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BSNES (emulator) mod allows for HD rendering of Mode7 games
- Thread starter GSR
- Start date
I know right! Finally after all these years I now see what it was meant to be.
Explanation on how high-res rendering works here
They're scaling the tiles before applying the mathematical skew and distortion that achieves rotation and scaling. There is no interpolation being done. Consider the following tile:
This is at a native resolution, where each pixel of the tile is equal to a single pixel on the screen. When we rotate at this low resolution, distortion happens because pixels in the rotation fall between boundries, but can't be represented except at pixel resolution:
By scaling the tiles in memory so they take multiple pixels, you can subdivide a single texel in the tile into sub-pixels:
This is a 1:16 scale, a single texel of the tile map takes 16 pixels on screen to represent. When I rotate the tile, the edges of the pixels now have more granularity to represent falling between boundries:
The higher you pre-scale the tiles:
The smoother the subpixel rotation:
All of the above images are done 100% with interpolation turned off.
These are pretty bad example because the textures are actually higher res (from the angle, it's possible that the "low res" ground textures are being too aggressively anisotropic filtered, but it's still technically a different texture). That's not what's happening in the BSNES example, they're the exact same sprites.
I'm pretty sure only the mine cart portion was Mode-7, correct of wrong of course.
BTW when I talk about Virtual Reality, and how resolvable viewing distance is a direct function of resolution, this is the exact stuff I'm talking about. This is why I say, with the Oculus Rift DK1, you couldn't play racing games, because you couldn't see far enough in front of you. Without adequate resolution, at a certain distance, it's literally not possible to discern the subpixel scatter anymore.
I would love to see Hyperzone. That game gives me a headache usually lol
Thank you for this visual explanation, was wondering what was going on!
Update: the spiral tower in Super Castlevania IV works. You need to disable "Optimize pseudo 3D perspectives". This option is part of BSNES, it is not related to this mod.
I have seen a screenshot of F-Zero just a week ago and I can't believe they've actually done it. I mean you could do that with N64 games ages ago, but these were 3D games and they had real cameras so it wasn't that difficult to add, but here they seem to hijack some parts of the way the SNES render stuff and it's really cool.
They're scaling the tiles before applying the mathematical skew and distortion that achieves rotation and scaling. There is no interpolation being done. Consider the following tile:
This is at a native resolution, where each pixel of the tile is equal to a single pixel on the screen. When we rotate at this low resolution, distortion happens because pixels in the rotation fall between boundries, but can't be represented except at pixel resolution:
By scaling the tiles in memory so they take multiple pixels, you can subdivide a single texel in the tile into sub-pixels:
This is a 1:16 scale, a single texel of the tile map takes 16 pixels on screen to represent. When I rotate the tile, the edges of the pixels now have more granularity to represent falling between boundries:
The higher you pre-scale the tiles:
The smoother the subpixel rotation:
All of the above images are done 100% with interpolation turned off.
This makes sense! Fascinating, very cool.
Another reason why I don't really care for cycle accuracy in emulation anymore. Would rather just use the real hardware. When it comes to emulation, give me "better-than-real" any day
They're scaling the tiles before applying the mathematical skew and distortion that achieves rotation and scaling. There is no interpolation being done. Consider the following tile:
This is at a native resolution, where each pixel of the tile is equal to a single pixel on the screen. When we rotate at this low resolution, distortion happens because pixels in the rotation fall between boundries, but can't be represented except at pixel resolution:
By scaling the tiles in memory so they take multiple pixels, you can subdivide a single texel in the tile into sub-pixels:
This is a 1:16 scale, a single texel of the tile map takes 16 pixels on screen to represent. When I rotate the tile, the edges of the pixels now have more granularity to represent falling between boundries:
The higher you pre-scale the tiles:
The smoother the subpixel rotation:
All of the above images are done 100% with interpolation turned off.
Really great breakdown dude. Gets the idea across in a really straightforward manner.
