012).


Focus on social networking around gaming
Now: video chat in Miiverse
Next: video-powered game experiences

Chat today, conferencing soon
Now: point-to-point
Next: multi-party conferencing

Extending to mobile devices soon
Now: between Wii U consoles
Next: between Wii U and mobile devices



Is this new? the "Next"-parts seem to be like future functions that they're going to add, since I never heard that they want to enable cross-video chat function with smartphones.

And what does video-powered game experiences mean?

 

[A More Normal Bird]

Maybe some sort of ingame streaming video support? Watch youtube clips like let's plays or guides on the gamepad whilst playing? Or something similar to Sony's game recording and sharing...

 

[Schnozberry]

While it isn't new that Vidyo provides the video chat technology for the Wii U: http://www.vidyo.com/2012/11/vidyo-powers-video-chat-service-in-nintendos-wii-u-console/

I searched on google and found a Vidyo-PDF file. I don't know if it should be public (that's why I won't link to it), but I'll quote what the Wii U specific page said (pdf is published on 14.12.2012).


Focus on social networking around gaming
Now: video chat in Miiverse
Next: video-powered game experiences

Chat today, conferencing soon
Now: point-to-point
Next: multi-party conferencing

Extending to mobile devices soon
Now: between Wii U consoles
Next: between Wii U and mobile devices



Is this new? the "Next"-parts seem to be like future functions that they're going to add, since I never heard that they want to enable cross-video chat function with smartphones.

And what does video-powered game experiences mean?

Seems pretty straight forward. They are going to work on in game video chat, multi party chat, and probably expand miiverse chat onto mobile devices. They've already said people would be able to access the services from mobiles.

 

[FLAguy954]

While it isn't new that Vidyo provides the video chat technology for the Wii U: http://www.vidyo.com/2012/11/vidyo-powers-video-chat-service-in-nintendos-wii-u-console/

I searched on google and found a Vidyo-PDF file. I don't know if it should be public (that's why I won't link to it), but I'll quote what the Wii U specific page said (pdf is published on 14.12.2012).


Focus on social networking around gaming
Now: video chat in Miiverse
Next: video-powered game experiences

Chat today, conferencing soon
Now: point-to-point
Next: multi-party conferencing

Extending to mobile devices soon
Now: between Wii U consoles
Next: between Wii U and mobile devices



Is this new? the "Next"-parts seem to be like future functions that they're going to add, since I never heard that they want to enable cross-video chat function with smartphones.

And what does video-powered game experiences mean?

I think this info calls for a new thread. The Wii U needs some good news in it's life! Also, great find man!

 

[Nostremitus]

While it isn't new that Vidyo provides the video chat technology for the Wii U: http://www.vidyo.com/2012/11/vidyo-powers-video-chat-service-in-nintendos-wii-u-console/

I searched on google and found a Vidyo-PDF file. I don't know if it should be public (that's why I won't link to it), but I'll quote what the Wii U specific page said (pdf is published on 14.12.2012).


Focus on social networking around gaming
Now: video chat in Miiverse
Next: video-powered game experiences

Chat today, conferencing soon
Now: point-to-point
Next: multi-party conferencing

Extending to mobile devices soon
Now: between Wii U consoles
Next: between Wii U and mobile devices



Is this new? the "Next"-parts seem to be like future functions that they're going to add, since I never heard that they want to enable cross-video chat function with smartphones.

And what does video-powered game experiences mean?

Video-powered? You think they could be talking about augmented reality... Similar to the eye-toy games?

 

[AzaK]

Video-powered? You think they could be talking about augmented reality... Similar to the eye-toy games?

It's where we all ARE the game!

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

So I'm guessing by the second big Wii U OS performance optimization update, we'll find out whether or not we're getting any additional RAM freed up from the OS, as they'll be changing how the OS and apps load in and out of memory with the update.

It'll be great to see the results of that in the second/third generation of games.

Personally, I can't wait for the first update. Besides adding VC support, it'll be nice to be able to just get around the system faster. When are we thinking fo the first update? April?

 

[Nostremitus]

So I'm guessing by the second big Wii U OS performance optimization update, we'll find out whether or not we're getting any additional RAM freed up from the OS, as they'll be changing how the OS and apps load in and out of memory with the update.

It'll be great to see the results of that in the second/third generation of games.

