Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Wii U Architecture

copetti.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 160 posts

Re: Wii U Architecture

#91

Post by IntelMiner »

Bondi_Blue wrote: post #88

The Wii U had a rich feature set. Firsts for a Nintendo home console: - OTB web browser - OTB audio and video chat with friends, native support for 3rd party headsets - real-time direct messaging (via Miiverse) notifications and other friend notifications via the home button LED - Ability to view online status of friends - High definition graphics - 5+ player synchronous local multiplayer - built-in Nintendo TVii ser…

Minor correction. The Wii came with Opera Mini, aka the "Internet Channel" in 2007 https://learn-about-anything.fandom.com/wiki/Internet_Channe...

Re: Wii U Architecture

#92

Post by lynguist »

paulpan wrote: post #84
lynguist wrote: post #82

Another badly designed Nintendo console. Now hear me out: NES: Well designed. SNES: Well designed. N64: Hampered by the originally 12-24 MB cartridges as opposed to 650 MB CDs. GameCube: Well designed. A little hampered by the 1.4 GB mini DVDs as opposed to 7.8 GB DVDs. Wii: Underpowered, but a surprise smash hit capturing that era’s sensibilities (like the PS2). Wii U: Clunky and awkward, which however led to the Sw…

I think "design" is overused in this case. Sure some users base their purchase decision on actual design/look of a console, but that's a rarity. Success is more dictated by 4 main constraints or factors: - Game selection and support - Price point - System performance (including storage) - Innovative-ness or accessibility Successful consoles typically met at least 3 of the above. For example the Nintendo Switch had ve…

> For example the Nintendo Switch had very mediocre system performance

Nintendo Switch had the most powerful GPU of any mobile device released at its time. Furthermore it has 4 GB of RAM. Just the Cortex A-57 CPU wasn’t bleeding edge any more, having been replaced by the Cortex A-72 by the time of the Switch with a higher IPC of 16%. It was a well balanced system.

You might be mistaken because mobile CPU performance grew in an unparalleled explosive fashion, and the Cortex A-72 was already replaced by the A-73, A-74, A-75, A-76, A-77, A-78, and A-710 by now. But this is unfair to a system where its design was frozen already 6 years ago.

It just means that, if a successor Switch is built the same way, and a Cortex A-78 is used, its CPU would have ca 2.6x IPC. If it ran at twice the clock speed, its CPU performance would be 5.2x.

You’re being unfair because CPUs grew so much.

Re: Wii U Architecture

#93

Post by Bondi_Blue »

IntelMiner wrote: post #91
Bondi_Blue wrote: post #88

The Wii U had a rich feature set. Firsts for a Nintendo home console: - OTB web browser - OTB audio and video chat with friends, native support for 3rd party headsets - real-time direct messaging (via Miiverse) notifications and other friend notifications via the home button LED - Ability to view online status of friends - High definition graphics - 5+ player synchronous local multiplayer - built-in Nintendo TVii ser…

Minor correction. The Wii came with Opera Mini, aka the "Internet Channel" in 2007 https://learn-about-anything.fandom.com/wiki/Internet_Channe...

My bad, I thought this was an optional install.

Edit: This is an optional install, not OTB.

Re: Wii U Architecture

#94

Post by weberer »

lights0123 wrote: post #89

The article says: > Similarly to how the Wii Remote mangles the Bluetooth protocol to avoid third-party usage with "mangles the Bluetooth protocol" being a broken link. Anyone have information on this? I'm interested in how so.

The XWiimote docs would be the best place to start.

https://github.com/xwiimote/xwiimote/blob/master/doc/PROTOCO...

Re: Wii U Architecture

#95

Post by purpleflame1257 »

lynguist wrote: post #82

Another badly designed Nintendo console. Now hear me out: NES: Well designed. SNES: Well designed. N64: Hampered by the originally 12-24 MB cartridges as opposed to 650 MB CDs. GameCube: Well designed. A little hampered by the 1.4 GB mini DVDs as opposed to 7.8 GB DVDs. Wii: Underpowered, but a surprise smash hit capturing that era’s sensibilities (like the PS2). Wii U: Clunky and awkward, which however led to the Sw…

The DS had 16 audio channels compared to the GBA's 2. Actually, the DS was able to use the built-in GBA coprocessor to process its audio. So it was leaps ahead of the GBA, though not quite to SNES standards. By the time the DSi came around, there was a built in audio processing chip as well.

Re: Wii U Architecture

#96

Post by Steltek »

DCKing wrote: post #30
ace2358 wrote: post #3

The Wii U was unfortunately not a very successful console, but I feel that it had plenty of power to make fantastic looking games and great experiences. It came out in a weird time for technology and Nintendo always uses slightly older hardware. As a homebrew device it is amazing. There are still exploits being found with a new, safe, simple method out now thanks to some crazy dedicated modders. There’s a whole homeb…

> Nintendo always uses slightly older hardware. This is a bit of a meme, but it isn't generally true. The Nintendo 64 and GameCube were pretty cutting edge in their day. At the time the Nintendo Switch released, the Tegra X1 was still about as cutting edge as mobile GPUs came (in early 2016). What Nintendo is about - to a fault, some would argue - is cost cutting. Sometimes that means they use older stuff, but using…

Hang on there. I think the more accurate sentiment is "Nintendo hardware has lackluster graphics".

Switch is as much a console as it is a mobile device. Compared to an XBox, a Switch is a few horses short of a full stable.

Even the blockbuster Wii could only do 480p while contemporaries were doing HD.

What Nintendo does well is make the tradeoff worth it. Both the Wii and Switch make up for their reduced graphics by pioneering new ways of thinking about console gaming.

Re: Wii U Architecture

#97

Post by weberer »

criddell wrote: post #57
buildfocus wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got a steam deck - it makes a very decent attempt at transforming the former experience into the latter, but keeping access to all your existing PC games.

How well does it succeed? One reason I've only played games on consoles is that if I see a game that has PS5 on the box, I know it will run on my console. Do Steam games make a similar promise for the Steam Deck?

Yes, if you're in the store page, you can look for an icon that confirms whether the game is verified for the Steam Deck.

https://www.steamdeck.com/en/verified

Re: Wii U Architecture

#98

Post by amyjess »

bzzzt wrote: post #28
psychphysic wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Breath of the Wild ran poorly on both platforms on release. Which surprised me, and undermined the power of the Switch. That said the Switch remains underpowered compared to contemporary game consoles.

Switch is not competing with PS/Xbox, but with mobile phones, tablets and portable consoles (including Nintendo's DS line). It's not underpowered for a battery powered game machine and has a standardised controller setup and easy docking as differentiators to other mobile devices.

Unless you like JRPGs, in which case the Switch is a first-class console.

Except for a few AAA-scale action RPGs that launch on PS4/5 (e.g. FF7R, upcoming FF16), the vast majority of JRPGs being released today come to Switch first. And when Switch exclusivity expires, many of them only get a PC release beyond that with PS4/5 and XB1/XSX releases simply never happening.

For a good chunk of JRPG players, the question is "PS5 or Switch?". And if you're like me and specifically prefer turn-based JRPGs, you can forget about anything that launches as a Sony exclusive so that leaves the Switch as your #1 console.

Though I guess the comparison to the DS works well here, as the DS was to platformers during its heyday what the Switch is to JRPGs now.

Re: Wii U Architecture

#99

Post by dagmx »

wodenokoto wrote: post #54
psychphysic wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Breath of the Wild ran poorly on both platforms on release. Which surprised me, and undermined the power of the Switch. That said the Switch remains underpowered compared to contemporary game consoles.

It did? I never noticed performance issues with breath of the wild

Breath of the Wild is quite terrible on the Wii U. You get frame stutters when there’s more content on screen than just a few enemies and the resolution + aliasing are really hard on the eyes. Load times as well are longer.

I stopped playing on Wii U and rebought it for the Switch where it’s significantly better.

Re: Wii U Architecture

#100

Post by mkw2000 »

I loved and still do love my Wii U and still use it semi regularly to this day. There was something about the Wii and Wii U that was lost on the Switch. They just had that special Nintendo "feel" and vibe
Post reply on HN