1 Lecture 3: History of Video Gaming Hardware: The 3-D Era Prof. Aaron Lanterman School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 2 Sega Saturn (1995) • Two ≈29 MHz Hitachi SuperH-2 7604 32-bit • Hitachi SuperH-1 - controller for CD-ROM • 11.3 MHz Motorola 68EC000 sound controller • 22.6 MHz Yamaha FH1 DSP sound processor • 1 MB SDRAM, 1 MB DRAM • 1.5 MB VRAM • 4 KB VDP2 on-chip color RAM • 512 KB audio RAM • 512 KB CD-ROM cache • 32 KB nonvolatile RAM • Initial launch price $400 – Not initially sold at a loss • 10 million sold Photo and info from Wikipedia 3 Sega Saturn - Complexity Quote from Wikipedia "“One very fast central processor would be preferable." I don't think all programmers have the ability to program two CPUs — most can only get about one-and-a-half times the speed you can get from one SH-2." I think that only one in 100 programmers are good enough to get this kind of speed [nearly double] out of the Saturn.”"" """- Yu Suzuki, on Saturn Virtua Fighter development 4 Sega Saturn - Graphics Quote from Wikipedia • ≈7.1590#MHz “VDP 1” 32-bit Video Display Processor"• ≈7.1590#MHz “VDP 2” 32-bit • Quadrilaterals - not triangles! • No hardware decompression2 5 Sony Playstation (1995) • ≈34 MHz MIPS R3000A-type (R3051) 32 bit • 2M main RAM • 1M video RAM • 512K sound RAM • 32K CD-ROM Buffer • 512K OS ROM • 128K Memory cards • $300 at launch • 102 million sold Pics & info from Wikipedia & www.insomniacgames.com 6 Sony Playstation - Graphics • 24-bit color, 256x224 to 640x480 resolution"• “Geometry Transformation Engine” – Built into same chip with MIPS R3000A CPU – 66 MIPS – 360,000 flat-shaded polygons per second"– 180,000 texture mapped, Gouraud shaded polygons per second • “Data Decompression Engine” – 16x16 Inverse Discrete Cosine Transforms (ICDT) – DMA transfer of uncompressed images to GPU Photo and info from Wikipedia 7 Full motion cheese Cutscene: http://www.youtube.com/v/eahGUCcj6uM Insomniac’s “Disruptor” (1996) Excellent gameplay, but badly acted live action cutscenes Gameplay: http://www.youtube.com/v/VdfV7BtYVFs 8 Increasing trend: in-engine cutscenes Konami’s “Metal Gear Solid” (1998) Pictures from Wikipedia http://www.youtube.com/v/5sny3RfMYMU3 9 Nintendo 64 (1996) • ≈94 MHz MIPS R4300i-type – 64 bit registers, instructions, internal data path – 32 bit external data path • 4M RAM - unified address space • 32K colors, 256x224 to 640x480 resolution • $200 at launch • 32 million sold • SGI CPU/GPU combo design – SGI bought out MIPS – Originally for Sega, but deal fell through Photo and info from Wikipedia 10 Nintendo 64 - Graphics • ≈65 MHz “Reality Coprocessor” (RCP) – Designed by SGI • “Reality Signal Processor” (RSP) – MIPS R4000-based 8-bit integer vector processor – Programmable through microcode – Geometry transforms, clipping, lighting"– SGI Fast3D microcode: ~100,000 polygons per second"– Can also handle some sound duties"– Presages some of the programmability of modern GPUs"• “Reality Drawing Processor” (RDP)"– Rasterizer (turns triangles into pixels)"Photo and info from Wikipedia 11 Nintendo 64 Killer App - Rare’s “Goldeneye 007” Picture from Wikipedia • 4-way split screen multiplayer"– http://www.youtube.com/v/7cf5kkoYexI 12 Nintendo 64 - Last console to use cartridges • 4 MB to 64 MB (Resident Evil 2)"• Some cartridges have nonvolitale RAM for saved games"• Pros"– More piracy resistant than CDs"– Faster loading time (CD-ROMs slow at the time)"– No lengthy load screens like on Playstation"– More durable (important for children)"• Cons"– Small capacity compared to CD "– Higher manufacturing costs and lead times - turned off third-party vendors, ate into profit margins"Info from Wikipedia4 13 Sega Dreamcast (1999) • 200 MHz Hitachi SuperH – 32-bit instruction set, 128-bit FPU functions • 16M main ram, 8M video RAM, 2M sound RAM • Launch price: $200 • 10.6 million sold Photo and info from Wikipedia 14 Sega Dreamcast - Graphics • Imagination Technologies PowerVR2 – PowerVR series competed with Voodoo series by 3dfx – Both companies eventually killed by ATI & NVIDIA • Over 5 million polygons/second (7 million peak) • Hardware gouraud shading, z-buffering, anti-aliasing and bump mapping Info from Wikipedia 15 Sega Dreamcast - Namco’s “Soul Calibur” Screenshot from Wikipedia http://www.youtube.com/v/aRFfgdNl2F0 16 Microsoft Xbox (2001) • Sony’s success with PS1 worried Microsoft • 32-bit 733 MHz Pentium III-based Celeron"• 64 MB main RAM • Development very much like developing Windows PC games – DirectX API – Easy to make PC and Xbox versions • DVD movie playback • $300 at launch • Killer app - Halo: Combat Evolved Photo and info from Wikipedia5 17 Microsoft Xbox - Graphics • 233 MHz NVIDIA “NV2A” GPU • Similar to GeForce 3 and GeForce 4 • 485,416 triangles per frame at 60fps • 970,833 triangles per frame at 30fps • Bilinear, trilinear, and anisotropic texture filtering • Texture compression, full scene anti-aliasing Photo and info from Wikipedia 18 Nintendo Gamecube (2001) • “Gekko” - 485 MHz PowerPC 750CXe-based core • Nonstandard, small optical disk – Can’t be used as a standard DVD player – Some protection from piracy – Avoid DVD Consortium licensing fees • 24M main RAM • 1M texture buffer • 2M frame buffer • 21 million sold (as of June 2007) • $200. Nov. 2001; $150, May 2002; $100, Sept 2003 Photo and info from Wikipedia 19 Nintendo Gamecube - Graphics • 24-bit color, 640x480 interlaced or progressive scan • “Flipper” - 162 MHz, co-designed by Nintendo and ArtX • TEV “Texture EnVironment” engine – Similar to “pixel shader” • Fixed-function hardware transform and lighting – 12+ million polygons/second • Bilinear, trilinear, and anisotropic texture filtering • Bump mapping, reflection mapping Photo and info from Wikipedia 20 Sony Playstation 2 • 140 million sold
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