Gameboy Advance 3D graphics test

[shade1232011]

is that a ibm 5150's keyboard

[KeithZarda]

Dude how doer you do this it is bad ass

[Finalflash50]

dude awesome

[TheCIScommander]

Camera: Canon Power A720 IS.

[ISUBSISTONSOULS]

You should really try to make a gamecube style menu for the gba

[ThePeopleneedhelp]

wow tis is an atrocity your tellin me they had 3d capability on gameboy sp.......FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF­F

[TheBoldImperator]

Nice Model M.

[MrRgg42]

a bolt is 3d!

[ZyphsMw2]

the gpu aint good on the gba i would just get a psp and jailbrake it with one of the firmwares and it has a better engine :) and its easyer

[pufixas]

So you programmed this in C?

[nuclearthelab]

@pufixas Yes.

In fact I just added links to the code in the video info box in case you want to check out the code. It's old code and never meant as anything more than an experiment but there it is in case it's useful in any way.

[nuclearthelab]

@pufixas Yes.

In fact I just added links to the code in the video info box in case you want to check out the code. It's old code and never meant as anything more than an experiment but there it is in case it's useful in any way.

[nuclearthelab]

@pufixas Yes.

In fact I just added links to the code in the video info box in case you want to check out the code. It's old code and never meant as anything more than an experiment but there it is in case it's useful in any way.

[nuclearthelab]

@pufixas Yes.

In fact you can get the code from my subversion repository, I've just added that to the video info box. It's old code and never meant as anything more than an experiment but there it is in case it's useful in any way.

[pufixas]

@nuclearthelab

How are you able to run it on the actual GBA, and not on emulator? I mean how you transferred this app to GBA? Like using some kind of rewritable cartridge? I would love try to make something for GBA ( I don't own one, but I would if I could get started )

I'm reading a book on C++ now, i'm not pro but I understand the basics, soon I will finish reading it and will be,kind of,ready to begin learning GBA api/library.

Excuse my poor English skills :)

[nuclearthelab]

@pufixas Exactly. I have a rewritable flash catridge system called flash2advance.

If you're just learning C/C++, I'd suggest you start with programming for the PC, much fewer complications. If you want to start playing around with graphics algorithms, use the SDL library which gives you a simple framebuffer to play with.

[BrianMNDBPH]

Did you have to write your own graphics plugin for the gameboy advance or something?

[nuclearthelab]

@BrianMNDBPH plugin? there's nothing like a plugin system, there isn't even an operating system on the gba. It's just a bare ARM computer, you write the code, compile it in ARM machine code, write the binary to the catridge and start the GBA to boot it up.

[BrianMNDBPH]

@nuclearthelab Sorry. I thought it was a bit more like the PSP, but I guess I'm wrong. That must be hard work!

[nuclearthelab]

@BrianMNDBPH Not really hard no, just low-level. The architecture of the GBA is rather nicely thought out with easy to use memory-mapped registers. Much nicer to work with at the bare hardware level than say an x86 PC.

[BrianMNDBPH]

@nuclearthelab Okay. That makes much more sense!

[RandomInsano2]

That taurus really gave it a run for its money.

[subpower1]

1 year later u visit nintendo corp hand throw that adance into their face and tell them.

wasnt so hard to make a freaking 3d adanve awasnt it?

[AmazingDX]

You're not using all it's potential but is still interesting to see 3d graphics on a gameboy, now try the same on a GBC. By the way, I suppose you might have already seen this demo but anyways... here's the demo: watch?v=8lEwdvT30nA

[Xuvial]

Neat, now get it to run Furmark. 

[gritzsk8tzblind]

Mind > blown

[gritzsk8tzblind]

@gritzsk8tzblind Now, is it real-time rendering the cube, or are the vectors just warping to recreate the vision of a cube?

[samsungcaptivate]

Niggers suck

[HalfAssedJournalist]

Now, you could marvel at this wonderous cube, or watch Star X gameplay (A GBA mock-up of Star Fox)

[TheColorPaul]

If you wanna play a 3D GBA game, get Super Monkey Ball Jr.

[abrucezi]

well, now play gta 4

[lamarre08]

THIS intrigues me...

[kvrisu]

Check Asterix XXL for GBA. It had 3D graphics.

[hesitate71]

I'm not surprised that the GBA can run 3D graphics. The system is basically a mini Super Nintendo, And the Super Nintendo had Star Fox, which had 3D graphics

[nuclearthelab]

@hesitate71 The 16bit super nintendo has absolutely nothing to do with the 32bit ARM-based gameboy advance. A quick look at their technical specifications will tell you as much.

[kargaroc386]

@nuclearthelab Plus, Star Fox used the SuperFX chip which offloaded all the 3D stuff from the SNES

[df61660a]

@hesitate71

the chip inside the starfox cartridge allowed for the 3D graphics.

