The Wii's "poor graphics"

[BrentNewhall]

On a thread about Godzilla: Unleashed, there was a debate about why the Wii doesn't have as good graphics as other consoles but some games have lovely lighting effects, etc. As a hobby game developer, I wanted to shed some light on this.

(Disclaimers: I've never written a game for consoles. This is all just my opinion. I could be wrong.)

At the lowest level, every console is a computer. Every computer is theoretically capable of the same things; it's just a matter of how long it will take to do it, and what specific hardware is used for input (mice, keyboards, etc.) and output (graphics, sound, etc.).

So, within a given console or computer you have basically three kinds of hardware that determine graphics:

• The processor itself (faster is better)
• Memory (more is better)
• Additional hardware like math processors and graphics accelerators, which make certain operations quicker

An X-Box 360 probably has more graphics accelerators than a Wii. However, this will only affect certain kinds of graphics.

Textures are textures. They're just flat images. If one game has better textures than another, it's not the hardware's fault; it's because one developer spent more time or money or talent creating better textures.

I agree that Wii games seem to have excellent lighting effects. If the Wii is graphically underpowered, that's strange, because lighting effects require a lot of processor power. This suggests that the Wii isn't as underpowered as people think.

So, the Wii is capable of quite a lot graphically. I think it's up to developers to fully harness the graphical capabilities of the Wii.

(Which is certainly a challenge; game development is hard, and learning a new console is even harder. Developers have it tough, and it'll take them a while to figure out how to use the Wii's graphics best.)

 

[Star Striker]

Yup!

It's all up to the game developers.

Not all XBox 360 game's graphics are at the same standard as Gears of War.....

 

[adf3424sdff]

Good point you have there! reppage anyone?

 

[Wii_Smurf]

Apparently, Mario Galaxy will be using the full limitations of the Wii's GFX, And they do look amazing, But we need to see what it can pull out in the Real world GFX, FIFA will definatly be a game to help us with this

 

[Retman]

I hope developers will sit down and talk through the wii and make a game which does push the wii in terms of Graphics.

i'm sure they could get something up to the standards of Twilight Princess and maybe a little more.

Since Nintendo made Twilight Princess and the wii they knew what the wii was able to do in terms of Graphics. Hence the reason Twilight Princess is such a lovely game to play and to see.

But i'm almost certain the wii could go above the Graphics of Twilight Princess. I don't mean the standards of the ps3 and 360 but up to a level where it is better than the ps2/gamecube/xbox.

That is my two-cents.

 

[Valley]

Well, I'd rather the devs concentrate on good gameplay rather than graphics. I bought my Wii for gaming, not to look at pretty pictures

Good points there.

 

[DazzeL]

It's just a matter of time. Clearly is is far more powerful than the cube. ATM it's not helped as no real standard has been set. Alongside this, whilst the ps2 sells well it will continue to be tantalising for devs to simply port ps2 games to Wii. Hence the poor graphics.

I think this will on change once Metriod, Mario and Smash are out. They'll set the benchmark we're all lacking. Once these games, which frankly are graphically very pretty, are out the 3rd party devs will need to keep up.

 

[Spiritshotgun]

hahaha...faster is better...no, its not at all about speed, it's about the architecture used on the processors that includes the video processor (gpu) as well. the wii isnt meant to be a powerful system, if it was, it wouldve been 400 dollars.

 

[George]

Umm, 400 dollers isnt that much right? As for Brent, i think u have made a really good point and you put it well, i agree with you aswell but are you sure that as along as something has a CPU, it can do anything that another can, just in a longer time?

 

[dreamcastninja]

You're wrong!

"If one game has better textures than another, it's not the hardware's fault; it's because one developer spent more time or money or talent creating better textures."

Textures have to be able to fit in memory, it takes ram to load textures and keep them in memory to be displayed. 360 and ps3 can display a lot more textures, and complicated textures at one time. WHen you increase polly count, you increase the number of textures, and usually you have to increase the quality of the texture since there is more detail to be had. All in all, the wii is a weak system when it comes to graphics. It's very fun and I bought one. But at the end of the day, the wii is not a graphics machine, so don't make it one.

 

[DazzeL]

Aye its not a graphics machine. But then that's not really the point. What we're saying is we want to get the most out of it and it can and will do a lot better than it has done thus far. If you check out some screenshots for metroid and ssmb they look really good. They're no Gears of War, but they do compete with low end 360 stuff thats around atm.

 

[StevenNevets]

Quit with the Wii is capable of blah, blah, blah crap people.
Think it's coinsidence that PS3 games look tons better then Wii games (systems came out at same time, probobly close initial developement.)?
Think games can look much better then the Big 3?

Nope. The average game will get better-looking but Wii games can never can more then a little jump over the xbox.

 

[callme.nasty]

I hope developers will sit down and talk through the wii and make a game which does push the wii in terms of Graphics.

i'm sure they could get something up to the standards of Twilight Princess and maybe a little more.

Since Nintendo made Twilight Princess and the wii they knew what the wii was able to do in terms of Graphics. Hence the reason Twilight Princess is such a lovely game to play and to see.

But i'm almost certain the wii could go above the Graphics of Twilight Princess. I don't mean the standards of the ps3 and 360 but up to a level where it is better than the ps2/gamecube/xbox.

That is my two-cents.

i guess you've never played a game with good graphics? Twilight Princess isn't even a Wii game, its a gamecube game. The graphics are terrible. Sure, maybe they were ok for gamecube... You better hope the wii will put out graphics better than the gamecube. think before you speak.

 

[Pokemon_Master1001]

The wii has good graphics like the new gaame Dewy's Adventure(comming later this year).I dont like to be to graphicy like the PS3.

 

[Zero77]

How are SSBbrawl graphics looking they look alright to me but idk