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[ta-va]

That eDRAM comment has left me scratching my head as it directly contradicts lherre's statement that their is no L3 cache. As good as IBM's eDRAM is, I'm under the impression that SRAM would still be much better as L2 cache (which was put at 3 MB according to bg's sources). The only other scenario that seems plausible is the "scratchpad" theory of wsippel and others that 32 MB of eDRAM will be on the GPU but the CPU will be able to access it at a bandwidth, which is atm completely unknown, except that it needs to be at least 3.2 GB/s since it seems they're using IBM's eDRAM to mimic the 1t-SRAM in Wii BC mode. Anyone have any guesses as to what that bandwidth might be?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POWER7
http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/07/ibm-puts-watsons-brains-in-nintendo-wii-u/

The Wii U CPU will be Power7 (watson) based. It utilizes a ton of eDRAM as L3 cache and offers a lot of improvements over what we see used on the 360

It could be possible the customized GPU will have eDRAM as well like the 360's Xenos did for a super fast buffer. No clue what the bandwidth might be, but it was super

 

[herzogzwei1989]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POWER7
http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/07/ibm-puts-watsons-brains-in-nintendo-wii-u/

The Wii U CPU will be Power7 (watson) based. It utilizes a ton of eDRAM as L3 cache and offers a lot of improvements over what we see used on the 360

It could be possible the customized GPU will have eDRAM as well like the 360's Xenos did for a super fast buffer. No clue what the bandwidth might be, but it was super

256 GB/sec

I really hope the CPU and GPU each have their own custom eDRAM.

 

[LOCK]

This thread is growing exponentially. That's dangerous, GAF. DANGEROUS.

 

[Bagu]

This thread is growing exponentially. That's dangerous, GAF. DANGEROUS.

 

[DrWong]

A new 3DS firmware update is rumoured to come according to this site. Interesting if true as it seems to add some nice features to improve the Eshop.

* Ability to access Nintendo eShop account from other internet enabled devices including computers and smartphones.

* This system update will allow users to take pictures of QR codes with the 3DS from the other device’s screen to redeem purchased content.

* This update will add the application "Nintendo Network" to the 3DS.

* Ability to update physical Nintendo 3DS Games via Nintendo Shop (DLC feature).

* A "Game Preview" Mode for the Nintendo 3DS system Nintendo Shop.

* Enhances the speed of the handheld.

* Increases the system security with automatic security updates.

* Nintendo Zone will be automatically added to European 3DS owners.

 

[Fourth Storm]

It'll be custom for sure. We won't literally be seeing a HD 4830 chip in the Wii U. It'll be customized for the buyer (Nintendo). You wouldn't even have to say it's based on R700 or any series either. You can simply just say it's based on a VLIW4 or VLIW5 or the GCN architecture that AMD has used. I just don't see why Nintendo would use anything from the power hungry and inefficient R700 when they can go with VLIW4 designs (used in the HD 6800 & 6900 series) that bring better efficiency in power and gaming.

Consoles don't need to be high spec'd because the general masses are impressed by 360/PS3 level graphics, and there's no point in increasing your TDP for a console with limited breathing space.

They'll want the best of both worlds. Power efficiency + Performance and also a small die for better yields per wafer or to combine on die with a CPU. Mid range cards scream hello in this case. So a 4800 series performance would suffice for 720p gaming. Don't expect native 1080p if this is the case

Agreed. I can see them packing in an impressive number of ALUs. I've read some here speculate that they could replace the TMUs w/ TEV, which is intriguing, although it sounds a bit nuts. The clock rate will most likely be modest (not much more than 600 Mhz tops), and if I were to place bets, I'd guess VLIW5, but highly optimized. I recently read a piece which discussed how AMD has already basically done this w/ their cards codenamed "Barts," which allowed them to get more efficiency per ALU. If they can push VLIW5 to its max via that or some other Nintendo-specific method, it is theoretically the most power per watt...or something like that.

 

[shnord]

Wasn't there word that IBM may be manufacturing AMD's GPU for Wii U, or is my brain making that up? What are the odds of the eDRAM being sandwiched between the CPU and GPU on one ginormous package? (hax!)

Spoiler

Yes, I just used the word ginormous.

 

[Linkup]

A new 3DS firmware update is rumoured to come according to this site. Interesting if true as it seems to add some nice features to improve the Eshop.

No source, they got it from GAF, same wording and everything.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=467619

 

[Hero of Legend]

I'd be down for Endless Ocean and (this one's obvious) Fatal Frame.

I just want Endless Ocean 3 in glorious graphics. Huge potential considering how good the first two looked on Wii.

Arika's really going strong on 3DS as well, with the 3D Classics line (all of them?) as well as Bust a Move Universe and Tekken 3D.

 

[DrWong]

No source, they got it from GAF, same wording and everything.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=467619

Well actually I missed the GAF thread but what's fun is the GAF thread take a Japanese site as the source and this Japanese site take the site which has "no source" as the source. Funny.

 

[frostbyte]

Wasn't there word that IBM may be manufacturing AMD's GPU for Wii U, or is my brain making that up? What are the odds of the eDRAM being sandwiched between the CPU and GPU on one ginormous package? (hax!)

Spoiler

Yes, I just used the word ginormous.

Hmm, I remember this vaguely too. I think it was in this thread too. Was it wsippel or bgassassin or blu who was hypothesising this?

 

[TunaLover]

Just a re-confirmation that Silicon Knights still working in a highly requested game.

Interestingly, he refers to last generation and "this gen" because Silicon Knights has already moved on to new consoles. Dyack's not ready to talk about the next-gen project, but given his comments on Eternal Darkness recently, we have a strong suspicion that Silicon Knights is actually working on the fan favorite.

"We're really excited and we're working on our next generation stuff. We're working on an IP that's our most requested and we're really excited about that."

"We're smaller, obviously," he said referring to layoffs, "and we're going back to our roots. I'm really looking forward to a point in time when we can talk about it, it's just not today. That's the current state of things. I think the state of our demise has been greatly exaggerated. Here we are. We're here."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...t-a-bad-rap-sequels-still-possible-says-dyack

Please be Eternal Darkness 2 >_<, I think that "back to our roots" is a hint they back to Nintendo, the game is for next gen consoles, and it seems they can't talk about it because the NDAs.

 

[BD1]

I'm really starting to think Eternal Darkness 2 is coming to Wii U. On March 7, Dennis Dyack said an Eternal Darkness sequel isn't so much to ask for and its highly requested. (here). And then March 23, this article pops up where he says Silicon Knights is working on their "most requested IP." (Here). Those are two pretty obvious hints.

But above all that, I think it's a franchise that can appeal to the "core" that's actually owned and can be published by Nintendo. Eternal Darkness + Retro's Next Masterpiece could be two heavyweight "core" Wii U exclusives, published by Nintendo.

 

[TheExplodingHead]

Just a re-confirmation that Silicon Knights still working in a highly requested game.



Please be Eternal Darkness 2 >_<, I think that "back to our roots" is a hint they back to Nintendo, and it seems they can't talk about it because the NDAs.

I can't think of any Silicon Knights game that has been requested more than ED, so that has to be it.

 

[HylianTom]

Just a re-confirmation that Silicon Knights still working in a highly requested game.

Please be Eternal Darkness 2 >_<, I think that "back to our roots" is a hint they back to Nintendo, and it seems they can't talk about it because the NDAs.

Man.. that's one hell of a teasing line. It all seems to be adding-up, and to throw-out more bait like this is just.. cruel?
Please be ED2.. man..

 

[Shikamaru Ninja]

I can't think of any Silicon Knights game that has been requested more than ED, so that has to be it.

Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen. But i think Nintendo would be more receptive to working with Silicon Knights than Crystal Dynamics / Eidos. Either game would be gold though.

