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No, it's not: Mode 7 can only zoom, translate and rotate the layer in 2D. For example, the Bowser fight in Super Mario World is a typical use of mode 7: Bowser

No, it's not: Mode 7 can only zoom, translate and rotate the layer in 2D. For example, the Bowser fight in Super Mario World is a typical use of mode 7: Bowser moves around, sometimes rotates and between rounds flies around in "3D" by zooming in and out. The cool 3D hack comes from co-processors in the cartridge: Games like Super Mario Kart use extra chips than can quickly compute new mode 7 parameters per scanline: If you change the zoom and translation of mode 7 on every line (but keep the rotation the same), you can get the typical tilted 3D look by having the upper lines zoomed out (smaller) and the lower lines zoomed in more (bigger). This "change the zoom on each scanline" trick is very different from what modern GPUs do and not an arbitrary transform, e.g. with the scanline trick you can only rotate the plane around the horizontal axis, but not around the vertical one.

daxelrod 3y ago
Great explanation. F-Zero managed to do the “change zoom on each scanline” trick without a coprocessor in the cartridge, didn’t it?
- jonhohle 3y ago
  F-Zero was a launch title that didn’t use anything specifically for graphics. It used the same cartridge board as Super Mario World. Mode-7 scaling can be modified per scanline to get the textured-plane effect seen in many games (e.g. F-Zero), without any additional hardware.
coopierez 3y ago
You don't need a co-processor for that. Final Fantasies IV-VI all used the 3D mode 7 effect for the overworld, making the effect more exaggerated when the player enters an airship. It's fairly trivial and inexpensive to use HDMA to adjust the (pre-calculated) parameters for each scanline. Super Mario Kart needed the co-processor for determining things like how to draw the karts depending on their position and distance from the player. Pilotwings used the same co-processor for similar things (essentially, tracking objects and perspective in 3D space).

daxelrod 3y ago

Great explanation. F-Zero managed to do the “change zoom on each scanline” trick without a coprocessor in the cartridge, didn’t it?

jonhohle 3y ago
F-Zero was a launch title that didn’t use anything specifically for graphics. It used the same cartridge board as Super Mario World. Mode-7 scaling can be modified per scanline to get the textured-plane effect seen in many games (e.g. F-Zero), without any additional hardware.

coopierez 3y ago

You don't need a co-processor for that. Final Fantasies IV-VI all used the 3D mode 7 effect for the overworld, making the effect more exaggerated when the player enters an airship. It's fairly trivial and inexpensive to use HDMA to adjust the (pre-calculated) parameters for each scanline. Super Mario Kart needed the co-processor for determining things like how to draw the karts depending on their position and distance from the player. Pilotwings used the same co-processor for similar things (essentially, tracking objects and perspective in 3D space).