Questions tagged [graphics]
For questions regarding graphical - as opposed to text - processing and display.
153
questions
4
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1answer
153 views
Multi-GPU PowerMac G5?
I’ve got a 2005 PowerMac G5, Dual 2.3 GHz with a stock Nvidia GeForce 6600 running OSX 10.4 Tiger that I enjoy experimenting with, purely for fun and to learn writing legacy software in XCode.
Would ...
4
votes
2answers
316 views
How 3Dfx Voodoo 1 Emulator works
reading of this question brings up 3Dfx Voodoo 1 Emulator in my memories. I always wandered how did it work so good time as any to ask...
My memory is hazy on the details so I might miss remember ...
9
votes
1answer
1k views
How did the Rush 3D engine in Crazy Taxi: Catch a Ride work?
In an interview with the developers of the Crazy Taxi game for the GBA, they mention that they were able to achieve 3D graphics with a pure-software 3D rendering engine that they called Rush:
It is a ...
5
votes
1answer
203 views
Did the Power Macintosh 8500 have accelerated blitting?
Looking at online specifications for the Power Macintosh 8500, I was able to find few details on its graphics capabilities beyond quantity of VRAM and supported color depths, refresh rates, and ...
5
votes
2answers
447 views
NEC PC-88 video mode and resolution in games
I learnt that there are 4 video modes as described on wiki.
I came across many games for the PC-88, like Thexder (1985), which are in the aspect ratio of 4:3 and in more than 2 colors.
I don't ...
5
votes
1answer
220 views
Did the Tiger Game.Com include any hardware accelerated graphics?
I stumbled upon screenshots of the Tiger Game.Com handheld running its Resident Evil 2 port and I'm curious to know what its graphical capabilities actually are:
(from: https://twitter.com/_Kimimi/...
3
votes
2answers
327 views
Would there be any practical use of two or more VDPs or sound chips in a retro computer build?
Would that allow for better sound samples or double/triple the number of sprites & colours on screen or would that put too much pressure on the CPU or cause bottlenecks, maybe requiring 2 CPUs for ...
5
votes
3answers
479 views
How did 1980's 8 bit video game coders create realistic fireballs and explosions?
Back in the 1980's, I tried my hand at programming video games, mostly using Atari's player/missle
system which used sprites.
I could freehand draw most sprites but couldn't come close to the animated ...
8
votes
1answer
4k views
Did any PS1 games use 640x480?
I'm used to the idea that the maximum resolution there was any point in trying to generate on NTSC TV sets was about 320x224 (or 240 as a compromise figure between NTSC and PAL), but according to ...
15
votes
1answer
5k views
How did SNES render more accurate perspective than PS1?
The PlayStation was notorious for texture warp, because it didn't have the transistor budget to implement perspective: Why do 3D models on the PlayStation 1 “wobble” so much?
But wait a minute. The ...
6
votes
0answers
323 views
Why was the Nintendo 64 bad at textures?
The Nintendo 64 had a reputation for being great at drawing triangles, but not so good at texturing them, so that many games fell back on heavy use of untextured (though Gouraud shaded) triangles, ...
36
votes
4answers
9k views
What causes that “organic fade to black” effect in classic video games?
This happens a lot on older consoles than this, but for this specific example, I'm picking what I spotted today: Harvest Moon for PlayStation.
Here is a screenshot of the player just about to exit an ...
1
vote
2answers
587 views
Does an OS, in particular Unix, need special support for terminal colors? [closed]
Also of interest, would be the first OS to support color graphics in other ways (assuming it wasn't a Unix).
Background: I'm thinking of playing around with Unix v6 due to all the material available, ...
3
votes
1answer
281 views
What are these graphical display commands?
I have a Pascal program with a fair amount of inline assembly code in it which demonstrates the capabilities of «Электроника МС 7401» — символьно-графический видеотерминал (Elektronika MS 7401 - ...
8
votes
1answer
931 views
Why does the Applesoft BASIC have shapes?
Why did Apple include shapes in Applesoft BASIC? There are no sprites on the Apple II, but shapes provide a simple vector drawing tool. As graphics go the shapes are kind of an odd duck, they provide ...
37
votes
2answers
4k views
Was AGP only ever used for graphics cards?
Reading on the AGP spec, the little bits I've found on sites like https://old.pinouts.ru/Slots/agp_pinout.shtml, say:
The Accelerated Graphics Port (also called Advanced Graphics Port) is a high-...
