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0 pointsDwedit2y ago0 comments

Graphically, SNES beats the Amiga hands down.

Assuming you are not rewriting the palette scanline-by-scanline...

Amiga is stuck with 16 colors for the whole bitmap screen unless extra-halfbrite mode is used, then it goes up to 32 colors (extra colors must be half as bright as the base colors). Using the hardware sprites (3 colors + transparent) can add up to 12 more colors.

Meanwhile on the SNES, the most-used video mode has two background layers with 15-color tiles (plus transparent), and one background layer with 3-color tiles (plus transparent). 8 different palettes can be selected, for 128 colors.

Then there are sprites too, lots of sprites can be on the screen at once. 15-colors (plus transparent) for a sprite, and 8 different palettes can be selected.

Then afterwards, color math can be applied, you can make graphics use additive blending (light effects), subtractive blending (darkness effects), or 50% transparent blending.

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stormking2y ago

It's 32 colors in normal and 64 colors in extra-halfbrite.

vidarh2y ago

32/64 colours, assuming no rewriting, but given the very existence of the copper was motivated by being able to change values like that, plenty of Amiga games exceeded that. Some very substantially.

The copper was also used to multiplex sprites, so again the limitation is per scanline.

And assuming things wouldn't be changed per scanline is assuming a shoddy job - very few games on the Amiga would not make at least some use of the copper to extend the number of sprites or number of colours on screen.

lttlrck2y ago

I have very vague memories from the time when Lemmimgs was released, something about the sprite/copper that allowed it to display those Lemmings efficiently. Of course the Atari ST had the exactly same game which puzzled me, though presumably it used brute force.

vidarh2y ago

I think it's more likely it "just" had more colours, and possibly used a different graphics mode for parts of the screen. Lemmings strikes me as a game where the size and number both precludes using sprites for all of them, and where moving the Lemmings themselves shouldn't be computationally costly enough to be a problem.

Though the Amiga does allow changing the positioning of the screen over a larger bitmap, so e.g. panning the levels without much/any copying might have been an option? Doesn't require the copper, though.

frostburg2y ago

As is was already noted, scanline-level techniques were commonly used in Amiga games.

A few of the more sophisticated efforts could be argued to be technically superior to anything on the SNES; consider Shadow of the Beast 3 or Lionheart.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 pointsDwedit2y ago0 comments

Graphically, SNES beats the Amiga hands down.

Assuming you are not rewriting the palette scanline-by-scanline...

Then there are sprites too, lots of sprites can be on the screen at once. 15-colors (plus transparent) for a sprite, and 8 different palettes can be selected.

Then afterwards, color math can be applied, you can make graphics use additive blending (light effects), subtractive blending (darkness effects), or 50% transparent blending.

0 comments

stormking2y ago

It's 32 colors in normal and 64 colors in extra-halfbrite.

vidarh2y ago

32/64 colours, assuming no rewriting, but given the very existence of the copper was motivated by being able to change values like that, plenty of Amiga games exceeded that. Some very substantially.

The copper was also used to multiplex sprites, so again the limitation is per scanline.

lttlrck2y ago

vidarh2y ago

frostburg2y ago

As is was already noted, scanline-level techniques were commonly used in Amiga games.

A few of the more sophisticated efforts could be argued to be technically superior to anything on the SNES; consider Shadow of the Beast 3 or Lionheart.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse