Performance Issues for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 on Nintendo Wii U

By Jorge Ba-oh 24.11.2012 8

Performance Issues for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 on Nintendo Wii U on Nintendo gaming news, videos and discussion

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 has come under fire, but for different reasons this week with the Wii U version in question.

Whilst the studio behind the Wii U edition, Treyarch, have had considerably less time to develop and refine the Nintendo port, eagle-eyed players have noticed performance dips.

In a Eurogamer feature, the Wii U edition came out with a handful of positives, with the visual quality come up on par with the Xbox 360 edition - "aside from gamma issues, we're essentially looking at exactly the same presentation".

The Wii U edition of Black Ops 2 also boasts 2x multi-sampling anti-aliasing (MSAA) at a hardware level.

Image for Performance Issues for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 on Nintendo Wii U


Despite having a solid visual quality, the Wii U edition struggles when it comes to performance, with framerate issues throughout more complex scenes. In one scenario the Xbox 360 maintained a rate of around 50fps, the PS3fps at 46 and the Wii U version dropping as low as 26fps.

Mirroring the game on the GamePad has had frame-rate drops as expected, however the resolution and visual quality itself is maintained.

The Wii U version is the least optimised given the studio's short time working with the new hardware, there is potential given the graphical detail that can be achieved. However with inconsistent performance issues may leave players frustrated during crucial moments.

Box art for Call of Duty: Black Ops II
Developer

Treyarch

Publisher

Activision

Genre

First Person Shooter

Players

4

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  9/10

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  0 (3 Votes)

European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date Out now   Australian release date Out now   

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Sonic_13 is offline. Sonic_13 24.11.2012#1

I've been playing this game since launch (primarily on my TV, but once or twice on my GamePad) and haven't noticed any framerate issues.

Visually the game looks amazing. In certain scenes the scenery looks nearly photo realistic.

I saw a video online comparing the the Wii U version to apparently the PS3 version. The Wii U version looked much sharper.

What resolution do the other versions run at? Wii U is 1080p, is it not? Are the others 720p (or less)?

( Edited 24.11.2012 23:31 by Sonic_13 )

 
Mush is offline. Mush 25.11.2012#2

Sonic_13 said:
I've been playing this game since launch (primarily on my TV, but once or twice on my GamePad) and haven't noticed any framerate issues.

Visually the game looks amazing. In certain scenes the scenery looks nearly photo realistic.

I saw a video online comparing the the Wii U version to apparently the PS3 version. The Wii U version looked much sharper.

What resolution do the other versions run at? Wii U is 1080p, is it not? Are the others 720p (or less)?


Wii U is at 720p natively, but it is upscaled to 1080p. Other versions run at 560p or something stupid like that, I believe. You may have to do some research, as I'm not sure this is accurate. I'm sure this is what I've read in other places though.

Back to the topic. I've seen the game run in HD videos on YouTube, it looks beautiful and there doesn't appear to be any framerate issues. Even people who have played the 360 version said that it's essentially the same game, with a few perks of the Wii U version.

Personally, I'm really looking forward to playing this. I loved the first Black Ops (mainly for Zombies) but I absolutely loved playing World at War and CoD4 on the Wii using pointer controls. There are so many control options for this and I'm probably gonna try them all out eventually!

I have BO2 on preorder, so yeah if anyone else gets it - such as you, Sonic. I'll be happy to add your Nintendo Network ID and we can play a few games together. Just 5 more days now, since it's technically Sunday!

 
J4K is offline. J4K 25.11.2012#3

Judging by the latest rumors out there, the Wii U CPU is rather modest, so it would make sense that the visuals of the game would match or exceed the other systems while still somewhat inexplicably having performance issues. The GPU isn't the bottleneck - the CPU is.

This would also make sense in terms of a lack of optimization time. Until devs get around the weakness of this CPU, we could see a lot of good looking games that have performance issues.

 
Sonic_13 is offline. Sonic_13 25.11.2012#4

Mush said:
Wii U is at 720p natively, but it is upscaled to 1080p.

I believe it depends on the game. Some are 1080p native, others are 720p.

( Edited 25.11.2012 08:11 by Sonic_13 )

 
RufDogRacing is offline. RufDogRacing 25.11.2012#5

Mush said:

Wii U is at 720p natively, but it is upscaled to 1080p. Other versions run at 560p or something stupid like that, I believe. You may have to do some research, as I'm not sure this is accurate. I'm sure this is what I've read in other places though.

If that's the case, why didn't Treyarch just do the same as they did with the 360/PS3 versions? Seems a little pointless to go above and beyond considering the natural difficulties of developing on new systems.

Did a quick search, didn't find much clarity on the matter. Would be interesting to know.   

Tom Barry [ Reviewer - Editor - Resident Sim-Racer @ Cubed3.com ] 
 
Mush is offline. Mush 25.11.2012#6

Sonic_13 said:
Mush said:
Wii U is at 720p natively, but it is upscaled to 1080p.

I believe it depends on the game. Some are 1080p native, others are 720p.

In this case, I was generally referring to Black Ops 2. Smilie

I know that certain games run at 1080p natively. Smilie

 
Rinslowe (guest) 26.11.2012#7

I can vouch for that as well. Been playing Wii U ver since I bought it... I own all consoles and have borrowed my little bro's black ops 2 360 version for a straight comparison. Wii U as I have stated on other sites today absolutely looks better on Wii U and I have not once noticed any of the alleged performance drops... It's more than a solid port, at least for consoles, it's the best version visually. 

For me personally I'll keep a close eye on my Wii U being the go to device from now on for multi plats over the 360, which has been a no brainer till now over PS3...

Echoes221 is offline. Echoes221 26.11.2012#8

Pro tip: It looks best on PC Smilie

In all seriousness, Treyarch did a good job on the PC version with better textures, field of view, unlimited FPS (no cap) and a whole host of AA, FXAA and other options. It's gorgeous. (for a CoD)

 

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