Wii U does upscale your Wii games

by **robometal cowboy** » 21 Nov 2012 00:18

Wii U does upscale your Wii games
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The native resolution is still the same, but the upscaling should result in sharper images for all games.

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by **gtt** » 21 Nov 2012 00:23

this is not "up scaling" in the sense that everyone means. this is simple doubling. there is no smoothing or post processing done to make it look better at higher res. It's like zooming in with paint. versus bi-linear filtering in photoshop.

by **DeAngelo Guillory** » 21 Nov 2012 00:27

gtt wrote:this is not "up scaling" in the sense that everyone means. this is simple doubling. there is no smoothing or post processing done to make it look better at higher res. It's like zooming in with paint. versus bi-linear filtering in photoshop.

Umm...hate to break it to you, but this is exactly what upscaling is. :lol:

by **MARl0** » 21 Nov 2012 00:28

Unfortunately, the forced 1080p Wii output has ruined the Virtual Console on my TV. It forces all VC games to be stretched across my screen instead of in 4:3 like they're supposed to be. I can force my TV back into 4:3 mode, but all it does is keep the image stretched like it was, but then crops off the mage on the sides. It's absolutely horrible, and the only way to get around it, is to leave the Wii menu, and go into the Wii U system settings and change the overall output down to 480p. The Wii U basically broke the Virtual Console.

by **The_King_Up_North** » 21 Nov 2012 00:29

Oh wow. I should play a Wii game on my Wii U to test this out. I've had a Wii U since launch and I still haven't done that yet. :p

by **kmc2482** » 21 Nov 2012 00:46

I may have to play Skyward Sword on my WIi U.... but would I need an SD card for that???

by **internet** » 21 Nov 2012 00:49

that sucks about virtual console games , i'll be sure to change it to 480p for those games

by **marsbarrow** » 21 Nov 2012 01:11

I don't believe everyone will be or is experiencing the same resolution/aspect ratios that are listed above. It all depends on the TV settings and manufacturer. Some televisions allow certain images and resolutions to be displayed at different aspect ratios than others. Wii has a wide screen setting/480p mode and that should translate just fine to an HD widescreen resolution on most televisions.

by **MARl0** » 21 Nov 2012 01:22

marsbarrow wrote:I don't believe everyone will be or is experiencing the same resolution/aspect ratios that are listed above. It all depends on the TV settings and manufacturer. Some televisions allow certain images and resolutions to be displayed at different aspect ratios than others. Wii has a wide screen setting/480p mode and that should translate just fine to an HD widescreen resolution on most televisions.

The problem is 1080p forces the stretch. I've always had my Wii set to 480p wide screen, and it naturally stretched VC games there as well. But simply switching my TV's aspect ratio back to 4:3 formats the image back to normal because it was anamorphic widescreen. 1080p is not anamorphic widescreen, so it instead keeps the image stretched out, even when changing the TV's format to 4:3. It just cuts off a huge portion of the stretched image, which is even worse. Nintendo just needs to include an option to allow Wii mode to always boot up in 480p automatically. That would solve the problem.

by **megarockexe** » 21 Nov 2012 02:00

The case seems to vary for many people.

Also, upscaling is just scaling the low-res output up, but on the Wii U, slightly better. Observe the simulated example using Rock Band 3 for Wii: http://imgur.com/9DWY4,R5A0Z#0

by **austrian** » 21 Nov 2012 03:04

it looks better because TV upscaling is complete crap in 98% of the cases(some Toshiba and sharp lcds are; other ones not so much). The Wii U seems to do a much better job.

by **ladida** » 21 Nov 2012 05:05

I can't imagine that Nintendo implemented anything better than in my Samsung TV, so I might set ist to 480p. Will give it a try when it's out in Europe.

by **Chased** » 21 Nov 2012 07:35

@DeAngelo Guillory

Ummm...Hate to break it to you but no, it isn't. If it doesn't have AA, it is not upscaled.

by **King_Dodongo** » 21 Nov 2012 07:37

Good news.

by **TheSchaef** » 21 Nov 2012 10:17

sharper jaggies, they mean.

by **McDaniel-77** » 21 Nov 2012 10:23

It's just up-scaling, doesn't matter if the Wii U does it or the screen.

Nintendo should start with emulating instead of hardware compatibility. Now I unterstand, why the Wii U has a second 512 MB Flash Memory under it's mainboard - it's the Wii Flash Memory. Nintendo wasted hardware and costs by integrating a Wii inside of the Wii U hardware.

McDaniel-77

by **hergipotter** » 21 Nov 2012 10:49

Developing a perfect Wii emulator for WiiU also costs money...
But i guess you're right, development of an emulator only costs once whereas the additional hardware costs per console. Although the Wii hardware has to be really cheap by now.

by **grcpan** » 21 Nov 2012 11:39

So basically it does what every TV does, just upscaling the image, with no change in native resolution or AA.

by **OMGITZBEN** » 21 Nov 2012 11:55

hergipotter wrote:Developing a perfect Wii emulator for WiiU also costs money...
But i guess you're right, development of an emulator only costs once whereas the additional hardware costs per console. Although the Wii hardware has to be really cheap by now.

I don't think it's that simple. It is very very hard to develop perfect emulation. I could argue even the N64 hasn't been emulated perfectly, Dolphin has boatloads of problems, ect ect. throwing actual Wii hardware in the Wii U guarantees that all titles will work 100% perfectly with the Wii U. Sure you don't get the fancy parlor tricks but I would much rather have that than spotty compatibility with games. Hell look at the 360, I know when I play certain levels on Soul Calibur 2 that the lighting shows up weird which causes the framerate to go bonkers. Emulation isn't perfect and as far as I am concerned, never will be, so I very much prefer perfect backwards compatibility having wii hardware ensures.

by **Flairon** » 21 Nov 2012 13:42

ladida wrote:I can't imagine that Nintendo implemented anything better than in my Samsung TV, so I might set ist to 480p. Will give it a try when it's out in Europe.

I think, there is a difference, no matter how good your TVs upscaling is:

The Wii can only produce analog image signals, while the WiiU has digital output via HDMI. So the upscaling can happen before any analog interferences occur.

by **DeAngelo Guillory** » 21 Nov 2012 17:41

Chased wrote:@DeAngelo Guillory

Ummm...Hate to break it to you but no, it isn't. If it doesn't have AA, it is not upscaled.

TV reads output from Wii U as 720p.* It's upscaled. Don't move the goalpost and don't use the definition of "render" in the place of "upscale". :roll:

*For reference, HDTVs will detect if a signal is 480p, 720p or 1080i/p. Wii usually reads as a 480p signal.