Why Doesn’t ‘Mass Effect 3′ Run At 1080p On Wii U?

Jeff Schille:

BioWare’s divisive blockbuster, Mass Effect 3, has the chance to capture an entirely new audience when it arrives as part of the Wii U’s launch lineup. For its debut on Nintendo’s new console, Mass Effect 3 will be packed with a compelling list of bonuses, including an interactive digital comic detailing the events of Mass Effect 1 and 2, and the Extended Cut DLC.

Unfortunately, it’s not all sunshine and lollipops for Commander Shepard’s maiden Wii U voyage. Despite the Wii U’s allegedly powerful GPU, and reports that pegged Mass Effect 3′s Wii U resolution at 1080p, the game will display at 720p, just as it did on Xbox 360 and PS3.

[Freakazoid2012]

Pointless article. No information as to why is given at all. Seriously don't give these guys the hits they are after.. The article ends by asking readers why it isnt in 1080p. How pathetic is that?

[BattleAxe]

Its already been said that the WiiU will display all games at 720p max resolution.

[WeskerChildReborned]

Then what about Arkham City and AC3 being confirmed to run at 1080p native and 60fps?

[yewles1]

@WeskerChildReborned

"Then what about Arkham City and AC3 being confirmed to run at 1080p native and 60fps?"

I thought THIS was confirmed...

http://wiiudaily.com/2012/0...

[DeadlyFire]

umm...EA said just port that bitch so they did just that.

[pixelsword]

Well, it's like this, The Wii U could be better than the PS3/360, just like people say the PS3 is better than the 360, but talk won't cut it, the games will.

Now, when Sony/PS3 fans said that, I can admit they backed it up with games like GoW, Killzone, Uncharted, and the like, so if Nintendo can pull out the big guns and bring out games that put Killzone and Uncharted to shame, then the truth will be obvious.

Right now, conversions ought to be simple, especially since the architecture is not a difficult one to use, plus it's "PC-like" just like the 360 (if I'm not mistaken); so it's a little baffling that ports aren't shining.

Besides that, mid-gen to end of gen xbox/ps2 games off of the bat looked dated compared to 360/PS3 launch games; I'm expecting off of the bat improvements from the Wii U if the power is actually there, Wii U games should look as good as mid-gen 360/PS3 games.

[DeadlyFire]

ZombieU looks real decent. Then again its not flawless. The game started development on a Wii game engine modified for WiiU. So that could be a reason to graphics not hitting their max potential. Still looks pretty damn good for a Wii or WiiU title compared to current gen it does things that other games can't do graphically.

WiiU is better than PS3/X360 hardware wise. Even worst case scenario we see a GPU(AMD 7670) with 6.4 GP a second and 768 Gflops + Power7 CPU which has a max output of 264 Gflops. Equals up to 1.032 Tflops of processing power.

Now if PS4/Xbox 3 really do reach 32 GP a second and 2 + Tflops then they will be miles ahead of WiiU. 6.4 GP a second is not much faster than 4.4 GP a second that both X360 and PS3 GPUs can do. It could be why some who have worked with the hardware have doubts about WiiU having any power.

That is the worst case that could possibly happen given the estimates of how powerful it could be.

[yabhero]

Actually isn't hasn't... all that's been confirmed was that Nintendo games (Pikmin 3 and NSMB) will be 720p 60 FPS... nothing has been confirmed by others...

[AO1JMM]

You are 100% wrong!

-1

[LOL_WUT]

Gave the site a hit don't care. The reason why it can't run at 1080p is because it's a half @ss port either that or the console can't handle it... We'll truly never know.

[zebramocha]

I don't see how, as the wiiu architecture is a better xbox so if not 1080p at least 720p 60 fps.

[DeadlyFire]

I predict 1 Tflop up to 1.7 Tflops of power behind the WiiU.

That's more than enough for all current gen games to run at 1080p and for Unreal Engine 4 to run at 720p or slightly lower res.

[Qrphe]

The Wii U should be able to run 3D 1080p games if the PS3 launched with WipeOut HD at that resolution (of course it's not as taxing as GTA or Infamous).

Hopefully later we'll see some games at native 1080p resolution on the Wii U.

[ninjahunter]

Pfffft XD
Mnn'yes, fire up the games in 1080p 3D, lets slap on AA and 60 FPS too while were at It XD

The amount of bandwith to the graphics memory, and the amount of actual graphics memory required for that kind of thing is astronomical.

[Qrphe]

Games in full 3D environments is what I was referring to since the Wii U already will have 2D 1080p games (Rayman Legens and Toki Tori 2), not stereoscopic 3D.

[scissor_runner]

Ok when did it run at that resolution on the ps3 or xbox360? It's 720! Who cares! Plus it is an unoptimized port. The culling tech just got ported lol.