 

[Shion]

A new Eternal Darkness would be amazing, but I'm not sure if today’s Silicon Knights can pull it off.

 

[BD1]

A new Eternal Darkness would be amazing, but I'm not sure if today’s Silicon Knights can pull it off.

But today's Silicon Knights would once again have Nintendo's steady hand and resources to guide them.

 

[ozfunghi]

Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen. But i think Nintendo would be more receptive to working with Silicon Knights than Crystal Dynamics / Eidos. Either game would be gold though.

I read somewhere someone else now has the rights to LoK, so that could rule it out.

PS: maybe it was this http://www.vg247.com/2012/03/20/rumour-crystal-dynamics-working-on-soul-reaver-reboot/

 

[Fourth Storm]

Just a re-confirmation that Silicon Knights still working in a highly requested game.



http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...t-a-bad-rap-sequels-still-possible-says-dyack

Please be Eternal Darkness 2 >_<, I think that "back to our roots" is a hint they back to Nintendo, the game is for next gen consoles, and it seems they can't talk about it because the NDAs.

Those are some pretty heavy hints. Shall we commence the rejoicing?

 

[Gahiggidy]

Eternal Darkness would be perfect for the vitality sensor, provided the device works.

 

[BY2K]

Eternal Darkness would be perfect for the vitality sensor, provided the device works.

Or even exist anymore.

 

[Shikamaru Ninja]

Nintendo updates Luigi's Mansion trademark. Luigi's Mansion 2 announced. Nintendo updates Eternal Darkness trademark..... (Silicon Knights starts making crazy hints).

 

[Shikamaru Ninja]

Or even exist anymore.

Wii Relax and Vitality Sensor are very much in development.

 

[Gahiggidy]

Do you think Wii U is powerful enough to render Eternal Darkness environments which approach the detail and realism of RE:Remake?

 

[TunaLover]

Wii Relax and Vitality Sensor are very much in development.

I wonder how they will implement it on Wii U, a wrist strap like device would be nice IMO, I don't like having my index traped.

Do you think Wii U is powerful enough to render Eternal Darkness environments which approach the detail and realism of RE:Remake?

Sure, it's a corridor game, it will render a small room after another small room, it couldn't require too much power instead dedication to put every little detail.

 

[Krev]

Just a re-confirmation that Silicon Knights still working in a highly requested game.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...t-a-bad-rap-sequels-still-possible-says-dyack

I'm really starting to think Eternal Darkness 2 is coming to Wii U. On March 7, Dennis Dyack said an Eternal Darkness sequel isn't so much to ask for and its highly requested. (here). And then March 23, this article pops up where he says Silicon Knights is working on their "most requested IP." (Here). Those are two pretty obvious hints.

But above all that, I think it's a franchise that can appeal to the "core" that's actually owned and can be published by Nintendo. Eternal Darkness + Retro's Next Masterpiece could be two heavyweight "core" Wii U exclusives, published by Nintendo.

Nintendo updates Luigi's Mansion trademark. Luigi's Mansion 2 announced. Nintendo updates Eternal Darkness trademark..... (Silicon Knights starts making crazy hints).

It's all adding up...hype hype hype. Eternal Darkness 2 would be a megaton for me. I have some great memories of that game.
Hope it's at E3.

 

[ultrazilla]

I wonder how they will implement it on Wii U, a wrist strap like device would be nice IMO, I don't like having my index traped.

They've probably got it built into the touch screen controller. IE: put your thumb on the touch screen and it gives you heartbeat, etc.

 

[Krev]

They've probably got it built into the touch screen controller. IE: put your thumb on the touch screen and it gives you heartbeat, etc.

That would be ideal, but sadly, it's impossible.

 

[bgassassin]

Do you think Wii U is powerful enough to render Eternal Darkness environments which approach the detail and realism of RE:Remake?

*looks at some old RE:R vids*

Easily.

