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An FPGA sprite graphics accelerator

andybrown.me.uk

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Re: An FPGA sprite graphics accelerator

#11

Post by idlewan »

exDM69 wrote: post #7

This is a quite nice article and an interesting project. Related: A coworker of mine wrote a 3d accelerator with FPGA that outperforms some of the early Voodoo -era 3d accelerators. It could do higher triangle counts at a higher resolution with multisample antialiasing. The demos he had looked quite spectacular. He is a software engineer and he gave us a very nice demo and a very enlightening presentation on how writ…

If he wanted for the code to be available, though, he could give it to someone else (who doesn't work for a GPU company), and that person would then release it (and would own the copyright).

He would not gain more "reputation points" because his name wouldn't be linked to the project, but that would avoid for the code to be forgotten in the cellar while nobody cares.

Re: An FPGA sprite graphics accelerator

#12

Post by tinco »

Incredibly awesome build log. Cheap FPGA's are a game changer, there's going to be some very cool stuff especially as it gets easier to software devs to dip their toes into this stuff. Build logs like these really help that process along, I definitely bookmarked this so I can reread when I start my FPGA exploration project.

Re: An FPGA sprite graphics accelerator

#13

Post by edanuff »

Very cool arcticle! I've played around with this sort of thing and at one time had the idea to create a small FPGA board that could be used as a pin-compatible drop-in for either the NES PPU or the TMS9918 but shelved it. The new miniSpartan board is going to be a great board for experimenting with this sort of thing:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1812459948/minispartan6...

Re: An FPGA sprite graphics accelerator

#14

Post by mng2 »

exDM69 wrote: post #7

This is a quite nice article and an interesting project. Related: A coworker of mine wrote a 3d accelerator with FPGA that outperforms some of the early Voodoo -era 3d accelerators. It could do higher triangle counts at a higher resolution with multisample antialiasing. The demos he had looked quite spectacular. He is a software engineer and he gave us a very nice demo and a very enlightening presentation on how writ…

Would you be able to share platform/performance numbers? I've actually been thinking about doing something like this but I'm coming from the opposite direction (hardware guy who's always wanted to learn more about 3D graphics).

Re: An FPGA sprite graphics accelerator

#15

Post by electronous »

electronous wrote: post #5
robert_tweed wrote: post #3

This kills the site, so here's the Google cache link: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:andybro...

This kills the crab.

For people who are downvoting: it's a meme you probably don't recognize. Do a Google Image Search for the phrase :D

Re: An FPGA sprite graphics accelerator

#16

Post by TheZenPsycho »

edanuff wrote: post #13

Very cool arcticle! I've played around with this sort of thing and at one time had the idea to create a small FPGA board that could be used as a pin-compatible drop-in for either the NES PPU or the TMS9918 but shelved it. The new miniSpartan board is going to be a great board for experimenting with this sort of thing: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1812459948/minispartan6...

would you have done just a straight clone or would you improve the visual output in some way? what sorts of things could you do while retaining pinout compatibility?

Re: An FPGA sprite graphics accelerator

#17

Post by ANTSANTS »

I wanted to make something like this a few years, really cool to see someone actually go out there and do it.

This design seems to be framebuffer-based, a straightforward hardware acceleration of the method you would use for software 2D rendering. If you aren't aware already, you should look into how the classic 2D graphics chips on consoles like the NES worked. They evaluated the background and sprite rendering logic as the video signal was being scanned out, causing some hard limitations on e.g. the number of sprites per line, but generating the signal with less latency and without requiring an expensive (for the time) framebuffer.

http://wiki.nesdev.com/w/index.php/PPU_rendering

Obviously the approach falls apart if you want to introduce scaled/rotated sprites or go 3D.

Re: An FPGA sprite graphics accelerator

#18

Post by corysama »

electronous wrote: post #15
electronous wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This kills the crab.

For people who are downvoting: it's a meme you probably don't recognize. Do a Google Image Search for the phrase :D

The HN community takes a rather strict approach when moderating comments that contribute noise to the conversation. "Nice article!" comments are routinely downvoted. As is sarcasm, witticisms, memes, references and other styles of comments that occur frequently but do not contribute to the discussion. It's a knowingly doomed attempt to hold back the flood of noise that covers Reddit.

Re: An FPGA sprite graphics accelerator

#19

Post by edanuff »

TheZenPsycho wrote: post #16
edanuff wrote: post #13

Very cool arcticle! I've played around with this sort of thing and at one time had the idea to create a small FPGA board that could be used as a pin-compatible drop-in for either the NES PPU or the TMS9918 but shelved it. The new miniSpartan board is going to be a great board for experimenting with this sort of thing: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1812459948/minispartan6...

would you have done just a straight clone or would you improve the visual output in some way? what sorts of things could you do while retaining pinout compatibility?

HDMI output would have been the main display improvement but given where a PPU or a VDP sits in these architectures, you could do a lot of fun stuff including running your own CPU core on the FPGA. (Edited - thought there was a wait pin from the PPU to the CPU but looks like it's an interrupt)

Re: An FPGA sprite graphics accelerator

#20

Post by exDM69 »

idlewan wrote: post #11
exDM69 wrote: post #7

This is a quite nice article and an interesting project. Related: A coworker of mine wrote a 3d accelerator with FPGA that outperforms some of the early Voodoo -era 3d accelerators. It could do higher triangle counts at a higher resolution with multisample antialiasing. The demos he had looked quite spectacular. He is a software engineer and he gave us a very nice demo and a very enlightening presentation on how writ…

If he wanted for the code to be available, though, he could give it to someone else (who doesn't work for a GPU company), and that person would then release it (and would own the copyright). He would not gain more "reputation points" because his name wouldn't be linked to the project, but that would avoid for the code to be forgotten in the cellar while nobody cares.

Yeah, you could always try to circumvent or work around the company lawyers. But quite frankly, it's not a gamble you want to take when you've got wife, kids and a mortgage to worry. And a job you like. It's just not worth it for him to try to make it happen.

I've tried to encourage him to try to convince the company lawyers to give him the OK to release it but he's no too keen. Like most engineers, he is allergic to lawyers and isn't too interested on sharing the code anyway. It was "just" a learning experience for him.

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