OUYA - A new $99 console powered by Android [Kickstarter ended, $8.5 million funded]

HyperCubed4 said:
From what I've seen, people are unimpressed by the specs. In addition, there is nothing the Ouya can do that the PC can't. Or... whatever. Sometimes people can be a little cynical.
Click to expand...

Don't compare it to PCs though, compare it to things like AppleTV or Roku except people can develop whatever they want on there. It's also so portable, which can be good for a whole mess of reasons. Considering it's the same price as those other devices and it's more open and comes with a controller, it seems like a no brainer for a TV-enhancing device.

Instead of buying one of those new smart TVs that tack on hundreds of dollars for app/wifi functionality, you could just buy a normal TV and enhance it with one of these to get all those same features and much more.
 
Lothars said:
Doesn't mean I can't be wary of it, If it comes out and I missed the boat, no big deal.

If it doesn't than I didn't miss anything, I am just not going to invest into something that I am really unsure about. I hope it does come out and does everything they are talking about.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, I don't blame anyone for being wary of taking a Kickstarter risk. But you said that you were really interested in it, but then the more you read that the Ouya people were saying the more wary you got based on what they were saying.
 
evilchicken said:
Don't compare it to PCs though, compare it to things like AppleTV or Roku except people can develop whatever they want on there. It's also so portable, which can be good for a whole mess of reasons. Considering it's the same price as those other devices and it's more open and comes with a controller, it seems like a no brainer for a TV-enhancing device.

Instead of buying one of those new smart TVs that tack on hundreds of dollars for app/wifi functionality, you could just buy a normal TV and enhance it with one of these to get all those same features and much more.
Click to expand...

You make a mean point. I see it as a good, jack-of-all-trades kind of console. It isn't going to beat the Big 3 at many things, but it is going to a ton of different things. I'm not trying to knock it, I already gave these guys money. I'm looking forward to it.
 
"As I said, XBMC being out for Android does NOT mean it's out for Ouya. Ouya as it ships does not have access to Google Play, only the Ouya store. You need to root the device to install any other store, and doing so disables the ability to use the Ouya store or any apps downloaded from it. The fact that from day 1 XBMC will be able to be installed onto Ouya without going to a lot of work is a great thing. Also, since the XBMC guys are actually working with Ouya, maybe they will update the interface to fit well with the Ouya interface."


Thanks for clarifying this. I wish they would find a way to root the device, still purchase legit games. I know the whole piracy thing and that is a hot topic with Android. I also understand that with a different store it turns people off of he device. I wish they would figure this out in a way that makes a majority happy.
 
fritolay said:
"As I said, XBMC being out for Android does NOT mean it's out for Ouya. Ouya as it ships does not have access to Google Play, only the Ouya store. You need to root the device to install any other store, and doing so disables the ability to use the Ouya store or any apps downloaded from it. The fact that from day 1 XBMC will be able to be installed onto Ouya without going to a lot of work is a great thing. Also, since the XBMC guys are actually working with Ouya, maybe they will update the interface to fit well with the Ouya interface."


Thanks for clarifying this. I wish they would find a way to root the device, still purchase legit games. I know the whole piracy thing and that is a hot topic with Android. I also understand that with a different store it turns people off of he device. I wish they would figure this out in a way that makes a majority happy.
Click to expand...

I think I'm gonna get two just to root one. Don't you have to root it to develop for it anyway? I wasn't going to drop $600 for a developer console, but I'll gladly drop $200 for two consoles. One that I can tinker/develop with, and another that stays stock for games.
 
Well I'm thankful for all who support this device. I am to weary to donate, but I'll be one of the early adopters. :-) The system looks like it's really shaping up. Now I just wonder if it's capable of running hd 2D titles. If it could be my source for games like Bastion, Rayman Origins, Guardian Hero type games, I'd be in heaven. :-)

It should be capable of doing 1080p 2D games right?
 
Interesting that they have partnered with the XBMC project. Wonder what that means for a Plex client (my media player software/server of choice).

Certainly am interested just for the media centre aspect. Competitive with the AppleTV and I don't have to mod it.
 
It still feels disingenuous the way they talk about these announcements as "partnerships". All they've really done is talk some people into letting them host preexisting Android apps in their store. It's a zero risk venture for all the developers involved, but using the word "partnership" creates the impression of a greater interest on the developer's part than actually exists.
 
Yeah, that Dead Trigger video is hilarious. "Look at all the features nVidia paid us to turn off in the regular version of our game! Here's some tacky water droplet things! Here's some Xbox era fog! And here's the water from PS2 classic, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance!"
 
This thing has only one USB port, right?

So will it be possible to hook up a usb-hub to connect maybe two 2"HDDs and 2 SNES USB controllers? In theory it should work, right? Someone who knows how should be able to write some drivers, if its not supported by default?!

The controller doesn't look like its suited for 2D gameplay and thats what I intend to use this thing for - mostly NES to (maybe) N64 emus + musik and video.
 
Brad Grenz said:
Yeah, that Dead Trigger video is hilarious. "Look at all the features nVidia paid us to turn off in the regular version of our game! Here's some tacky water droplet things! Here's some Xbox era fog! And here's the water from PS2 classic, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance!"
Click to expand...

Somewhat off-topic but I currently have an HTC One X phone which uses a Tegra 3, I was thinking about jumping ship to a Galaxy S3, is there any easy way of getting the effects re-enabled on non-Tegra hardware by using Chainfire 3D or something similar? I could get Tegra 2 games to run on my old Galaxy S2 using Chainfire 3D and the Nvidia plug-in.

R1CHO said:
Yeah... Wait to see that on a 1080p display...
Click to expand...
Doesn't really look that bad, I've played Riptide and Shadowgun on my 51" 1080P plasma upscaled and they both looked pretty decent, no worse than any other 720P source upscaled really.
 
Brad Grenz said:
It still feels disingenuous the way they talk about these announcements as "partnerships". All they've really done is talk some people into letting them host preexisting Android apps in their store. It's a zero risk venture for all the developers involved, but using the word "partnership" creates the impression of a greater interest on the developer's part than actually exists.
Click to expand...

Not really, just "hosting" a preexisting app won't work, as I understand it all apps need to be at least recompiled with calls to the Ouya SDK (especially anything using in-app purchases, which is every app that isn't 100% free). Plus, many apps would need extra work to support 1080p, most current apps aren't designed for 100% controller use with no touchscreen, and of course not all existing apps have the free demos that Ouya requires. And if you read the statement by the XBMC guys there's definitely more going on, as they talk about getting access to early prototype hardware. And in the case of XBMC, it would make sense for them to match the rest of OUYA's interface with their own (not saying they are doing so necessarily, but it would be lazy for a media player to have a different interface than the rest of the console).

Oh, and I just read more about XBMC for Android, and they are very specifically targeting "set top boxes" like this, not normal Android phones and whatnot (and full 1080p for videos is an important part of it). And of course it's not really a "preexisting Android app", as XBMC isn't on any store yet, best you can do is compile an early version yourself. And they already talk about how one company "sponsoring" the Android XBMC allowed them to write a hardware accelerated version for that device, so I could see an Ouya partnership allowing the same thing.
 
R1CHO said:
Yeah... Wait to see that on a 1080p display...
Click to expand...

Shadowgun and Dead Trigger look pretty great on the Nexus 7 which is 1280 x 800. Not to mention that the Tegra 3 in Ouya is a more powerful variant. For $99 you can't really complain. It is a shame they're not holding off and launching a little later with Tegra 4 though.
 
GoofsterStud said:
It should be capable of doing 1080p 2D games right?
Click to expand...

Well, the Tegra 3, as embedded in the Ouya, should definetely be topping the PS Vita, which already runs 2D games magnificiently. I think Rayman Origins actually runs a higher resolution frame-buffer on Vita than the native resolution (to allow the zoom function), so that might be a good indication of what the Ouya might be capable of, which hopefully means 1080p 2D with Rayman Origins, Bastion level of quality.
 
Micerider said:
Well, the Tegra 3, as embedded in the Ouya, should definetely be topping the PS Vita, which already runs 2D games magnificiently. I think Rayman Origins actually runs a higher resolution frame-buffer on Vita than the native resolution (to allow the zoom function), so that might be a good indication of what the Ouya might be capable of, which hopefully means 1080p 2D with Rayman Origins, Bastion level of quality.
Click to expand...

Yea no. The Tegra 3 doesn't top the powervr in the vita, not even remotely
 
Micerider said:
Well, the Tegra 3, as embedded in the Ouya, should definetely be topping the PS Vita, which already runs 2D games magnificiently. I think Rayman Origins actually runs a higher resolution frame-buffer on Vita than the native resolution (to allow the zoom function), so that might be a good indication of what the Ouya might be capable of, which hopefully means 1080p 2D with Rayman Origins, Bastion level of quality.
Click to expand...
The Vita GPU destroys the Ouya in every single way possible. It's not even close either not to mention that Vita only runs at a quarter of the resolution Ouya is expected to run at meaning that the graphical valley between the two devices should resemble the difference between this gen and last gen.
 
Durante said:
No. The SGX543MP4+ GPU is much faster than the GPU in any version of Tegra 3.
Click to expand...

I'm confused here, isn't the SGX543MP4+ better per core level (4) with the Tegra 3 GPU (Geforce ULP?) being much lower per core but better overall with it's 12 cores used?

