"Distorted sprites"-Next Generation Crap
Gene Nicholson
purchase BTW) and in an article about the Sega Saturn it said that the
chipset doesn't view polygons as polygons, instead it looks at them as
"distorted sprites". What the hell is that supposed to mean? VF2 and Sega
Rally are just sprites? They sure as hell look like polygons to me. Maybe
I just don't have the inside track like Next Generation does. I can't
remember the issue, it was pretty recent. I think that it is the either
the one with the crappy Demolition Derby picture on the cover or the one
with the Madden football player on the cover. They didn't say that anyone
from Sega said it. They also didn't insinuate that anyone said this. They
just printed it. On a side note, I was looking through this to see if they
were as biased as everyone says. In that magazine they said, and I quote,
"Sony is our master. We will carry out all of their dark wishes. The
Playstation is the most powerful piece of equipment ever. SGI workstations
look like crap next to it. If you get a Playstation, you will be as one of
the Creator gods. We hear from a reliable source that the Saturn is made
from repainted Colecovisions and old socks. They will be discontinuing it
in a month to make way for the Pluto anyway. Plans are already on the
board for the Mickey. If you disagree with what we print, you must own a
Jaguar," at least 50 times. :)
If Sony...er, NEXT Generation was telling it like it is and the Saturn DOES
just have old socks in it...then forget I said anything.
Gene Nicholson
terrell gibbs
Gene Nicholson <c64...@showme.missouri.edu> wrote:
: I was looking through one an old Next Generation (The last one I ever will
: purchase BTW) and in an article about the Sega Saturn it said that the
: chipset doesn't view polygons as polygons, instead it looks at them as
: "distorted sprites". What the hell is that supposed to mean?
Not much. Typical NG technobabble--impressive sounding, but it reveals how
little they really understand. Somebody probably told them that the
polygons before being displayed on the screen, are projected (distorted)
into 2D dimensions (as any 3D object must be, to be displayed on a 2D
screen) and displayed by the sprite engine. Hardly surprising--the sprite
engine is, after all, the part of the Saturn that specializes in the
efficient display of 2D objects on the screen..
bra...@fcc.com
>terrell gibbs (tgi...@acs.bu.edu) wrote:
>: In article <Pine.A32.3.91.951118...@gold.missouri.edu>,
>: Gene Nicholson <c64...@showme.missouri.edu> wrote:
>: : I was looking through one an old Next Generation (The last one I ever will
>: : purchase BTW) and in an article about the Sega Saturn it said that the
>: : chipset doesn't view polygons as polygons, instead it looks at them as
>: : "distorted sprites". What the hell is that supposed to mean?
triangle or a square. To display a 3D picture on a 2D plane (the
screen) you 'distort' the square or triangle appropriately and there
you have it, a 3D display. The saturn has a powerful sprite engine, so
that all 3d stuff must be calculated by the CPUs and passed on to the
sprite engine, which will display them.
The PSX has dedicated 3d hardware that will do the geometry,
perspective and rotate/translate functions for true polygon
generation. This sounds impressive, but the final displays look the
same. However the PSX probably has the advantage in
coloring/transparency/lighting and fog effects with 3d hardware. In
the end though its the games that will decide...
Darshan