The SNES had several cool visual tricks up its sleeve, one of which was transparent effects, which looked nothing short of remarkable back in the early '90s.
Rival machines, like the Genesis / Mega Drive, used a technique known as dithering transparency (or screen-door transparency) to make objects appear transparent, but the SNES was capable of achieving this effect in a far more convincing manner.
Along with its Mode 7 effects, transparency was one of the key talking points when debates between Sega and Nintendo fans occurred, but in 2024, we're pleased to report that industrious homebrew coders have succeeded in replacing the same effect on the Genesis / Mega Drive.
Shannon Birt, taking a break from working on the amazing-looking shmup Lufthoheit, has been tinkering with transparency effects on Sega's console.
"Took a little side step from Lufthoheit's coding headaches thanks to @turboxray," says the developer. "He's been doing coding magic on this scene on the PC Engine, so he asked me to see what could be done on Mega Drive and kindly sent me the artwork."
The technique involves using the hardware's Shadow & Highlight modes to create "translucent objects in brighter and darker shades." According to Birt, "highlight brightens any underneath pixel several shades and Shadow conversely halves its brightness."
The end result is not one but two transparent Boo ghosts moving around the screen at 60 fps. "We still have CPU left for more logic within 60 FPS, so a boss scene with this technique will definitely be on the cards in Lufthoheit, as with all these tech demos, we'll use the tech in an actual game also," adds Birt.
[source x.com]
Comments 14
every time - sega fanboy devs when will they stop?
34 years to replicate a snes launch title.
the console wars is OVER
Amazing work.
@city952 so much jealousy. Just learn to code, so you can also be part of this vibrant community.
@Dehnus I can only imagine the comment - I must have blocked this particular person a while ago
@city952 You don't find it cool to see programmers and artists debunking those decades-old "x can't y" statements, just to see if they can?
Naturally, getting transparency on the Genesis was going to be a target, as scaling and rotation were before.
And on the other hand, we have stuff like the SNES running Sonic the Hedgehog at full speed, or playing a whole variety of Genesis music.
I get that some fanboys are overzealous, and maybe... let's say not exactly impartial. But then posts like yours are just throwing fuel on the fire.
I've seen early versions of this, I think. TurboXRay was doing something like this with the PCE, so good to see the shout out in the article.
SNES fans should be excited about what's being done with these. If the technique could be ported to SNES, you could have more flexibility in using transparencies on the system, or use multiple types at the same time. Just because the other machines can do it doesn't mean that the SNES isn't still better at it.
At any rate, Shannon Birt's a maniac, so I'm really looking forward to seeing their game released. My Genesis might not be, though, hopefully it doesn't melt doing all of this!
Get this on Yuzo’s desk, I’m sure he could still make use of it
@CocktailCabinet Yeah. Although I did a bit more than just provide some artwork haha. I designed how the original effect would work on MD (both main palettes and subpalettes - reducing it ot the smallest foot-print), mocked it up to prove it out (originally shadow/highlight was layered on top of the colored ghost to give it more colors BUT mostly use up less subpalette space on the MD), and created the assets for the MD side of it. It would have allowed 16 colors on the main ghost house layer (this demo keeps the ghost house area for TP at 7 colors), and use 16 colors of a second palette for the mono-chromatic colors. Leaving 32 free for use on anything else. Everything else is just simple grunt work; copy data (and & or | if needed). Shannon was poking around with some different takes on the original approach, like using an additional ADD to do a shift against all pixels (a different way of dividing up sections of the subpalette), and having a second S/H ghost at the same time making it more dramatic effect. But hey, at least I got a shout out hahah
I was going to say, there are a few commercially released Genesis titles that use shadow/highlights for transparencies.
I don't know what kind of technological limitations prevented it from being used more frequently than it was. Maybe most developers considered color artifact dither alpha to be "good enough"?
I find it interesting that back in my day (Geez, i feel old...) the differences between consoles were more profound than just "This one can shuffle a few more polygons around at once than that one" (Or sprites, at that time), it all passed me by at the time, i just was a Nintendo-fan, but reading about the technical differences now is quite interesting.
@MysticX I must say, the appeal of the old consoles to me is that each had not only their own game libraries and exclusives, but each had character. Visuals, sound, along with their limitations made them interesting, to me. Each has a completely different feel and that’s a fun part of revisiting or discovering new games I’ve never played.
Its great to see the Megadrive being pushed further. Really want the Snes to get the same love though. The system has more untapped power than the Megadrive. I have been reading about Super FX3, obviously an indie development, but it sounds exciting, 16Bit forever 😀
It's amazing what people are doing with the Megasis in modern times.
The SNES is getting pushed as well with MSU-1 and such but not to the degree the Megasis is.,
@Bonggon5 Entertainment and joy are definitely useful. Mental health is one of the most important areas of health to focus on, especially in this day and age.
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