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Digital Foundry vs Watch Dogs on Wii U

I'm not very tech savvy outside of animation, but what things should be the cause of the problems with the CPU? Cloth physics, debris and AI?

Gameplay code (of all types), physics, drawing data for the GPU. Basically everything.

This game (even) at its lowest settings is hard on PC CPUs... let alone current gen consoles... let alone last gen consoles... and then there is the Wii U.
 

Exile20

Member
come on now. they went for the bare minimum power wise, just to make the console smaller, A gpu with only 176 glops, and a weak cpu to boot, it wasn't just a choice, they just don't care for specs. it was all about being low power wattage, small, and gamepad, no effort was put making descent specs.

Dude you think this is a kid doing homework and he decided to put some tennis balls on string for a solar system instead of using different sizes, textures, colors, etc cause he didn't want to put in the effort?

What you might think but a system launch takes a huge effort and as a business cost if everything cause that has an effect on profit.

You think some guy just woke and was like man I don't feel like putting in 8 gb of memory lets do 4, it is easier?

They banked on the tablet and it didn't work out, simple.
 

killatopak

Gold Member
hdtown4zsdt.gif


Xenoblade X is on it's way...

WOW

Dude you think this is a kid doing homework and he decided to put some tennis balls on string for a solar system instead of using different sizes, textures, colors, etc cause he didn't want to put in the effort?

What you might think but a system launch takes a huge effort and as a business cost if everything cause that has an effect on profit.

You think some guy just woke and was like man I don't feel like putting in 8 gb of memory lets do 4, it is easier?

They banked on the tablet and it didn't work out, simple.

Couldn't they ditch the tablet and make it optional like the Xbox One?
 

cyberheater

PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 Xbone PS4 PS4
Sub 720 HD resolution. Dips down to 20fps on occasion.

Sorry WiiU owners. Don't support this rubbish.
 
I remember when people said the only reason Wii U wasn't getting next-gen titles was because they were using cross-gen engines and it would take true next-gen engines to fully utilize the Wii Us power.
 
Wonder how much fps they could have produced with V-sync turned off.
(or at least some effort in porting it lol)


Oh they care a lot for specs. - Just not the same specs as you do. Maybe they should have just taken a standard laptop cpu/gpu combi like the competition to prove their technical prowers!1.. but they didn´t. They put R&D in the gamepad and i am very happy with it.

really this shouldn't be acceptable imo, a Console coming out 8 years later, should at the very least run last gen games easily with out much effort from developers. just to put thing in perspective the ps4 GPU is 10x more powerful the the wiiu, the wiiu should be at least have 400 glops, which wouldn't even cost much more money then one already in there.



yeah that's pretty much what I mean. faulting the Wii U first instead of Ubisoft. given the company, their track record as a whole, and also their track record specifically regarding the Wii U I think that's foolish. no offense to you personally.

Wiiu track record with third party multiplatform games has been horrible though. 90% are inferior frame rate wise, with the same graphics as the lastgen consoles for the most part, so it's just not UBI struggling with the wiiu, it's almost every developer.
 

Crossing Eden

Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
Gameplay code (of all types), physics, drawing data for the GPU. Basically everything.

This game (even) at its lowest settings is hard on PC CPUs... let alone current gen consoles... let alone last gen consoles... and then there is the Wii U.
Well on current gen, specifically ps4, it's almost always locked. I hope ZeldaU isn't held back in anyway. :( But it's first party so i'm sure they'll find a way around it.
 

phanphare

Banned
Wiiu track record with third party multiplatform games has been horrible though. 90% are inferior frame rate wise, with the same graphics as the lastgen consoles for the most part, so it's just not UBI struggling with the wiiu, it's almost every developer.

why'd you bold the whole quote?
 

lyrick

Member
really this shouldn't be acceptable imo, a Console coming out 8 years later, should at the very least run last gen games easily with out much effort from developers. just to put thing in perspective the ps4 GPU is 10x more powerful the the wiiu, the wiiu should be at least 400 glops, which wouldn't even that much more money then one already in there.


You are aware that the Wii U GFlop rating has never been definitively determined and that the number has very little to do with anything especially when comparing across architecture paradigms?
 

Exile20

Member
WOW



Couldn't they ditch the tablet and make it optional like the Xbox One?

Ye they could. plus what do you mean? before or after launch?

Before launch and release a more powerful console then the gamepad was seems like a luxury and I am sure will not sell much, so r&d down the drain. I love the gamepad but I would not buy it stand alone.

if after launch then the console will still be underpowered compared to the others and yes the price will be low but i think too low for the market.
 
