how many sprites can the Saturn do?

[Jeffrey (GameBaz.com)]

To my understanding it claims to be capable to handle virtually Unlimited
number of sprites.

You may also refer to the following URL for reference.

http://www.sega-saturn.com/saturn/other/satspecs.htm

Best regards,

Jeffrey (www.gamebaz.com)

Saturn is said to be the most powerful sprite-based/2D console ever
made. ok, so how many sprites can the thing do? I have never seen a
number for that.
The MegaDrive (Genesis) can only do a measily 80 sprites, and here is
Nintendo Super NES - 128
NEC PC-Engine/TurboGrafx - 64
NEC SuperGrafx - 128
SNK NeoGeo - 380
Fujitsu FM Towns Marty (first 32-bit console) - 1024
Sony PSX/PS1 - 4000
SNK Hyper NeoGeo 64 (arcade) - 1536
Sega System32 (Saturn's 32-Bit arcade ancestor) - 8000
So, what about the Saturn?

[SewerFiss]

Saturn is said to be the most powerful sprite-based/2D console ever
made. ok, so how many sprites can the thing do? I have never seen a
number for that.

I've never seen a number either. Everything I've ever seen says "unlimited
sprites." But I would venture to say that it means the Saturn can display
more sprites per line than pixels?

The fact is, the Saturn really would have revolutionized the 2D gaming world
if the Playstation hadn't revolutionized video gaming towards 3D and made
people forget all about 2D for the most part. It's 2D capabilities were
just amazing as far as what it could do in hardware to sprite. And I mean,
the thing had a special processor just for moving around, scaling,
roatating, warping and generally having fun with foreground sprites and then
another just for dealing with multiple 2D background images. Unfortunately,
as far as I know, very few if any games ever actually came close to
exploring all those possibilities.

For the record, I've also read statement from developers who say that the
Jaguar, believ it or not, would have been capable of similar things if it's
"Tom" processor had been explored, but most games just relied on the 16-bit
68000 CPU because it was easier and more familiar. I guess the moral of
both stories is that incredibly powerful 2D architectures are just very very
hard to work with, at least at a low level.


...word is bondage...

[a***@cc.full.stop.helsinki.fi]

Saturn is said to be the most powerful sprite-based/2D console ever
made. ok, so how many sprites can the thing do? I have never seen a
number for that.

Unlike older consoles (and the GBA), the Saturn doesn't have a fixed
number of sprite "slots". Instead, you make a list of the sprites you
want to display and send it to VDP1 which will then draw them into the
backbuffer as quickly as it can. When that list is completed, you can send
it another one, and when you have drawn all sprites you want you wait
for the vertical retrace and flip the backbuffer and frontbuffer. The
amount of sprites is thus limited by the speed of VDP1, the actual
number achieved depends on the size of your sprites, their format and
number of colours, whether they're stretched/scaled or have any special
effects applied.
Note that for VDP1, a textured polygon and a freeform-stretched sprite
are identical, so achievable numbers of sprites will be close to number
of textured polygons/frame. (A normal, square sprite will likely be
slightly faster than a deformed one, but I haven't tried to measure
this.)

The MegaDrive (Genesis) can only do a measily 80 sprites, and here is

For most of these, the number of sprites merely indicates the number of
sprite slots available. For these systems, sprites are usually generated
directly onto the screen in sync with the TV raster beam, so a common
technique is to wait until the first set of sprites has been drawn and
then modify their position further down the screen where they will be
drawn again. It can be tricky to use in a game, but using this method
the Commodore 64 which has only 8 sprite slots can display over seventy
sprites!

Sony PSX/PS1 - 4000

The Playstation uses the same method as the Saturn, and I suspect this
number should be higher. However, the Playstation must also draw the
background graphics using this method, which reduces the number of
"sprites".

-a

[wrestleantares]

Post by a***@cc.full.stop.helsinki.fi

Sony PSX/PS1 - 4000

The Playstation uses the same method as the Saturn, and I suspect this
number should be higher. However, the Playstation must also draw the
background graphics using this method, which reduces the number of
"sprites".
-a

PSX also lacks RAM which is crucial for Sprites. Sprites being
essentially a bitmap picture of an object in the game - means more
ram, more sprites.

[a***@cc.full.stop.helsinki.fi]

I don't know what I'm talking about. I just looked up the information
on the internet. More than one site said the RAM affected how many
sprites could be displayed on the screen, and what I wrote was pulled
near verbatim from one of the sites.

Just keep in mind that that's what most of the sites are doing as well.

-a

[wrestleantares]

Post by a***@cc.full.stop.helsinki.fi

I don't know what I'm talking about. I just looked up the information
on the internet. More than one site said the RAM affected how many
sprites could be displayed on the screen, and what I wrote was pulled
near verbatim from one of the sites.

Just keep in mind that that's what most of the sites are doing as well.
-a

I didn't get on the internet for the first time yesterday.

[SewerFiss]

The MegaDrive (Genesis) can only do a measily 80 sprites, and here is
Nintendo Super NES - 128

That's 64 before slowdown, not sure how they fanagled 128 out of the

system

in tests, but it couldn't really do it.

That's an kind of an interesting point. I mean, sprites are measured per
frame frame right, but when there's too many sprites on screen, the
framerate goes down. So the sprites per frame number could be really high
without any indication of the fact that the game is only running at 3 frames
per second. Is there like a standard framerate they go by or something?


...word is bondage...

[Scott H]

Post by a***@cc.full.stop.helsinki.fi

The MegaDrive (Genesis) can only do a measily 80 sprites, and here is
Nintendo Super NES - 128

That's 64 before slowdown, not sure how they fanagled 128 out of the

system

in tests, but it couldn't really do it.

That's an kind of an interesting point. I mean, sprites are measured per
frame frame right, but when there's too many sprites on screen, the
framerate goes down. So the sprites per frame number could be really high
without any indication of the fact that the game is only running at 3 frames
per second. Is there like a standard framerate they go by or something?

I think most acceptable 2D games updated as many times as the NTSC did,
so if it wasn't at least going that fast it looked slow or choppy.

[a***@cc.full.stop.helsinki.fi]

Post by SewerFiss

Nintendo Super NES - 128

That's 64 before slowdown, not sure how they fanagled 128 out of the
system in tests, but it couldn't really do it.

That's an kind of an interesting point. I mean, sprites are measured
per frame frame right, but when there's too many sprites on screen,
the framerate goes down. So the sprites per frame number could be
really high without any indication of the fact that the game is only
running at 3 frames per second. Is there like a standard framerate
they go by or something?

For most of the older machines (SNES included) the sprites are drawn
directly on screen in sync with the TV raster beam, so the frame rate is
locked at 60Hz/50Hz. Slowdown on these machines is a software issue,
ie. the game can't update at the desired rate and skips a frame.

-a