Messages

26

TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Asks: What would YOU like 93% bigger?

« on: March 30, 2010, 01:26:16 PM »

My paycheck

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TalkBack / Re: Super Mario Galaxy 2 to Feature Traditional World Map

« on: March 25, 2010, 03:46:25 AM »

The hub world was the best map in Mario Sunshine.

I liked Rosalina's floating place in Galaxy too.

The hub was very good in Sunshine, but the game itself had some relatively bland levels (too much of the same or similar theme).

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Nintendo pre-empts April Fools Day - Official Nintendo 3DS announcement megaton

« on: March 24, 2010, 05:42:16 PM »

I know the DS screen is technically pressure sensitive (although the range is so fine it's hard to use effectively).  Do any games use it (except to filter it light taps that might not have been intentional).  If not, why would they bother adding it to the pen?  I could see it being useful to an art program, but not any games.  It would be prone to breaking and expensive (same thing really).

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Announces Nintendo 3DS

« on: March 24, 2010, 05:37:22 PM »

and chopsticks...there are some things you can do with chopsticks that you can't do with a fork and knife.

No one has ever even come close to providing me with a decent example of this.  Eating isn't that difficult.  You really just need a way to get the food into your mouth.  But I know you can't cut anything with chopsticks.  The best argument anyone has given me is that you can eat certain Asian foods really fast IF you know what you're doing.  But unless I'm in an eating contest why would I care?  I've never ran into a "oh ****" moment when using a knife-fork-spoon combo but the second a t-bone steak comes out and you've got only chopsticks it's an "oh ****" moment.
 

 Cube games on 4 gb carts

Yeah, this sounds like a deterent for ports.

They'll save a lot of space by reducing the quality of audio and textures, using newer compression algorithms than we had 5+ years ago and by having bigger cards.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Nintendo pre-empts April Fools Day - Official Nintendo 3DS announcement megaton

« on: March 24, 2010, 04:27:33 PM »

force feedback pen with pressure sensitive tip

I very much doubt the pen will be anything more than an inert chunk of plastic as with the first DS.

accelerometers/gyros and the fact that PkmnG5 is a launch title.

This is likely.  Nintendo should have a great relationship with their provider by now and can get these parts cheaply.

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Announces Nintendo 3DS

« on: March 24, 2010, 04:20:51 PM »

Having played some PSP games recently, I don't think it's really as powerful as a PS2 at all.  It might be better equipped in one or two ways (the PS2 had an unusual architecture and I think the PSP is a bit more standard), but the game's don't like quite as good as PS2 games.

The 3DS will probably be close to a GameCube, but I think the texture memory, polygon count and CPU will be watered down a bit.  They're going to want to be able to say that it is definitively stronger than the PSP if asked (though they will probably define its power in terms of the DS or GameCube), and they'll want it close enough to the Cube to make the porting process reasonably cost-effective, but they will cut hardware costs anywhere they can so as not to scare away consumers.

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Announces Nintendo 3DS

« on: March 24, 2010, 02:58:52 PM »

I have yet to see multi-touch used in a compelling way that truly improves the experience of a game or application. It seems more like a bullet point feature than a truly useful technology. If Nintendo has ideas on how to use it better, they may include it. Otherwise, it doesn't seem to be worth the additional cost.

It's the kind of thing Nintendo would definitely leave out.  If you were going to use it, you have to reach both thumbs past the normal DS controls.  Additionally, it is possible to simulate basic dual touch using the DS screen.  If you touch a bunch of points, the hardware reports the average.

Nintendo announced the original DS about this time   of year instead of waiting for E3 as well.

It could be that they just like to announce new hardware a year before it's release to give it some time to percolate in peoples' minds (and time to set aside some cash).

It just hit me.

3DS' launch will be flooded   with crappy GameCube ports.

 
  3D PORTABLE METROID PRIME 
 
  I'm not convinced it will really be as powerful as a GameCube though.  I would happily buy my third copy of the game.
 

but according to reports around the net, it looks   like Nintendo is paired up with Sharp and are using Parallax Barrier Method   for the screen which does good 3D and can be turned off to handle 2D   just like a normal screen.

Yes, that is the tech I expect it to use as well.  That's what I was describing in the thread earlier, and that tech will not allow for flipping the DS on it's side except in 2D mode (the parallax barrier will only work left to right to save money).

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Announces Nintendo 3DS

« on: March 23, 2010, 05:19:23 PM »

I'd bet that the "3D joystick" is really just an N64-like analog stick. Nothing fancy. An alternate, horrible possibility is that it will be a virtual analog stick.

I'm also assuming that this particular DS will be held book-style to get the depth perception necessary for 3D imagery to work.

