Wii Headset

YOWORD said:
Lets make believe the Headset came out tomorrow. Will it be useful for online games that were release before the headset came out?

Hmmm, good question.

I guess it would depend on how they implemented it. If it was on a per game basis, I wouldn't think so. But if it was a general Nintendo Wii chat lobby (i.e. a new channel) that could be used underneath a game that's running like Team Speak or Ventrillo does on computer, then it would work with everything.
 
^that would be nice, but I don't think the Wii's hardware is capable of simultaneously running more than one thing at a time. At least not without effects in the game (lag).
 
JT. said:
^that would be nice, but I don't think the Wii's hardware is capable of simultaneously running more than one thing at a time. At least not without effects in the game (lag).

Depends if they opted for features or functionality. Hopefully if it did happen, it would be an extremely light-weight channel that would not impede on the playing experience
 
I believe the date of release for the official Wii Headset was several hundred years prior to the Wii's conception.

Budo said:
Hmmm, good question.

I guess it would depend on how they implemented it. If it was on a per game basis, I wouldn't think so. But if it was a general Nintendo Wii chat lobby (i.e. a new channel) that could be used underneath a game that's running like Team Speak or Ventrillo does on computer, then it would work with everything.

I pushing for this style of access when I first bought my Wii. Basically a VOIP channel so whether individual developers wanted to implement or not, users could still use it if they wanted. There's a lot of benefit to that type of system.

However I think that both the OS infrastructure and the amount of RAM (80 some odd megs) in the Wii make this less feasible. Notice how after you leave a game, you still have to load up the Wii os again? Sure, you're home button appears to always give you access to it, no matter games are running (sans GC mode), but no decent voip system will ever come within single digit multiples of how small that features footprint is, and it's possible that all Wii games are required to implement that feature separately into their game, so it might not be resident.

The OS can be rewritten and the infrastructure could be changed, but this could clash with games already on the market/in development. Games that use all of the RAM available--either because they are good and visually appealing with complex physics, or because they are crappy and poorly optimized--wouldn't function. It would also further limit the ability of future games to do as much as they can now. This on a system that already has a bad rap because of it's low gfx ability.

For all of its benefits, this approach really needed to be fleshed out before the console was finalized. Right now, there's no evidence that any approach has been decided on (or that Nintendo has really decided to approach voicechat at all), much less fleshed out.
 
Wiinter said:
I believe the date of release for the official Wii Headset was several hundred years prior to the Wii's conception.



I pushing for this style of access when I first bought my Wii. Basically a VOIP channel so whether individual developers wanted to implement or not, users could still use it if they wanted. There's a lot of benefit to that type of system.

However I think that both the OS infrastructure and the amount of RAM (80 some odd megs) in the Wii make this less feasible. Notice how after you leave a game, you still have to load up the Wii os again? Sure, you're home button appears to always give you access to it, no matter games are running (sans GC mode), but no decent voip system will ever come within single digit multiples of how small that features footprint is, and it's possible that all Wii games are required to implement that feature separately into their game, so it might not be resident.

The OS can be rewritten and the infrastructure could be changed, but this could clash with games already on the market/in development. Games that use all of the RAM available--either because they are good and visually appealing with complex physics, or because they are crappy and poorly optimized--wouldn't function. It would also further limit the ability of future games to do as much as they can now. This on a system that already has a bad rap because of it's low gfx ability.

For all of its benefits, this approach really needed to be fleshed out before the console was finalized. Right now, there's no evidence that any approach has been decided on (or that Nintendo has really decided to approach voicechat at all), much less fleshed out.

Yea, that's pretty much the reason I don't see us getting voice chat anytime soon. Just that amount of RAM alone brings into question the ability of the Wii to multitask apps. Very creative programming aside, it's going to be pretty hard to pull it off, IMO.
 
Back
Top