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    Developer shows off SNES raytracing through the custom-made SuperRT chip

    Chary
    By Krista Noren (Chary)
    Chief Editor


    Slide2.jpg Slide5.jpg
    ​
    RTX off, RTX on! RTX on...the SNES! Developer Shironeko Labs, otherwise known as Ben Carter, has been playing around with a project idea for around a year: getting real-time raytracing to work on the Super Nintendo of all things. The culmination of his work has resulted in the SuperRT, an expansion chip, similar in function to the Super FX chip. This additional cartridge, which was made from the combination of a Super Famicom Pachinko game, a ton of cables, a shifter board, and a Cyclone V FPGA allows for the Super Nintendo to render simple objects, shadows, and reflections, in full ray-traced glory, all at a glorious resolution of 200x160.

    Carter goes into full detail on his official website about how he got his demo to work, which involved lots of commands, conversions, and many other technical terms.

    :arrow: Source
     
    Robz8, Charli, WiiEJECT and 48 others like this.

    2. Discussion (99 replies)

  2. SexiestManAlive

    SexiestManAlive The key that lights the dark
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    sweet, cant wait to play mario world with better looking shadows lol
     
    Robz8, TheNintendoEnthusiast, TheCosmicWarrior and 14 others like this.
  3. SexySpai

    SexySpai i dont know
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    This is the most amazing yet hilarious thing I've ever see on the snes
     
    TheCosmicWarrior, Ev1lbl0w, yoyoyo69 and 17 others like this.
  4. Silent_Gunner

    Silent_Gunner The Edge of the Soul
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    Reminds me of this:

     
    rimoJO, alexander1970, Godform and 5 others like this.
  5. Hakaisha

    Hakaisha GBAtemp Regular
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    Wow. I'd love to see this Super RT chip somehow be implemented into a future Everdrive release and the emulators. It would be a great compliment to the MSU1 audio, fulfilling the technological advancements that may finally fill the void left by the potential of the Nintendo PlayStation.
     
  6. Memoir

    Memoir Hi, I'm Cynical!
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    Okay...
    but...
    Why?

    As a POC, this is pretty cool. I just don't know what benefit it would bring to a console that is predominantly 2D games with a handful of 3D titles?
     
    Last edited by Memoir, Dec 16, 2020
    MarkDarkness and Scott_pilgrim like this.
  7. elk1007

    elk1007 GBAtemp Regular
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    Scott_pilgrim, Mama Looigi, KimKong and 2 others like this.
  8. Latiodile

    Latiodile Profesionnal Scalie
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    cool, raytracing on the n64 when
    gotta see that raytraced mario 64 on real hardware man
     
    Alefigue2005, Tarmfot, Ev1lbl0w and 4 others like this.
  9. VitaType

    VitaType GBAtemp Maniac
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    Well... No. The rendering, the process of calculating from the 3D description of the scene to a 2D pixel array (a.k.a. the picture) isn't done on the SNES at all. The SNES seems only to be used to output the image and all the rendering is done on the FPGA.
     
    Robz8, Alefigue2005, IncredulousP and 6 others like this.
  10. Wolfy

    Wolfy Person That Never Was
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    I'll be honest, this is amazing in so many ways, don't know if it'll be useful for any end-user.

    But cool regardless!
     
  11. x65943

    x65943 Dr. Rabbi Prince X, Sr., Ed. D.
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    I see the CS guys are on christmas break now - time to unload all their goofy projects
     
    medoli900, Mama Looigi and zoogie like this.
  12. MohammedQ8

    MohammedQ8 GBAtemp Advanced Fan
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    Like 32x which uses megadrive for power only.
     
    MarkDarkness likes this.
  13. jt_1258

    jt_1258 Ella
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    what, your telling me you don't want rtx starfox XD
     
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  14. Roamin64

    Roamin64 GBAtemp Regular
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    So the SNES itself runs at 3.58 Mhz , but this add-on chip runs on 3 cores at 50 Mhz ? ehheeh
     
    MarkDarkness and Deleted User like this.
  15. Kwyjor

    Kwyjor GBAtemp Maniac
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    I remember the AVGN's video, where he showed that Primal Rage 32X would still display backgrounds but not sprites if the 32X video cable wasn't hooked up.
     
    MarkDarkness, KiiWii, Moon164 and 3 others like this.
  16. raging_chaos

    raging_chaos Advanced Member
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    With all due respect to the creator of that, its not anywhere near as complex as what's going on with the SNES. The Amiga is just playing back prerendered images. That RT chip is doing it in real time.
     
    Garcimak, Deleted User, Orangy57 and 1 other person like this.
  17. AkiraKurusu

    AkiraKurusu DS Pokémon Fan
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    Sweet! Now to get this to run on N64!
    I can't wait for Stadium to completely kick SwSh's arse!
     
  18. linuxares

    linuxares I'm not a generous god!
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    It's one of those "Because I can" kind of things. It really have proper real life value except to show it's possible.
     
    MarkDarkness, Memoir, matpower and 2 others like this.
  19. Osakasan

    Osakasan GBAtemp Maniac
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    Why do people ask this question so often?

    The only answer to this is... Why not?
     
    medoli900, Moon164, Draxikor and 7 others like this.
  20. AkiraKurusu

    AkiraKurusu DS Pokémon Fan
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    [​IMG]
     
    Moon164, Subtle Demise, Memoir and 1 other person like this.
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