AuthorTopic: Mockup Frenzy #4: Invasion!  (Read 55127 times)

Offline baccaman21

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Re: Mockup Frenzy #4: Invasion!

Reply #30 on: November 19, 2007, 09:38:43 pm
Yeeeees... But we used exclusion masks in those days, and that took up more gfx memory than pallette index masking does AND seeing that this Challenge was supposed to be for the Wonderswan (which I'm pretty sure would have followed the more modern masking convention) then I still stand by what I said... ;)

Hold on a minute... The NES didn't use a mask color...? really? [one of the systems I never worked on directly] - are you sure PT?

« Last Edit: November 19, 2007, 09:43:45 pm by baccaman21 »
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Offline AdamAtomic

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Re: Mockup Frenzy #4: Invasion!

Reply #31 on: November 27, 2007, 06:03:38 am
dead sure - it used instanced palettes with a hardcoded alpha index of 0 for sprites, and no alpha for backgrounds.  so you had 64 colors total, but you built max 8 at a time discrete palettes of 3-4 colors.  so no, a good GLOBAL 16 color palette (like the C64) doesn't need a transparency channel OR exclusion masks :)  Gameboy worked the same though, you should know this!

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Re: Mockup Frenzy #4: Invasion!

Reply #32 on: November 30, 2007, 07:03:58 pm
Well, on the NES you just give the sprites 1 of 4 set palettes you defined and colour 0 is always trans.
Similar on the C64, 4 colours and one of those is always trans. No masks needed.

Did you need masks on the speccy?
There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.

Offline baccaman21

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Re: Mockup Frenzy #4: Invasion!

Reply #33 on: December 02, 2007, 05:51:43 pm
it depended on whether or not you had interesting backgrounds... if it was something graphically and technically 'simple' like say
manic miner

-or-
jet set willy

...then no, as it was set against a prodominantly balck b/g and it used pixel collision, but with something like, say...

Renegade  

-or-
knight lore

-or-
head over heels


Then you'd definatley use a pixel mask...

Towards the tail end of game development on the zx we tended to use masks as par for the course regardless...

Incidentally, for those of you that don't know what a pixel mask is its where you'd have a repeated version of the sprite as a silhoetted version kept in memory, sometimes (usually) 1 pixel bigger than your sprite... this version of the sprite is printed to screen first to (effectively) CUT OUT a section of the screen where the actual 'detailed' version of the sprites is then placed. The use of which is obvious when you look at the screens I've shown above... in case it's not obivous, it so that in games like knight lore, head over heels etc, any details in the background don't merge with the sprite creating an ugly mess of merged pixels...

it's not so much of a problem these days as there are more than 'just' two colors... or 1-bit depth... ON or OFF... I look at things like that assassins creed these days and cry at just how far digital visualisation have come...

« Last Edit: December 02, 2007, 05:55:13 pm by baccaman21 »
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Offline Helm

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Re: Mockup Frenzy #4: Invasion!

Reply #34 on: December 03, 2007, 12:25:26 am
good god I'll never get over how horrid the speccy is as a game art machine.

Offline baccaman21

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Re: Mockup Frenzy #4: Invasion!

Reply #35 on: December 03, 2007, 10:32:37 am
that may be the case but it was a seminal piece of technology that a great deal of pros cut there teeth on.
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Offline Helm

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Re: Mockup Frenzy #4: Invasion!

Reply #36 on: December 03, 2007, 04:16:31 pm
of course.