Personally, I can't wait for the first update. Besides adding VC support, it'll be nice to be able to just get around the system faster. When are we thinking fo the first update? April?

I just want the hard locks to end, personally.

 

[Effect]

While it isn't new that Vidyo provides the video chat technology for the Wii U: http://www.vidyo.com/2012/11/vidyo-powers-video-chat-service-in-nintendos-wii-u-console/

I searched on google and found a Vidyo-PDF file. I don't know if it should be public (that's why I won't link to it), but I'll quote what the Wii U specific page said (pdf is published on 14.12.2012).


Focus on social networking around gaming
Now: video chat in Miiverse
Next: video-powered game experiences

Chat today, conferencing soon
Now: point-to-point
Next: multi-party conferencing

Extending to mobile devices soon
Now: between Wii U consoles
Next: between Wii U and mobile devices



Is this new? the "Next"-parts seem to be like future functions that they're going to add, since I never heard that they want to enable cross-video chat function with smartphones.

And what does video-powered game experiences mean?

Interesting. Didn't one of the rumors before launch suggest that Nintendo would be unveiling more features and things the Wii U could do as time went on. What you see at launch isn't all the system could do. Either because they weren't finish and they wanted to just release new things to constantly bring attention back to it.

 

[AzaK]

So I'm guessing by the second big Wii U OS performance optimization update, we'll find out whether or not we're getting any additional RAM freed up from the OS, as they'll be changing how the OS and apps load in and out of memory with the update.

It'll be great to see the results of that in the second/third generation of games.

Personally, I can't wait for the first update. Besides adding VC support, it'll be nice to be able to just get around the system faster. When are we thinking fo the first update? April?

Will be interesting to see how fast they can get it. I'd love to know what it's so slow in the first place - it's mind boggling.

Interesting. Didn't one of the rumors before launch suggest that Nintendo would be unveiling more features and things the Wii U could do as time went on. What you see at launch isn't all the system could do. Either because they weren't finish and they wanted to just release new things to constantly bring attention back to it.

They need to do it because it's pretty bare bones so far. The problem is that Nintendo are notorious for saying "This tech enables X, Y and Z" but never delivering on it. Just look at the poor neglected Wii Connect 24.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

Will be interesting to see how fast they can get it. I'd love to know what it's so slow in the first place - it's mind boggling.



They need to do it because it's pretty bare bones so far. The problem is that Nintendo are notorious for saying "This tech enables X, Y and Z" but never delivering on it. Just look at the poor neglected Wii Connect 24.

Makes no sense, even if the NAND was incredibly slow or something. That was my one theory.

 

[Chronos24]

March would be nice for the update, April more likely though. I'm really curious to see the second wave of games and how much better optimized for the system they'll be. Whether we can admit it or not the first wave was by and large rushed ports which also show us the low end of the WiiU's capabilities. Pay attention to launch games of past systems to solidify that point. Technically I feel the WiiU has a LOT more to offer (and no that's not fanboyish its a realistic outlook). The media loves negativity and there's a lot of negative buzz, most of which is true but the positive stories tend to get lost. The ps4 even had several negative stories out after its reveal and I believe the thing is gonna be a powerhouse honestly and I am not even a big fan of the brand. Go back to the Nintendo direct and every outlet was like "wow/awesome/way to go nintendo". To sum it up I believe we are living in a world of instant gratification where we expect the best right now, but realistically the best is yet to come and worth the wait.

 

[AzaK]

Makes no sense, even if the NAND was incredibly slow or something. That was my one theory.

I don't know typical NAND speeds to make a call on that but I was wondering if that was something along those lines before Iwata said they'd be making improvements. That alone makes me think that that's not the bottleneck. Some of my initial prognostications were:

- Slow NAND - I can believe it due to cost but then they couldn't really make changes.
- Some proprietary filesystem that had shitty read buffering. This would be stupid
- Debug code because it wasn't ready
- Some sort of high compression on everything that needs decompressing before it's loaded.
- Some sort of hashing on content before loading it to ensure it hasn't been tampered with.
- Certificate validation on things for security. If this was the case though, unplugging from the net would speed up load times you'd think

March would be nice for the update, April more likely though. I'm really curious to see the second wave of games and how much better optimized for the system they'll be. Whether we can admit it or not the first wave was by and large rushed ports which also show us the low end of the WiiU's capabilities. Pay attention to launch games of past systems to solidify that point. Technically I feel the WiiU has a LOT more to offer (and no that's not fanboyish its a realistic outlook). The media loves negativity and there's a lot of negative buzz, most of which is true but the positive stories tend to get lost. The ps4 even had several negative stories out after its reveal and I believe the thing is gonna be a powerhouse honestly and I am not even a big fan of the brand. Go back to the Nintendo direct and every outlet was like "wow/awesome/way to go nintendo". To sum it up I believe we are living in a world of instant gratification where we expect the best right now, but realistically the best is yet to come and worth the wait.

