GB emulator concept

[Mario_hat_with_eyes]

I had this idea the other day, and I was wondering if it could be possible. I don't know all that much about emulation, but after playing around with MGBA, I found that the games are constructed in "layers". I was wondering if this could be utilized to make a GB emulator that plays games with the 3d effect, like the 3d classics series. I know that the 3d classics games had some things seperated to make it look fancier and have more depth, but to have this at a basic level for GB and GBC games would be neat. Even though it would probably look weird sometimes, I think I would be a cool affect. Is it possible?

 

[Kwyjor]

I don't know all that much about emulation, but after playing around with MGBA, I found that the games are constructed in "layers".

Maybe you should explain some more about exactly what you think you found before you start speculating wildly..? Most of the old 2D systems use "layers" in some capacity or another. See for instance:


In any case, you can at least expect that when it comes to something like this, different games will inevitably use different "layers" for different things and whatever works for one game will probably not work for another.

 

[ghjfdtg]

It's absolutely doable but it will look very different depending on how the game arranges layers, tiles and sprites.

 

[ital]

Nice idea if applicable.

I haven't looked into it but thought the 3DS effect worked by interpolating an image twice to give it the depth effect? Hence 400px vs 800px when 3D is off.

That should be something a bit easier to implement as it would just require the emulator to split the visuals then recombine them using whatever library the 3DS homebrew community used for the effect in SM64. That would mean no ROM specific tuning. There was a similar thing during the 3D craze for PCs so its theoretically possible and something I'd like to see.

The effect won't be as crisp as recoding a ROM and arranging the assets in fields of vision according to depth but it could be an interesting gimmick.

A proper Virtual Boy emulator would also be real good as its probably the only device we'll ever that could do it justice.

 

[Kwyjor]

it would just require the emulator to split the visuals

If this was easy to do in a reliable fashion, then I expect there would already be lots of emulators doing that. There's already been some interest in something that can scale up a background but still leave the sprites looking sharp, for instance.

 

[ital]

If this was easy to do in a reliable fashion, then I expect there would already be lots of emulators doing that. There's already been some interest in something that can scale up a background but still leave the sprites looking sharp, for instance.

There are PC emulators doing it but they use a different approach:

http://www.geodstudio.net/

https://www.mtbs3d.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=871





Try playing those videos on your 3DS, see how it looks. Don't know if they use the same codec though but its just a concept.


When 3D TVs were big there were apps that would run on the PC that would apply the 3D filtering effect to the standard title and give it depth perception. It was hit and miss depending on what it had to work with but doable.

With the 3DS the homebrew libraries already exist to render 2D as 3D (see SM64) as do emulators, all you need is someone to put them together as its theoretically possible.

A lot of people do think the 3D thing is a gimmick though, as did Nintendo hence 2DS but those of us who enjoy it really do. If a programmer is reading, is this feasible?