AuthorTopic: Mockup Frenzy #3: Game Boy De-Makes!  (Read 428992 times)

Offline AdamAtomic

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1188
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • natural born medic
    • View Profile
    • Adam Atomic

Re: Mockup Frenzy #3: Game Boy De-Makes!

Reply #50 on: September 20, 2007, 02:15:08 pm
my god of war banner follows the rule - i think its actually beneficial because it almost forces you to up the contrast on your sprites, helping them to stand out more from the BG.  but yeah, definitely optional!  And you can overlay them, just don't forget you only get 10 sprites per raster line...

Offline am_pm

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 94
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • Lurker supreme
    • View Profile

Re: Mockup Frenzy #3: Game Boy De-Makes!

Reply #51 on: September 20, 2007, 08:33:37 pm


Quote
The sanctity of this place has been fouled!


(Yes, I know it could use a lot more. I'm working on that!)


EDIT:

« Last Edit: September 21, 2007, 01:34:36 am by am_pm »

Offline Rynen10K

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 82
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • żĄ┴JeәЧ
    • View Profile

Re: Mockup Frenzy #3: Game Boy De-Makes!

Reply #52 on: September 20, 2007, 09:35:06 pm
I'm probably going to get punched for this, but what exactly is a scanline on the GB?

Does the 10-sprite limit go for every horizontal row of 160x8? every horizontal row of pixels?

I want to try and stick as close to the limits as possible...

Offline AdamAtomic

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1188
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • natural born medic
    • View Profile
    • Adam Atomic

Re: Mockup Frenzy #3: Game Boy De-Makes!

Reply #53 on: September 20, 2007, 09:40:54 pm
the raster rule is basically this.  the gameboy screen is 144px tall, so it has 144 raster lines, or lines of pixels that the hardware blits.  Not sure the exact specifics of why, but you may only have up to 10 sprites overlappign the same raster line.  So if you have ten sprites at 8x8 whose upper left corner's Y value is between 136 and 144, then the hardware will start to have some troubles.  Lots of games get around this by keeping track, and flickering sprites that occupy the same space.  Unfortunately, for mockup purposes, flickering doesn't matter much!  If you want though you could make an animated .gif that featured flickering assets to preserve the 10 sprites per line rule :)

Lemme know if that makes more sense!

As for the other somewhat confusing specs:

Background tile palette: every background tile can use any of the 4 colors.
Background tile priority: each tile has a 0 or 1 that determines whether or not it is drawn in front of or behind the sprites.  This doesn't matter a TON for mockups either, but still interesting!  However, I believe it works across whole tiles; so you couldn't have half a tile covering up part of a sprite, or something, because tiles don't have transparency.
Sprite palettes: this one is pretty weird, even I admit that, but it does actually make sense.  Since the GB only has 4 colors, and sprites need at least 1 color slot for transparency, the GB lets you use up to 2 different palettes for your sprites, each (one would assume) indicating a different color for transparency.  E.g. palette one might mark black as the transparent color, for bright sprites on a dark background, while palette two might have white as trans, which would be good for making dark sprites over a light background.  If you look at each of the screenshots above you'll see that nearly all of their sprite palettes drop one or the other of the grays, to keep sprite contrast high.

Lemme know if you have any more questions!

Offline Rynen10K

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 82
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • żĄ┴JeәЧ
    • View Profile

Re: Mockup Frenzy #3: Game Boy De-Makes!

Reply #54 on: September 20, 2007, 09:46:20 pm
Whoops - I missed that whole top half somehow the first time I read it  :-[ I'm smart.

Thanks :) So it's essentially every horizontal line of pixels (160x1) Gotcha.

So I guess my next question would be, what's the disadvantage of using the 16x8 sprites? Would they take up more memory than the single 8x8 squares? Do the 8x8 squares have much of a purpose?

Maybe I'm thinking too far ahead on all this...
« Last Edit: September 20, 2007, 10:14:24 pm by Rynen10K »

Offline baccaman21

  • 0011
  • **
  • Posts: 549
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • It's critique, don't take it personally.
    • View Profile
    • Linked In

Re: Mockup Frenzy #3: Game Boy De-Makes!

Reply #55 on: September 20, 2007, 09:47:42 pm
the thing is, can't you overlay a different sprite on a three-color sprite for the extra color on the gameboy?

Oh absolutley... you can indeed - however; in context this would be extremely wasteful when you're dealing with a limited character set for your sprites... One wouldn't waste valuable space on that extra shade when you could have an extra frame in your animation or a new baddy (for example) - I think you'll find if you look at 99.9% of all sprites in a DMG GB title they will be 3 colors only...

...at the end of the day it's purely academic, and I for one don't want to take anything away from everyone's sterling efforts...

I just think it's a valuable thing to understand that it's actually a little more tricky than it first appears... and there's a reason a lot of the old GB games looked the way they did. Limited color, limited characters, limited memory... which, after all is what IMO pixeling is about... making the most of those limitations.
Buy the book - The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams

www.burnzombieburn.com

Offline Arachne

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 309
  • Karma: +3/-0
    • View Profile
    • Retinal Eclipse

Re: Mockup Frenzy #3: Game Boy De-Makes!

Reply #56 on: September 20, 2007, 10:31:17 pm
:durr:

Offline vpk

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 5
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile
    • my blog...

Re: Mockup Frenzy #3: Game Boy De-Makes!

Reply #57 on: September 20, 2007, 11:41:33 pm
Hi, been looking around for some times now but never posted.



Also, early w.i.p. ...

Imagine the symphony comming out of the gameboy speaker...
« Last Edit: September 20, 2007, 11:43:56 pm by vpk »

Offline .TakaM

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1178
  • Karma: +1/-0
    • View Profile
    • Fetch Quest

Re: Mockup Frenzy #3: Game Boy De-Makes!

Reply #58 on: September 21, 2007, 12:27:19 am
heheh, but 5 buttons?
Life without knowledge is death in disguise

Offline mattness

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 33
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: Mockup Frenzy #3: Game Boy De-Makes!

Reply #59 on: September 21, 2007, 12:32:41 am

Nooo!.. Daaamn!..
I was working on a Diablo De-Make, me too.. :(

 :'(
<<You chanted the Resurrection Spell. You've been revived in the Realm.>>