See what Mario Galaxy looks like in HD

by Richard Mitchell { Jul 6th 2009 at 1:15PM }

Remember that Wii emulator that boosted the graphics up to 720p? Thanks to a recent update, Super Mario Galaxy is now playable on the emulator -- known as Dolphin (get it?) -- and we have to admit, it looks pretty gorgeous. Granted, Super Mario Galaxy was no graphical slouch in the first place, but the extra resomolutions certainly add to the overall experience, and it gives us an idea of what a Wii HD console would be capable of producing.

Check out a video of the Super Mario Galaxy running in HD after the break (don't forget to turn on HD in the player). It's in HD. Did we mention that yet?

[Via CVG]

Tags: dolphin, emulation, emulator, nintendo, super-mario-galaxy

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)

Chin-Paaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!! @ Jul 6th 2009 1:21PM

Now if only the PC could emulate the 360 and PS3. Pretty much technically impossible but still..... Sigh........ : )

ronEbear @ Jul 6th 2009 1:55PM

Especially so given the power of cell, bringing you technical and graphical powerhouses as little big planet. The cell is SO powerful that it seems to leak power onto the PSP. The two versions of little big planet are indistinguishable to the naked eye. Cell enabled microscopes would need to be invented to tell the differences.

ronEbear @ Jul 6th 2009 1:56PM

@RonEbear

-1
As Whole.

Chin-Paaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!! @ Jul 6th 2009 2:06PM

I dunno why my comment was downvoted though roneBears was funny. : )

Spartan @ Jul 6th 2009 2:09PM

chin, i upvoted you 'k?

Victor @ Jul 6th 2009 5:28PM

Why was Chin-Pah downvoted?

TomCo @ Jul 6th 2009 6:39PM

There is cell emulator, I use it for development if I cant be bothered to log into the cell blade server I usually use. Slow as hell though.

KeenCommander @ Jul 6th 2009 6:45PM

The same reason everyone else gets downvoted...making comments that are not blindly negative toward emulation!

Feba @ Jul 6th 2009 9:32PM

It's just as much technically possible to emulate the 360 and PS3, they just have newer, more complex architectures and more powerful hardware. Like Saturn, there might be problems that keep people from ever doing it, but any computer can be emulated.

ChibiKawase @ Jul 7th 2009 12:59AM

"Now if only the PC could emulate the 360 and PS3. Pretty much technically impossible but still..... Sigh........ : ) "

The 360 is a compy in a box, and the overwhelming majority of its games are also on the PC... >>

Giroro @ Jul 8th 2009 11:01PM

Then where is the Emulationz, chibi?

TheTjalian @ Jul 17th 2009 12:57PM

@Chibi - Well, yeah, except it's a tri-core PPC architecture instead of a dual/quad core x86 architecture. It's going to be a loooooong time before it's going to be emulated really well.

PersonOfSorts @ Jul 6th 2009 1:21PM

Want

sony boy @ Jul 6th 2009 1:22PM

genius.

JP @ Jul 6th 2009 1:23PM

Wow, that looks nice.

Ashitaka @ Jul 7th 2009 9:30AM

"Wow, that looks nice." gets upvoted but simply "nice" gets downvoted. Wth?

Spartan @ Jul 6th 2009 1:25PM

Nice

ronEbear @ Jul 6th 2009 1:27PM

Coming soon to a Wii console near you. It`s the Wii definition +. A USB device which acts as a video co-processor to deliver true(ish) high definition.

720p Maximum resolution
Wii and Wii definition + sold seperately.
Not compatible with Wii motion +
Requires Wii Motion ++ for high definition tracking.
Balance board + comming soon.

WREturns @ Jul 6th 2009 1:30PM

Where can I preorder this?

ronEbear @ Jul 6th 2009 1:31PM

Simply send all of your banking information including pass codes to ronEbear@joystiqreplies.com

WREturns @ Jul 6th 2009 1:39PM

Well, it doesn't sound legit but this is the internet! What could possibly go wrong?

DangerMouse @ Jul 6th 2009 1:42PM

RAM Cart 2.0!!!!

Triscuit @ Jul 9th 2009 5:49PM

Holy crap, I was just thinking earlier today that Nintendo could solve all their problems with a system update. The first thing that comes in this update? The ability to use a USB HD or SSD as system memory. The second thing? Figure out how to use a second processor that would run off of USB.

Old Professor Zertoss @ Jul 6th 2009 1:27PM

The textures could use some sprucing up for HD, but other than that little nitpick, this look great.

bm @ Jul 6th 2009 4:25PM

Here's another nitpick: due to it running on an emulator it's missing half of the visual effects, such as the backlighting around planets, or whatever it was that made the atmosphere of that first planet with the bunnies not look like some unshaded flat polygon. It looks like shit.

