Topic: Wii U - e3 is over... now what?

[BranDonk Kong]

Got an Xbox 360 Slim w/ 2 controllers for $45 this afternoon...just sold it at GameStop for $157.80...got NSMBU and BLOPS 2 for Wii U...still have $37.80 left over. Good times.

[EasyCure]

Got an Xbox 360 Slim w/ 2 controllers for $45 this afternoon...just sold it at GameStop for $157.80...got NSMBU and BLOPS 2 for Wii U...still have $37.80 left over. Good times.

I just got BLOPS 2 too! If you plan on playing tonight, let me know; I'm currently starting NSMBU

Quick question for anyone that might know, since it doesn't deserve its own thread:

I know you can turn the gamepad screen off in the menu, possibly for things like the youtube app and netflix, but is there a way to turn it off during a game like NSMBU that doesn't necessarily need it (unless I wanted to do off-tv play of course)? I believe when you go into the options it'll tell you the screen is only off until you hit a button on the controller so... help?

[TJ Spyke]

Brandogg, where did you get a 360 for only $45?

[MysticGohan]

heh off a back of a truck, with it's serial# filed off

[BranDonk Kong]

Bought it at my shop. Someone sold it with a Kinect and MW3 for $80...so I split it with the owner, without mentioning that GS is doing double trade-in credit of course.

[Mannypon]

Quick question to those that have a WiiU AND The Last Story.  I know the WiiU upscales Wii games but has anyone tried playing The Last Story on WiiU to see if it helps deal with the slowdown issues the game I heard has.  I'm not sure how exactly the WiiU does the emulation but I was thinking that maybe it'll help smooth out the experience and run it at a steady clip. 

[Caterkiller]

Brandogg were you playing CoD tonight? I think we were in the same room without even being friends.

[Razorkid]

I know you can turn the gamepad screen off in the menu, possibly for things like the youtube app and netflix, but is there a way to turn it off during a game like NSMBU that doesn't necessarily need it (unless I wanted to do off-tv play of course)? I believe when you go into the options it'll tell you the screen is only off until you hit a button on the controller so... help?

You can just play the game single player with a wiimote if you have one and leave the GamePad in its cradle

[BranDonk Kong]

I did play BLOPS (miserably) for a little bit. May have been me...

[Gamejunkie]

Quick question to those that have a WiiU AND The Last Story.  I know the WiiU upscales Wii games but has anyone tried playing The Last Story on WiiU to see if it helps deal with the slowdown issues the game I heard has.  I'm not sure how exactly the WiiU does the emulation but I was thinking that maybe it'll help smooth out the experience and run it at a steady clip. 

I wasn't aware the Wii U upscales Wii games. To my knowledge it doesn't.

[EasyCure]

I know you can turn the gamepad screen off in the menu, possibly for things like the youtube app and netflix, but is there a way to turn it off during a game like NSMBU that doesn't necessarily need it (unless I wanted to do off-tv play of course)? I believe when you go into the options it'll tell you the screen is only off until you hit a button on the controller so... help?

You can just play the game single player with a wiimote if you have one and leave the GamePad in its cradle

I know that is an option but the gamepad is a little more comfortable for me. The d-pad is a little larger than the wiimote's which is a plus, not that I ever had a problem on the original NSMBW. I forget that I don't need the cradle to charge the controller though. After Mario I played some Batman and when the battery indicator flashed, I just moved the ac adapter closer so I could plug n play.

Thanks though. I hope Nintendo can patch this, seems odd to run the game on the gamepad and the tv at once. At least something like batman has inventory and gadgets on the small screen and still gives me the option to play off-screen should I so desire, so I don't mind that it's on. Mario's implementation is just odd. I figured it would be a (lame) course map like in the DS game, but nope.

Quick question to those that have a WiiU AND The Last Story.  I know the WiiU upscales Wii games but has anyone tried playing The Last Story on WiiU to see if it helps deal with the slowdown issues the game I heard has.  I'm not sure how exactly the WiiU does the emulation but I was thinking that maybe it'll help smooth out the experience and run it at a steady clip. 

I wasn't aware the Wii U upscales Wii games. To my knowledge it doesn't.

Nintendo has said it wouldn't but users are reporting differently. I recently bought Xenoblade and haven't opened it yet because Wii U is here, but now that I know it might look a tad better, I'm wondering if I really want to play it on Wii like originally intended..

[BranDonk Kong]

Wii U does not upscale games. Just because the TV says 1080p doesn't mean anything.

[Caterkiller]

I did play BLOPS (miserably) for a little bit. May have been me...

It was you, did you notice getting killed by RomanceDawn a few times? I played just as miserably, except I came in 2nd to last compared to your last.

