This page is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
This page is woefully technically inaccurate. What good accurate information there is here is entirely irrelevant to the subject at hand. In my opinion, this page needs split and completely rewritten. If it has not improved by the time I return from my holidays, my friend and I will prepare a more encyclopaedic entry, with real, relevant, technically sound information and proper references. -- John Lunney 23:16, 25 July 2006 (UTC)
Sigh. This is still one of the most inaccurate articles on Wikipedia. -- John Lunney 18:04, 18 November 2006 (UTC)
Moved back to Sprite (computer graphics), because (computer science) is unnecessarily broad and even somewhat inaccurate. Fredrik | talk 20:08, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)
Isn't "Billboarding" the correct term for a 2-D image that always faces the viewer in a 3-D environment? -- 70.19.225.70 18:30, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC) I'm sure there are several terms used to describe the same technique.
Anyone up for changing the windwalker image? I know sprite is generalized but when I think of sprites I think of Super Mario, Pacman, Earthbound, et cetera. So I feel the windwalker would be confusing, since it does have 3d images as the caption says. I'm asking becuase the windwalker example is valid, but a pre-SNES/Sega example would represent the idea better. If no one objects in a couple weeks or so, and I remember I'm going to change the image. Capi crimm 22:41, 11 November 2005 (UTC)
It's valid and current. Sprites are now used mostly as a 3D Optimization, this has been the case since ray casting in Wolfenstien 3D, and I spent a lot of time getting that image because it has two examples where the sprite illusion is revealed. Why not add an image in the relevant section, like the hardware sprite section. Plowboylifestyle 16:00, 12 November 2005 (UTC)
Sure, but it doesn't seem very relevant to the main topic at all. It's perfectly valid, but the long captions on the pictures look ugly, and the image isn't really appropirate for the top of the page. It's really unnessecary. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.153.128.54 ( talk • contribs) 02:45, 14 April 2006
Definitions as seen here are exactly why Wikipedia is getting a bad name. May I suggest that any person under 40 without an engineering degree abstain from adding entries here? Clearly these young programmers and gamers don't have a clue. Just because a lot of semi-ignorant people misuse the term now doesn't make a sprite a software thing or any moving object on screen. It's dedicated hardware. The term was misappropriated by programmers and gamers would didn't know any better. Resist becoming part of the Wikipedia credibility problem.
OK. What constitutes fair use of commercial sprites? Like characters from NES, SNES and Game Boy Advance games? Is the distribution of sprite sheets of commerical sprites illegal? It is rather obvious that the people ripping them are using technically illegal software/methods to do it. On the other hand, I've never ever heard of anyone being sued for using sprites. Has anyone ever been? I would think the game companies would like it, because it helps generate a community of people dedicated to their characers whom they are trying to sell new 3D games about.
This is exactly the "haze of legal doubt" that the creative commons people are talking about. Right now, I'm not only using sprites, I'm animating them in Macromedia Flash to make sprite cartoons. I'm not trying to sell these, just release them on Newgrounds so I don't much care about the legality issues, but it would be nice to know.
All of this is relevent to wikipedia for two reasons:
Can somebody help me out on this? -- Nerd42 03:52, 19 December 2005 (UTC)
I have zero legal knowledge about this. But I'd have to say that I don't think that the extraction of sprite sheets is an illegal process. There is nothing illegal about hacking something that you bought. You can do whatever you want to a game you own, its distributing that is the problem. That being said, I think one sprite sheet seems like fair use. Personally I'd like to see screenshots and sprite sheets next to one another. Hopefully Secret of Monkey Island. Plowboylifestyle 05:42, 19 December 2005 (UTC)
"The entire sprite cartoon community/culture is organized crime." I think your being a little over dramatic. Grow a pair.
Actually, I think you'll find that the End user agreement would have a clause about editing/extracting game resources.
Lets not confuse hardware sprites with billboarding and affine texture mapping. There is a difference between a sprite engine and modern graphics accelerators and texture mapping. I think people are missing that point here. There is still a lot of stuff in the hardware section that doesn't belong. Plowboylifestyle 16:01, 27 December 2005 (UTC)
I think the reason this page is having problems it because it needs sources. I think most of the content is true, but it's time to start citing sources. In addition I think that a table could be used to list the various sprite capabilities of systems. Plowboylifestyle 04:15, 31 December 2005 (UTC)
PlayStation#Graphics_Processing_Unit
can anyone please confirm that this info is about hardware sprites and not a benchmark test for the renderer, please -- Arnero 02:13, 7 January 2006 (UTC)
Super_Nintendo#Technical_specifications
OutRun [2] The revolutionary graphics were made possible by state of the art, highly expensive hardware. The Out Run arcade machine was powered by two MC68000 processors running at 12 MHz each and a graphic chip that included hardware sprite zooming capabilities
Hang on 0.90u4: Aaron Giles tweaked Hang-On, Space Harrier and 16A sprite systems (based on System 16B pixel scaling). Also fixed documentation on Hang On/Space Harrier road chip. Added 6844 zoom-table dump [3]
Original_Amiga_chipset#Denise 8 separate hardware sprites (used for the mouse pointer, for example) with 16 pixel width and arbitrary height with 3 colours (plus a fourth transparent "colour"). Two sprites could be attached to make a single 15-color sprite.
o Simultaneously displayable: 64 o Sizes: 16×16, 16×32, 32×16, 32×32, 32×64 o Palette: Each sprite can use up to 15 unique colors (one color must be reserved as transparent) via one of the 16 available sprite palettes. o Layers: The HuC6270A VDC is capable of displaying one sprite layer. Sprites could be placed either in front of or behind background tiles. o Colision detection: The HuC6270A VDC can detect if there has been a colision between sprite #0 and any other sprites.
Sega Genesis Each plane can be scrolled independently in various ways. Planes consist of tables of words, where each word describes a tile. The word contains 11 bits for describing which tile, 2 bits for flip x and flip y, 2 bits for the selection of the color table, and 1 bit for a depth selector. Sprites are composed of tiles also. A sprite can be up to 4 tiles wide by four tiles high. Since each tile is 8x8, this means sprites can be anywhere from 8x8 pixels to 32x32 pixels. There can be 80 sprites on screen at one time. On a scan line you can have 10 32 pixel wide sprites or 20 16 pixel wide sprites. Each sprite can only have 16 colors but they are out of the 4 different color tables. Color 0=transparent. [4]
the sprites can be doubled in their size on the screen in X and/or Y direction (X/Y expansion).
ANTIC Player sprite are eight pixels wide and either 128 or 256 pixels high, missiles are two pixels wide and either 128 or 256 pixels high. [5]
Sega Master System#Specifications 8x8 or 8x16 pixel sprites, max 64
Nintendo Entertainment System#Technical specifications Hardware-supported sprites
[6] Bit 6 - Indicates whether to flip the sprite horizontally. bit 7 - indicates whether to flip The Sprite vertically. 8x16 sprites
Game Boy Advance#Graphics The GBA has hardware support for simple 2D operations using graphical elements called sprites. It can scale, rotate, sum-blend, and alpha-blend sprites against a background (with one alpha value for the whole screen, not the alpha-blending of image edges seen in the PNG format), and it can change the scaling and rotation of sprites and the background on each scanline to give a pseudo-3D effect.
http://www.obsolyte.com/sgi_indigo/ [8] Blitter: This is a machine I'd drooled over since it's inception around 1989/1990. Yes, those are SIMMs you are seeing, but those are proprietary texture RAM modules, and they aren't all that big - the Indigo, while it will support some textures, isn't really that fast at moving 24bit textures. While it's geometry engines will move polygons, the texture slows it down considerably. This makes the Indigo Elan great for CAD, but not for 3-D games.