This is an honest question here, surely a misunderstanding from my end.

Besides, is it true for 2D as well?
 
Micerider said:
I'm confused here, isn't the SGX543MP4+ better per core level (4) with the Tegra 3 GPU (Geforce ULP?) being much lower per core but better overall with it's 12 cores used?

This is an honest question here, surely a misunderstanding from my end.

Besides, is it true for 2D as well?
Click to expand...
From what I gather, the Tegra 3 isn't really 12 core, it's just the sneaky way nvidia have named it but it's actually a single core. I think the 12 core may be referring to the 8 pixel and 4 vertex shaders.

Edit: Yeah, I'm right. The '12 core' is just a sneaky way to refer to the 8 pixel and 4 vertex shaders. If you were to use the same method of naming the PowerVR GPUs in the Vita/ipad, then each core would really be a 16 core.
 
Horse Armour said:
From what I gather, the Tegra 3 isn't really 12 core, it's just the sneaky way nvidia have named it but it's actually a single core. I think the 12 core may be referring to the 8 pixel and 4 vertex shaders.

Edit: Yeah, I'm right. The '12 core' is just a sneaky way to refer to the 8 pixel and 4 vertex shaders. If you were to use the same method of naming the PowerVR GPUs in the Vita/ipad, then each core would really be a 16 core.
Click to expand...

Hmmm, looking right, from just gathering more information, the theoretical "power" of Tegra 3 is around 12 Gflops whereas the PowerVR is running around 30.

Strange technological choice there then.
 
I just decided to back it with a second controller, just in case it is a hassle to get one when they start shipping units. Also, I was wondering, is it possible to run emulators on this thing without having to root it? That would make the Ouya so worth it imo.
 
Dynamite Shikoku said:
Yeah, the power of this thing will be lagging bad when it is released
Click to expand...

I think it'll be as powerful as a decent smartphone from 2011. Maybe its asking for too much, this is 99 bucks while smartphones were 499.

Having the same specs as GS2 means this thing will play PS1/N64 emus without a problem, I doubt it though.
 
evildede said:
I just decided to back it with a second controller, just in case it is a hassle to get one when they start shipping units. Also, I was wondering, is it possible to run emulators on this thing without having to root it? That would make the Ouya so worth it imo.
Click to expand...

We basically know nothing about this thing outside of the spec.

UI and everything is up in the air.

I have tonight to see if Im going to pull my funds or leave it.
 
TurkishEmperor said:
I think it'll be as powerful as a decent smartphone from 2011. Maybe its asking for too much, this is 99 bucks while smartphones were 499.

Having the same specs as GS2 means this thing will play PS1/N64 emus without a problem, I doubt it though.
Click to expand...

If i can get full emulation up till N64 level then it paid for itself.
 
I personally have a Boxee box in the living room, and if this thing does XBMC out of the box it means I'll move my Boxee to the bedroom and keep this one in the living room where I'll also be able to play a bunch of games on it as well as watch all my movies, for less than the price of a Boxee box. I think it's worth it.

Obviously it won't be as powerful as a gaming console, but for its price I doubt they were able to put much more into it. Who knows, maybe they'll release upgraded versions later on it this thing catches on?
 
Horse Armour said:
the graphical valley between the two devices should resemble the difference between this gen and last gen.
Click to expand...
Is this really true?

I mean, isn't Tegra 3 capable of producing much more modern shaders than last-gen consoles? Isn't this, along with the HD resolution, going to make the difference much narrower?
 
The only thing that is stopping me from investing in thus Graphical capilities, it wont run the newest android games at max setting one or two years from now. Its very problamatic.

People are gonna buy only to find out, that they cant play the games maxed out a year after; forced to buy a newer verson of the console. A console should be able to do this for four years. People are gonna get burned by this and it will hurt the image of the console brand.
 
OUYA isn't getting the standard Tegra 3. It's getting an upgraded version specifically developed by Nvidia for a closed box system (i.e. what OUYA is). The tech is going to be heavily optimised, so you should see performance far beyond what tablets and phones using the standard tech are capable of. The details were in one of their updates - I think it was the one with Muffi.
 
I pledged $190 for the limited edition Brown Brushed OUYA + 2 PADS + Shipping outside US.
Looks like my PC and PS3 will have a new company.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

A new Amiga in 2019? Looks like it!
31
17K
petran79 replied
New pc build, help,advice and alot of noob questions
39
19K
V4skunk replied
Nintendo Hollywood is coming to Universal CityWalk, California. (Comparable to Nintendo New York store)
9
3K
Nelsin replied
Any interest in a Gameboy Community?
7
2K
SpiceRacz replied
iOS Gaming May 2017 | Got 99 problems but 32 bit ain't one
2 3 4 5 6
287
59K
davepoobond replied
Top Bottom