Two Controllers Halves The Framerate Of Wii U Games

37 responses to “Two Controllers Halves The Framerate Of Wii U Games”

1. 

   Toasty Fresh

   June 6, 2012 at 9:41 am

   30fps is fine, as long as it’s consistent 30fps.

   Reply
   1. 

      Zap

      June 6, 2012 at 9:50 am

      True, although I’m a little sad from all these caveats that are being announced now.

      CAN SUPPORT TWO CONTROLLERS (but not at launch, and if you do, FPS drop)
      PLAY FOR HOURS, ESPECIALLY REMOTE STREAMING (official battery life of 3-5 hours max, less if used at full brightness and heavy touch screen use)

      Reply
   2. 

      Reign

      June 6, 2012 at 10:10 am

      Only a Nintendo fan, putting up with years of neglect could respond to an extra controller HALVING THE FRAMERATE, with;

      “30fps is fine, as long as it’s consistent!”

      Reply
      1. 

         weresmurf

         June 6, 2012 at 10:25 am

         Indeed. The drop from 60 to 30 is incredibly noticeable. The drop from 30 to 15 is majorly dramatic. The drop under 15… dear god.

         Reply
      2. 

         Jordaan Mylonas

         June 6, 2012 at 10:35 am

         Halo 1, 2 and (I think) 3, Gears of War, Bioshock 1 + 2 all run at 30fps, and that’s not been a major issue.
         If a game is intended to run at 30fps (and any game using 2 tablets surely would be), then it’s not an issue.

         Remember, 30FPS is still above the Nyquist Limit for average human visual processing.

         Reply
         1. 

            TDark

            June 6, 2012 at 10:41 am

            But…but….they aren’t Nintendo games? Wait…plenty of other games run at 30fps?? :O

            Reply
            1. 

               Ecto-1

               June 6, 2012 at 12:20 pm

               But can the hardware run games running at 1080p 60fps to start with? i seem to remember cryteck saying it ran crysis 2 on 720p 30fps… and well… crysis 2isnt exactly a as good looking as battlefield 3 or killzone… so???

            2. 

               TDark

               June 6, 2012 at 12:43 pm

               Exactly. I don’t think most people realise how many games out there only run at 30fps. You won’t notice the difference between 60fps and 30fps anyway

            3. 

               SilentWolf

               June 6, 2012 at 10:54 pm

               you obviously dont own a powerful enough computer to game at higher than 40 fps, lost story short, you hella can tell the difference

            4. 

               Dens

               June 8, 2012 at 2:09 pm

               Did you go to Compuglobalhypermeganet to get your powerful enough puda?

         2. 

            oggob

            June 6, 2012 at 12:47 pm

            That isn’t the major issue, of course there are plenty of games that run at 30fps. The issue is that the game WILL take such a dramatic hit when you use 2 controllers.

            With so many games in the PS360 cycle only sitting at 30fps and/or many developers have troubles getting stable results higher than 30fps or even at 30fps (Bayonetta PS3 says hi!), is the Wii U that good that it can allow developers to reach 60fps so easily?

            My concern is that early on in the life cycle, there will be next to no games that will actually support the 2nd screen controller, it could very well be something ignored by the developers if it’s too hard to achieve the benchmark required and then we are back to square one when one person gets the “good controller”.

            Reply
            1. 

               Jordaan Mylonas

               June 6, 2012 at 6:43 pm

               When they say the that 2 screens with have to run at 30fps a piece, clearly they are referring to a bandwidth limitation WRT wireless video streaming, not internal rendering.

2. 

   Zap

   June 6, 2012 at 9:57 am

   As another point – this is supposed to launch end of year.

   How much is it going to cost?

   How much is this second pad going to cost?

   Reply
   1. 

      Jordaan Mylonas

      June 6, 2012 at 10:40 am

      40,000 Yen in Japan, current predictions are for $350-$400 USD (for the console in the US, expect the usual “You’re-Australian?-Fuck-You” tax to hike that up a bit)
      Tablet is estimated at $120-$160 USD, but no official pricing has been given.

      Reply
      1. 

         Blue Monkey

         June 6, 2012 at 10:49 am

         Yep, according to EB Games $400 US = $ 600 AU. With crap like that it’s no surprise that these shops are heading right into a wall.

         Reply
         1. 

            login

            June 6, 2012 at 11:51 am

            WHAT? You’re not under the utterly ridiculous impression that retail stores have so much control over their prices that they can retail a console AT LAUNCH for the EXACT PRICE as the States? Do you not understand how profit works? Is Max Payne 3 retailing on Steam for a whopping $89.95, more than double the price of an import copy also EB’s fault?

            Reply
         2. 

            Khad

            June 6, 2012 at 12:27 pm

            That $600 figure is an estimated price on the EB Games website. No one knows the full price of the Wii U yet.

            Reply
3. 

   Skinnerz

   June 6, 2012 at 10:11 am

   Wait. What? I don’t get why framerate would drop? someone explain?

   Reply
   1. 

      MrBS

      June 6, 2012 at 10:19 am

      Wii U is doing the streaming/rendering to the tablets so two tablets means more processing power needs to be devoted etc etc.

      Reply
      1. 

         Jordaan Mylonas

         June 6, 2012 at 10:32 am

         There’d also be bandwidth issues. It can only issue out so much wireless data per second.

         Reply
   2. 

      N3RD1001101

      June 6, 2012 at 10:50 am

      essentially, you are rendering the game on 3 different displays which I imagine will require more than double what it would require to render a game on the tv alone. your basically sacrificing the extra gpu power that would double the framerate in exchange for rendering the game on 3 screens.

      Given the Wii U’s specs, you could technically create a game running at 60fps, with two tablet controllers, however expect previous gen graphics capabilities (xbox 1, ps2). for now at least anyway.

      Reply
4. 

   Effluvium Boy

   June 6, 2012 at 10:14 am

   Framerate on the game pad screen or on the TV?
   Details please.

   Reply
5. 

   Some_Guy

   June 6, 2012 at 10:16 am

   I’d like to note that the FPS drop would only apply to the tablets interface. The FPS drop would only be needed to spread the data stream flow usually allocated to the first tablet, to two tablets.

   So, if you’re playing a game that has a non-animated tablet inferface, there would be no difference.
   Or, if you’re playing a game that does have an animated tablet interface, it would merely be at 30fps instead of 60fps.

   Which, really, is fine. To me at least.

   Reply
   1. 

      Penmonicus

      June 6, 2012 at 4:06 pm

      Yep, that sounds pretty good to me.

      Reply
6. 

   rekuhs

   June 6, 2012 at 10:20 am

   They’d better not show off this black version and then release only with White like they did with the Wii.

   Reply
   1. 

      Allan

      June 6, 2012 at 11:35 am

      They all bleed the same colour.

      Reply
7. 

   Durdler

   June 6, 2012 at 10:32 am

   Thanks Nintendo. Outdated tech is outdated!

   Reply
   1. 

      Cholo

      June 6, 2012 at 11:48 am

      As is your meme.

      Reply
   2. 

      Some_Guy

      June 6, 2012 at 11:58 am

      Data streaming, tethering, and tablets are outdated now?

      Reply
   3. 

      Spring Onion

      June 6, 2012 at 12:37 pm

      Your face is outdated

      Reply
8. 

   Rize

   June 6, 2012 at 11:12 am

   If it doesn’t drop below 30fps then it’s not a big concern. I’m more concerned about the idea of not allowing 4 tablets connecting. I understand the technical limitations, but Ninty has always had great local multi options. Here’s hoping that’s addressed at some point soon.

   Reply
   1. 

      Kite218

      June 6, 2012 at 1:01 pm

      It’s all about the games though, i think it would be really fun having two people in control of the world while 4 people interact with it with controllers.
      What i would love to see is wizards of the coast get involved with the WiiU. I play a bit of DnD and I think a DnD game on the WiiU would be amazing. Have the GM with the tablet and 4 players with controllers.

      Reply
      1. 

         McGarnical

         June 6, 2012 at 11:58 pm

         I’d play that.

         Reply
9. 

   derna

   June 6, 2012 at 11:19 am

   it seems they didnt really think about the implications for having two or more controllers when they announced last year and still havent got it working today -not one game announced that will use two pads!!! omg.
   They definately look to be going the cheap last gen tech again, only its not just doing stuff to a teev, but also to a controller too. Games are gonna look old on this turd. maybe thats why there was no 3d mario or zelda teasers, as they cant get them looking even as good as current gen games for 360/ps3. so sad.

   Reply
10. 

    Stu

    June 6, 2012 at 11:50 am

    This isn’t really much of a surprise. And really, for gamers who primarily play on consoles, 30fps is acceptable. I can understand the annoyance from PC gamers who can hike up their frame-rates to whatever their system can support, but for me, I can live with it so long as the games rock.

    Reply
11. 

    Swin

    June 6, 2012 at 5:46 pm

    did anyone actually believe that adding a second display wouldnt put double the pressure on the GPU?

    tbh after n64 its been a slippery slope for nintendo for real gamers. the odd amazing title here and there but nothing like the good old days.

    will be giving the Wii U a miss..

    Reply
12. 

    Robbo

    June 7, 2012 at 12:38 pm

    What did people expect? If you are going to add a third screen to a two screen system your going to either have to up the system specs to accommodate new screen, it’s pixels and it’s additional wireless connections or you spread the available hardware resources to cover all screens. Everyone wishing for two controller pad support had absolutely no idea about hardware constraints of this dual screen set-up compared to traditional controller methods.

    Reply