Genesis rotation/scaling
Lawrence Y. Chiu
second boss in Granada. It comes out of a deep hole (scaling) and spins
around madly while shooting at you. Looks great!
Lawrence Chiu
lc...@cory.Berkeley.EDU
(Of course, the images could have been generated beforehand. It looks
good enough to me, though.)
Six o'clock News
>but to do this for each object in a game would chew up such a huge amount
>of memory that it would be unworkable. Games like After Burner & Thunder
>Blade use this fake effect with only 2 or 3 sprites to represent different
>scaling levels for each object and, as we all know, the result is visually
>distracting! The only thing I have seen in one article way back was the
>(moronic) statement that the Genesis had "Software Scaling". Gee.. so
>does EVERY COMPUTER WITH A GRAPHICS CHIP! You can always program the CPU
>to manually size the bits. Only problem is it is 1/50'th the speed of
>a hardware chip (Being optimistic even). Take a look at Blue Lightning
>on the Lynx or any driving game in the arcade if you want to see real
>hardware scaling
From: hl...@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Sir Han J. Lee)
Path: cory.Berkeley.EDU!hlee
Sorry for the "moronic" statement I posted way back then :)
The article I posted back then was a straight translation from Beep! Mega Drive
and Mega Drive Fan.
Indeed, it seems to me as though SEGA has figured out some clever algorithm
that utilizes Genesis' *hardware* background capability to create special pseu-
do scaling/rotation effect. (Just take a look at what Genesis can do with its
background -- not every system with a graphics chip can't do line scrolling!
see Thunder Force III and MUSHA Aleste)
Now, according to Electronic Gaming Monthly, Namco's Assault will be one of
the first title to be released for the Genesis CD-ROM. Well, what is
Assault without scaling/rotation on the background?
Mega Drive Fan and Beep! Mega Drive showed some demo screen demonstrating
Genesis' background scaling/rotation effect; the release of Assault, Galaxy
Force etc. confirms that these capabilities can be used easily on the gaming.
Note also that Genesis' pseudo background scaling has edge over Super Famicom's
in that Genesis' can be done independently on the two independent backgrounds
whereas Super Fami's can be done only to a single background (according to
Beep! Mega Drive and Mega Drive Fan).
send all the flames to:
Han J. Lee
hl...@cory.Berkeley.EDU
Pete Ashdown
>Indeed, it seems to me as though SEGA has figured out some clever algorithm
>that utilizes Genesis' *hardware* background capability to create special pseu-
>do scaling/rotation effect. (Just take a look at what Genesis can do with its
>background -- not every system with a graphics chip can't do line scrolling!
>see Thunder Force III and MUSHA Aleste)
This is interesting, for the Amiga CAN do this type of line scrolling. What
I've seen it able to do with the copper makes the stuff in Thunder Force III
look wimpy. Any ideas to throw back and forth about how this could assist
in rotation/scaling?? Maybe we should move over to rec.games.programmer.
>Now, according to Electronic Gaming Monthly, Namco's Assault will be one of
>the first title to be released for the Genesis CD-ROM. Well, what is
>Assault without scaling/rotation on the background?
_THIS_ will be something to see. I've been waiting for a decent Assault, but
I'm placing my bets on the Super Fami version being better looking. Something
to do with 4000x more color.
--
"Hi, we're 'Slaughter'. We'd just like to say how much we love our troops."
Pete Ashdown pash...@javelin.sim.es.com ...uunet!javelin.sim.es.com!pashdown
Six o'clock News
>>Indeed, it seems to me as though SEGA has figured out some clever algorithm
>>that utilizes Genesis' *hardware* background capability to create special pseu-
>>do scaling/rotation effect. (Just take a look at what Genesis can do with its
>>background -- not every system with a graphics chip can't do line scrolling!
>>see Thunder Force III and MUSHA Aleste)
>
>This is interesting, for the Amiga CAN do this type of line scrolling. What
>I've seen it able to do with the copper makes the stuff in Thunder Force III
>look wimpy. Any ideas to throw back and forth about how this could assist
>in rotation/scaling?? Maybe we should move over to rec.games.programmer.
>
A very good question ! but if I knew how, I wouldn't be in school anyway...
Actually, I mentioned line scrolling as an example of what Genesis can
do with its background.
___
/| /|| |/\ Han J. Lee
/ |/ || |>-| hl...@cory.Berkeley.EDU
/_____||_|_/
Ian Farquhar
scaling way back in '86-87.
If you are interested in doing it yourselves, it is a simple
modification of run-length encoding, though be prepared to do some heavy
optimizations of code. Not very difficult at all.
--
Ian Farquhar Phone : + 61 2 805-9400
Office of Computing Services Fax : + 61 2 805-7433
Macquarie University NSW 2109 Also : + 61 2 805-7420
Australia EMail : ifar...@suna.mqcc.mq.oz.au