How'd they do that? Explaining PC Engine tricks.

[malducci]

The PCE hardware can't scale any sprites or backgrounds, but by changing the scrolling at each scanline, vertical scaling of backgrounds can be achieved -- a common trick on many game systems.

So is this how they did the scailing in the Arcade Card port of Art of Fighting? I was examining the game recently and I noticed when it scales in, the width seems to remain the same and just the height increases.

From what I understand, AoF actually switches resolutions, I'm guessing from 256 x 240 to 336 x 240.

The vertical scaling trick would be more like the Lords of Thunder intro when the hero takes off.

You called it! That's exactly what it is. The game switches between mid to low res and it uses scanline BG repositioning to scale it vertically. The sprites are changed out in the middle of the process.

[ccovell]

Mednafen's emulation isn't perfect, but it does emulate the resolution change mid-screen in Art of Fighting. Here's a little animation I made to show the change:



The playfield resolution changes from 256 to 304 horizontal pixels.  Of course, on a TV, the pixel aspect is wider in the 256 resolution, so the screen is filled up.

[Black Tiger]

I've got another question about horizontal scrolling.

Can a background horizontally scroll into itself, kinda like the vertical scrolling discussed earlier?

Today I played through Lords of Thunder and in a few places some of the horizontal scrolls hit a vertical wall where the bg transitioned to fully flat.

[malducci]

I've got another question about horizontal scrolling.

Can a background horizontally scroll into itself, kinda like the vertical scrolling discussed earlier?

Today I played through Lords of Thunder and in a few places some of the horizontal scrolls hit a vertical wall where the bg transitioned to fully flat.

 No. But that would be cool if it could. Lords of Thunder uses dynamic tiles to simulate hsync scrolls, but they're not. Dynamic tiles are either rendered on the fly or pre-rendered, and then sent to the display. This allows you more freedom when mixing tiles, lifting some of the restrictions of just hsync scrolls on a single plane system. You know that large enemy at the beginning of the desert level? That's mostly made of BG tiles. It looks like another layer because the tiles surrounding it, and the whole of the parallaxing tiles, are dynamic tiles.

 I'll post some pics if you need.

[Black Tiger]

What I don't get is, if animated tiles are used for bg scroll effects so much, why did developers only use them to simulate such simple effects?

Why not give the bgs a more 3D animation like the SFII floors or have more overlapping pieces of parallax or something?

[Black Tiger]

Can anyone tell me if the in-game menu windows of Popful Mail use real wire frame/"vector" graphics or are simply animation?

The shadow 'transparency' effect in this game also looks cool since the screen frame doesn't change.

[ceti alpha]

This thread is the bees knees.

There was talk of doing another system card (4.0?). It'd be possible to add a coprocessor to it. Maybe an NEC 32bit RISC chip (to keep in the spirit of things) Very Happy  ..one can dream

...and dream I will... 

[Necromancer]

Here's a question for the programming geniuses: towards the end of the second level in Sapphire, how is the castle wall warped to look like the perspective is shifting as you fly over?  Is it just animated sprites, or what?

[Black Tiger]

Here's a question for the programming geniuses: towards the end of the second level in Sapphire, how is the castle wall warped to look like the perspective is shifting as you fly over?  Is it just animated sprites, or what?

I believe thats an Hsync effect, which Malducci explains on the first page of this thread.

[Necromancer]

I believe thats an Hsync effect, which Malducci explains on the first page of this thread.

Thanks.

[nat]

Here's a question for the programming geniuses: towards the end of the second level in Sapphire, how is the castle wall warped to look like the perspective is shifting as you fly over? 

That also happens during stage 1 as you fly over the skyscraper. It might happen elsewhere in the game too, I can't remember.

[malducci]

Here's a question for the programming geniuses: towards the end of the second level in Sapphire, how is the castle wall warped to look like the perspective is shifting as you fly over?  Is it just animated sprites, or what?

 Yeah, it's the same type of effect that Chris did in his Axelay demo. You can scale or distort the background on the Y axis, pretty easily actually.

Can anyone tell me if the in-game menu windows of Popful Mail use real wire frame/"vector" graphics or are simply animation?

The shadow 'transparency' effect in this game also looks cool since the screen frame doesn't change.

 Where in the game is the transparency part?

[ParanoiaDragon]

I think he's talking about one of the first area's in the game.