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[GigaDrive]

okay, I think it's known that DS's 2D sprite engine is based on the GBA. but with the modest 3D capabilities which are more or less similar to Nintendo 64, couldn't that be turned into extra 2D prowess? you might recall what Yu Suzuki said about the Dreamcast. it was easy to just get rid of the Z value (or something like) to turn every polygon into a 2D image (like a sprite but not)... i know i probably fucked up that explaination but you get the idea. so my question again is, can DS's modest 3D ability be put to use for 2D ? looking at DS's memory, which i think is about 4 MB, I'd think that DS would be able to blow NeoGeo out of the water. especially with the 1 gigabit medium.

thoughts?

 

[Culex]

If you mean, make 2D games look like Mischeif Makers, than yea, that would be awesome. Otherwise, I'm not really sure what you're talking about.

 

[Panajev2001a]

The GBA's 2D power was already really good in terms of Hardware Sprites and Hardware BackGrounds supported.

While operating in DS mode the ARM7 chip runs at 2x the frequency compared to the GBA's ARM7 and while it keeps the same limitations as the GBA chip, it can now push more sprites per line and use dynamic updating for maps and tile-sets and higher quality sound and A.I. without glitches/slowdown.

The ARM9 can use its Software 3D engine to do 2D graphics, like the PSOne did.

 

[GigaDrive]

Culex, I'm sorry you didn't understand my post. basicly I was asking if DS's additional resources (RAM, CPUs, graphics processors) could be used for better-than-GBA-2D, i.e. more sprites, more backgrounds, better scaling & rotation, and other 2D effects.

edit: Panajev basicly answered my questions.

 

[Jonnyboy117]

I never understood why people thought N64 couldn't do good 2D graphics. There were several beautiful 2D games on the system.

 

[Spiritreaver]

Personally, what'll benefit the 2D graphics on the DS moreso are the large cards for DS games. The GBA can handle 2D amazingly well, and while the DS ARM9 will help it even moreso, I think the space of the cards is more important. I mean, if the GBA can produce a near exact port of SFA3 on those small carts... The DS'c cards could probably do whatever else was needed. (Plus the 4 buttons... man, I'm kicking myself for buying SFA3 for GBA now since I can just bet Capcom will report it, meh, I'll happily buy it again for online play)

I don't even think there's much left to improve with 2D. So I'm not sure why there would ever be a problem.

 

[SolidSnakex]

I don't even think there's much left to improve with 2D. So I'm not sure why there would ever be a problem.

A 2D adventure game with GGX sprite quality and SF3 animation.

 

[GigaDrive]

Personally, what'll benefit the 2D graphics on the DS moreso are the large cards for DS games. The GBA can handle 2D amazingly well, and while the DS ARM9 will help it even moreso, I think the space of the cards is more important.

yeah, that's the number 1 reason why most gamers think the NeoGeo was so good, the massive cartrige capacity. even though it was also helped by the strong graphics engine.

 

[Dice]

A 2D adventure game with GGX sprite quality and SF3 animation.

And animated, interactive backgrounds and fully interactive foregrounds (kind of like worms but better), I've also thought of some cool 2D lighting methods.

 

[Suikoguy]

The GBA's 2D power was already really good in terms of Hardware Sprites and Hardware BackGrounds supported.

While operating in DS mode the ARM7 chip runs at 2x the frequency compared to the GBA's ARM7 and while it keeps the same limitations as the GBA chip, it can now push more sprites per line and use dynamic updating for maps and tile-sets and higher quality sound and A.I. without glitches/slowdown.

The ARM9 can use its Software 3D engine to do 2D graphics, like the PSOne did.

I'm glad your still around

 

[SolidSnakex]

And animated, interactive backgrounds and fully interactive foregrounds (kind of like worms but better), I've also thought of some cool 2D lighting methods.

Yep there's still alot of ways 2D can be pushed. The problem really isn't developers having the hardware to do the stuff, it's developers actually taking advantage of hardware that is capable of it and doing it. Which none of them really seem to want to do. They're just sticking with old engines and doing the samething over and over basically.

 

[MrSingh]

GBA graphics are OK, but better 2D wouldn't hurt. I saw quite of bit of tearing/slowdown in Sword of Mana. So more CPU cycles please. thxbyebye

 

[Naked Snake]

DS will rock so much it's not even funny.

I <3 DS

 

[Error Macro]

I never understood why people thought N64 couldn't do good 2D graphics. There were several beautiful 2D games on the system.

I was mostly due to the lack of storage space on the cartridges. Ever play Mortal Kombat Trilogy on N64? Ugh, what a mess. Lacking many frames of animation, and the music and sound effects were horrible! They were sampled at such a low frequency. The only thing it had going for it was the instant loading time, so you could actually use Shang Tsung and morph into all the different characters. Other than that, the PSX version was far superior.

 

[Panajev2001a]

GBA graphics are OK, but better 2D wouldn't hurt. I saw quite of bit of tearing/slowdown in Sword of Mana. So more CPU cycles please. thxbyebye

Well, they gave you 2x the clock-cycles.