Factor 5 talk (Wii) Specs, graphics, games, galaxy and mucho more

Revogamers

Extracts only (article is 4-5 pages long)

RG: Can it be because of their tools? That it would be easier if the Wii had standard shader effects... or is it a matter of work because you have to prepare the shaders for yourself?

JE: The one thing which makes it probably harder for developers who are coming from the traditional direction is that the shader system inside the hardware works quite differently, you have something more right about that than the traditional AGI and the video pipelines. Because the thinking back when the basic graphics hardware structure was developed was to get very, very efficient, that hotwired a lot of things. But there're many possibilities in terms of how to use that hotwiring and actually rewire it, if you're clever about it. If you connect you can get a lot of shader effects which would've been on the 360 or the PS3.

RG: If you "create" them on the Wii

JE: Yeah, because... on the Wii, you just have to be more ingenious. But the Wii, on the other hand... I mean, think about it: it's got so much more power compared to the GameCube. If even with the extremely similar shader hardware, the system clockrate is so much higher, you can do so much more advanced things, so if people just would look at Rouge Leader, Rebel Strike and Resident Evil 4 and then say: this hardware is significantly faster than those games it should have the very minimum they should get that and then they should build on top of it.

RG: And with much more memory...

JE: Yeah, exactly, and the memory! That is a very good point. Aside from the shaders, our main limitation which we always found on the GameCube was the memory: the memory was a struggle the whole time; it was a very hard struggle. That was actually our biggest struggle. When we got the Wii specifications we were excited because we said "wow, this is actually the amount of memory which we needed"

RG: The memory problem you had before

JE: Yes, exactly, that would've been our "dream memory". (laughs)

- On F5's next project: "We're honestly at this point thinking about several titles in development (...). So might be PS3, might be Wii... we're totally open to that."

Tons more at the link my chubbies including engine talk, Mario Galaxy chat, motion controls and more! Goooooo! :)

Tons more at the link my chubbies! Goooooo! :)

gaminggeek

I'm perfectly proportionate to my body size, thank you. :P

Back to Factor 5...if there's one developer who can and would be willing to max out the Wii's potential, it's them. Seriously, The first Rogue Squadron game looks better than almost all the third-party Wii games out there and the Wii is supposed to be more powerful. Factor 5 is right, it's laziness and unwillingness, NOT hardware limitations.

Back to Factor 5...if there's one developer who can and would be willing to max out the Wii's potential, it's them. Seriously, The first Rogue Squadron game looks better than almost all the third-party Wii games out there and the Wii is supposed to be more powerful. Factor 5 is right, it's laziness and unwillingness, NOT hardware limitations.

ASK_Story

That's so right and I can still load up levels in Rebel strike and be wowed by what's going on graphically. I just made a blog post about the graphics in those games a few days ago. I found some really nice screens too.

Rebel Strike still has gorgeous graphics (pics + vids)

I think one of the things that has stumped a lot of developers is their lack of GC experience, only a couple of studios actually pushed the system, one of them was rare and they went bye bye, F5, by bye and the Resi 4 team says bye too. But also the shaders situation. People say the wii doesn't have shaders and that's true in that it doesn't have the traditional 'shader' system that is well known by PC developers. It has something called the TEV and you have to custom build those effects using that system. People forget that the Wii has 4 times the memory of the GC, a faster processor and updated graphics card too. Rogue leader had a higher fill rate than any Xbox game acheived (or so I read) and Eggebrecht has said before that on wii you could have insane fill rates. The whole interview at the link is a great read IMO, he talks engines and shaders and everything.

I'm not a tech guy (I don't even know what a fill rate is) but Eggberth's statements about the Wii during the interview aren't consistent. At one point he talks about how there are no tech barriers to photorealistic graphics on the Wii, a page later he states that the hardware was designed forMario-style games, not photorealistic games (though he states that with clever tricks such games are possible). Which statement represents his real position?

My complaints were actually about the games which try to go the traditional, more photorealistic route, because there you really have to push it, and they're really not pushing it. Why not? Hmmm I don't know, the hardware is very, very easy to understand. Now the problem might be -and it just might be- is that some studios -or some publishers specially- are discarding the graphical capabilities automatically simply because it is a Wii title and they're basically telling the developers "look, we won't pay for any advanced graphics".

Doesn't make it easier at all, but nevertheless they have a big advantage due to that, because, of course, the Mario style just fits their hardware absolutely perfectly, and they're taking nice advantage of it. I think the biggest challenge which you have on that specific hardware platform is to go into the photorealistic route, because in the photorealistic route there're certain things which the basic structure of the graphics hardware was not meant for and which you have to find really clever tricks to basically make up.

