OpenGL Conversion

[v6v]

And for the most part, I don't think most users of SGDK2 are really looking to push graphical effects quite THAT far. I know that I'm primarily focused on gameplay elements, and eventually sprite artistry. Shader effects are way, way down the line in my development cycle.

 I played a SGDK2 game on my computer, but my "peers" who watched all said the graphics compare to the  SNES. Any way that you'll upgrade the graphics to DS quality?

 (3 steps up)   :surprise:

[Tanja]

well, the quality of the graphics depend on the artistic skills of the game makers, not of the IDE  :surprise:
sgdk2 has all possibilites for games with excellent graphics: full range transparency support, several layers support, PNG support...
of course someone could make his game surroundings and sprites in 3D, render it and put that images into his 2D game....

[Jam0864]

the graphics can be awesome, or they can be really bad... depends on the maker of the game.
Because you can have antialiasing, sprite animation can be flawless if your good at it, semi-transperancy, multiple layers, since graphics can be imported you could grab graphics from your favourite game and use them...

[bluemonkmn]

Colors
SNES: 8-bit color with a color space of 32768 possible colors (256 colors per scan line)
DS: ?
SGDK2: 24-bit color with a color space of 16777216 possible colors plus an 8-bit alpha channel

Resolution
SNES: Common resolution = 256x224, Max = 512x448
DS: 256x192
SGDK2: Commonly 640x480 and 800x600; Maximum 1280x1024

Video Memory
SNES: 64 KB
DS: 512 KB texture memory per screen + 656 KB video memory
SGDK2: Depends on system.  65,536 KB (64 MB) is common

I agree with the other comments.  Only the existing graphics sets are lacking.  Much nicer graphics could be created by very skilled users.  SGDK2 is not limiting the graphics quality.  Unfortunately I don't have the skill/time to do that myself.

[durnurd]

One thing I should point out, so as to not short-change the SNES, is that it <i>does</i> have a cool "Mode 7" feature (search for it) which allows for a rotation, scale, and skew to be applied to a background image such that you get a semi-3D effect as seen in games such as Super Mario Kart, F-Zero and Final Fantasy.

But on the other hand, these other game systems are designed with memory-constraints in mind, so the programmers and artists had to work carefully and very intelligently to keep their graphics within memory constraints,  In some sense, this is a good thing to do with SGDK2, since fewer graphics then need to be loaded into memory, but it is not necessary.  There is no limit in SGDK2 to how many sprites can be on the screen at one time.

[Jam0864]

yes there is... my game crashed with the error message that there was over 100 sprites...
(unless there is a way to disable that)

[Tanja]

there is a way! but i've forgot where i read this. i would try it at the tutorials and sprite help files. max 100 sprites is only a default value, you can change it.

[Jam0864]

thanx!

[bluemonkmn]

100 it only the limit for dynamic sprites (sprites created/added by rules).  The limit is only imposed so that game developers don't accidentally create 100,000 sprites (without knowing it) when they only meant to create 1. It would be too easy to create 100,000 sprites otherwise, and then a user might see some performance problems and blame it on the engine rather than their rules.  But if you put sprites on the map at design time, there is no limit to that type of sprite.

And, as Morgengrauen said, you can change or eliminate the limit.  I believe the error message tells you how.

[Jam0864]

that was a while ago, (one of the alpha's i think) so that might be why it didn't say how in the error message. 

[Richard Kain]

Yes, the quality of the games graphics are not really limited by the technical aspects of the SGDK. (ver 2.0) In fact, it is probably considerably more capable than either the DS or the SNES. The real difference is in the artistry. Most high-quality 2D SNES and DS games have entire teams of artists working for months on their assets. They look better because they have some highly skilled and practiced artists giving them their all for a considerable chunk of time.

Many SGDK2.0 projects are going to have only one person working on them. Even if that person happens to be an exceptional sprite artist, they are still going to be at a huge disadvantage when compared to commercial teams. In fact, you should probably be flattered if your game is being compared to SNES graphics. It means you're being favorably stacked up to some of the most beautiful 2D games ever created. (after the SNES, 3D started to really come into vogue) Just keep practicing with your art, your work should steadily improve with practice.