7
votes
1answer
196 views
What exactly could cause corrupted graphics in WinG performance test?
Wikipedia article for WinG says the following:
WinG would also perform a graphics hardware/driver profiling test on the first execution of the program in order to determine the best way to draw DIBs. ...
4
votes
2answers
345 views
Vintage computer composite graphics
I am working on designing a vintage computer and I have been using the TMS9918ANL. After working with it for a month or two and not making much progress, I really want to switch to another chip. I am ...
8
votes
1answer
782 views
What kind of 256 color palette did the Enterprise 64/128 have?
The Enterprise 64 or 128 Home Computer apparently had a palette of 256 colors.
However, that is pretty unusual and doesn't fit evenly into the typical 3 channels for RGB. Wikipedia doesn't provide any ...
10
votes
5answers
2k views
Which system was the first which was capable of running graphics programs remotely?
It's well known the X11 is capable of displaying a program's graphics output remotely.
I checked the source code of the earliest version of X I found (X10R3, from 1986), and I found that this version ...
11
votes
2answers
750 views
Why was SLI for gaming introduced and supported in the first place?
(I'm not sure if this is the correct place to ask this, please let me know if should post this somewhere else)
For a long time, using SLI for gaming has been dying out and for good reason. From what I'...
5
votes
1answer
230 views
Why are the CBM control codes for color setting so spread out?
The control codes (my C64 handbook actually calls them ASCII codes) for color changing on the Commodore 64 are as follows:
Color Control Code Color number
BLACK $90 0
...
3
votes
2answers
283 views
Is there a way to blank out a portion of a screen on Commdore C64?
I would like to blank out a couple of lines between two given rasterlines. Above that I'm planning to have a scrolling background and sprites, below that is a textual info area.
I'm thinking of a ...
2
votes
0answers
131 views
Help debugging a circuit/code for Z80 and TMS9918ANL
I am working on designing a Z80 computer that utilized the TMS9918ANL for graphics. I am currently just trying to make sure the TMS9918ANL is working, so I hooked up the control pins the bus (...
2
votes
1answer
108 views
TMS9918ANL question
I am working on setting up a TMS9918ANL Video Display Processor. I was wondering if there is any way I can test to see if it is working without having the DRAM hooked up (I have a while before the ...
29
votes
3answers
4k views
Why did many 9-pin printers use only 8 pins for graphics?
In the answer to another question about printers, the following claim is made about 9-pin printers:
The Epson MX-80, upon which many other printers were based, had nine round pins which were ...
1
vote
1answer
340 views
Using Bresenham's circle algorithm (or another alternative algorithm) to draw an arc [closed]
I'm trying to create some graphics function for a ZX Spectrum (Z80) machine in assembler. I already have the basics except for the arc.
I know that there must be some way to draw an arc using the ...
20
votes
3answers
3k views
Typical dpi of dot matrix printers available in the 1980s
I have several printouts from what is presumably a dot-matrix printer, dated 1987. When zoomed in on these, you see the usual stair-step patterns on diagonal lines. However, it's difficult to ...
1
vote
0answers
228 views
Thinking through the design of a TTL video card: what memory chips and how to manage memory? [closed]
Inspired by Ben Eater's "Let's build a video card" aka "World's worst video card" two part projects on YouTube, I was inspired to consider designing a display adapter for my passive backplane TTL mini-...
9
votes
7answers
2k views
What are principles of vector CRT display? Simplest way to drive CRTs?
I am into playing with TTL to build 1970s style minicomputers. Aside from talking to them via some serial (or parallel) I/O port to a terminal, I am wondering about display output. This here is about ...
8
votes
1answer
559 views
Was there ever a functional EGA emulator for the Hercules graphics card?
I used to use a CGA emulator (don't remember which one it was), that could show some gfx even in EGA/VGA-only games (when I selected EGA mode). I remember my frustration seeing some garbled graphics ...
8
votes
1answer
403 views
Which computers used the Intel 82786 graphics chips, and what sort of commercial success did that chip attain?
In the late 1980's, Intel offered the 82768 graphics chip, with specific support for windowed environments. I remember it being covered in Byte magazine, but don't remember seeing any applications of ...
2
votes
1answer
116 views
Printing on the graphics screen with lowercase/uppercase letters using CHAR command in Commodore BASIC 7.0
The CHAR command in Commodore BASIC 7.0 on the Commodore 128 allows printing a text at a given position on the screen. Other than the PRINT command, CHAR also works in Hires graphics mode. Since the ...