Anyway, whatever platform Factor 5 decides to support, I hope they think it out better and playtest it more than they did Lair.

*Post*

CarnageHeart

We need a pic of Galaxy that's similar to F5 games:P

finnaly someone is going to try to work the wii for all its worth instead of say it doesnt have the power and just giving up

I'm not a tech guy (I don't even know what a fill rate is) but Eggberth's statements about the Wii during the interview aren't consistent. At one point he talks about how there are no tech barriers to photorealistic graphics on the Wii, a page later he states that the hardware was designed forMario-style games, not photorealistic games (though he states that with clever tricks such games are possible). Which statement represents his real position?

My complaints were actually about the games which try to go the traditional, more photorealistic route, because there you really have to push it, and they're really not pushing it. Why not? Hmmm I don't know, the hardware is very, very easy to understand. Now the problem might be -and it just might be- is that some studios -or some publishers specially- are discarding the graphical capabilities automatically simply because it is a Wii title and they're basically telling the developers "look, we won't pay for any advanced graphics".

Doesn't make it easier at all, but nevertheless they have a big advantage due to that, because, of course, the Mario style just fits their hardware absolutely perfectly, and they're taking nice advantage of it. I think the biggest challenge which you have on that specific hardware platform is to go into the photorealistic route, because in the photorealistic route there're certain things which the basic structure of the graphics hardware was not meant for and which you have to find really clever tricks to basically make up.

Anyway, whatever platform Factor 5 decides to support, I hope they think it out better and playtest it more than they did Lair.

CarnageHeart

Very true

At this point that whole company should put a kick me sign on every employee's back, and on the forehead of the testers. How dare they talk about memory limitations and the power of the Wii when they have the worst reviwed game yet on the PS3. It's like saying the PS3 is too powerful, we need to go to a platform that has the same power as the Gamecube. Fire your testers and patch Lair to use the analog sticks, jerks.Chirico_Cuvie

Lair would need to radically improve to work its way up to garbage, but Rogue Squadron was a quality game and is one of the most technically impressive games on the GC. The Wii is a jumped up GC, so Factor 5 is as well qualified as anyone to speak about the Wii's hardware (though as I noted, there were contradictory statements made in the same interview).

Sounds like Sony cut off all their funding to Factor 4.5. Desperate for financial support, Factor 4.5 resorts to cozy up an old friend whom they blew off years ago. banjobear_basic

Once again, I don't care what they do or say as long as it results in me playing Pilotwings on the Wii. That is all I want!

Sounds like Sony cut off all their funding to Factor 4.5. Desperate for financial support, Factor 4.5 resorts to cozy up an old friend whom they blew off years ago. banjobear_basic

Why do they need to cozy up? They're a 3rd party and can develop for whoever they want, it's not like they need Nintendo's permission or anything. They could team up with any publisher, most probably lucasarts again for Rogue Squadron 4.

*crosses fingers* MINUS on foot sections *crosses toes*

Wow awesome link, thanks for sharing. As controversial as Lair might be in terms of its gameplay, I think it goes without saying that Factor 5 is one of the most technically proficient developers out there. You got to love Julian's candid nature.darklordlaird

There doesn't seem to be any controversy about Lair's gameplay. Numerical ratings vary, but every review/player impression I have seen indicates that the gameplay is garbage.

[QUOTE="banjobear_basic"]Sounds like Sony cut off all their funding to Factor 4.5. Desperate for financial support, Factor 4.5 resorts to cozy up an old friend whom they blew off years ago. gaminggeek

Why do they need to cozy up? They're a 3rd party and can develop for whoever they want, it's not like they need Nintendo's permission or anything. They could team up with any publisher, most probably lucasarts again for Rogue Squadron 4.

*crosses fingers* MINUS on foot sections *crosses toes*

I recall reading some of his statements in EGM on the Wii and how "disgusted" and "appalled" he was when he saw the direction Nintendo was taking. I sort of understood his comments considering that Factor 5 is known to push the boundaries in visuals (no HD on Wii) as well as the boundaries in sound (No surround sound capabilities on the Wii), but then he went on to spout fanboyish bull about how he never liked rumble and he's happy the PS3 doesn't have it and all this other foolish nonsense. In short, he was extremely negative about Nintendo and pretty much made it obvious he had no intention in ever working with them again.

Now reading his comments regarding the Wii after the critics have panned his PS3 endeavors, I don't know whether to laugh or throw up.