Yeah it will be interesting to see that next wave. At E3 I would like to think Nintendo will do what they can do silence the haters. It won't be PS4 but they might put in some effort to show that the machine isn't a complete slouch.

 

[Veal]

And what does video-powered game experiences mean?

It means Night Trap 2 is WiiU exclusive.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

March would be nice for the update, April more likely though. I'm really curious to see the second wave of games and how much better optimized for the system they'll be. Whether we can admit it or not the first wave was by and large rushed ports which also show us the low end of the WiiU's capabilities. Pay attention to launch games of past systems to solidify that point. Technically I feel the WiiU has a LOT more to offer (and no that's not fanboyish its a realistic outlook). The media loves negativity and there's a lot of negative buzz, most of which is true but the positive stories tend to get lost. The ps4 even had several negative stories out after its reveal and I believe the thing is gonna be a powerhouse honestly and I am not even a big fan of the brand. Go back to the Nintendo direct and every outlet was like "wow/awesome/way to go nintendo". To sum it up I believe we are living in a world of instant gratification where we expect the best right now, but realistically the best is yet to come and worth the wait.

I honestly think that's why Pikmin 3 was delayed. It may have started out as a Wii game(?), but I think they're taking the extra months largely to do things like improve the lighting and make things a little more next gen. And honestly, I wouldn't even be mad if they decided to use Pikmin 3 as a test bed for lighting and so on after seeing Wind Waker HD's use of the NintendoLand lighting.

I don't know typical NAND speeds to make a call on that but I was wondering if that was something along those lines before Iwata said they'd be making improvements. That alone makes me think that that's not the bottleneck. Some of my initial prognostications were:

- Slow NAND - I can believe it due to cost but then they couldn't really make changes.
- Some proprietary filesystem that had shitty read buffering. This would be stupid
- Debug code because it wasn't ready
- Some sort of high compression on everything that needs decompressing before it's loaded.
- Some sort of hashing on content before loading it to ensure it hasn't been tampered with.
- Certificate validation on things for security. If this was the case though, unplugging from the net would speed up load times you'd think



Yeah it will be interesting to see that next wave. At E3 I would like to think Nintendo will do what they can do silence the haters. It won't be PS4 but they might put in some effort to show that the machine isn't a complete slouch.

NAND is simply another name for SSDs. It's standard that cheap NAND is used though in consumer electronics because it's so expensive/GB.

To put a number on it, for example, the iPhones all have NAND that tops out at about 20MB/s. I would expect something similar in the Wii U. Maybe somewhat faster, since it's dealing with larger files in general.

But I could also see the 1GB of OS-reserved RAM as being used to compensate for incredibly slow NAND. Maybe currently, a lot of the OS is being loaded and cached into RAM to make up for the poor NAND speeds.

It would also explain why digitally downloaded games take so long to initially load, even though they're loading off of solid-state memory.

What do you guys think? Is that a possibility?

I think we'll have a much better idea in the OS memory model after we see how things (and what improves) improve with the Spring and Summer updates.

 

[AzaK]

Actually, do we know the model # of the NAND? We could just look it up.

 

[ikioi]

I've already looked up the NAND on Samsung's website. eMMC flash, they don't list the data througput on any of the spec pages that i could find.

Needless to say it's not fast.

 

[SmokeMaxX]

What was the consensus on the OS again? I've seen in a few threads people talking about how it doesn't have a true OS or something?

 

[BaBaRaRa]

Thinking about the OS, what if Nintendo have implemented a thin hypervisor that launches a VM which in turn mounts the app for execution.

