Thanks so much for your tutorials! With all this knowledge I am teaching my son how to code by making a simple ping pong game for the Mega Drive. Wouldn't be possible without your work. Thank you so much!
That's great to hear, as I always hoped that this was something people would do with their kids too. Making a game involves so many different skills (art, coding, mathematics etc), that I think it's a great project for kids
Another excellent tutorial. Some games use vertical line patterns (one line visible, the next one transparent) to simulate color transparencies in CRT TVs (the waterfall in Sonic is the most famous example). It sometimes looks better than the mesh patterns. Jurassic Park in SNES also uses that kind of pattern. After your last tutorial, I did some experiments combining Shadow/Highlight and mesh patterns to create various levels of transparency, and it works quite well. Thank you very much for the video.
I think the alternating dithered pattern was used in Gunstar Heroes, as well as some Capcom CPS-2 games. Definitely looks better than what you see in that level of Streets of Rage 2.
@@denraimei32 True. They could have used S/H mode on that screen instead, but then again, the visible flicker acts as a feature in this case, as monitors do flicker.
You need to see the video on 60fps to see the transparency trick arround 8:00. I was watching this on mobile with crap quality and didn't knew what was going on LOL
YES! The alternating dithered pattern at 60 fps... I've wanted to see this in action, it works great! If you have RAM to spare (uhh, DMA from the cart hard for character animations? Sega CD?) you could do it with odd shapes by swapping sprites rather than flipping, but I think it's fine either way. This could also be used to create character/object shadows in situations where shadow mode isn't easily usable. I wonder how this would look in 3D? For example, a 60FPS Saturn fighting game using mesh transparencies, switching out the mesh quad(s) for the alternate pattern(s) 60 times per frame?
Yes, you could use an animation instead (like the Sonic 2 shield). The Saturn did use flicker transparency in some games (Cotton Boomerang), but not sure if they ever combined this with a mesh
Great. I wonder how the programmers of that age managed to do those amazing cheats, of course some of them should know the programming lenguage better than others, or perhaps was a kind of imagination.
Cool stuff! Just curious, would it be fairly simple to achieve a similar effect to the HFlip dithering by using two different colours and swapping each one to the transparent colour in alternating frames? That would be handy for sprites or even background features that aren't horizontally symmetrical. Of course the downside would be that if any other graphical asset used those colours, they'd be affected. I know you've probably got a long list of tutorials lined up, but swapping colours and tiles using code is something I'd like to see at some point if possible. Keep up the awesome work! 👍
I wouldn't say actually better, I would say that the SNES GPU has native functions that would require more effort to be done on other consoles (but that could still be done, through DMA, HDMA, Dithering, changing resolution - in the case of AOT of PCE-, screen layer cutting) as it would have to be done via software. However, the Snes also uses workarounds to try to get around its slower CPU.
@@Retro_TrollOhh hey! Your old troll account got banded I see hahah. Man, mental health problems are a hullava thing - keep on pluckin that chicken troll-guy
Thanks so much for your tutorials! With all this knowledge I am teaching my son how to code by making a simple ping pong game for the Mega Drive. Wouldn't be possible without your work. Thank you so much!
That's great to hear, as I always hoped that this was something people would do with their kids too. Making a game involves so many different skills (art, coding, mathematics etc), that I think it's a great project for kids
Another excellent tutorial. Some games use vertical line patterns (one line visible, the next one transparent) to simulate color transparencies in CRT TVs (the waterfall in Sonic is the most famous example). It sometimes looks better than the mesh patterns. Jurassic Park in SNES also uses that kind of pattern. After your last tutorial, I did some experiments combining Shadow/Highlight and mesh patterns to create various levels of transparency, and it works quite well. Thank you very much for the video.
You're welcome. The third (and final) transparency lesson is coming next week, so that should give you even more to experiment with
@@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorialsGreat!
I think the alternating dithered pattern was used in Gunstar Heroes, as well as some Capcom CPS-2 games. Definitely looks better than what you see in that level of Streets of Rage 2.
Yes, Street Fighter Alpha 3 uses it extensively, and it's pretty fine.
It was used prominently in the stage select with the monitors.
@@denraimei32 True. They could have used S/H mode on that screen instead, but then again, the visible flicker acts as a feature in this case, as monitors do flicker.
The alternating flips look great! And yeah... It would be great to see a "show down" of everyone's experiments!
Maybe I can do a video showcasing everyone's experiments
Pigsy's The Transparency Effects that I like the most are Beautiful Fog Water Effect and Bright Light
Lot's of good effects possible!
Thank you sir, these tutorials are amazing.
🙏
great vid as always
Thanks!
Genesis can do so many awesome tricks !
It sure can!
The flickering dither trick was used in Paprium:
ruclips.net/video/3L3nZ0m7VNM/видео.htmlsi=yoFXa5nX37VhqX-T&t=488
Yeah, it looks like it was
Demoscene has been doing it for decades too (for all kinds of systems)
You need to see the video on 60fps to see the transparency trick arround 8:00. I was watching this on mobile with crap quality and didn't knew what was going on LOL
How haven't I thought about the flickering dither?!
YES! The alternating dithered pattern at 60 fps... I've wanted to see this in action, it works great! If you have RAM to spare (uhh, DMA from the cart hard for character animations? Sega CD?) you could do it with odd shapes by swapping sprites rather than flipping, but I think it's fine either way. This could also be used to create character/object shadows in situations where shadow mode isn't easily usable.
I wonder how this would look in 3D? For example, a 60FPS Saturn fighting game using mesh transparencies, switching out the mesh quad(s) for the alternate pattern(s) 60 times per frame?
Yes, you could use an animation instead (like the Sonic 2 shield).
The Saturn did use flicker transparency in some games (Cotton Boomerang), but not sure if they ever combined this with a mesh
@@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials I can't recall anything combining the two, let alone alternating opposite meshes!
Great. I wonder how the programmers of that age managed to do those amazing cheats, of course some of them should know the programming lenguage better than others, or perhaps was a kind of imagination.
Imagination is vital!
Cool stuff!
Just curious, would it be fairly simple to achieve a similar effect to the HFlip dithering by using two different colours and swapping each one to the transparent colour in alternating frames? That would be handy for sprites or even background features that aren't horizontally symmetrical. Of course the downside would be that if any other graphical asset used those colours, they'd be affected.
I know you've probably got a long list of tutorials lined up, but swapping colours and tiles using code is something I'd like to see at some point if possible.
Keep up the awesome work! 👍
You're in luck, as I'll be covering palette and background tile animations in this year's batch
@@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials Awesome! Looking forward to it!
Are there any engines for the SGDK other than Hamoopig? Perhaps something to make platformers?
Coding everything from scratch is a pain...
Some people are working on the Scorpion Engine, which should do what you're asking for
btw isnt there a guy that made hundreds of colors project
if its really useful can you make an example please?
That's "Coding Secrets". With the techniques I'm teaching this year it should be possible to recreate what he did
Another example of why the SNES is the superior 16-bit console. ;)
Really? Because there are SNES games doing both. Particularly the flashing/alternating ones to try and draw "transparent" polygons.
I wouldn't say actually better, I would say that the SNES GPU has native functions that would require more effort to be done on other consoles (but that could still be done, through DMA, HDMA, Dithering, changing resolution - in the case of AOT of PCE-, screen layer cutting) as it would have to be done via software.
However, the Snes also uses workarounds to try to get around its slower CPU.
@@Retro_TrollOhh hey! Your old troll account got banded I see hahah. Man, mental health problems are a hullava thing - keep on pluckin that chicken troll-guy
You monster!