It shouldn't be necessary to hold the 3DS book style.  In fact, it's more likely that the 3D effect would be impossible to achieve in that mode as the LCD would be designed for the traditional DS layout.  To be compatible with both ways of holding the DS, the LCD would need to be able to direct the light both left and right and up and down.  That's an unnecessary expense.

Next   question: will both screens support 3D?  Will they both support touch   for that matter?  Multitouch?

Now those are good questions.  I could very much see only one screen supporting 3D (probably the top) and very likely only one screen supporting the touch screen.  While games like Zelda DS relied on direct control, the gameplay was more 2D than 3D.  The 3D games like Prime Hunters used stylus on the bottom screen with the 3D view on the top.  I think that single touch on both screens is more likely than multi-touch.  Nintendo will just pretend like multi-touch doesn't exist.

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Announces Nintendo 3DS

« on: March 23, 2010, 04:53:25 PM »

I also wonder how much juice a 3D display would require.  Though Nintendo has been so consistent with battery life that I really can't imagine them going forward with this unless that had already been taken care of.

A 3D display wouldn't require any significant increase in power consumption.  It might have to flip twice as many pixels around per frame, but it still only has to backlight the 3D screens once and that's where most of that power goes.  The only additional power comes from faster CPUs and I'm sure Nintendo will use the 3D feature to justify a spec that is ultimately no more powerful than the PSP.  If the camera is used for fine tuning the image via head tracking, that would take a little more energy, but again nothing extraordinary.
 

The DS Zeldas seem to be the polarizing titles regarding the touchscreen.  I see them as a good example of how a great game can be ruined by being used to promote a specific control scheme rather than using whatever control scheme makes the most sense for the game.

I'm in 100% agreement.  Every time I try to play that game I get incredibly annoyed.  On a related note, I just bought a GameCube copy of Twilight Princess (I could have resisted the normal controller... TP's Wii control isn't that annoying, but the chance to play the game mirrored was enough to win me over).

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Announces Nintendo 3DS

« on: March 23, 2010, 04:34:12 PM »

I don't know much about 3D technology, but in terms of optics and visual processing, not all 3D or depth perception has to be stereoscopic. It's true that binocular vision is key for depth perception, but there are many other elements as well. For instance, you can suggest depth with the use of lighting, shadows, geometry, perspective, focus, etc. People who lose an eye don't lose all depth perception, but their brains have to rely more on these other clues. From a tech standpoint, it seems there may be a lot of potential in these other methods that don't require sending different images to each eye. For one thing, that approach doesn't work for the people I already mentioned, those with one eye, or asymmetric vision, or any other vision problem related to the specific stereoscopic method being used (color, polarization, asynchronous framing). You can avoid many of these issues by appealing to the brain more than to the eyes.

Correct perspective alone is enough for us to recognize the three dimensions in a flat picture, TV image or traditional video game.  However, the strong illusion of physical depth that we're talking about seems to require one of two things: either stereo images or a mono image that changes according to your movement in physical space (head tracking).

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Announces Nintendo 3DS

« on: March 23, 2010, 04:19:47 PM »

I want to see how this joystick thing works.  It sounds like a seperate controller for a portable and that seems like it would have a negative effect on the portability of the system.  The DS has a stylus but it fits in this little slot.  To remain truly pocket friendly the 3DS would need a way to store this joystick when not in use.

Though the first thing that pops into my head is something like the Wii nunchuk but that just seems way too big.

Is it possible that they just meant analog stick?  A true "3D" joystick would be able to move in the third dimension and I doubt Nintendo would do that if it was intended to be operated by a thumb.  Most people have enough trouble using ordinary analog sticks.

Please follow the link I just posted. You seem to be   a little behind on the advancements that have been made in technology.   GDC just brought a lot to the table as far as 3D viewing is concerned.

I know of three ways that you can achieve 3D imaging.  The first is to actually display the images in three dimensions (such as with old holagram games or with volumetric 3D displays).  The second is fooling the brain into thinking a single flat screen image has depth by using head tracking.  These first two methods are greatly limited in that they can only show "shoebox diorama" type scenes or "virtual models".  There is no virtual camera control because in the first case there is no virtual camera and in the second case the virtual camera mimics the users head movements to create the illusion. The third way is to directly simulate the way the human eye and brain see and interpret the physical 3D world (i.e. to project two slightly different images, one onto each eye).  That is the preferred method since it doesn't have the limitation of losing the virtual camera (and with it the ability to create games any more complicated than the original Mario Bros. or Joust).

It's no more difficult or limiting than   the split screen gameplay that's been with us since the N64   days.

The difficult part is how to get each separate image to   each eye without needing glasses and for multiple people to see the   same effect from multiple angles.