[ymeegod]

?  Yes it does?

When ever the native resolution is changed into your TV's native resolution (namely 1080P) the image is upscaled.  Most modern day TV's already have an built in scaler but the WII u was tested with sets that didn't and the WII U still outputted the images at 1080P meaning it has a built in scaler.

Upscaling really doesn't do much other than smooth out some jaggies but it's barely noticeable to most people.  Back in the early days of HD, video scalers had "newer" fliters than TV sets so buying one did help but nowadays it's an waste of money. 

Dont' think there's any native FULL HD on the WII U yet?  Everything is upscaled just like the other consoles. 

[BranDonk Kong]

Scaled but not upscaled. All of the "jaggies" are still there.

[MrPhishfood]

Dont' think there's any native FULL HD on the WII U yet?  Everything is upscaled just like the other consoles. 

Toki Tori 2. Not big on the graphical department but the developers did say it renders in 1080 resolution.

Scaled but not upscaled. All of the "jaggies" are still there.

Upscale means putting a magnifying glass on an image, where no more detail is gained. This is what 1080 TVs do when trying to output low quality content so that the image fills the whole screen.

Whereas "rendered in [resolution]" means to 'film' the game with a camera of said [resolution].

[tendoboy1984]

Bought it at my shop. Someone sold it with a Kinect and MW3 for $80...so I split it with the owner, without mentioning that GS is doing double trade-in credit of course.

I would have kept it. That's an amazing deal.

[BranDonk Kong]

I already have two Xbox 360s, no need for a third. Anyhow...upscaling typically (or is referred to something that) improves the image, like an upscaling DVD player actually produces a "near-HD" picture, not just a magnifying glass type scenario. So for that, I say the Wii U does not upscale, it just scales. Don't want to start an argument at semantics though.

[MrPhishfood]

I already have two Xbox 360s, no need for a third. Anyhow...upscaling typically (or is referred to something that) improves the image, like an upscaling DVD player actually produces a "near-HD" picture, not just a magnifying glass type scenario. So for that, I say the Wii U does not upscale, it just scales. Don't want to start an argument at semantics though.

Upscaling is converting a lower resolution picture to a high resolution. As such no additional detail is gained, it really is like a magnifying glass. The high resolution picture doesn't have any more detail than the lower resolution picture. Upscaling DVD players that produce these so-called "near-HD" pictures are still working with the original source, they aren't magically getting additional detail from somewhere else, they just perform better upscaling and image processing than your TV.

sources:
http://hometheater.about.com/od/hometheaterglossary/g/upscalingdef.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_scaler
http://www.whathifi.com/blog/jargon-buster-all-you-need-to-know-about-upscaling

What you're referring to as scaling is actually upscaling.
What you're referring to as upscaling is actually rendering at a higher resolution.

These are well known terms and it would help if everyone was on the same page. So yes the Wii U does upscale games to take the burden off your TV but it does not render at a higher resolution like the dolphin emulator. You will still see jagged edges.

[BranDonk Kong]

I understand the difference, I'm just disappointed that the Wii U does not render Wii games at 1080p (or 720p). Fine lets call it upscaling, but it doesn't do any better of a job than my TV does on its own. A 2D video clip on a Wii game looks just the same on the Wii U as it does on the Wii. I understand that upscaling DVD players are using the same source, just like the Wii U is using the same source whether it's displaying at 480p, 720p, 1080p...it's just disappointing.

[nickmitch]

I saw some basic Wii U models available at Target today. Went to Best Buy to see of they had any deluxe models and they did not. Still, I was surprised to see ANY the day after Black Friday.

[Adrock]

That's because the Wii U Basic Set is the pineapple pizza of video game consoles.

For reference:

[ymeegod]

"higher resolution like the dolphin emulator"

Yeah the dolphin is an emulator not a scaler and the reason games look much better is do to 8x Anti-Aliasing, Anisotropic Filtering, and high res texture packages.  It's more or less remastered similar to those Sony HD packs like GoW collection.  Texture swapage isn't to uncommon with PC titles, look at GTA 4 for example.

The WII U uses MSAA but sadly doesn't look like it's going be used in B/C games--who knows that might change.   

[Mannypon]

Sorry, didn't want my question to have started this whole debate on scaling and what it trully means lol.  My main question though was wether or not the WiiU improves the framerate of Wii games such as The Last Story.  Hopefully someone can test it out for me and confirm one way or another.

[BranDonk Kong]

You don't need to use any additional AA on dolphin to make games look good, just bump up the resolution to your monitor's native resolution (assuming your PC can handle it). It doesn't have anything to do with texture swapping either.