OH BUT AT LEAST IT'S HD HUH GUYS

Espiownage @ Jul 6th 2009 10:24PM

Agreed, this doesn't look as good as the actual game played in 480p. Some things look alright, but it's missing a lot of textures (see the sphere shaped plants?) and lighting effects. Not to mention framerate drops which the real game does NOT have. Also, I can't see anything that really looks better, except maybe the meteors that were falling looking a bit easier to make out the textures.

Storm Eagle::The Blood Edge @ Jul 6th 2009 1:27PM

Definitely makes you wonder "What If?" It looks gorgeous.

D dogg @ Jul 6th 2009 2:18PM

I'll tell you what it looks like... it looks like the screenshots released to consumers by Nintendo.

This is why I don't trust SCREENSHOTS!

intro94 @ Jul 7th 2009 6:45PM

no, it looks awful.look at all the details lost .disgusting

uncle jesse @ Jul 6th 2009 1:28PM

Looks nice, but like the article mentioned, Mario Galaxy wasn't exactly a bad looking game. I'd like to see them try out some games that makes it a more significant and obvious upgrade. Still though, looks sharp.

It clearly isn't a big step to run HD visuals for the Wii. I'm sure Nintendo could have done this from the start with very little extra effort.

Mr Khan @ Jul 6th 2009 1:45PM

On paper, it is capable of it, given the fact that even the Xbox had it for a few games, and even the PS2 had it for one game.

The question is if it can actually be done, something that no-one has attempted, though rumor was that Factor 5 was working on something like that, at least as a tech demo

ronEbear @ Jul 6th 2009 2:31PM

Let`s not forget that the ps2 was able to render Gran Turismo 4 @ 1080i with , so.......

Mike Sylvester @ Jul 6th 2009 2:49PM

The Xbox had a 64MB pool of unified RAM for graphics and game data. The PS2 had 4MB EDRAM on the GPU and could do field rendering for smaller frame buffers (that's one part of the GT4 1080i puzzle). The GC/Wii has 2MB EDRAM available for frame buffers (and 1MB for texture caching). The architecture is designed to render 480p at maximum, so in practical usage, there's no way around it. Most games, including Super Mario Galaxy are actually rendered at less than 480p.

Fun DMC @ Jul 6th 2009 5:08PM

Any of you tools feel like explaining to me why the hell Khan got voted down?

Quattro @ Jul 6th 2009 6:29PM

@Fun DMC
Maybe because Khan was incorrect in assuming that because the Xbox could do HD that the Wii should be able to as well? See Mike's reply above for detailed information.

phinnvr6 @ Jul 6th 2009 1:32PM

Looks great in higher res. But why is this person reviewing a game played on Dolphin that's retarded. Clearly the frame rate and missing textures means Dolphin isn't complete yet on the Wii, why does this guy think anyone cares what his opinion is of how well the Dolphin emulator team is doing when it's ready they will say so. I give this review a 0.5 out of 5

Ghen @ Jul 6th 2009 2:00PM

Check out the SSBB video before you pass judgement. That game looks spectacular on the emulator.

Fun DMC @ Jul 6th 2009 2:04PM

There's no problem with Dolphin other than a few graphical hitches here and there. The slow framerate you saw was due to FRAPS limiting the framerate to 30FPS.

way to go.

dagamer43 @ Jul 6th 2009 2:07PM

FRAPS caps max FPS at 30, but the game was running at 60.

Fun DMC @ Jul 6th 2009 2:10PM

meaning that the game was slowed down considerably in the video, but only due to the video recording software.

Mike Sylvester @ Jul 6th 2009 2:40PM

I've captured 60fps video on FRAPS. It's extremely demanding on the CPU and takes a lot of hard drive space (especially in HD), but it's a selectable option.

bm @ Jul 6th 2009 5:24PM

I think the "review" was merely a review of the game's performance on the emulator, not the game itself. A way for people to easily see which games run best on it.

j.howlett @ Jul 6th 2009 1:33PM

looks nice

Archon (PSN: Archonik, XBL: DarkARHN) @ Jul 6th 2009 1:33PM

Wait... Isn't Dolphin a Gamecube emulator? At least it was back in the day. Oh well, the Wii is a couple Gamecubes duct-taped together anyway...

Mr Khan @ Jul 6th 2009 1:38PM

They are architecturally identical, after all, so the ability to emulate one automatically includes the ability to emulate the other, sans the somewhat extra power needed.

deanb @ Jul 6th 2009 1:41PM

It was but obviously Wii is close enough to GC hardware wise that it wasn't too hard to update it to run Wii games too.
Wonder if the emulator includes GlovePIE for the wiimote?
(p.s if any of you have a wiimote, a PC n a bluetooth dongle then try out GlovePIE, a novel way to control your PC)

tmacairjordan87 @ Jul 6th 2009 1:34PM

Wish this was on the system. Another reason why I'm hesitant buying a wii is because I don't want the jaggies to gouge my eyes out on my HDTV. But since that would require nintendo to put effort, looks like I'll just have to suck it up and get one. Hopefully the price drops to $200 at least by christmas.