Portable gaming is meant to be viewed by one person at a time and I'm sure the 3DS illusion will only work for one person.  Nintendo will never spend the money required to have multiple viewers see the image.  Nintendo would consider that a requirement for a console version though.

I figure the 3DS will use a type of polarized screen directing different images, one to each eye.  It may use head tracking only to aid in this polarization (not to achieve pseudo-3D of the shoebox diorama type).

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Announces Nintendo 3DS

« on: March 23, 2010, 04:03:55 PM »

The DS really became worth a damn once everyone forgot about the stupid gimmicks like the touchscreen and the microphone and just started treating it like a GBA2 where they just made coventional games.  The first year where everyone tried to be all creative and innovative were painful.  But the DS thankfully was also a logical hardware upgrade to the GBA so devs could concentrate on just making great games.  The Wii library has not been able to break out of its shovelware rut because the remote is all it has going for it.  But the DS didn't have that problem.

I agree completely.  Yoshi's Touch and Go..... *shudder*

Nintendo never sold me on their innovative ideas for the DS.  The gimmicks are lame and when they try to force them down our throat we get embarrassing results like Zelda games with horrible controls.  There was no grand gameplay idea that influenced it.  The touchscreen was a marketting gimmick to get non-gamers on board and it WORKED.  And this I suspect is going along the same path.  A 3D display won't really have much a gameplay impact but it will wow non-gamers and get them to upgrade.  I imagine though that such a display will require much more advanced hardware than the DS has now and the conventional games that make use of the improved hardware will attract core gamers.

Also a good point.

One thing that's interesting about this is that it actually would rely on good graphics to really impress.  Would 3D Miis impress?  Probably not.  Seeing shapes in 3D isn't a thrill.  You want to see people, creatures, environments.  You want it to be smooth and stuff like lighting has to be perfect to get the illusion right.  This seems very counter-inuitive to Nintendo's current "good enough" approach to graphics.  I'm curious as to what we'll see here and what impact it will have on the eventual Wii successor.  This is very much a presentation focused approach and that would be the anti-Wii.

Here I disagree.  3D will be impressive no matter what the graphics look like. 

Additionally, it's not that hard to do 3D.  All you need is twice the normal CPU/GPU power (or else half the pixels).  You merely need to create two slightly separate images for each eye.  It's no more difficult or limiting than the split screen gameplay that's been with us since the N64 days.

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Announces Nintendo 3DS

« on: March 23, 2010, 03:53:39 PM »

Did you see ThePerms post? They were doing headtracking using only the cameras in the Wiimotes. No new TV needed.

Besides, 3DTV's are kinda expensive, and just because you have a 120/240hz HDTV doesn't mean it is compatible with the tech. Also each TV manufacturer's 3DTV requires only that manufacturers 3DGlasses for it to even work and unless it's built into the TV, you need a synchronizing device to go with it (assuming your TV is even compatible). Each person that wants to watch 3DHDTV needs their own set of glasses (starting at $130+ each) and the synchronizing device is around $40.

I don't really see 3D TV taking off anytime soon since there are still too many hurdles to jump through for the average consumer to enjoy it(glasses, new TV and financial commitment).

This exemplifies my point.  Why release a special "3DS" when the DSi can already make a shoebox diorama using the camera for head tracking.  Do you see how with head tracking the person's physical head becomes the "camera" (or more accurately, the camera positions the person's head in 3D space and aligns the virtual 3D camera with the person's head to create the illusion that the person's head is the camera).  My point is that there is little point for the 3DS to revolve around this kind of technology as it is a gimmick and only works for a fixed 3D scene.  If you want to play "real" games, you need either the 3D glasses or an equivalent technology using screens that can direct different pictures to each human eye without the glasses.  Head tracking could assist with that, but special screens would be required.

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Announces Nintendo 3DS

« on: March 23, 2010, 01:03:48 PM »

By the way, it's possible the system might use head tracking (if it can reliably find your head without you having to wear anything) as a way to calibrate the picture on the screen.  In other words, it would be the same kind of 3D seen in 3D glasses, but it won't look right if you view it from an extreme angle and would only look optimal if you had your head in just the right spot (or if your head was tracked to make all spots within a reasonable range optimal).

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Announces Nintendo 3DS

« on: March 23, 2010, 12:50:28 PM »

The PS3, PS4, and XBox 720 will have 3D on TVs well before Nintendo does (I've already established why head-tracking is a waste of time) since it relies on expensive non-standard HD displays to work.

Nintendo's coup is going to be achieving mass market penetration with the first 3D system well in advance of everyone else by including it all together in a portable format.

