Are the Wii's visuals that bad compared to the 360/PS3?

It has always bugged me. How come HD games often have horrible text?

Lazy developers. The text is optimized for HD, so why bother throwing the SD peeps a bone, right?

A version of this actually drove me crazy in what little I played of Monster Hunter Tri. You don't need to make the text that damn small! Some of us have 13" SD TVs still! At least give us an option to change text size or something. Jeez.

ETA: Page topper quote.

edited 1st Oct '10 1:59:56 AM by SparkyLurkdragon

...having played Monster Hunter Tri....I read the letters just fine. That game was HD?

Not to my knowledge. It's a version of what I'm talking about - the game was clearly meant to be played on a big TV, given that the text did not read very well at all on a small TV like I have. Which really bothered me since I can read, say, Dragon Quest VIII just fine; for what I played of Tri, half of that was spent leaning close to the TV.

It's the same with HD games having crap text - they're meant for HD-T Vs, and if they look bad on SD TV's, oh well.

On an unrelated note, I'm getting ads for "Harry Mason Designer Jewelery".

Speaking of HD...

Can anyone figure any 360/PS 3 game that has unique art style besides the good graphics?

Wipeout HD, Valkyria Chronicles, 3DDotGameHeroes, ect.

There are currently 647 games on dat triple, 1146 games on the Wii and 763 on the Hex-bawx three-sixty. Trying to establish that one console has a better "art style" (which is extremely vague and whose quality basically come down to "I (don't) like it") is being very ignorant.

edited 1st Oct '10 8:45:56 AM by Glowsquid

^^ Ni No Kuni, but it's not out yet and it'll also be on the DS (hmm, PS 3 and DS, what a combo)...

And cell phones.

BTW, so far no system can do something like... the image for Pimped-Out Dress (posted below for reference).

The ermine would be hard to render convincingly, since while all the systems have fur shading, it's still obviously an effect. Even Vanille's skirt in Final Fantasy XIII could only go so far in the pre-rendered sequences.

And making the dress flow like that wouldn't be easy either, as you'd need a heck of a lot of physics for the fabric, and not just for the skirt, but also the petticoats underneath, her cape, and even the frills on her sleeves. Many games I've seen with flowing fabric still has to rely on preset movements a lot of the time.

Even making her Princess Curls move around wouldn't be that easy (back to FFXIII, that also needed pre-rendered scenes to make the hair flow smoothly enough).

Any system that can do all that (doesn't even have to be photo realistic, cell shading will do, but still needs the other effects) would be truly impressive.

edited 1st Oct '10 1:15:00 PM by DragonQuestZ

If a console does have the power to do all that, then I think the game developer would be wiser to concentrate on making other parts of the game prettier instead of every single strand of hair moving realistically (something that almsot everyone wouldn't notice even if they did anyways...sort of like water effects, you wouldn't notice it unless someone else pointed it out).

"instead of every single strand of hair moving realistically"

That wasn't one of the things I wrote. That would be unnecessary. It's just a dress like that in games still doesn't look quite convincing in a game.

Another example of art direction requiring a powerful system - Silent Hill Shattered Memories. It's a Wii game, but the game requires the Wii's power to look the way it does.

• The textures have to be high-quality, so you can easily read, say, text on a sign by pointing your flashlight at it.
• Speaking of the flashlight, the game has real-time shadows that form whenever a flashlight is pointed at something, to enhance realism and make the world more believable.
• The game tries to create a perfect representation of your average Northeast resort town. This requires tons of little, insignificant details, which means tons of textures and objects.

All of this requires hefty amounts of RAM and processing power, and the Wii has enough of both, especially compared to previous-generation consoles. There's a PS 2 port of this game, but the draw distance and texture quality is dropped significantly to compensate for the PS 2's limited RAM (32 MB, versus the Wii's 88), and the game suffers for it.

"Art direction" vs. "technical power" is a meaningless distinction. Processing power creates a larger canvas and gives the artist more to work with.

edited 3rd Oct '10 9:43:29 AM by ingficly

Yeah, it doesn't have to be one or the other. Suffice it to say that artists can do good stuff with limited hardware, but it never hurts to expand the palette.

"Art direction" vs. "technical power" is a meaningless distinction

Exactly. Don't tell me that, say, Metal Slug wouldn't lose anything if it was on the SNES rather than the Neo Geo.

I think the original purpose of "Art Direction vs. Graphics/Technical Prowess" wasn't "which one would you choose?!", rather, "which one do you prioritize higher?".

"Don't tell me that, say, Metal Slug wouldn't lose anything if it was on the SNES rather than the Neo Geo."

The art direction is a STYLE. If you think the SNES can't pull of a cartoony style, even without as many things on screen, you need to look at SNES games again.

"I think the original purpose of "Art Direction vs. Graphics/Technical Prowess" wasn't "which one would you choose?!", rather, "which one do you prioritize higher?"."

That actually is what I meant. Some games do require some specs to pull off certain details, which is why I brought up the Pimped-Out Dress picture and that no system can do it justice yet, but most things in games have been pulled off with less powerful systems, and many are acting as though the detail made them (and thus need more detail), not their own talent.

edited 3rd Oct '10 2:01:57 PM by DragonQuestZ

I think the original purpose of "Art Direction vs. Graphics/Technical Prowess" wasn't "which one would you choose?!", rather, "which one do you prioritize higher?".

To answer that I'd need units: would I exchange x art direction for y technical prowess? I'm unsure I could answer even then. It's hard to quantify these things.

"To answer that I'd need units: would I exchange x art direction for y technical prowess? I'm unsure I could answer even then. It's hard to quantify these things."

And that seems to be an issue with developers. It's hard to quantify, so they take the easy way out and go for the systems that let them have both, no matter how much it inflates budget.

But as for the real answer, how about it depends on the game.

Who gives a shit.

The art direction is a STYLE. If you think the SNES can't pull of a cartoony style, even without as many things on screen, you need to look at SNES games again.

What make Metal Slug dinstinctive is not that it's simply "cartoony", but that it's very detailled and yet fluidly animated. Putting it on the SNES would dumb down both aspects, and it wouldn't be half as memorable because of that. you know what, this is stupid.

edited 3rd Oct '10 3:15:16 PM by Glowsquid

Art Direction=How the game looks. The SNES can pull off an action game with a cartoony look.

Processing Power=How detailed the sprites are and how much is going on screen. The SNES would have to used less detailed sprites and not as many explosions.

THAT is the difference. The look of the game would not be lost. Just it would not look like it does on the Neo Geo.

Art direction on the SNES vs...NEOGEO? Toiletbomber votes for this argument to be flushed down his jet-powered toilet with retractable invisble shield.

^ Why? Are you still assuming specs and art direction are the same? The SNES ports of Neo Geo games still looked like those games, just with reduced sprites.

Who gives a shit.

Well...this IS a forum...for video games specifically...in a site that has nothing to do with video games to begin wtih...so if anyone actually goes to a forum like this...and the fact that TC made this thread for this purpose...I'm pretty sure they have a lot of shit to give...just saying.

What, you expected deep meaningful philosophical discussions about the meaning of life in this forum? (unless there are games that actually deals with meaning of life as it's theme or story).

edited 3rd Oct '10 3:44:36 PM by Signed

@OP: PS 3 is better than Wii overall.\subjective