Playfield resolution doubling with DPC+?

[Trip2018]

I haven't been making anything in the past couple of years for the 2600 but this idea has been nagging me for a while. I'm probably blind and this has been asked many times before, but basically, would it be possible to "race the beam" turning playfield bits on/off mid drawing to "double" the playfeild resolution? Or even simpler, simulate a sub pixel offset for smoother scrolling?

 

I'm sure there are a few drawbacks to this like with reading pf bits directly, but it's worth a try

[+Random Terrain]

Are you saying that you want more than 176 rows?

 

randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-batari-basic-commands.html#dpc_playfield_resolution

[Trip2018]

Naw I'm talking about horizontal resolution. Could we simulate, a smaller pixel width by turning pf pixel bits on/off mid drawing. Or is the hardware too slow?

[+Random Terrain]

48 minutes ago, Trip2018 said:

Naw I'm talking about horizontal resolution. Could we simulate, a smaller pixel width by turning pf pixel bits on/off mid drawing. Or is the hardware too slow?

 

That sure would be nice. Here's a related post talking about each playfield pixel being 4 color clocks wide:

 

atariage.com/forums/topic/169128-what-is-the-atari-2600-screen-resolution/?do=findComment&comment=2091765

 

[+Karl G]

Batari Basic handles the display routine "under the hood", so "racing the beam" isn't really an option. Even with assembly, however, there's not a way to draw a partial PF pixel in the way that you describe. They are always going to be 4 color clocks in width, starting at the same offsets.

[+Random Terrain]

Related:

 

atariage.com/forums/topic/322030-can-playfield-pixels-be-2-color-clocks-wide-instead-of-4/?do=findComment&comment=4847308