thicc_girls_are_teh_best
Member
I might be crazy, but I remember some source saying the Saturn version could have handled larger rooms are more than 2 enemies per room.I read it a long long time ago so I cant remember where.
If it was capable of such, that would have likely been down to have two CPUs in the system, while consoles like the PS1 had just the single CPU. I'm assuming thanks to VDP2 offloading a lot of the background rendering, the 2nd CPU would be freed up from issuing command lists for polygon generation on background objects, and could use that budget for VDP1 instead.
Much needed context from the creator of this:
More context from the video description...
He does go further into how difficult this was for him and how difficult it would have been for the official team to port to Saturn in a patreon post, but the post is paywall locked.
Well, FWIW even the PS1 had to "fake 3D" for games like Resident Evil where the backgrounds are prerendered 3D bitmap images. Between games like that, and MGS which have mainly static overhead-angled cameras, the Saturn could mostly "keep up" with PS1 in those types of games.
Though for when playing MGS and switching to cover-camera or first-person with the binoculars, the Saturn's 3D limitations would have been immediately more evident. It'd of likely needed to use VDP2 for background objects simulating 3D the way Sega's Superscaler 2D sprite games did. Which really, was the philosophy of Saturn's 3D in a nutshell, just turbo-charged to a maximum, logical conclusion of that rendering methodology.
That's putting it mildly. I remember reading how devs had to dump the devkit and code their game in Assembly(!) in order to get maximum performance out of the Saturn.
TBF you had to do this to an extent with PS1 and N64 as well; no games on systems that gen maximized the hardware without coding big chunks in assembly language.
The difference was that PS1's hardware was less convoluted (less chips to program assembly for in unison), and Sony's APIs were much better than Sega's even for low-level, making assembly on PS1 easier. The Saturn's DSP alone was a beast in its own right and IIRC had to be completely programmed for in assembly; C language wasn't an option.
I'm recalling GameHut's video on it, in his Sonic R coverage, FWIW. He put out some really good documentation/proof of programming for the DSP in Saturn.
yes I know. In short, depending on the game design, this could give advantages to the Saturn but there are limitations, in 3D racing games this technique cannot be used, nor in the main 3D platforms that we have come to know such as Tomb Raider 2, Rayman 2, Gex Enter The Gecko (advanced game) even Croc 2.
With 3D racers, you could somewhat still use VDP2. It'd just be for stuff like the skybox, distant background objects, and certain trackside objects like trees, bushes, the crowd etc. Maybe even parts of the track you'd drive on, but that would have probably required clever programming of VDP2 and VDP1 (polygons) for a smooth effect.
At least, I'm thinking that would have been possible. If the track has elevation changes it probably becomes less feasible.