This may explain why it takes so long to switch applications, even though they're all based around the same underlying technology. With 1G to spare I'd expect that if I've just used the web rendering library (libwebkit, or whatever) then it would still be cached in memory. So switching between Miiverse and the web browser should be faster.

Instead, it seems to be the same length of time regardless. This could be because it has to shutdown the current VM, relaunch it from the base image on disk (of which there could be a few to allow for different types of applications which would explain the large of amount of disk space being used), the start the application itself.

This might also be why Nintendo are confident in being able to increase the speed of the system - they just tweak the images to boot faster, or work on the ability to unmount/mount apps without fulling rebooting the VM.



The behaviour of the WiiU does seem to match that of the virtual appliance craze from a few years back.. you can have whatever you want, whenever you want, so long as you don't mind waiting...


All benefit of the doubt though - it may just be a really poorly written OS.

 

[Grampa Simpson]

Thinking about the OS, what if Nintendo have implemented a thin hypervisor that launches a VM which in turn mounts the app for execution.

This may explain why it takes so long to switch applications, even though they're all based around the same underlying technology. With 1G to spare I'd expect that if I've just used the web rendering library (libwebkit, or whatever) then it would still be cached in memory. So switching between Miiverse and the web browser should be faster.

Instead, it seems to be the same length of time regardless. This could be because it has to shutdown the current VM, relaunch it from the base image on disk (of which there could be a few to allow for different types of applications which would explain the large of amount of disk space being used), the start the application itself.

This might also be why Nintendo are confident in being able to increase the speed of the system - they just tweak the images to boot faster, or work on the ability to unmount/mount apps without fulling rebooting the VM.



The behaviour of the WiiU does seem to match that of the virtual appliance craze from a few years back.. you can have whatever you want, whenever you want, so long as you don't mind waiting...


All benefit of the doubt though - it may just be a really poorly written OS.

That's actually very interesting theory. It does feel like they reboot in the background from the way it feels, and maybe they see that as a way to separate things out. Possibly they just need to get better at hibernating jobs that are not being used.

 

[Earendil]

Thinking about the OS, what if Nintendo have implemented a thin hypervisor that launches a VM which in turn mounts the app for execution.

This may explain why it takes so long to switch applications, even though they're all based around the same underlying technology. With 1G to spare I'd expect that if I've just used the web rendering library (libwebkit, or whatever) then it would still be cached in memory. So switching between Miiverse and the web browser should be faster.

Instead, it seems to be the same length of time regardless. This could be because it has to shutdown the current VM, relaunch it from the base image on disk (of which there could be a few to allow for different types of applications which would explain the large of amount of disk space being used), the start the application itself.

This might also be why Nintendo are confident in being able to increase the speed of the system - they just tweak the images to boot faster, or work on the ability to unmount/mount apps without fulling rebooting the VM.



The behaviour of the WiiU does seem to match that of the virtual appliance craze from a few years back.. you can have whatever you want, whenever you want, so long as you don't mind waiting...


All benefit of the doubt though - it may just be a really poorly written OS.

This is similar to how Android works. Each application runs in it's own Dalvik VM (not to be confused with Dalek). Of course it works much better on Android, leading me to believe that the current "OS" is an unoptimized mess. If they can get that sorted out, the performance should improve dramatically, assuming this is actually what is happening.

 

[Jackano]

And what does video-powered game experiences mean?

Panorama view?
Sorry to kill all the crazy ideas you started guys

 

[BaBaRaRa]

This is similar to how Android works. Each application runs in it's own Dalvik VM (not to be confused with Dalek). Of course it works much better on Android, leading me to believe that the current "OS" is an unoptimized mess. If they can get that sorted out, the performance should improve dramatically, assuming this is actually what is happening.

Android can successfully multitask though, whereas the WiiU seems to freeze and switch between vm0 (game) and vm1 (app); with vm1 being rebooted every time a new app is launched (which I attribute to Nintendo wanting to offer the whole of the hardware to the currently running code rather than wasting cycles and IO on background tasks).

This approach would make sense if the OS was barely ready before launch. Nintendo could have had these VM's running for development, and even allow OS quirks per app that could be reconciled via a file system similar to as unionFS.

Now all work will be on standardising these images to get rid of quirks and the rest of the unoptimised mess and adapting all apps to the new base.