[gritzsk8tzblind]

@df61660a If i'm not mistaken, it was an expansion that originaly went under the PAL consoles (not sure where on the US ones) that allowed for 3D graphics.

[df61660a]

@gritzsk8tzblind

it was the cartridge chip. i recieved my SNES in 93, never modified it in any way, and StarFox ran perfectly. the 'FX' chip inside the cartidge allowed for some polygon effects and better performance.. similar to the one that was inside the Street Fighter Alpha 2 cartridge

[gritzsk8tzblind]

@df61660a Really? The fuck, wikipedia lied to me :(

[shadowalx1]

...did anybody find the heavy breathing disturbing?

[EpiphoneGear]

The GBA was a cool platform. This is nice. Well done. I wish I still had my little black GBA

[micks4522]

cool fps :D *sarcasm*

[polzowatel]

i have my gameboy laying around i only had 4 games to it one of which i actually regret losing, have some nice nice memories with it..( but what are the cool things i can do with it? i mean i can buy a card that hooks up to computer and download games or something, what else? or what cool applications for it maybe?

[nuclearthelab]

@polzowatel You can get a flash catridge, download a C compiler and start programming for it :)

[polzowatel]

@nuclearthelab lol nah ive got no time for that, id play around if there was already something cool for it ehh old good gameboy

[MrToxicTurnip]

@nuclearthelab Where exactly could I find one? And if i got one, could i put ROM's on it? Or a .gba file?

[nuclearthelab]

@MrToxicTurnip one what? flash catridge? I got mine many years ago from some forgotten web site. Try searching for "GBA flash catridge" or something on google and ebay. Mine is called "flash2advance". And yes that's what you do with it, write a GBA ROM file onto it and start the device to boot it.

[HiddenAbilities]

How in the world would you force a 2D-GPU to actually render 3D unless the 3D was... idk this is confusing O.o but nice

[nuclearthelab]

@HiddenAbilities A GPU does nothing more than implement a series of graphics algorithms in hardware, for increased efficiency. The 3D rendering algorithms themselves are perfectly suitable for software implementation as well, and that's what we used to routinely do before the proliferation of 3D acceleration hardware. In this case all the calculations are performed by the rather underpowered ARM7 CPU of the GBA in software (a C program). And that's part of the reason why it's so slow :)

[HiddenAbilities]

@nuclearthelab Wow, thanks man :) that tought me a lot :P

How much does a standard sized GBA cartrige cost anyway?

[neumrdaggi]

@HiddenAbilities the gpu and cpu of gba(sp) has 32 bit so thats the compatibily:

all to 16-bit 2d

all from 24-bit 3d but not so like movies in real 3d with glasses

[HiddenAbilities]

@neumrdaggi oh xD

[deusprogrammer]

@HiddenAbilities If you can plot pixels, you can plot vertices. You just have to transform object coordinates to world coordinates to screen coordinates. Just because a GPU isn't made specifically to do the floating point math that 3D games use doesn't make it impossible to do such graphics. Hell, the PS1 was designed completely with 3D in mind...the developers actually had to be creative to be able to do well animated 2D games.

[HiddenAbilities]

@deusprogrammer Ah, thanks for that info :)

[LiquidEngin33r]

lol, the gba probably has like 3mb ram

[nuclearthelab]

@LiquidEngin33r Actually it has 288kb ram. (256 kb slow external ram + 32kb fast internal ram).

[keironewoodgate]

@LiquidEngin33r ps one has 2mb video ram..

[vasumamayo]

my sansa clip can do this ! lol :D

[1234567890nam]

2nd object lok liked mugic

[yobsemag]

The simple shape like cube is very smooth... How did you make it?

[tortadelabardaomar]

looks nice i fucking love u dawg

[LUXXXable]

THE SECOND 3D MODEL, THE GREY "rING", WAS FROM THE YAROZE 3D TEST OR SIMILLAR?

[nuclearthelab]

@LUXXXable No, it's just a torus... calculated directly in the code by rotating a ring of vertices around the center (surface of revolution). There's also an accuracy error making the first ring and the last ring not coincident, and leaving a small gap, which I didn't bother fixing :)

[asasin864]

LOL

[ReaperSound]

I WANT THAT GAME LOL

[hateWinVista]

@ReaperSound

It's a hacked ROM that just like the game collection ROMs,developers used some converter with USB and hacked kind of thing like that.

I remember I saw one on eBay a long time ago.

[suewzero]

waoo ¿como haces eso?

[qubeus]

Wow cool, did you do that??

Check out my videos :D

[nuclearthelab]

@qubeus yeap, a long time ago :) the renderer is quite slow, but it was just a straight port of my polyfiller from the PC no attempt to optimize for the GBA at all.

[Optimus6128]

The flat cube is faster now than what I remember you showed me back then! :)