I was puzzled by what SMD screen resolutions hsould be for a game.
The screen size depends on what the hardware is capable of running do you know what the options are?
My research says that horizontal resolution can be either 256 pixels or 320.
256 pixels will result in non-square pixels on the TV, which you may need to compensate for in the art (characters will appear horizontally wider than in 320 pixel mode). But, it will also require less memory in the ROM for backgrounds. I believe the height is always 240 pixels.
What do you guys think is the above correct ???
SMD TV Screen Resolutions !
Moderators: BigEvilCorporation, Mask of Destiny
Hight is 224 in ntsc, 240 in pal.
256 mode gives you a little more speed I think, not rom space (unless you shrunk down everything to take the screen size into account - then you do get less rom space of course).
Someone else will be able to give you a more detailed answer on the whys and hows, but yes, this is correct afaik.
256 mode gives you a little more speed I think, not rom space (unless you shrunk down everything to take the screen size into account - then you do get less rom space of course).
Someone else will be able to give you a more detailed answer on the whys and hows, but yes, this is correct afaik.
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tomaitheous
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Re: SMD TV Screen Resolutions !
My opinion? I'd stick with the 320 mode. Like Shiru stated, it gives the best mode for optimizing sprites. You still have the relative same ratio of pixels to scanline "width" as 256 mode, but since 8pixels wide are now narrower and you can have up to 20 sprites on a line instead of the usual 16 - you can optimize more easily for sprite drop out. There is the side effect of more vram this requires (technically 25% more), this is worth the trade off IMO. Plus, rom space really isn't any issue nowadays. If you're worrying about square pixels, neither res uses square pixels. But H40 mode (320) is slightly closer to square than H32 (256). 256 pixel mode is more useful for a handful fancy tilemap effects, but I doubt you'll even do the ones I have in mind (no one seems to, no game seems to).Alex Khan wrote:I was puzzled by what SMD screen resolutions hsould be for a game.
The screen size depends on what the hardware is capable of running do you know what the options are?
My research says that horizontal resolution can be either 256 pixels or 320.
256 pixels will result in non-square pixels on the TV, which you may need to compensate for in the art (characters will appear horizontally wider than in 320 pixel mode). But, it will also require less memory in the ROM for backgrounds. I believe the height is always 240 pixels.
What do you guys think is the above correct ???
For the Genesis, the pros out ways the cons. So go for 320 mode. Unless you have something exotic in mind that takes advantage of the 256 mode and its less space requirements.
Except for the fact that you lose compatibility with NTSC consoles if you choose V30 instead of V28. I would be really pissed off if an otherwise quality prod would fail on my Genesis simply because the coder chose to use V30 instead of V28. I have also hacked V30-only demos to V28, but the more complex the demo, the harder the fix (see: C64).Shiru wrote:256 pixels also gives you less sprites per raster line, so it is not alternative at all.
You can display 320x224 picture on 320x240 screen, but you can't display 320x240 picture on 320x224 screen without losing details, so the choose is obvious.