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vote
0answers
152 views
First GPU with thermal throttling
Pretty much the title - what was the first GPU that reduced clock speeds when it started to overheat instead of simply locking up? Bonus points for first Intel and AMD CPUs too.
4
votes
1answer
283 views
Hardware implementation of the isometric tile engine. Is it possible, did it exist?
We are talking about a hardware (and not software over hardware, as for example in some games on the SNES console) tile engine with multi-overlapping rectangular (rather than square, when the image ...
5
votes
2answers
516 views
Two graphics cards for retro gaming
I'm considering installing two graphics cards in my retro gaming setup (one AGP and one PCI) and was wondering if there are any drawbacks to doing so?
The main things I'm thinking about are power ...
22
votes
4answers
4k views
Why was NEC able to wrestle PC graphics standards away from IBM?
The dominant standards for PC graphics in the 1980s were the ones introduced by IBM. This included MDA and CGA with the original IBM PC, followed by EGA shortly after the PC/AT, and then VGA with the ...
18
votes
3answers
4k views
Are pixels on the Commodore 64 square?
Are "tile pixels" the same size as "sprite pixels", and are they both square (ignoring the rule that multicolor sprites can only be colored in groups of two pixels)?
By "square" I mean that the ...
3
votes
1answer
274 views
The Sentinel (aka The Sentry) on Commodore 64 - why was scrolling so fast?
On the Commodore 64 3D games which use one of the bitmap screen modes were notoriously slow.
However watching a gameplay video of The Sentinel will show that in the first-person view, looking around ...
12
votes
2answers
2k views
How did most fifth-generation consoles avoid wobbly graphics?
According to Why do 3D models on the PlayStation 1 “wobble” so much? the PlayStation had a problem with wobbly graphics because
Filling a triangle involves visiting every pixel within it and deciding ...
12
votes
2answers
2k views
What DOS games used Mode X as described by Michael Abrash?
In Michael Abrash's Graphics Programming Black Book, many chapters are dedicated to fast drawing of primitives, fills and copies using the 320x240 256-colour Mode X.
What MS-DOS games used Mode X?
...
9
votes
1answer
892 views
Why did the PlayStation 2 implement backward compatibility that way?
It is well known that the PlayStation 2 implemented compatibility with the previous console by essentially incorporating a PS1 on a chip.
The fact of backward compatibility is unremarkable as far as ...
4
votes
0answers
130 views
Annotated die photo of 3D graphics chip
I'm interested in how graphics hardware has worked at different tech levels. Having looked at an annotated die photo of the VIC-II for example, I now feel I have a much better understanding of how it ...
31
votes
3answers
3k views
How did Elite do vertex transformation?
In 3D graphics, vertex transformation is the process of converting x,y,z coordinates in 3D space, to x,y coordinates on the screen. According to https://www.khronos.org/opengl/wiki/...
17
votes
1answer
1k views
Can you split resolutions and scrolling (horizontally) on an Amiga?
Some time back I asked if it was possible to get more than 8 sprites on a single scanline with the Amiga using a copper list. It seems it is quite possible indeed!
Now I am wondering if it is ...
11
votes
4answers
1k views
What graphics sytems used display lists?
As near as I can tell, there seems to have been roughly speaking two schools of thought when it comes to graphics hardware among early consoles, what I will call the Atari and Texas Instruments ...
10
votes
2answers
710 views
What PC graphics tech outperformed Sega Dreamcast in 1999?
The Sega Dreamcast was released in 1999 (1998 in Japan) at just the time that the competition for 3D graphics on PCs was intensifying. It's my assumption that a high-end 1999 Pentium II PC with 3Dfx ...
28
votes
1answer
10k views
Did the Windows 95 screensavers use hardware acceleration APIs?
The windows 95 is known for introducing a couple of classic screensavers including: Maze, Pipes and starfield among others. It looks like DirectX is a collection of multimedia APIs but for this ...
7
votes
2answers
1k views
Were any DOS games (or software) known to use VBE/AF?
Were there any MS-DOS games or graphics software that were known to take advantage of VESA BIOS Extensions/Accelerator Functions (VBE/AF)?
some of the functions defined in the standard are ... Bit ...
43
votes
2answers
9k views
Why were some early PC 3D cards unsuitable for 2D graphics?
Some of the early PC 3D graphics cards such as the 3dfx Voodoo Graphics cards had a passthrough port to enable them to switch to a secondary card to display 2D graphics.
I am curious to know why these ...
