4 ms·
Definitely not. Even a simple multiply is extra hardware on the SNES, and the fast multiply is part of the PPU such that you can't use it while mode 7 is active
by BearOso 2y ago
Definitely not. Even a simple multiply is extra hardware on the SNES, and the fast multiply is part of the PPU such that you can't use it while mode 7 is active. That is why Mario Kart and Pilotwings in particular are using the DSP.
You could get away with it by reducing freedom of motion and achieving something akin to f-zero.
Also, trig tables were very common. Near discovered that the the entire CX4 processor's hardware ROM was just a lookup table.
- qingcharles 2y agoYeah, I used a ton of trig tables for software renderers in the late 80s/early 90s, but I'm just throwing ideas out there, since I've seen a lot of really great optimizations recently that were mostly missed during that time. This guy puts a lot of work into figuring out if there is a faster way to do trig calcs on the N64 than was used in SM64 (spoiler: there is): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFKFoGiGlXQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFKFoGiGlXQ Jez (CEO of Argonaut) once offered me an interview for the Starfox/DSP team, so I almost worked on this thing. He was very active on the coding groups on Usenet around that time.
- Y_Y 2y agoI also thought of Kaze Emanuar in this context. His videos on optimizing for the N64 are amazing. Of course the optimizations he shows are really specific to the weird mini-SGI hardware, but it would be cool to see someone try to do something similar with the SNES. Snesdrunk has pointed me to a couple of performance-focussed romhacks, the only one I can remember right now is https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/7163/ https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/7163/