 

[Mr. MondayNight]

Do you guys think Nintendo having an E3 like (I Think) 2010 where they went new game crazy, but instead showing off all kind of new IPs and the dudebro games coupled with 3rd party support will scare the competition into releasing early?

 

[TunaLover]

Do you guys think Nintendo having an E3 like (I Think) 2010 where they went new game crazy, but instead showing off all kind of new IPs and the dudebro games coupled with 3rd party support will scare the competition into releasing early?

GAF told me that MS/Sony doesn't care by what Nintendo does, they are in another dimension.

 

[Fourth Storm]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POWER7
http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/07/ibm-puts-watsons-brains-in-nintendo-wii-u/

The Wii U CPU will be Power7 (watson) based. It utilizes a ton of eDRAM as L3 cache and offers a lot of improvements over what we see used on the 360

It could be possible the customized GPU will have eDRAM as well like the 360's Xenos did for a super fast buffer. No clue what the bandwidth might be, but it was super

Power7 has many features which may or may not end up on the custom Wii U cpu. From what I've read, a dedicated L3 cache is not something which would benefit game code all that much. One crazy theory I've been thinking about is if the eDRAM is not on a separate card like Xenos but was "sprinkled" on the GPU kind of like it is on a stock 8-core Power7 chip. IBM's eDRAM is 1/3 the size of normal eDRAM, or so they claim. Then to access that super low-latency pool of DRAM, the CPU would only need a path to the GPU via the memory controller, which might possibly be built into the CPU as many current designs have it. But yeah, that's just wild pondering. I just want to find out what this thing is capable of and start seeing/playing its games already.

 

[LOCK]

Wii Relax and Vitality Sensor are very much in development.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around Nintendo's intent with these products. I understand the potential, but not from Nintendo's point of view, at least now with Wii U upon us.

 

[Fourth Storm]

Btw, Dyack seems pretty confident in his comments regarding the lawsuit w/ Epic. May 14 should be interesting...

 

[BY2K]

Lawsuit with Epic? Over what? Too Human?

 

[Krev]

Btw, Dyack seems pretty confident in his comments regarding the lawsuit w/ Epic. May 14 should be interesting...

When does Dyack not seem confident? Do you remember the lead-up to the release of Too Human?
Nonetheless, I hope the case turns out well for SK. I want to see those guys on top again.

 

[Fourth Storm]

Yeah. It was a story a few years back now. He claimed UE3 failed them or whatever. Didn't deliver on its promises. I'm interested in knowing what they actually did promise SK that their engine would be capable of. 4 player gaming with a certain high graphical standard?

 

[ShockingAlberto]

Yeah. It was a story a few years back now. He claimed UE3 failed them or whatever. Didn't deliver on its promises. I'm interested in knowing what they actually did promise SK that their engine would be capable of. 4 player gaming with a certain high graphical standard?

Well, the UE3 SDK was free, so the only for it to be actionable is if their support wasn't any good (which is really what you're paying for).

He claimed all developers had problem with Epic's support, they just don't say it.

But we also know the guy has a paranoid persecution complex first-hand, so...

 

[Aaron Strife]

I'm really starting to think Eternal Darkness 2 is coming to Wii U. On March 7, Dennis Dyack said an Eternal Darkness sequel isn't so much to ask for and its highly requested. (here). And then March 23, this article pops up where he says Silicon Knights is working on their "most requested IP." (Here). Those are two pretty obvious hints.

But above all that, I think it's a franchise that can appeal to the "core" that's actually owned and can be published by Nintendo. Eternal Darkness + Retro's Next Masterpiece could be two heavyweight "core" Wii U exclusives, published by Nintendo.

Retro's Next Masterpiece will probably be DKCR2, unless they have a second team set up for Zelda. /speculation

 

[Bagu]

Well, the UE3 SDK was free, so the only for it to be actionable is if their support wasn't any good (which is really what you're paying for).

He claimed all developers had problem with Epic's support, they just don't say it.

But we also know the guy has a paranoid persecution complex first-hand, so...

Tell me the tale of his ban, oh reasonable one.

 

[Hiltz]

I'm still trying to wrap my head around Nintendo's intent with these products. I understand the potential, but not from Nintendo's point of view, at least now with Wii U upon us.

It's likely to follow in the footsteps of Nintendo's other peripherals of being under-supported one-trick ponies. Who knows, maybe it will still come out for the Wii. Nintendo already did the unexpected by announcing a sequel to Pokemon Black & White for the DS. Anything can happen!

 

[pieatorium]

Well, the UE3 SDK was free, so the only for it to be actionable is if their support wasn't any good (which is really what you're paying for).

He claimed all developers had problem with Epic's support, they just don't say it.

But we also know the guy has a paranoid persecution complex first-hand, so...

Not sure what you mean by UE3 being free? I know there is a free version but that wasn't released till well after Too Human was out and isn't really for large dev teams which I would assume get a much better deal going for a full license (not sure how much that costs but I have seen 700k per title mentioned a couple of times) than 25% of revenue going to Epic that using the free version entails.

 

[Naked Prime]

IIRC, didn't Epic say a while back that they were going to get back to focusing on PC? Would it be totally out of the question if UE4 is, at this point, primarily a PC development solution? If UE3 is a scalable and flexible to serve both this generation and next might we being seeing the beginning of a fork in the road for the Unreal Engine where we have a solution for consoles and another for PC? They would obviously share core fundamentals, but the PC variant could be designed to take advantage of the growing & ever changing PC gaming space. While the console would be constantly optimized and tailored to be the premier middleware toolset for its respective console (while still receiving variant tool updates from the more robust PC Unreal Engine). Where are there are some impressive UE3 titles the majority are console titles but their PC versions don&#8217;t appear to be a leap indicative of the gap in power of a console vs a high end PC rig. Just as Gears is a show peace for the 360, Epic could do the same for all 3 consoles, developing a premier UE3 exclusive for each. Fortnite being a Wii U & PC title wouldn&#8217;t be surprising. Build a new brand on a new machine.

UE4 = take back PC & build up PC development
UE3 = optimized & efficient console development with modular toolset updates

 

[Baby Yoshi]

Retro studios is not developing a zelda game and they will never will,they right now dont even have staff for that,nowadays according to their linkedin page they have exact 76 employers,for comparation skyward sword was made by more than 200 guys,if they couldn't have made skyward sword how the hell someone expect they to make a hd zelda that probably will need even more people ?

 

[Instro]

Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen. But i think Nintendo would be more receptive to working with Silicon Knights than Crystal Dynamics / Eidos. Either game would be gold though.

Yeah I can't see them bringing in Silicon Knights to work on the rumored reboot. Crystal Dynamics fully owns the IP iirc, and I would imagine there is still little love between either company given the history between the two.

 

[Krev]

It has to be Eternal Darkness, given that's the only other IP they're behind that I can imagine getting a lot of requests. It certainly has more fans than Too Human. But still...I can't believe it exists. People have been waiting for so long. What would an Eternal Darkness game made in 2012 even look like? Or play like?

 

[Oddduck]

If I see a new Eternal Darkness at E3, I am going to very happy.

 

[Hiltz]

It has to be Eternal Darkness, given that's the only other IP they're behind that I can imagine getting a lot of requests. It certainly has more fans than Too Human. But still...I can't believe it exists. People have been waiting for so long. What would an Eternal Darkness game made in 2012 even look like? Or play like?

The game really is a perfect fit for the Wii U controller since the original title relied so much on its menu system to equip and enchant weapons as well as cast spells.

 

[specialguy]

IIRC, didn't Epic say a while back that they were going to get back to focusing on PC? Would it be totally out of the question if UE4 is, at this point, primarily a PC development solution?

Yes. It would be totally out of the question.