From: jas37876@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (John A. Slagel)
Subject: Re: Sprite Engine News, VOL #1
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1992 15:56:04 GMT

    Allrighty, guys, my two or three cents....

    I've been thinking about this since  wrote my first sprite routine about
    5 years ago....

    1. Yes, the VGA can be turned off via software
    2. Storing the sprites in the PC's memory will NOT be any faster than
       just using software like we do now.... What you need to do is store
       the sprite info on fast memory on the sprite card, so that it doesn't
       use the pc bus. The card like you describe wouldn't work on PC/XT's.
    3. You also should use a resolution higher than 320x256. Why do all this
       work to produce blocky graphics? We would want a .75 ratio between X
       and Y to have square pixels... I'd say maybe 512x384. This would give
       four pages in 1 Meg of memory. But, can standard VGA monitors do any-
       thing other than 320,360 in x and 200,240,400,480 in y? 
    4. Assume we have 4 pages of video memory... We shouldn't need to page  
       flip because the hardware will be taking care of drawing the sprites.
       So, what you should do is have the electron gun read from 2 or more
       pages, and only display the pixel values that are non-zero.  This would
       make it easy to put in full-screen two-layered backgrounds, like in
       Duke Nukem. This would also be flashy enough to sell....
    5. So, maybe make 2 pages, each with .5 meg of memory for backgrounds.
    6. Sprite Memory..... At least 1 meg to store sprites. Don't forget how
       1 character moving around will have lots of different legs positions,
       etc...
    7. This is a great idea, but:
	1. I think people need to physically be together while designing...
	2. I think you need reasearch funds behind you... ie.. A company!
	3. If this is so easy, wouldn't someone have done it already?
	4. Using local bus video on a 486, you could do the same thing in
	   software *EASILY*.  Matter of a fact, look at Duke Nukem. It
	   does all that in software.
    8. Unless you put something into the hardware that is impossible to do
       with software, it won't sell.  Also, all the people that just have
       VGA right now obviously can't afford it... otherwise they'd have SVGA
       right now, considering how cheap SVGA is.
    9. I do agree with making a joystick card that uses just 8 positions,
       instead of the stupid, analog idea IBM had. 
    10. Why not put FM or background digitized sound on it? No sense requiring
	a GameBlaster and a SoundBlaster.
    11. I do like this idea... but, realistically, *IF* there was one on the
	market right now for $300-$400, would you buy it?  I'd like to, but
	I could barely afford my $180 Sound Blaster for just games.
    12. If you did have this card, what would you do? Write Duke Nukem again?
	Rewrite Mario Brothers? Just remember, the world needs *NEW* games,
	a new generation of completely different styles.

    Just my thoughts....

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 "Never believe anything a female says, unless it rips your heart out."
 -A brilliant discovery by me on Sept 27, 1992
  John A. Slagel, email: jas37876@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer