3D engine on FPGA home made

[martyfriedman666]

Nice project!

[adam3141]

Nice work.

[XeadXhot]

You are a optimized programming god.

[digerpaji]

SUPER COOL

[FatBoySlim696]

Nice.

[RaulHuertas]

web page? paper?

[capons1990]

@RaulHuertas

No sorry :) All is only in my brain, no paper.

That a home project ;)

[RaulHuertas]

@capons1990 so selfish! jaja, naaa! good work!

[SphinxTheGeek]

Dude, that's cool.

[dalbenton]

That looks like GTA 1 more like in 3D

[jammerc64]

textures from gta I ;)

[capons1990]

The documentation of the Spartan 3A starter kit is very god for begining fpga :)

When i have begin, the documentation of altera kit and design of quartus II afraid me ^^

[capons1990]

i have no experience in processor in FPGA,

a ppc in a fpga : D that beautifull :D is the tool chain easy to start ?

[capons1990]

now i'm in cours i continue after when i have time to answer :)

[capons1990]

hmmm for me a lot of xilinx developpement kit are for professional (DDR DDR2 high density connector, limited FPGA size, expensive)

Altera terasic kit is for student

Sram/SDRAM/low density connector/very big FPGA for no quartus free limitation,very cheap)

Hmm but mybe i don't have found the most cool website for xilinx develiopement kit :)

[marlls1989]

@capons1990 check out digilent... they have great prices for academics and they ships anywhere abroad. So if you are like me, living in a country where you can buy no fpgas, that is a great option.

[capons1990]

Hmmm my be digilent ? hmm $399.00 vor a virtex 2 pro : D (academic)

But, finaly, i have buy a DE2-70 terasic developpement kit

because, 329 $ (academic)

70K lut

32bit large sdram chip (sdram -> not impossible to write my controller)

vga output (simple access)

sdcard connector,

audio output (but hard to access XD)

a lot of very easy to use IO, (2.54 width)

[capons1990]

Thanks for very big and constructive comment orion1077 :)

I have never see matllab, i know it's exist, but i don't know how it's work :)

My english is so bad, and google translate don't help me a lot ^^

This project is old, and when i have try to find a Xilinx developpement kit with big xilinx FPGA for the new version, all price were very high :( ('m student

Hmmm, A good virtex 4 kit for only 250 £ were ?

on the xilinx website, they are small (25k lut) and 700 £ hmm

Where find xilinx kit?

[orion1077]

...continues

Reading:

I higlly recomend spending time on the Matlab documentation...you will learn more about everything, than you would if you relied on going to lectures.

Our French friend migh have some good recomendations for books on 2D/3D pipelines.

I have this one for general digital electronics and computer architecture:

"Digital Design and Computer Architecture" (Haris & Haris) --It wil teach you the ABC of digital design AND how to build processors from scratch.

[orion1077]

...continues

Of course this is a VERY simplified description of what needs to be done.

Download tryal versions of

-Xilinx ISE Webpack (free never expires)

-Mantor Graphics Modelsim XE (download it from Xilinx...also never exxpires)

-Matlab if you are an engineering student it wil cost you aroud £50 (+50 pounds per toolbox...for image processing you don't need to spend anything more)

-System Generator for Matlab (60 day free evaluation)

[orion1077]

...continues

Get Matlab and play around with it. M_code is VERY easy to learn. You can (and should) use Matlab for modeling...."modeling" means ycreating a program that conducts the mathematical operatiions that your system needs to conduct.

After that...you will have to implement this model in an RTL (Register Transfer Logic) language like HDL or Verilog. This will involve simulating the RTL code with a simulator (usually Modelsim)....when your RTL works, you configure the design to the FPGA...

[orion1077]

...continue

@ the guy who asked "how did you learn to do that"...hmmm it's not "one" thing he learned....it's a combination of things and Iam sure a large amount of time tinkering around FPGA boards RTL code and development toolchains (software)...I know because I'm similarlly self-taught and i know how painful/fun it can be.

