MagicEngine

[Tomaitheous]

Ok. This is an SGX demo that shows off a transparency trick using the VPC. There are a number different tricks you can do with the VPC, this just shows off one of them.

Here is the readme

[Squaresoft74]

Neat stuff !
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[Peperocket]

Test on a real supergrafx, well...very nice effect !!!

Great job !!

[Tomaitheous]

Thanks guys

I just want to update some things on Charles SGX doc.

[Paranoia Dragon]

I would like to see someone do a transparency demo for the regular PCE. The best effect I've ever seen, is from Shapeshifter. Probably the 2nd best is Dracula X. It is something we at Frozen Utopia would like to utilize eventually. I think there might be a project coming up where this would come in handy
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[Tomaitheous]

PD, you got any screen shots of said games? I don't remember the transparency effects for those games. There are a quite few different tricks for the original PCE, but they're all quite limited. I know Nod already knows about the Jackie Chan silhouette trick.
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[Paranoia Dragon]

Hmm, I don't have any screenshots made, but I could make some. I could also make Shapeshifter available for you, but uploading it to my lil' webpage. And I know where you can get Drac X online. Just LMK what you want. In the meantime, I'll work on some pics of those asap.

BTW, I know Xavier is working on a transparency effect for his Sonic game, though I haven't heard any news about it lately. I already provided him with Shapeshifter so he could try to figure out how it was done. It really is the best transparency I've ever seen on the Turbo. Wish I still knew someone from Icom, to see if I could get any info on how they did it.
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[Kaminari]

You could try contacting Infinite Ventures, the current holder of all ICOM's IP (including the original MacVenture collection). Maybe someone there knows how to get in touch with the previous developers or the original head honcho -- Tod Zipnick I believe.
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[Tomaitheous]

PD: I have both games, I just don't remember the effects for the games. I actually haven't gotten very far in ShapeShifter.

I didn't know Xavier was working on a transparency effect. I haven't seen him on the Frozen Utopia forums for quite a while. Is he active on the necstasy forums with his PCE dev projects?


Kaminari: it wouldn't be to hard to step through the code in a debugger. How far into the game is the effect anyway?
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[Paranoia Dragon]

Xavier's been around the forums, but hasn't posted much lately. But from what I've heard, he has made some progress in the game.

For Shapeshifter, the first part where they use transparency is after you get the jaguar ability. As you go above the caves where you got that ability, you eventually come to a temple. It's either right before, or right after that temple(maybe both) where there is blue water you can go in, & eventually you get the shark ability, & go into a water world. There's an area later on, after getting the rock troll ability, & you fight a boss, that is right next to some pits filled with bright green water(or it might've been purple, for some reason I can't remember, but it looks really cool). It really does look like a transparency effect you'd maybe see on the SNES.

For Drac X, there's water in the 2nd upper level(the castle), when you fall underneath the floor, & you fight the mermen. There's water there, & I remember it being pretty well done, but not as good as Shapeshifter. But, if you fall into the water, from what I remember, his body turns blue, at the same level as the water, rather then like Bonk, where he automatically turns blue when he touches the top of the water. It could be, that they just took alot of time, making frames of his body turning blue for every horizontal line, but, I'm no programmer. For all I know, that might've used up alot of memory, that could've been used for the level.

I'll try to come up with some pics soon. If I don't post anything here in the next day or 2, just remind me.
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[Paranoia Dragon]

Ok, checked both games. For Shapeshifter, unfortunately, the transparency only works on real hardware. Although, I haven't tested it on other emulators.

Dracula X, either it doesn't work with ME, or they just use a flicker effect. I thought they had done a good job at it, but, it's been awhile, so, I guess it's up to Shapeshifter to solve the mystery of transparency.
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[ccovell]

Great demo, Rich!

As for the transparency, don't both games just change the sprite/BG palette where the split is? That would be the simplest way for a game to do it.
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[Tomaitheous]

PD: I'll try out Shapeshifter with mednafen. I have a feeling it's what Chris stated - an hsync interrupt palette change.

Similar to this, except the BG palette is probably static and the sprite palette is dynamically changed.

Chris, would you be interested in a simple(I think) project?

Btw, David - is the Bloody Wolf submarine first boss bug going to be fixed in the next release of ME?

-Rich
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[dmichel]

[Paranoia Dragon]