Programming guru gives insight into Wii U tech

A clearer picture is emerging on the technical sophistication of Nintendo’s upcoming home console, Wii U.

Marc Parenteau, a respected lead Ubisoft Montreal programmer who’s led teams on projects such as Assassin’s Creed, appeared unreserved in his praise for Nintendo’s new device.

“The multicore architecture of the console is a natural fit for our in-house HD engines, such as the Anvil engine,” Parenteau said during a developer roundtable at E3.

Parenteau, one of the few people in the industry that knows of the Wii U’s deepest hardware specifications, said the console’s “large memory capacity” would allow for enhancements to Anvil tech.

He said the extra processing power would allow for precalculating data and increasing cache sizes.

“All the graphical shaders used in Assassin’s Creed are fully functional on Wii U”, Parenteau added.

He claimed that developers with Wii experience will find a familiar set of APIs in Wii U.

“New features, such as multicore processing, will extend the APIs in a natural way with low-level and straightforward calls,” he added.

Ubisoft is building an Assassin’s Creed project for the console. Parenteau wouldn’t offer further details regarding the project.

Nintendo has been coy regarding the technical details of its new home console.

The company has since admitted that, during its E3 reveal of the new tech, it should have put more emphasis on the system’s hardware.

[For Develop’s full coverage on Wii U, go here]