[aquamala]

It's 1080p on PC

[scissor_runner]

Most of the tools used to make that game have not been ported. Their polygon culling system is made by an out side company and who knows what else was out scoured. Sure it runs at 1080 on pc but I don't think next gen consoles are going to have i7s and ssd harddrives with 2 gig gpu cards. Laptops start at $2000 a pop for that. I think 720 will be the norm for the wiis price range and free aa. Yet we will see.

[DivineAssault]

Its a new console launching at the END of 2012 so pretty much 2013! It should be an easy port to do on a new console unless theres limits to its power.. I bet MS & Sony launch their consoles with the ability to run games at native 1080p with much more taxing graphics out the box @ launch

[DeadlyFire]

WiiU should have no problem doing 1080 for current gen graphics. Now if your talking next gen game engines that will likely kick the resolution down, but WiiU should be able to do around 720p

Everything I have read puts PS4/XB3 at double or more power than WiiU in every case. Still it shouldn't hurt WiiU to bad to not be king of graphics. I believe its nice that they actually put an effort to be at an acceptable level of graphics. I might buy a WiiU. I have not owned a nintendo console since NES.

[DivineAssault]

idk man.. Ive read wii u is 50% stronger than current gen & nx gen from the others will be 6-8x as powerful.. who knows tho

[DeadlyFire]

You are aware that PS3 and X360 GPUs do two things.

PS3 GPU: 230 Gflops.
X360 GPU: 240 Gflops.

PS3 and X360 GPU: 4.4 Gigapixels.

If WiiU has a GPU running at 1 Tflop and 12.8 Gigapixels a second. Its nearly 5 times improvement on Gflops and at least 2-3 times improvement on Gigapixels a second. Which makes a bit of a difference in graphics.

Even at 50 percent stronger I see a GPU at 768 Gflops and possibly 6.4 Gigapixels a second. Still an improvement on this generation that is far enough along to put out 1080p graphics. As PS3/X360 were not far behind of doing so with 30 fps 1080 with their systems with only 355-448 Gflops in their systems. PS3 had the most Gflops due to Cell Processor, and it could do 1080p in some games. There is a list of them around somewhere, but they are limited to 30fps or so I believe. It was likely a tricky process as many games that I found listed to support 1080 didn't have a sequel after it supporting it.

Even at 768 Gflops or whatever the WiiU has in it their should easily be room for 1080p games with current gen(PS3/X360 level) graphics. Now if you push beyond that with graphics it will likely drop down to 720p or less.

[HammadTheBeast]

@WeskerChildReborned

Never happened, it was a rumor by some guy who saw footage of the game. These sort of things haven't ever been confirmed.

[SKUD]

I wouldn't expect the wii-u to run any games beyond 720p. Hell even running that resolution is asking to much then what nintendo is willing to give.

[Shok]

??? Cause it's a port that was made for console that don't even do 720p as a standard ???

And why would a 3rd party dev take the extra TIME and MONEY to graphical improve a game so much for a year-old port.

I mean if a company DOES do it that's great, but why would we expect them to? These are ports of last-gen games.

[linkratos]

Exactly. There's really nothing more to say.

[Qrphe]

Because many were expecting the Wii U to be powerful and easy enough to develop for that games that run on inferior specs to that of the Wii U could run at a higher internal resolution.

But like you inferred, it's not like going through the trouble of allocating resources to run it at a higher resolution is to impact whatever projected sales they may have.

[CouldHaveYelledUiiW]

Plus, most of PORTs are banking on the 2nd Screen/ Touchscreen Functions to make the different in game play.

So, they are giving the Wii U Ports something different or extra, just not spending it on Resolution.

(IMO I care more about the extra functions than the higher resolution).

[Allowen]

If Nintendo atm is lazy to make their lauch games in 1080p such as Super mario bros, that will be in 720p then what to say about 3rd party devs ?

We don t know the specs of that console but I am quite sure it could do ME3 in 1080p no problem.

Anyways I think this console will be awesome, expecially when a Mario Kart, Metroid, a 3D Mario or Zelda game comes to the WiiU.
Thats gonna happen probably only by fall of 2013.

[ziggurcat]

"Why Doesn’t ‘Mass Effect 3′ Run At 1080p On Wii U?"

because the wii u probably isn't as powerful as nintendo's claiming and/or people seem to think that it's a next-gen system... which it isn't.

[scissor_runner]

Nope it's next gen. Maybe it's a problem with the API switch. Many people use direct x the wiiu uses open gl. These systems don't match up directly.

[ronin4life]

It's a quick port made for launch day. The same reason for AC3 graphical shortcuts on wiiu as well; they want to make launch, so they are cutting corners/rushing to finish in time.

[Ck1x]

Not to mention that the developer "Straight Right" that's handling the port came out a few days ago to state that they are in fact working on 2 more WiiU titles right now... Which is reason enough as to why ME3 won't be 1080p! They don't have the manpower, time and resources to be working on 3 games at once and beef up the visuals for a port.

[AO1JMM]

I love how people try and sell speculation off as factual information.