Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!news From: sceetech Newsgroups: scee.yaroze.programming.3d_graphics Subject: Re: New gte functions Date: Mon, 07 Apr 1997 17:52:59 +0100 Organization: SCEE Lines: 38 Message-ID: <3349266B.7BD4@interactive.sony.com> References: <3347dd19.3248416@news.playstation.co.uk> <3348D38C.1DC1@interactive.sony.com> <334A3648.1873@micronetics.com> Reply-To: ps_yaroze@interactive.sony.com NNTP-Posting-Host: 194.203.13.10 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01 (Win95; I) Jim wrote: > > I think what Alex is asking for is enough information to write your own > 3d engine. Personally I would love to port my own engine but the Gs > functions just do not cut it. I think the Gs lib primitives are not > primitive enough. :-) > > I would also like to hit the bare metal better with copros. Can we get > a list of copro 2 (GPU i think) registers and opcodes? Also a list of > the parameters for the break opcode would be handy. I have a feeling we > are working quite a way away from the real hardware. > Gs lib primitives not primitive enough: using Gs, you can use tmds with lots of polygons, or create tmds which just are single polygons, in code. (see the 'clone' sample). Hence you can use single polygons or multiple-bundled-together ones. If you wanted something more primitive than that, please specify what it was. Yes it is a way away from the real hardware, and purely by design. Sony library design was intended to give a powerful hardware base by use of multiple special-purpose chips, a base so strong that no-one would WANT low-level access since the libraries do it so well. Ie: doing it in hardware would give you almost no advantage in speed, but would definitely give the predictable penalties in terms of much longer development time and whole new classes of errors. Hence, Sony is very resistant to giving out hardware details, feeling they will do far more harm than the possible smattering of good. This may change in future, but to be honest I doubt it. Again, please specify exactly what you wanted to do but felt unable to using Gs, and we'll see if there isn't something we can do. Lewis