Topic: Holy Cow! The Wii U Has Far Better Visuals Than Most People Probably Realize!

I finally upgraded to a 1080p HDTV that has HDMI inputs and I have to say the visuals on the Wii U are far greater than most people who I'd guess only use the component cables 480p even realize! I've used the component cable since my TV didn't have an HDMI slot and at that time the Wii U looked about the same graphics-wise as my father's PS3 hooked into his TV via HDMI. But now that I have true high def there's no doubt in my mind that visually the Wii U is a great deal more powerful than the PS3 as Monster Hunter 3: Ultimate among other games which looked very last gen looking via component cables are now far better looking than they were originally. I think most people use the standard component cables and just assume that the Wii U has last gen graphics and it just isn't true. Heck even I doubted the Wii U's graphical power before I upgraded my television. Now graphics aren't everything, but the fact that developers claim that the Wii U is "last gen" visually seems absolutely ridiculous if you have a good enough TV that can actually handle the picture quality of Wii U titles.

Moo?

Or people could just look at 720p and 1080p screen shots on the web.

I like playing games on the Gamepad because of off-tv play. I have various games for my Wii U tgat I think look so nice. There's some really pretty tracks in Mario Kart 8.

There are pretty games on Wii U. People trash the Wii U not for lacking pretty games but missing big 3rd party games. I still can't believe we didn't get GTA V and Street Fighter.

What you basically see on the 480p Gamepad is a small Wii screen, not the Wii U graphics.

cries inside

The fact that Zelda Wii U looks better than any game announced so far for the PS4 or XB1 is pretty indicative of that.

But it doesn't.....at all.

I remember seeing NSMBU in HD for the first time. Even in its native 720p I could not believe how clean the image was and how detailed the coins were....

Well of course the Wii U is probably more powerful than the PS3 and 360, but it is underpowered compared to the PS4 and XB1 which is why some people consider it last-gen, as it's only on par with outdated consoles.

It does. I've never seen a game look as good as Zelda U. Usually games that are cel-shaded skimp on either detailed textures (Wind Waker, Journey) or color (Ico), but Zelda U manages to blend detailed textures and beautiful and colorful cel-shaded visuals. That isn't something I've seen before.

There are games that look more detailed and realistic like the Witcher 3, but if you ask me, I stopped equating realism with "looking good" in the 6th gen, when character models stopped having hard edges.

The WiiU comes with component cables?

Component cables are fully capable of delivering 1080p. That's how my Wii U is hooked up right now and there's no noticeable difference if I switch to HDMI. One is digital while one is analog, but they're both the same HD resolution and they both look beautiful.

Same thing with my 360 and PS3 which have both spent time hooked up via component although they're hooked up via VGA and HDMI these days instead. I saw no noticeable difference with 1080p regardless of how it was connected.

The only reason to avoid component is if your HDTV can't receive 1080p over it and DVD Forum and Blu-Ray Disc Association rules that prohibit the output of upscaled DVD's via component and force a revert to 480p on Blu-Ray's (unless it's an earlier PS3 where up to 1080i was permitted as a compromise to help push the format during its early days, although full 1080p was prohibited).

And obviously, those DVD/Blu-Ray rules aren't applicable to the Wii U.

Wii-U games have great graphical Fidelity...but as far as straight up visual prowess it's an under rated system but it is indeed very ancient tech compared to Even X1 let alone PS4 or even worse a low/mid level PC.

I'd love for their next console to see NIntendo return to SNES form and just make a console more powerful than all it's competition put all it's fantastic first party IP's on it and the third party companies would likely come running too.

This was my reaction to holy cow too.

Hah okay

About what I expected from this thread

I wasn't very clear with my point. Yes, Nintendo uses their systems better than anyone else. But my point is that the fact that Zelda U looks so good (I'd say better that Rime and Abzu) is indicative that the Wii U is more that "a 300 dollar 360". It can deliver next gen visuals.

Considering 'artistic' graphics are subjective, whereas technical graphics are not, that doesn't mean much. I could go around saying de blob had the best artistic graphics on the Wii if I wanted.

As far as technical graphics go, The Witcher 3 will seemingly set the new bar on consoles.

The problem with his response in this thread is that it indicates Wii U graphics can be comparable or even better than other systems because of artistic direction. That's due to the developers, not the system. Saying otherwise would indicate that the new Zelda could not look better on a console with stronger hardware, which is illogical.

*PSA to other people: note that I didn't introduce the Wii U vs X1/PS4 graphics comparison in this thread.

I feel like no matter what graphic power is hard to compare. Art direction plays a lot in certain things, but so does game engine. There is a reason why current 360/PS3 games look so much better than launch games, engines were optimized for the console's power. The console's power didn't grow, the engines became more efficient. I think Game Engines should be compared more and not Game Machines.

But I agree with OP, the Wii U has great graphics, developers just need to learn to use it correctly.

I was gonna bring up Final Fantasy XV but then I remembered the character designs for Final Fantasy XV and decided....let's give give that a second thought.

But I will say compared to the constant PS3/360 ports and games that had to be held back on the technical side of things because they had to be released on last gen, the fact that Nintendo has some of the best looking titles isn't too surprising. I mean even with Wii's old hardware they got some good looking stuff.

I would like to hope with the apparent decline of even Crytek that this pointless march towards financial ruin because of obsessing over graphical power comes to an end (either that or developers learn from the Witcher devs on how to make a budget, whatever works). Or maybe companies will decide going as low as 15 FPS would be acceptable (I say this as a joke but...)