 

[Earendil]

Android can successfully multitask though, whereas the WiiU seems to freeze and switch between vm0 (game) and vm1 (app); with vm1 being rebooted every time a new app is launched (which I attribute to Nintendo wanting to offer the whole of the hardware to the currently running code rather than wasting cycles and IO on background tasks).

This approach would make sense if the OS was barely ready before launch. Nintendo could have had these VM's running for development, and even allow OS quirks per app that could be reconciled via a file system similar to as unionFS.

Now all work will be on standardising these images to get rid of quirks and the rest of the unoptimised mess and adapting all apps to the new base.

I don't have a Wii U yet, so I have to go based on what I've heard. What you posit makes a lot of sense. Part of me wonders if the OS is still running in debug (as many others have suggested), or if like you say, VM1 is being reinitialized every time a new app is launched. And it's possible that the core OS, or what we consider the OS (home menu, etc...) is also an app.

I really hope it's just an optimization issue, and not because it's horribly designed. I made a post a while ago in this thread with some ideas on how a console OS could have been designed. I've never designed an OS, but I do have many years experience in application development.

 

[Datschge]

Android can successfully multitask though, whereas the WiiU seems to freeze and switch between vm0 (game) and vm1 (app); with vm1 being rebooted every time a new app is launched (which I attribute to Nintendo wanting to offer the whole of the hardware to the currently running code rather than wasting cycles and IO on background tasks).

I don't think it's so much Nintendo wanting to do it that way, at least I hope they are working on some forms of basic multitasking in the way of IO and memory management. The current way seems pretty much a direct VM extension to the way the "OS" was handled on the Wii, so that may have been Nintendo's way of quickly expanding upon it.

While this all seems simplistic to a fault it would be interesting how much of ES made it into this system design.

 

[Refreshment.01]

Does anyone knows the specifications of the GamePad camera?

 

[lostinblue]

Does anyone knows the specifications of the GamePad camera?

1.3 MP sensor.

 

[Refreshment.01]

1.3 MP sensor.

Thank you. Any source if possible?

 

[YuChai]

the lego game has been released. Wonder why the loading time is so slow (both disc and harddisk version). Poor coding? Or really require so much time to load, then, can we expect the PS4, 720 even worse (unless they use part of the ram as cache?)

 

[lostinblue]

Thank you. Any source if possible?

The source I picked (and top result) gets censored here.

But it is accepted as fact.

the lego game has been released. Wonder why the loading time is so slow (both disc and harddisk version). Poor coding? Or really require so much time to load, then, can we expect the PS4, 720 even worse (unless they use part of the ram as cache?)

Will depend on a game by game basis, really. How many assets do you recycle from part to part, asset quality, wether it is supposed to stream stuff, hides loadings behind cutscenes or just goes over it for zones separated by loading screens.

It could be worse if developers aren't careful though, that's for sure. Disc streaming is quite evidently the next gen bottleneck.

As for running from storage still being slow; perhaps there's compression or something; doesn't really make sense to not see a huge improvement over 22 MB/s (Wii U's drive speed).

 

[AzaK]

The source I picked (and top result) gets censored here.

But it is accepted as fact.Will depend on a game by game basis, really. How many assets do you recycle from part to part, asset quality, wether it is supposed to stream stuff, hides loadings behind cutscenes or just goes over it for zones separated by loading screens.

It could be worse if developers aren't careful though, that's for sure. Disc streaming is quite evidently the next gen bottleneck.

As for running from storage still being slow; perhaps there's compression or something; doesn't really make sense to not see a huge improvement over 22 MB/s (Wii U's drive speed).

Yeah Lego doesn't seem to be pushing the system and the Wii U drive is fast compared to last gen. I have yet to hear of one single game that loads faster than last-gen games and within a sensible time frame. It's concerning.

 

[wsippel]

the lego game has been released. Wonder why the loading time is so slow (both disc and harddisk version). Poor coding? Or really require so much time to load, then, can we expect the PS4, 720 even worse (unless they use part of the ram as cache?)