They didn't bother releasing their flagship AC game with a decent frame rate despite it having all of their attention. Imagine how few resources must have been dedicated to this port. Considering that, Wii U owners should be satisfied that they even got the game.

I agree - if they couldn't give a shit about the frame rate in ACU then it's no surprise that Watch Dogs Wii U wasn't getting any kinds of love or dedicated optimisation. I suspect the only reason this released at all was because Ninty and Ubi had a contract from a couple of years ago that Ubi would release X number of games for the Wii U.

The wiiu continues the trend of having inferior multiplatform games compared to 360/ps3, and as usual Wiiu owners claim it's a great port, till the DF article comes out.

Dude, was there any fucking need for this? It just sounds like you're trying to incite arguments rather than encourage any kind of discussion.
 
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-vs-watch-dogs-on-wii-u

The wiiu continues the trend of having inferior multiplatform games compared to 360/ps3, and as usual Wiiu owners claim it's a great port, till the DF article comes out.

I have not heard anyone claiming that.

Apparently there's a thread here on GAF full of such statements, but I'm not going to bother reading through such nonsense. I bought it for PC a while ago, although I've yet to play for more than 5 minutes at a time. The state of this port has literally no impact on my opinion of the system.
 
While Nintendo initially tried to set up Wii U as a third-party friendly console, Watch Dogs once again highlights that its strengths are perhaps best not served in producing "me too" experiences - especially in an era increasingly dominated by consoles offering a generational leap in power.
Ah, I remember this so well. They also said the same about the 3DS. Saw this coming from a mile away.
 
Putting a game code into an entire different API / Processor type ain't easy. There is obvious effort behind this for that fact alone

nah. We know the WiiU CPU is less powerful than that of the HD-Twins. Is it surprising tha this CPU heavy game runs worse?
What makes Watch Dogs a CPU-heavy game?
That looks really bad.
lol, yeah. Of course it does.
it boggles my mind why people find this impressive graphically, must be that exclusive factor.
Dude, you're so unbelievably obtuse when it comes to Wii U I doubt that you would even admit being impressed by anything on it graphically.
 
At the risk of stating the obvious (or restating what's probably already been said), if you bought a WiiU for third party/graphically impressive games, you've made a terrible mistake.
 
Because the CPU is garbage. Underpowered, less efficient in nearly every aspect compared to the PS3 and 360

And part of the problem is that it's actually only a *bit* less powerful. They could have recoded the game to take some of the CPU work over to the GPU (which probably isn't being stressed), but given that they're only running a handful of frames slower... and given that it's a port, etc etc...

Just leave it as is. It's a lot of work to get a game to run marginally faster. In games like this where the game only needs to run marginally slower to go from passable to not good enough, you're left with an ugly final product.

If the CPU was weaker further still, they wouldn't be able to run that same code on the CPU and they'd have no choice but to move work over to the GPU... as it is, they just figure most people won't notice.

Maybe they're right, but it's still disappointing. All the Wii U needed was a *slightly* more powerful CPU that could at least run code designed for the 360 as well as the 360 could. Then Wii U ports would be equal or better in almost every case.

We've seen what a really talented team putting in a lot of effort can do (Bayonetta and Most Wanted as mentioned), but Wii U versions aren't going to get the budget to support the amount of man hours the current hardware requires.

If the CPU was equivalent to the 360... they wouldn't have to rework the whole engine just to get it running as well as it does on much older hardware. Frostbite would have worked on it just fine and the system would have seen more EA games. Etc etc.
 
It's really disappointing when developers like Ubisoft doesen't care about their games and release games without putting some efford in it to optimize it for the Ninteno Wii U that it runs better and then blame Nintendo when it does not sell well :(

Edit: There are enough examples like Xenoblade X, Bayonetta 2 and Zelda U which prove that the Nintendo Wii U can run games better if you put some effort and love into the game ;)
 
it boggles my mind why people find this impressive graphically, must be that exclusive factor.

Not because it's impressive graphically. Because it's the sequel to the critically acclaimed Xenoblade which managed to present players with an open world at a massive scope full of activity, things to explore, varied environments and most importantly a great art directions and atmosphere in the environments on an underpowered console. It's exciting to see Xenoblade X bring new places and environments. I just showed that cityscape because it's the most relateable looking piece that matched the "city based open world games" type of description from the comment I replied to.
 

SmokyDave

Member
When poor hardware meets a poor port, hilarity arises!

Coming soon to a Wii U near you.

