Hi Res Jaguar Graphics ?

[Math You]

I've been reading an article about how the Jaguar can produce graphics of up to 800x600 pixels but most of the screenshots I've seen only show games using about 320x200 pixels? Did anyone ever make any games, demo's or pictures using the high resolution mode?

 

Thanks

 

Matt

Edited September 30, 2007 by MRB

[Zerosquare]

I've been reading an artcle about how the Jaguar can produce graphics of up to 800x600 pixels but most of the screenshots I've seen only show games using about 320x200 pixels? Did anyone ever make any games, demo's or pictures using the high resolution mode?

 

Thanks

 

Matt

I'm not aware of any games or demos using high-resolution. For pictures, take a look at this thread : http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=87202 Edited September 30, 2007 by Zerosquare

[Math You]

Great link Zerosquare I was wondering if the Jaguar could produce dvd quality graphics? Looks like it probably could.

[Zerosquare]

Great link Zerosquare I was wondering if the Jaguar could produce dvd quality graphics? Looks like it probably could.

Thanks.

I replied here.

[Gorf]

Great link Zerosquare I was wondering if the Jaguar could produce dvd quality graphics? Looks like it probably could.

 

 

 

Stills yes. it will not do that at 60FPS. That is a lot of data to move.

[ZylonBane]

I'm not aware of any games or demos using high-resolution.

If memory serves, the title screen for I-War was at 640x240 resolution.

[Zerosquare]

I'm not aware of any games or demos using high-resolution.

If memory serves, the title screen for I-War was at 640x240 resolution.

Thanks, I didn't know that. Do you know if there are any games that use interlaced mode (i.e., more than 243 lignes in NTSC) ?

[Gorf]

I'm not aware of any games or demos using high-resolution.

If memory serves, the title screen for I-War was at 640x240 resolution.

Thanks, I didn't know that. Do you know if there are any games that use interlaced mode (i.e., more than 243 lignes in NTSC) ?

 

 

Not sure whomelse did but we were doing 320x240 in our games. We may cut that back to gain afew extra cycles

if need be but that's ususally a reasonable rez for the jaguar. My guess is quite a few of them are that rez.

 

As far as the 3D titles I dont know but my guess is that most of the 2D titles would be. Time for a list perhaps?

[Math You]

Great link Zerosquare I was wondering if the Jaguar could produce dvd quality graphics? Looks like it probably could.

 

Stills yes. it will not do that at 60FPS. That is a lot of data to move.

It's a shame Atari didn't give the Jaguar a bit more power. It would have been nice to see some of these higher resolutions in a game. Would something like 512 x 384 be more practical? Some of Atari's older games were using it back in the 1980's.

 

Edited October 6, 2007 by MRB

[Gorf]

Great link Zerosquare I was wondering if the Jaguar could produce dvd quality graphics? Looks like it probably could.

 

Stills yes. it will not do that at 60FPS. That is a lot of data to move.

It's a shame Atari didn't give the Jaguar a bit more power. It would have been nice to see some of these higher resolutions in a game. Would something like 512 x 384 be more practical? Some of Atari's older games were using it back in the 1980's.

 

 

 

I think the Jag would have handled a rez like that with CRY color(16 bit color) for a game

like Paper boy. It may have not been 60 but it could probably be between 30 an 60.

 

That is 2D stuff so the Blitter and the OPL could chuck that around pretty well in a

16 bit cry color.

 

The nice thing abotu the Jaguar is any one of the sprites can be any color depth you want.

So you could do one nice big high color back drop OPL object and just scroll the image and

use 256 color OPL objects for the on screen characters.

 

I think you could do it fine even if every thing were 16 bits. Paper boy in 3D on the Jag

would have been a better investment in time than say, Club Drive.

 

I use Club Drive as an example because the rendering engine concept was perfect

for a game Like PaperBoy(even if it was poorly executed...a turtle based engine, wtf is that?)

But anyway it could have been tweaked a little to do something like a Paper Boy 3D.

 

The problems:

 

Atari 'Games' owned PaperBoy if Iam not mistaken so Atari "Corp' could not just go ahead and use

it without their permission.

 

2 megs of memory would be ok if they did this on CD and spooled the background but on

cart it may have been a real pain to do.

 

The code was slow running too much on the 68k and all that would have taken a lot to move

over to the GPU the way it was written...I've seen the source...NOT english and Im not even

sure what it was, but a ton of 68k code.

 

That game engine could have really been sweet. Those 'worlds' are rather large and a GPU running

version would have been significanlty faster. Sad to see all that potential go nowhere.

 

 

Hopefully we can correct these issues someday.

[mos6507]

AtariGames' coinop titles like Paperboy used "medium res" monitors to accomplish that resolution. In other words, it was a proprietary video signal. That was pretty unusual at the time. I'm not sure how many coinop games did that sort of thing then or even into the more modern era. But any home system would shun something like that, as they did until systems like the Dreamcast offered a VGA option for a progressive-scan 640x480 picture.

[ZylonBane]

Home systems wouldn't "shun" a 512-pixel horizontal resolution. It would just look weird and shimmery due to not being an even multiple of the native NTSC/PAL color clock, exactly like the NES's 256-pixel horizontal res. Not that that seemed to hurt the NES's acceptance.

[SubQMod]

I'm not aware of any games or demos using high-resolution.

If memory serves, the title screen for I-War was at 640x240 resolution.

 

It was.....

 

 

Pinball Fantasies into screens also have these

 

[Math You]

Just wondering, if the Jaguar had a resolution of 480 pixels x 240 that was displayed on a standard TV then would the jagged edges be smoothed out by the TV or would it just look naff? The Daytona USA arcade machine had a resolution of 496 pixels that looked quite smooth on an ntsc arcade monitor.

[Gorf]

Just wondering, if the Jaguar had a resolution of 480 pixels x 240 that was displayed on a standard TV then would the jagged edges be smoothed out by the TV or would it just look naff? The Daytona USA arcade machine had a resolution of 496 pixels that looked quite smooth on an ntsc arcade monitor.

 

 

It would look 'artifacted'. What happens (if I remeber correctly) is the tubes native resolution or dot pitch , being

lower then the actual display resolution causes the gun to hit in between the holes on the shadow mask. The shadow

mask is a screen of tiny holes that the electron guns aim through. The artifacting comes from the guns shooting in

between the two holes hitting more than one phospher. This is how the high rez monochrome mode of an 8 bit Atari

appears to have colored pixels on a normal tv. It will work but it wont be clean.

[Math You]

deleted

Edited November 30, 2008 by Math You

[ZylonBane]

It would look 'artifacted'. What happens (if I remeber correctly) is the tubes native resolution or dot pitch , being lower then the actual display resolution causes the gun to hit in between the holes on the shadow mask.

No.

 

Artifacting is caused by, in very simple terms, trying to pack more information into a video signal than it's capable of representing. It's nothing to do with the physical structure of the tube. That's why old 8-bit Atari games will, on the same monitor, look artifacted if you use the composite connection, but look perfectly clear if you use the split video connection.