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TalkBack / Re: Super Mario Galaxy 2 to Feature Traditional World Map

« on: March 23, 2010, 12:47:25 PM »

This is a good idea.  For a game Metroid Prime, a good hub is essential for maintaining continuity and immersion (the gunship worked as well), but Mario games don't need that kind of immersion.  Miyamoto is always full of great ideas.

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Announces Nintendo 3DS

« on: March 23, 2010, 12:43:26 PM »

This is a surprisingly interesting announcement.  I was a bit worried about the move to a 3D Nintendo handheld as the DS seemed like the last bastion of 2D gaming for a while there.  However, some good 2D games have been made for the PSP and a lot of good stuff is hitting Wii Ware and XBox Live as well.  Meanwhile, Nintendo is leap frogging mere 3D graphics and including a 3D display?  All in all, I think this is a great move and it's definitely a pleasant surprise...  I may have to change my forum title to ambivalent.

By the way, there's no way this will use head tracking technology.  That is very limiting technology because it requires the player's human eyes to act as the game's "camera".  That means that the player can't actually move in the game world more than a few feet in any direction and the developer can't script any camera events (aside from cutting to black and cutting back in in a different location).  Any attempt at camera movement would break the illusion of 3D created by head tracking.

Even if you didn't understand all that, just take my word for it.  It's not head tracking.

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TalkBack / Re: This Week in Nintendo Downloads

« on: March 22, 2010, 05:26:21 PM »

I'm interested in this (cave story not game and watch games).

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General Gaming / Re: How will the PS3 be able to compete against the more advanced Wii 2?

« on: March 19, 2010, 11:51:07 AM »

I agree Nintendo will not force developers to support HD, but Nintendo will always support it on the Wii 2 and the best developers will as well.  Any games us "hardcore" gamers want to play will support it... with the possible exception of Wii-Ware stuff.

Concerning Wii vs. Xbox: you can say it is more powerful except it has a "different" (read: inferior) shader model.  That's a pretty important difference.  Obviously technology needs to be paired with good art, but developers are definitely figuring out how to make shaders look really good now.

So a big question for the Wii 2 is will Nintendo make the switch to the modern shader model?  You would think that would be a good idea now that most developers are experienced with it, but to use it properly ups the art costs dramatically.  Meanwhile, they need to worry about backward compatibility as well (I'm sure they'd love to continue selling the same Wii-Ware and Virtual Console titles).

In any case, it's practically certain that whatever the Wii 2 is, it will quickly (if not immediately) be far out-classed by the NextBox and the PS4 whenever they arrive, and whatever power it has will go largely unused.  Basically, the same situation you have with the Wii now.

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TalkBack / Re: New Metroid: Other M Trailer

« on: March 17, 2010, 03:13:25 PM »

Super Metroid doesn't really need any kind of remake, but a 3D remake would at least be different enough to be interesting.

They did. It's called Metroid Prime

Metroid II needs to re-released somehow, or remade.

Hmm, good point.

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General Gaming / Re: How will the PS3 be able to compete against the more advanced Wii 2?

« on: March 17, 2010, 03:10:43 PM »

I think it's a mistake to assume the Wii 2 will be more powerful than the PS3 or 360.  If it is more powerful, I don't think it will be a significant increase.  Is the Wii even more powerful than the original Xbox?

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General Gaming / Re: Heavy Rain

« on: March 10, 2010, 06:05:19 PM »

I completed the game itself a few days ago.  It's definitely worth doing.  Whatever may have been wrong with previous games like Indigo, I'm sure they learned from it.

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TalkBack / Re: New Metroid: Other M Trailer

« on: March 06, 2010, 03:14:51 PM »

The reason I'd like to see a 3D remake of Metroid II is because I love the Metroid mutants and would honestly like to see any remake that exploits that.  Also, we wouldn't have to worry about the story being overly retarded since it already exists.

Super Metroid doesn't really need any kind of remake, but a 3D remake would at least be different enough to be interesting.

I'd love to see some more old school 2D Metroid as well.  Zero Mission was excellent and I even enjoyed Fusion.

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TalkBack / Re: New Metroid: Other M Trailer

« on: March 04, 2010, 01:47:51 PM »

I wish they would let Retro do a 3D version of Metroid II or Super Metroid.  That could be incredibly awesome.

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General Gaming / Re: So nobody likes GameStop?

« on: March 01, 2010, 03:55:00 PM »

I find Best Buy is the superior place to buy games.  Everything is right there on the shelves (and yet sealed since they have anti-theft devices), and they overstock too so you can sometimes find good deals (like when I picked up Assassins Creed a few weeks after release for 40 bucks, or older games in the bargain bin... it's like Wal-Mart with better selection).