OK, for the 2D/3D graphics, you will need to familiarize yourself with the algorithms ("you" being anyone who is interested in any of this). I HIGHLY recomend Matlab...

[orion1077]

I am goimg to be a Xilinx advocate...go for the £200-£250 Virtex 4 development kits...very nice and you have a PPC processor and more than enough logic fabric to play with. I cannot comment on Quartus II (never used it) but ISE is sufficient to do you own things. Also you can use the System Generator (AMtlab add on) to graphically design systems and generate RTL (Verilog VHDL) code for the FPGA you have...(I know that all self respecting hardware engineers will have TOO many things to say ...)

[artifactingreality]

nice work.

[jbasniakgm112]

Looks like a 2.5D Engine? Maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me :P

[capons1990]

@jbasniakgm112

It's a full 3D demo, no trick, just Full 3D algorithm

[cybodrive]

@capons1990

Would you be able to give me a link in French? I was planning on learning the language anyways.

Thanks.

[cybodrive]

where did you learn do to that? any books you can recommend? i also would like to learn it.

[capons1990]

@cybodrive

I'm sorry, but i never have a book, and no web site remember,

hmmm

For the 3D i have found a long time ago the perspective correct optimized algoritm, and a other than scan line rastetizer algoriytme.

if i refound that a tell you ;)

for the 3D finaly that not a incrédible complexity, you juste need to understood the metode to do.

[capons1990]

@cybodrive

First the projection 3D/2D, after that the rotation/translation, and after that the triangle maker, and after that the perpective correct texture projection, and that all

4 différent important point,

3D/2D and rotation/translation are very easy, triangle maker can be very easy (depending the algorytme)

[capons1990]

@cybodrive

But for the FPGA i can help you

I never have learn FPGA in student curssus

That my first FPGA project.

The only link i have speeking about VHDL is in french, and that a syntax link.

Gooooooood luck

[capons1990]

@cybodrive

Ahhhh just,

Don't try Xilinx ^^

Go Altera / terasic developement kit !

Incrédible low price et incrédiblee FPGA !

For me a graphical system the design of xilinx spartan 3 is absoluy not good

Altera cyclone II are faster, bigger, no wepack free sofltware size limitation, Smaller memory block to do more little fifo (xilinx distributed fifo are expenssive)

and i never had problem with quartus II software, but with ISE a lot (generated ip)

[daxweb]

you must be proud !!!!

[LunaVorax]

This is really cool !

[1manbandstudios]

Very nice. What fpga are you using? Do you have a project website with more info?

[capons1990]

@1manbandstudios

I have use a Spartan3A700 with 11'000 lut.

The memory is a Asyncron Sram @ 50 Mhz with 16 bit data bus ans 2MB

The FPGA kit was bought on the Xilinx web site, and he is very easy to use. total cost is 200$

but i have make the Sram board.

i don't have web site sorry.

Now i'm working on my new project :

[zyriuz2]

looks a bit like the epic build engine by ken silverman

[robotwo]

Very nice system you've built here , hope to see a nice little game very soon :)

[LIELTHEBOSS]

That was sexy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[capons1990]

i have begining a new version of this console, the bigger change is the utilisation of a 64 data bus of SDRAM : D but i have juste begin the design. maybe in 2-4 month the firste résulte become : D

[ogatobranco]

What are the vertice limitations/texture filling you have? (like, how much complex must the scene?)

[capons1990]

The pixel rate with texture is 25 M/s

but i don't have implemente the Depth buffer because the FPGA is to small and i am going to do a dedicated PCB with a greater FPGA.

The Polygone limitation is make by the PIC32 microcontroller, hmmm it's me by 10000 poly/s but i don't have optimised this part of my project.

this Project is juste my first FPGA project.

i never have FPGA cours in my school.

[ogatobranco]

A very awesome demonstration ... It even has textures >_>

[capons1990]

Thanks ;) i have used a long time to make it