They're scaling the tiles before applying the mathematical skew and distortion that achieves rotation and scaling. There is no interpolation being done. Consider the following tile:
This is at a native resolution, where each pixel of the tile is equal to a single pixel on the screen. When we rotate at this low resolution, distortion happens because pixels in the rotation fall between boundries, but can't be represented except at pixel resolution:
By scaling the tiles in memory so they take multiple pixels, you can subdivide a single texel in the tile into sub-pixels:
This is a 1:16 scale, a single texel of the tile map takes 16 pixels on screen to represent. When I rotate the tile, the edges of the pixels now have more granularity to represent falling between boundries:
The higher you pre-scale the tiles:
The smoother the subpixel rotation:
All of the above images are done 100% with interpolation turned off.
Excellent explanation. Thank you!
yes, sure, I know BSNES is cycle accurate. my point was: if i had to choose between cycle accuracy and improvements to the base game, I'd prefer the latter. having both is the ideal scenario though, cycle accurate + rewind + reduced latency + improved visuals, etc. I wonder when we'll get a classic console that can take an original cartridge and accomplish all of that?
Absolute brilliant explanation. Much appreciated.They're scaling the tiles before applying the mathematical skew and distortion that achieves rotation and scaling. There is no interpolation being done. Consider the following tile:
This is at a native resolution, where each pixel of the tile is equal to a single pixel on the screen. When we rotate at this low resolution, distortion happens because pixels in the rotation fall between boundries, but can't be represented except at pixel resolution:
By scaling the tiles in memory so they take multiple pixels, you can subdivide a single texel in the tile into sub-pixels:
This is a 1:16 scale, a single texel of the tile map takes 16 pixels on screen to represent. When I rotate the tile, the edges of the pixels now have more granularity to represent falling between boundries:
The higher you pre-scale the tiles:
The smoother the subpixel rotation:
All of the above images are done 100% with interpolation turned off.
The F-Zero stuff is crazy, I though that was an attempt at 3d depiction people(on bleachers or whatever) along the track. Shame I don't really mess with emulation, I want to try out Final Fantasy 6 with this.
It'd be harder to detect and do on the GBA because it's done in software on the GBA, and thus every game would have a different way of handling the effect.
This could be done with Sega Saturn games, too.
High res mode 7 has been in ZSNES since maybe the later 90s early 2000s. That said, it looks no where near as impressive as this.
Edit - Fucking typo.
Edit - Fucking typo.
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fwiw, bsnes has also had high res mode 7 for a long time. Just not this high res.
What about Street Racer? Terranigma underworld map? Super Turrican worm boss?
Street Racer is the best looking Mode 7 racing game on the system.
What? I don't think DKC2 made big use of Mode 7 if any.
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I'm sure the effect is way more noticeable in the airship, since there's more scaling involved. IV and V probably get a nice airship bump too.
I second that, we need a compilation.
Maybe something for John of Digital Foundry.
would love to see the two breath of wild titles with this. The overworld maps should get a decent bump in clarity as well as the battlefields.
You can already get something like this on PC with a source port like ECWolf: http://maniacsvault.net/ecwolf/
And yeah, the Mode 7 improvement is much more drastic.
They're scaling the tiles before applying the mathematical skew and distortion that achieves rotation and scaling. There is no interpolation being done. Consider the following tile:
This is at a native resolution, where each pixel of the tile is equal to a single pixel on the screen. When we rotate at this low resolution, distortion happens because pixels in the rotation fall between boundries, but can't be represented except at pixel resolution:
By scaling the tiles in memory so they take multiple pixels, you can subdivide a single texel in the tile into sub-pixels:
This is a 1:16 scale, a single texel of the tile map takes 16 pixels on screen to represent. When I rotate the tile, the edges of the pixels now have more granularity to represent falling between boundries:
The higher you pre-scale the tiles:
The smoother the subpixel rotation:
All of the above images are done 100% with interpolation turned off.
You should have an online university for this kind of stuff. I'd pay for a subscription .