New Nintendo console 'can enhance Assassin’s Creed engine', Ubisoft tech engineer says
A clearer picture is emerging on the technical sophistication of Nintendo’s upcoming home console, Wii U.
Marc Parenteau, a respected lead Ubisoft Montreal programmer who’s led teams on projects such as Assassin’s Creed, appeared unreserved in his praise for Nintendo’s new device.
“The multicore architecture of the console is a natural fit for our in-house HD engines, such as the Anvil engine,” Parenteau said during a developer roundtable at E3.
Parenteau, one of the few people in the industry that knows of the Wii U’s deepest hardware specifications, said the console’s “large memory capacity” would allow for enhancements to Anvil tech.
He said the extra processing power would allow for precalculating data and increasing cache sizes.
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“All the graphical shaders used in Assassin’s Creed are fully functional on Wii U”, Parenteau added.
He claimed that developers with Wii experience will find a familiar set of APIs in Wii U.
“New features, such as multicore processing, will extend the APIs in a natural way with low-level and straightforward calls,” he added.
Ubisoft is building an Assassin’s Creed project for the console. Parenteau wouldn’t offer further details regarding the project.
Nintendo has been coy regarding the technical details of its new home console.
The company has since admitted that, during its E3 reveal of the new tech, it should have put more emphasis on the system’s hardware.
[For Develop's full coverage on Wii U, go here]
shouldn't the wii u be more powerful than xbox 360 and ps3?
because i don't know why the hell people should pay for overprice console with the same power level of ps3/xbox 360 and knowing that ports will be arriving for the console.
I agree with the guy above me. If the wii U is "on par" with tech that is 5-6 years old, im skipping this one, because that is simply ridiculous. They are mistaken if they think that im going to lay down 200$+ for tech thats half a decade old, even if it has a touchscreen. But honestly, we have PLENTY of time. Msoft and Sony will no doubt have unveiled their new consoles before the release of the wii u, and ill compare them then.
The programmer just told you it was more powerful with more ram. If you look at the space of the xbox360 launch and the ps3 then "superior" tech got then a slight edge but ports looked worst. That's a different topic but the only real difference was frame rate and textures sizes because gasp they where on the same API direct x 9 and it's OpenGL equalivalent.
The only difference you will see is more frames if any or some other tech gimmick. If ms or Sony isn't doing full tessalation then they won't be more powerful than the wiiu.
You can wait all you want to you still need a wiiu to play wiiu nintendo exclusives. Games trump tech every day remember pc vs nes.
The programmer just told you it was more powerful with more ram. If you look at the space of the xbox360 launch and the ps3 then "superior" tech got then a slight edge but ports looked worst. That's a different topic but the only real difference was frame rate and textures sizes because gasp they where on the same API direct x 9 and it's OpenGL equalivalent.
The only difference you will see is more frames if any or some other tech gimmick. If ms or Sony isn't doing full tessalation then they won't be more powerful than the wiiu.
You can wait all you want to you still need a wiiu to play wiiu nintendo exclusives. Games trump tech every day remember pc vs nes.
Exactly sillytalk, it wasn't waggle technology that made the Wii outsell it's competitors, it was the appeal of Nintendo's games. Now the Wii U will be able to handle multi-platform games, while providing some new gimmicks for Nintendo to make use of.
While I expect it to have moderately better hardware specs than the Xbox 360 or PS3, it might be a mistake for them to blow the competition out of the water. Nintendo needs to make an affordable console and one that is profitable to produce. Plus, they don't really want to push MS or Sony into shortening their planed console cycle.
I hope you never bought a wii because if you bought one, you already spend over 200$ in a system that is half a decade old with just a new control, so, dont go around being a hipocrite. =)
For everyone and the continual comments of future hardware. The WiiU is a WIP giving more than a year for development and upgrades, and another thing, it has already been proven that the PS4 and XboxWhatevertheynameit will not be a leap in processing prowess like the xbox-xbox360 and ps2-ps3 upgrades were. Actually by current standards, the ps3 cell processor is still future technology and there is still nothing in the current computing world to overtake it, with only the intel i7-970 series to come close but incredibly overpriced ($550 lowest price). So whatever the new systems for Sony and Microsoft bring to the table it will not be a huge difference, therefore the WiiU being a "few times more powerful" than the xbox360 and ps3 actually puts it directly within the competition. In the gaming console world you need cost productivity, and gross revenue to think about, you cannot just make a system with the latest technology and mass produce it because you will go broke, Sony almost did that, but they had their other company products to balance the initial losses therefore managed to stay afloat. Microsoft also did as such, but they had their hardware made out of Legos and crack making them break every five seconds, so on top of not losing money in production, they also had their other products for Windows based PCs keeping them afloat. Nintendo is a gaming company, not an electronics giant, but they made the right choice in making the Wii so weak because the future technology powering its competitors had too long of a lifespan. Nevertheless now when the price for parts and manufacturing is right, they will bring us a true next gen console that will be in direct competition with the processing giants we see today.
