#115001 - doudou - Fri Jan 12, 2007 3:24 am
Hi,
This is my first post for DS. I would like to port/adapt my mode 0 GBA game to DS. What major improvment does DS offers about sprites and background that would improve the quality of my game? I read that it's also limited to 128 sprites, is there at least more memory for those sprites? There is also 4 background layers, do we have possibility to have more tiles data?
If someone can point me to detailed info about DS video memory it would be appreciated. If it compares GBA specs with DS, it would be even better!
#115005 - sajiimori - Fri Jan 12, 2007 3:59 am
The first game I worked on was a port from GBA. Going from 64k to 128k of BG VRAM, we figured that's perfect for increasing the color depth from 4 bit to 8 bit without much trouble on the art side.
One thing that bit us is that the screen is larger, so you can see more tiles. Since tile data was dynamically loaded, it actually required the artists to decrease the detail on some areas. :/
#115009 - tepples - Fri Jan 12, 2007 5:01 am
If you're scrolling, you'll either need to use 512-pixel-wide maps (like most Super NES games) or use a 256-pixel-wide map with a 248-pixel-wide window (like Kirby Super Star). Yes, addressing a 512-pixel-wide map is slightly more complicated than addressing a 256-pixel-wide map, but if you're already doing infinite scrolling, it shouldn't be too tough to adapt your code.
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#115279 - doudou - Sun Jan 14, 2007 4:35 pm
Thanks guys! That's what I needed to know for backgrounds.
What about sprites?
#115291 - tepples - Sun Jan 14, 2007 7:32 pm
If you have a lot of sprites on one of the screens, you can draw them as quads. You also get more flexible rotation and scaling that way.
DS mode also gives you sprites instead of a white screen for people who own only a SLOT-1 card, and it lets you keep more stuff in memory at once for people who own a GBA Movie Player v2 or other card with only multiboot support in GBA mode.
_________________
-- Where is he?
-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.
#115779 - doudou - Fri Jan 19, 2007 1:15 am
I would like to know why you say : "On one of the screen". Thanks.
#115782 - HyperHacker - Fri Jan 19, 2007 1:45 am
Probably because the DS has two screens, each with their own independent 2D video hardware.
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#115783 - The_Perfection - Fri Jan 19, 2007 1:49 am
I believe what he means by "one of the screens" because drawing a quad is referencing to the 3D capabilities of the DS, which can only be done on one screen at 60 FPS or on two screens at 30 FPS.