GP32 Mode 7 Performance

[alan.c5]

Hi All,

I'm very close to buying a GP32, but right now its a tie between that and the TapWave.

The one question I would love answered is this:

I want to develop a Mode 7 style racing game much like the original mario kart. Does anyone know how well the Mode 7 demo runs on a GP32? Would it be possible to get 50/60fps out of it plus game logic, mod player etc?

I've just got no idea how powerful the 166ARM is...if its the CPU doing all the work and there's no hardware, I would guess its not going to be silky smooth like the SNES.

The one thing going for the tapwave is built in 3d accelleration which would make rendering a floor pretty damn easy and fast.

I really want the GP32 to be the little machine for me. 320x240 and all this developer scene is very very attractive, but from what I can gather its just a CPU and a screen buffer...no copro, no hardware to tinker with.

Anyone got any insights for me that would sway me to this machine? I'm an old hand Amiga programmer, so comparisons with that would be great.

Thanks!

 

[mr.spiv]

To get a 50fps mode7 stuff with all goodies on GP32 is not a problem. And as an old Amiga dev/scener I can say this little piece of hardware is the second best thing after Amiga -- although I miss copper and stuff. Performance wise GP32 runs circles big time around Amiga (at least 680x0 based ones).

 

[alan.c5]

To get a 50fps mode7 stuff with all goodies on GP32 is not a problem. And as an old Amiga dev/scener I can say this little piece of hardware is the second best thing after Amiga -- although I miss copper and stuff. Performance wise GP32 runs circles big time around Amiga (at least 680x0 based ones).

​

Hey thanks matey, from an old Amiga fan thats good for me...order just went through

I'm really excited about this machine for some reason. I've wanted to develop for handhelds and consoles for years but they are all closed down...to see this one, with such great spec and community around it and be open is GREAT!

Amiga might have only had a slow CPU but it was a devious little beasty with its blitter and sound hardware and could make even machines ten times faster look rubbish. Bit like the SNES, was it 3Mhz? Fantastic hardware though.

Either way, this is going to be fun. I cant wait to see my old games running on a little machine

Thanks for the quick reply - £150 worse off now

 

[mATkEUpON]

Well, totally agree with Mr Spiv, this is the best thing since the Amiga !!!!

Maybe it's less complex regarding hardware, but there is still a lot of tricks that can be used to make things go quicker. Playing around with the DMAs is fun, and the arm asm is so optimizable in so many ways...

Never had that much pleasure programming on a platform than on this one.

 

[craigix]

Hi Alan,

The Zodiac has no 3D hardware, it just has a 2D chip for smoothing images / scaling.

I'm not sure if you could do it line by line on the zodiac, there isn't much of a homebrew scene.

-Craig

www.gbax.com

 

[Prophet]

Yep, Zodiac has no 3D hardware. That is a rumor that has persisted since the beginning. What it does have is a 3D SDK by Fathammer called XForge, which can be seen in action in games like Stuntcar Extreme and Spyhunter. It's all software though. It's not bad at all, but frame rates are not great.

If you get the Zodiac, do it because you really want the PDA aspects of the system. If you only really want a game system to program on, then GP32 is a fine platform, doesn't require application signing, and it's not that much slower than the Zodiac. For homebrew and emulation, GP32 definitely has a bigger and more varied dev scene.

 

[Inopia]

pasroto.zip

Here's a VERY old rotozoomer source for 486 machines in intel assembler / pascal. It's THE cache optimized rotozoomer doc, and explains how to get the most performance out of a system with memory cache.

good luck

/Inopia