(NINTENDO DS) DS’ 3D graphical secrets revealed
Posted By UNIKO
Those fine San Francisco days spent at the Game Developers Conference seem like world away now, but before I put a cap on my memories, there’s one final thing I need to get off my chest. It sounds a bit techie, but a couple of guys from Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam creator, Vicarious Visions, gave a talk about getting the most of the DS when it comes to 3D graphics.
Now, when the cigars, stilton and port are unleashed after a long day at Pocket Gamer towers, this sort of thing is often a talking point, but we’re sure it’s worth sharing, too.
The first surprise of the talk was the way the DS’s graphics hardware is constructed. When it comes to 2D graphics, each DS screen is powered by a more powerful version of the hardware that run the single Game Boy Advance screen. This technology allows developers to ‘layer’ together elements such as sprites, tiled graphics and bitmaps. The main graphical difference between the GBA and DS is the DS’ additional custom 3D layer.
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