What 32X game would be impossible on any other system of the era?

[Ferik]

Sorry that "CPU's are all it has" comment made it easy to misunderstand, yeah the 32X has a VDP chip, which is what gives it the 32 thousand color palette and double buffered framebuffer that it uses to composite the image. What I was saying was the 32X doesn't have any hardware acceleration at all. All the 3D and sprite scaling have to be done in software driven entirely by the CPU.

On a hardware accelerated system the GPU will handle the sprites/tiles or polygons almost entirely independently from the rest of the system while the CPU is mostly off doing its own thing running the game code, the two just need to check with each other periodically to make sure they know what to do. On the 32X the CPUs need to map out everything on the screen, they do all the calculations and plot pixels into the framebuffer directly and then the VDP just renders that framebuffer out to the screen.

The biggest problem this poses to the console compared to something like the Jaguar is the complete lack of blitter functionality. This makes it extremely difficult for the 32X to move background tiles around the screen quickly which is why most of the games rely on the Genesis to handle the backgrounds, and the ones that don't like Pitfall move super choppy at like 20fps. The problem with this is that the Genesis can only do 64 simultaneous colors in most scenarios so while you will get some color bump since the 32X is handling the sprites and the Genesis can dedicate the full 64 to the background layers it's a far cry from the "32 thousand colors" the 32X supports.

 

[Wariat]

That X Men game looks like a saturn game to me.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

Sorry that "CPU's are all it has" comment made it easy to misunderstand, yeah the 32X has a VDP chip, which is what gives it the 32 thousand color palette and double buffered framebuffer that it uses to composite the image. What I was saying was the 32X doesn't have any hardware acceleration at all. All the 3D and sprite scaling have to be done in software driven entirely by the CPU.

On a hardware accelerated system the GPU will handle the sprites/tiles or polygons almost entirely independently from the rest of the system while the CPU is mostly off doing its own thing running the game code, the two just need to check with each other periodically to make sure they know what to do. On the 32X the CPUs need to map out everything on the screen, they do all the calculations and plot pixels into the framebuffer directly and then the VDP just renders that framebuffer out to the screen.

The biggest problem this poses to the console compared to something like the Jaguar is the complete lack of blitter functionality. This makes it extremely difficult for the 32X to move background tiles around the screen quickly which is why most of the games rely on the Genesis to handle the backgrounds, and the ones that don't like Pitfall move super choppy at like 20fps. The problem with this is that the Genesis can only do 64 simultaneous colors in most scenarios so while you will get some color bump since the 32X is handling the sprites and the Genesis can dedicate the full 64 to the background layers it's a far cry from the "32 thousand colors" the 32X supports.

Hey, no problem! Honestly, you made me understand the hardware more. You can somewhat tell how little I know on the hardware makeup from my own response, but I tried to answer with what I DID know.

I should ask, because I came to the conclusion last night, would it be possible to run a 6800 program while a 32X is running, and then that code could run in parallel with the 32X main code? More than just a background layer, I’m talking about something not too dissimilar to some of the most impressive software the Mega Drive got during 1994 and 1995, employing crazy sprite tricks to fake things like smooth scrolling, scaling, FMV, and 3D. Would that possibly be able to create some kind of result in a game or even just a demo that would be hard to replicate on other hardware from the era?

I’m still under the assumption the answer is “no you dummy, it would be too complicated for no added benefit”, but it’d be cool to theorycraft.
Technically, Tempo is ENOUGH of an example of what I’m talking about, but I’m imagining a game like Tempo that has even greater visual special effects on the foreground and level assets, then being able to interact with a background layer in real time which is handled by the 32X’s SH-2’s.

 

[Wariat]

what do you think are some games modern or retro that show great multithreading? Last of Us Part 1? Cyberpunk?

Post automatically merged: Wednesday at 2:26 PM

edit, what about the sega cd. Would that game have been possible you think on it and not the 32x?

Post automatically merged: Wednesday at 2:27 PM

Should or could Sega itself have invested in such a developer or themsleves been able to have done multithreading back then? in house?

Post automatically merged: Wednesday at 2:29 PM

Also, have you seen that early sonic xtreme on 32x or sonic mars footage? you think that could have been done on the standard genesis or cd?

Post automatically merged: Wednesday at 2:38 PM

Well this is interesting:
[video]

Post automatically merged: Wednesday at 2:39 PM

damm the 32x pitfall looks way better than even the cd version.

Post automatically merged: Wednesday at 2:44 PM

wow:
[video]

Post automatically merged: Wednesday at 2:57 PM

"I should ask, because I came to the conclusion last night, would it be possible to run a 6800 program while a 32X is running, and then that code could run in parallel with the 32X main code? "

isnt this what he already mentioned or multithreading what multithreading is?

Post automatically merged: Wednesday at 4:13 PM

"Technically, Tempo is ENOUGH of an example of what I’m talking about, but I’m imagining a game like Tempo that has even greater visual special effects on the foreground and level assets"

How bout super tmepo on the saturn? do you think it could have been done on the 32x?

Post automatically merged: Wednesday at 7:55 PM

this game i guess was one of the ones that showed this wonder or this coding jiu jitsu eh that the 32x never showed?

Mega Drive Review - Red Zone (Game 126)

When the visuals that originally stunned critics have aged, is there much reason to play this brutally hard over head shooter? ...

www.boxedpixels.co.uk

 

[Ferik]

Hey, no problem! Honestly, you made me understand the hardware more. You can somewhat tell how little I know on the hardware makeup from my own response, but I tried to answer with what I DID know.

I should ask, because I came to the conclusion last night, would it be possible to run a 6800 program while a 32X is running, and then that code could run in parallel with the 32X main code? More than just a background layer, I’m talking about something not too dissimilar to some of the most impressive software the Mega Drive got during 1994 and 1995, employing crazy sprite tricks to fake things like smooth scrolling, scaling, FMV, and 3D. Would that possibly be able to create some kind of result in a game or even just a demo that would be hard to replicate on other hardware from the era?

I’m still under the assumption the answer is “no you dummy, it would be too complicated for no added benefit”, but it’d be cool to theorycraft.
Technically, Tempo is ENOUGH of an example of what I’m talking about, but I’m imagining a game like Tempo that has even greater visual special effects on the foreground and level assets, then being able to interact with a background layer in real time which is handled by the 32X’s SH-2’s.

It's gotta be possible, Tempo was going to be my example too since Tempo himself is rendered by the Genesis and the bosses are rendered by the 32X and they can directly interact with each other.

And not to be pedantic, but you're missing a zero on 68000. The 6800 was Motorola's 8-bit CPU, they just added an extra zero for the 16-bit one.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

It's gotta be possible, Tempo was going to be my example too since Tempo himself is rendered by the Genesis and the bosses are rendered by the 32X and they can directly interact with each other.

And not to be pedantic, but you're missing a zero on 68000. The 6800 was Motorola's 8-bit CPU, they just added an extra zero for the 16-bit one.

I have been slain. My minor spelling mistake has slain me.