Assuming sequential reads:

1GB / 22MB = 46 seconds

So that's what we're looking at if a game doesn't hide the load times properly. I don't think PS4 and Xbox 3 will have much faster optical drives, as there's a physical limit there - disks are never perfectly balanced, so they start vibrating heavily at high RPM. We don't know how much RAM is reserved for the OS on those systems, so let's go with 1GB OS/ 7GB for games:

7GB / 22MB = 5 minutes, 26 seconds

Completely unacceptable, so most games will probably require installation. Assuming they use a fast hard disk:

7GB / 120MB = 60 seconds

Now, that's obviously heavily simplified. It assumes the game fills the whole RAM in one go (which is rare), and it assumes sequential reads, which usually doesn't happen. Random reads are much slower, even more so when using optical drives. But yes, load times will be an issue on all next generation systems, and developers will have to find ways to keep them down.

 

[YuChai]

Assuming sequential reads:

1GB / 22MB = 46 seconds

So that's what we're looking at if a game doesn't hide the load times properly. I don't think PS4 and Xbox 3 will have much faster optical drives, as there's a physical limit there - disks are never perfectly balanced, so they start vibrating heavily at high RPM. We don't know how much RAM is reserved for the OS on those systems, so let's go with 1GB OS/ 7GB for games:

7GB / 22MB = 5 minutes, 26 seconds

Completely unacceptable, so most games will probably require installation. Assuming they use a fast hard disk:

7GB / 120MB = 60 seconds

Now, that's obviously heavily simplified. It assumes the game fills the whole RAM in one go (which is rare), and it assumes sequential reads, which usually doesn't happen. Random reads are much slower, even more so when using optical drives. But yes, load times will be an issue on all next generation systems, and developers will have to find ways to keep them down.

Really thanks for your clear explanation. But, why use internal hard disk on wii u (eshop) version won't cut down the loading time? Any idea?

 

[joesiv]

Need for Speed: Most Wanted U. Is there anything that can be taken from the fact that you can change from day to night instantly in the game (with the PC textures and improved lighting systems) and there appears to nothing wrong graphically during the change?

Really thanks for your clear explanation. But, why use internal hard disk on wii u (eshop) version won't cut down the loading time? Any idea?

External drives are limited to the connector used, which in the case of the Wii U is USB2.0. USB2.0 max's out at 480 Mbit/s (effective throughput up to 35 MB/s or 280 Mbit/s), but that would be for a optimized stream of sequential data, which is not the typical case.

So 35MB/s (ideal) compared to 22MB/s isn't much better, and given there are many factors that could make the USB transfer rates to fluctuate (including the drive, memory controller on drive, data layout, memory controller in WiiU, etc..) they might end up pretty much the same.

I wonder how much would have changed if Nintendo opted for USB3.0, or even eSATA on the WiiU, though this would make downloaded games much better than the disc version, unless they had an install option.

 

[lostinblue]

External drives are limited to the connector used, which in the case of the Wii U is USB2.0. USB2.0 max's out at 480 Mbit/s (effective throughput up to 35 MB/s or 280 Mbit/s), but that would be for a optimized stream of sequential data, which is not the typical case.

While that is true, seek time is usually much faster too.

There should be an improvement of some kind, not a two-fold one or anything like that, but an improvement.

 

[iamvin22]

CNN did a video on cost of the wii u.


http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2013/03/18/t-ts-nintendo-wii-u-teardown.cnnmoney/index.html?iid=GM

 

[Nostremitus]

CNN did a video on cost of the wii u.


http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2013/03/18/t-ts-nintendo-wii-u-teardown.cnnmoney/index.html?iid=GM

Jim Morrison from Chipworks had this to say regarding the MCM.

...Combine that with the IBM CPU and the Flash chip all on the same package and this whole thing is closer to $100 a piece when you add it all up

He etimates it's a good 60 more than CNN's estimate.

 

[Kai Dracon]

A note on Lego City and its loading issue, as I've played all of TT"s previous games including on PC w/ lots of ram and a fast HDD.

I suspect their open world engine doesn't do anything at all to mask loading, and doesn't stream data. Their older games even on PC hard disk can be slow loading. Lego Batman 2 has a smaller open world and it appears to have inefficient loading schemes.

Lego City's overworld is really pretty large, and it seems to have a lot of good textures + a variety in those textures + a variety of vehicles and NPCs. It seems whenever you have to go back to the overworld it loads most of the basics in one go, rather than stream textures as the player drives around.

 

[Tenki]

I'm running out of space in my Deluxe Wii U and I'm thinking of buying an external HDD.

Is this one good? Will it run well with my console?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0052L77SA/?tag=neogaf0e-20

And can I make a partition so I can store my data on one and the Wii U data in another?

 

[Schnozberry]

I'm running out of space in my Deluxe Wii U and I'm thinking of buying an external HDD.

Is this one good? Will it run well with my console?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0052L77SA/?tag=neogaf0e-20

And can I make a partition so I can store my data on one and the Wii U data in another?

No, you have to format the entire drive when you plug it in. Buy a smaller drive and save a few bucks. And make sure you order a USB Y Cable, otherwise the drive won't get enough power.

This cable is what I ordered with mine. Hasn't had any issues thus far.

http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-USB2HABMY1-Cable-External-Drive/dp/B003WV5DMO/ref=pd_sim_e_1

 

[Nostremitus]

I'm running out of space in my Deluxe Wii U and I'm thinking of buying an external HDD.

Is this one good? Will it run well with my console?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0052L77SA/?tag=neogaf0e-20

And can I make a partition so I can store my data on one and the Wii U data in another?

Does it plug into the wall for power? If not, does it come with a Y cable?

And No, no partitions, the WiiU takes over the entire HHD.

I got a cheap 500GB Iomega Prestige... but they're $150 on Amazon now.... weird.

Edit: beaten

 

[Schnozberry]

A note on Lego City and its loading issue, as I've played all of TT"s previous games including on PC w/ lots of ram and a fast HDD.

I suspect their open world engine doesn't do anything at all to mask loading, and doesn't stream data. Their older games even on PC hard disk can be slow loading. Lego Batman 2 has a smaller open world and it appears to have inefficient loading schemes.

Lego City's overworld is really pretty large, and it seems to have a lot of good textures + a variety in those textures + a variety of vehicles and NPCs. It seems whenever you have to go back to the overworld it loads most of the basics in one go, rather than stream textures as the player drives around.

The loading issue doesn't bother me as much as the lack of manual saving. Hopefully that can be patched in. Otherwise, the game has been a blast thus far.

 

[Donnie]

Jim Morrison from Chipworks had this to say regarding the MCM.



He etimates it's a good 60 more than CNN's estimate.

CNN estimated the MCM as $40?, this is why certain media outlets should not try to put out articles on things they just don't understand.

 

[Tenki]

Ok, thanks. I'll buy a Y cable too.

 

[frankie_baby]

CNN estimated the MCM as $40?, this is why certain media outlets should not try to put out articles on things they just don't understand.

hmmm the graphics chip alone is undoubtedly more than that

 

[Earendil]

Jim Morrison from Chipworks had this to say regarding the MCM.



He etimates it's a good 60 more than CNN's estimate.

EDIT: Beaten

*shakes fist at Donnie*

 

[lostinblue]

CNN Wii U cost breakdown: (just for the sake of it)

Console:
↳ MCM Processor (CPU+GPU): $40.00
↳ Optical Drive: $17.00
↳ Flash Storage: $6.00
↳ RAM: 6.00
↳ All other components (Wifi, Bluetooth, PCB, housing): 79.38

Console Cost: 148.38

Controller:
↳ Touchscreen display: $24.75
↳ Main electronics (accelerometers, memory and microprocessor): $30.00
↳ All other components (Battery, Wifi, PCB, housing): $24.50

Controller Cost: $79.25

Total Cost: 227.63

Providing the MCM is $100 scenario and the rest of the costs being spot on then total cost would be $287.63; of course at that pricepoint and since Nintendo says there is a loss per unit, it probably surpasses $299.99 a bit (probably not hugely so), but it's not hugely off, taking the MCM wildcard apart.

 

[Donnie]

Considering retailers need to take a cut and shipping and packaging costs I think a hardware parts cost of anywhere around $250 for the basic would very likely mean a loss per unit.

 

[lostinblue]

Considering retailers need to take a cut and shipping and packaging costs I think a hardware parts cost of $250 for the basic would mean a loss per unit.

Packing and Shipping, yes, you're right I forgot that part.

But most of the cost would be the retailer part stocking item margin I believe; usually $20 and up.

 

[nicoga3000]

Is this the right thread for general questions? I'm at Target looking at the display and am deciding what to buy.

Deluxe system
MonHun
NSMBU
?????

I have the old classic controller and a Wiimote with plus, but do I need to buy anything else? Also, of what's currently available, any suggestions for what to fill the 3rd B2G1 game slot with?