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> The whole system has no floating-point capability. Wow!

• bexsella 7y ago
  Not that uncommon back in the day. Even Doom on PC didn't use floating-point; instead relying on fixed point.
  • lboc 7y ago
    This set me reminiscing about the x87 series FP co-processors. Nice nostalgia break waiting for a build to finish, thanks!
    • _0ffh 7y ago
      Yes, and what few people know, is that x86 co-processors in general really only had to stick to the hardware interface given by Intel. What they actually did with that was up to the co-processor. Best known case in point were the Weitek math co-processors which were not actually machine code compatible with the Intel x87s.
• GrantSolar 7y ago
  This lead to some interesting issues when porting PC to PlayStation https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/132500/dirty_coding_tricks.php?page=3 https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/132500/dirty_coding_t...
• alexisread 7y ago
  Yes, though the affine texture mapping is not the only solution, just the easiest/ best conceptually at the time. There's a port of Quake II to the Atari Falcon which has an interesting take on this lack of FP. See if interested: http://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=68&t=26775&sid=78decf172a6c804172c7d6dca54d4e54&start=250 http://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=68&t=26775&sid=78...
• Waterluvian 7y ago
  Is this why geometries loved to jiggle and dance?
  • noisem4ker 7y ago
    It seems so. A recent video about the graphical quirks of the PlayStation: Why PlayStation 1 Graphics Warped and Wobbled so much https://youtu.be/x8TO-nrUtSI https://youtu.be/x8TO-nrUtSI
    • badsectoracula 7y ago
      The reasons mentioned in the video have nothing to do with the warping and wobbling, see what i wrote on Reddit about it: https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/fnl0o1/why_playstation_1_graphics_warped_and_wobbled_so/flamnve/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/fnl0o1/why_playstati...
      • ReactiveJelly 7y ago
        Yep. 16 bits isn't enough precision for 3D no matter how you use it. When you get up to 32 or 64 bits, fixed and float are both very good.
  • _bxg1 7y ago
    That's why I was so surprised! I've heard of early PCs omitting floating-point, but it seems crazy for a platform designed specifically for games, for precisely this kind of reason.
    • Narishma 7y ago
      That's not the reason, though.
• Kipters 7y ago
  Modern Vintage Gamer made a video[1] about this a few days ago [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8TO-nrUtSI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8TO-nrUtSI
  • badsectoracula 7y ago
    Note that the video had several errors: https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/fnl0o1/why_playstation_1_graphics_warped_and_wobbled_so/flamnve/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/fnl0o1/why_playstati...
  • dangerbird2 7y ago
    I was going to link that video, especially considering regarding the problem of affine texture mapping. MVG discussed the common workaround in PSX: tesselating flat surfaces so the perspective distortion is minimized. I was surprised to see in OP's article that the PSX-Doom devs took a completely different approach of drawing a polygon for each scanline to emulate the PC-Doom's raymarching line-renderer.