Dude, you're so unbelievably obtuse when it comes to Wii U I doubt that you would even admit being impressed by anything on it graphically.
Eh, that does look kinda rough. Especially the car on the right hand side and the flat background in the distance. Still, it's early in development isn't it?

Is there a link to the video that gif is taken from?
 

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
It's really disappointing when developers like Ubisoft doesen't care about their games and release games without putting some efford in it to optimize it for the Ninteno Wii U that it runs better and then blame Nintendo when it does not sell well :(

What's the excuse for ZombiU then?

Anyways I didn't buy Watchdogs on PS4 for $20 and I'm not buying it for Wii U. There's better options out there.
 
When poor hardware meets a poor port, hilarity arises!

Coming soon to a Wii U near you.


Eh, that does look kinda rough. Especially the car on the right hand side and the flat background in the distance. Still, it's early in development isn't it?

Is there a link to the video that gif is taken from?

Here's the video. The exact moment of the gif is at 29:40. The city look like just about the blandest environment of the entire trailer, but you have to realize how huge and diverse Xenoblade is to appreciate it. I guess.
 

Hugstable

Banned
People expected this port to be good? lol no way... My brother actually bought the game just to see how bad it could get since he was both a fan of playing Watch Doges on his PC but also a fan of his Wii U. Gamepad features are even more underwhelming then the graphics lol.
 

Sevenfold

Member
Sucks for gamers with Wii U as primary. For the rest of us, surely no intention of buying Watch Dogs on WIi U anyway, right?
 
Because the CPU is garbage. Underpowered, less efficient in nearly every aspect compared to the PS3 and 360

The CPU might not have hit the same theoretical flop numbers for floating point calculations but it handily beats the 360 at non-floating point code and thanks to OOE and dedicated audio hardware is gonna be a lot more efficient
 
And part of the problem is that it's actually only a *bit* less powerful. They could have recoded the game to take some of the CPU work over to the GPU (which probably isn't being stressed), but given that they're only running a handful of frames slower... and given that it's a port, etc etc...

Just want throw it out there, that this whole GPGPU stuff on GAF has reached meme levels of virality. You legitimately cannot do that for so much of the stuff that runs on the CPU.
 

ozfunghi

Member
mario kart 8 looks impressive for wiiu hardware.

Implying all the other games don't look good for WiiU hardware, hence underperform given the hardware. And i agree. It's more a matter of bad ports, than it is a matter of weak hardware.

Eh, that does look kinda rough. Especially the car on the right hand side and the flat background in the distance. Still, it's early in development isn't it?

It's nearly finished now, Q2 Japan. The car looks rough, the "flat background" is actually not a flat background, it's just a large structure far away, where you can actually go to in the game.
 
Yes, this Xenoblade gif post is really counter-productive, not sure why anyone should be impressed.

It wasn't posted to impress. It was posted to show that Nintendo is indeed making an open world game with cities. That was the entire point. Read the comment I replied to.
 

Astral Dog

Member
Yes the system is underpowered, inefficient, it would be better if it was a strong 360 instead of a much weaker Xbox One.

But Xenoblade X is a good looking game, that gif doesnt do it justice, especially for a niche rpg game.
And its not on topic.
 

SmokyDave

Member
Here's the video. The exact moment of the gif is at 29:40. The city look like just about the blandest environment of the entire trailer, but you have to realize how huge and diverse Xenoblade is to appreciate it. I guess.
Thanks, I'll give that a watch. It certainly looks like the most ambitious Wii U title I've seen so far.

It's nearly finished now, Q2 Japan. The car looks rough, the "flat background" is actually not a flat background, it's just a large structure far away, where you can actually go to in the game.
Huh, must be the lighting or the perspective making it look 2D then.
 
I was waiting for this.



Let the Wii U fans enjoy it.
They sure will. Looks like a gorgeous game and will more than likely be RPG of 2015 (only real comp being FFXV*)**


*if it ships
*if it's any good

When poor hardware meets a poor port, hilarity arises!

Coming soon to a Wii U near you.


Eh, that does look kinda rough. Especially the car on the right hand side and the flat background in the distance. Still, it's early in development isn't it?

Is there a link to the video that gif is taken from?
I don't know what you're seeing Dave, but that game looks beautiful.
 

lyrick

Member
based off the youtube video,and people's impressions in the thread, i thought it might be. especially since they took there time releasing it, like NFSWU.

The delay looks more like a strategic alignment to try to entice Wii U only owners (if they exist) into an open world title, at the same time the other two Gen 8 platforms got one. Judging by the end quality, it's obvious the delay wasn't put into optimizations anywhere near the level of flipping the PC texture switch over at Criterion.
 
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