GTE (tile engine)

GTE (tile engine)

Infobox Software
name = Generic Tile Engine



caption =
developer = Lucas Scharenbroich
latest_release_version =
latest_release_date =
latest_preview_version = 1.0b5
latest_preview_date = release date|2008|3|21
operating_system = GS/OS
platform = Apple sc|IIgs
genre = 2D engine
license =
website = [http://iigs.dreamhost.com/gte/gte.html iigs.dreamhost.com]

GTE "(Generic Tile Engine)" is a 2D tile engine developed for the Apple sc|IIgs personal computer and written in 65816 assembly language.

History

The underlying technology was developed for a recreational port of Super Mario Bros for the Apple sc|IIgs platform. At this point the engine only supported single-layer backgrounds, a single non-standard tile size and limited sprite support. After the release of the unfinished [http://iigs.dreamhost.com/smb/smb.html SMB GS] , the core graphics engine was modularized and released as a GS/OS Tool Set.

Features

GTE provides graphical capabilities that lie roughly between the third and fourth generation of video game consoles. The technical capabilities of the engine are contrasted with the NES and SNES consoles, which share the same CPU family as the Apple sc|IIgs

Implementation

The memory bandwidth of the Apple sc|IIgs is 1 MiB/s, which is too slow to update the 32 KiB graphics memory at a full 60 frames per second. In fact, the theoretical maximum frame rate for full-screen animation is 31.25 frames per second. Thus, GTE focuses on achieving a reasonable frame rate given the limitations of the hardware.

The tile engine achieves it's speed by leveraging hardware-specific feature of the Apple sc|IIgs platform as described in [http://www.1000bit.net/support/manuali/apple/technotes/iigs/tn.iigs.070.html IIgs TN #70: Fast Graphics Hints] to map the CPU stack to the RAM address of the graphics buffer and using specialized stack instructions to quickly copy graphics data to the screen. This technique is faster than a RAM-to-RAM copy because the hardware stack is automatically decremented after the data is pushed to memory.

External links

* [http://iigs.dreamhost.com/gte/gte.html GTE project homepage]


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