MiSTer FPGA Forum

Can this work on a 3D TV ?

Testing is ongoing for an Anaglyph mode. The effect might not work for everyone though. The problem lies in how the games move the "camera" to produce the depth effect. The displacement can be too large to work on a single screen, even with shutter glasses. See for yourself.

Sigismond0 wrote: ↑Thu May 28, 2020 2:00 pm Furrtek attempted this with the Virtual Tap. He ran into problems with the 3D effects of the VB being tuned for its hardware, and it did not work well on a TV several feet away. So it's technically doable, but whether or not

http://furrtek.free.fr/virtualtap/

Can this work on a 3D TV ?

Testing is ongoing for an Anaglyph mode. The effect might not work for everyone though. The problem lies in how the games move the "camera" to produce the depth effect. The displacement can be too large to work on a single screen, even with shutter glasses. See for yourself.

Sigismond0 wrote: ↑Wed May 27, 2020 5:48 pm One that just shows a single eye's display should be plausible. But getting the full 3D effect would be difficult to get right. Even the VirtualTap just opted to just do a 2D version and not try to make it compatible with 3DTVs. It's just a matter of finding someone who wants to put in the time to make it. Furrtek would seem like the most obvious candidate since he's versed in FPGA from the NeoGeo core and knows a lot about the VB from making the VirtualTap. But I haven't seem him make any mention of it, and wouldn't be surprised if he's just not interested.

Sigismond0 wrote: ↑Thu May 28, 2020 2:00 pm Furrtek attempted this with the Virtual Tap. He ran into problems with the 3D effects of the VB being tuned for its hardware, and it did not work well on a TV several feet away. So it's technically doable, but whether or not

http://furrtek.free.fr/virtualtap/

Can this work on a 3D TV ?

Testing is ongoing for an Anaglyph mode. The effect might not work for everyone though. The problem lies in how the games move the "camera" to produce the depth effect. The displacement can be too large to work on a single screen, even with shutter glasses. See for yourself.

Sigismond0 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 10, 2020 2:15 pm Using just one picture for a 2D effect works just fine. That's how the VirtualTap works to get RGB out of a VB onto a TV.

jumpbeatshoot wrote: ↑Sat Jun 13, 2020 7:16 pmI tottaly agree. It would be great because it seems to be really hard to get a Virtual Tap mod kit or even more a pre-modded console (I couldn't mod a console if my life depended on it).

mahen wrote: ↑Wed Jun 10, 2020 7:48 am OMG, I had a Virtual Boy back in the days, that was causing me important eye strain, which made me sold it back quickly

Would it be possible to merge the two pictures (or just use one of them) to use it without the 3D effect ? I don't remember if that would make some games unplayable...

Vic20-Ian wrote: ↑Wed Jun 03, 2020 7:50 am It needs a customized NEC V810 (NVC, P/N uPD70732) 32-bit RISC processor @ 20 MHz (18 MIPS), 1 KiB instruction cache

If the PC FX NEC V810 is eventually made into a core then this may be able to be derived from that.

dshadoff wrote: ↑Sun Jul 12, 2020 3:44 pm

Vic20-Ian wrote: ↑Wed Jun 03, 2020 7:50 am It needs a customized NEC V810 (NVC, P/N uPD70732) 32-bit RISC processor @ 20 MHz (18 MIPS), 1 KiB instruction cache

If the PC FX NEC V810 is eventually made into a core then this may be able to be derived from that.

It would also be a key step in enabling a PC-FX core.

Once the N64 is out of BETA, the Virtual Boy will be the final Nintendo system left for us to say we have all of them from Game&Watch to GBA.

Problem with a VB core is that it's a lot of work for a tiny library of just 22 games, whose CPU is shared with only one other system (The PCFX; which has a similar problem).

Also, without stereoscopic 3D support, you lose the main appeal of the system in the first place. So more work would have to go into supporting SBS 3D.

Old Arcade games use a unique board per game, leading to these games having 1 core just for themselves. 1 core for 22 games isn't too absurd

Longtime4321 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 16, 2023 7:02 pm

Old Arcade games use a unique board per game, leading to these games having 1 core just for themselves. 1 core for 22 games isn't too absurd

There's also a lot of arcade boards that will never get ported because the game was bad and there's no interest.

Virtual Boy will get done at some point because it Nintendo from their best period. But it's going to be some work, there's only a handful of people working on this project that are capable of creating that CPU from scratch.

Longtime4321 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 16, 2023 7:02 pm

Old Arcade games use a unique board per game, leading to these games having 1 core just for themselves. 1 core for 22 games isn't too absurd

Most arcade boards share some basic hardware, such as Motorolo 68000 CPUs. So core developers can make use of pre-existing FPGA solutions for those chips; and where there isn't a current solution? New CPU cores that are written can cover multiple potential platforms (such as the Saturn sharing the SH2 CPU with the 32x, the CPS3 and the Psikyo SH2 board).

In the case of the Virtual Boy however? The NEC V810 CPU is only shared by the PCFX; and its PPU is completely custom (as well as highly unorthadox), meaning that there's nothing that can be reused from an existing FPGA core/chip implementation; AND it would be a very difficult system to recreate in FPGA form. A potential VB core would need to be written completely from scratch, bringing about the question of significant opportunity cost. You're talking potentially years of work for a platform that almost nobody has any interest in.

That's why you haven't seen a VB FPGA core yet. That's not to say that it will never happen, just that it is a very low priority for FPGA core devs; given the high opportunity cost associated with it.

I own a Virtual Boy that I'd be willing to donate if a sacrificial model is necessary for the effort. Any devs interested in that, please PM me.