sounds great 2 me! good work all! -- Nerd42 ( talk) 03:26, 7 January 2006 (UTC)
In the Wind Waker box on the right side of this page; the incorrect occlusion of the flower and the grass is noted as being an artifact of the flower's existance as a sprite. The flower is actually a full 3D object just the same as the cliff behind or the character Link. The incorrect occlusion here stems from an optimisation implemented in many 3D engines today. For correct rendering results all of the transparent, blended or masked polygons must be rendered in a back to front order and in such a way as they do not intersect as par the painter's algorithm (intersecting polygons need to be split into non-intersecting sub-polygons). Dynamic sorting and splitting of individual polygons is an irksome and expensive task so most modern 3D engines cheat a little by grouping such polygons into small bunches (for example, each grass object's constituent polygons may be joined into one group, as with the flowers; although how this is done is anything but standard and depends competly on the design of the particular engine). These groups are then sorted in a back to front order according to their smallest enclosing sphere/cuboid or some similar means and then the groups are drawn in a back to front order. While this may accelerate the rendering process it does result in erroneous results when there is no obvious "group level" order such as the two bunches of grass and flower pictured (the bounding volumes most probably intersect in this example). Generally with some artistic adjustment of groupings and object design these errors can be kept to permissible bounds though.
Classification of the flower object or grass objects as sprites is downright erroneous, whatever the argument about the bill-board explosion.
While I believe the definition of a sprite presented here which appears in summary to be "any polygon 2D or 3D which is apparently planar", to be highly dubious, since the objects generally agreed to be "not sprites" are in turn made of planar polygons; this fallacy has begun to embed itself so far into culture as to infuence the naming of such objects in such reputable APIs as OpenGL and DirectX. With the recent addition of "point sprites". These "point sprites" as defined by both APIs however have a few things in common that may help disambiguate the modern useage of the term "sprite", in their parliance a "point sprite" is a planar polygon that ALWAYS FACES THE SCREEN OR PROJECTION SURFACE, DOES NOT HAVE A SPECIFIC ORIENTATION UPON THAT PLANE and HAS FOUR SIDES FORMING AN ORTHOGRAPHIC RECTANGLE BOTH BEFORE AND AFTER PROJECTION. The only two spacial properties that a point sprite possesses are a point coorinate specifying its central origin upon the plane of projection and a size. As a "point sprite" appears to be differentiated from a regular sprite as having a point of origin I propose the the above upper case text as a formal disambiguation of sprites from polygons so far as the field of computer graphics is concerned.
213.202.168.128 23:22, 11 March 2006 (UTC) Alan
Would the Wind Waker images on this page also constitute decent depictions of a stylized particle system? Is that worth mentioning in this article? Similarly, is it worth mentioning in the particle system article that particles are often rendered as sprites? Do I have my facts right that textured billboarded quads are, more or less, sprites? Food for thought. 129.61.46.16 14:55, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
In regard to the Amiga, sprites and BOBs are different things. Sprites are closer to the hardware and move faster, whereas BOBs allow greater variety in size and colours. JIP | Talk 13:03, 8 August 2006 (UTC)
I'd second that -- also, BOB in Amigaland stands for Bitmap Object Block, and was not a replacement for but a complement to the MOB (sprite) hardware -- BOBs are more like parallax background layers as I understand it (not an Amiga programmer however) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.168.205.250 ( talk • contribs) 15:03, 24 August 2006
I'm pretty sure I know what the intended meaning is in this article's table with regards to "anisotropic zoom" (mode-7 effects like those seen in Pilotwings), but that term fails the google test... "anisotropic zoom" only yields about 2 results -- this article, and some other page, so perhaps a more descriptive term is in order. Also I notice NES's entry for anisotropic zoom has it as -2, -1, +1, +2... did the NES's hardware really have sprite scaling effects (even if limited ones compared to SNES's Mode 7)? I can't think of any games for the NES that scaled sprites in any way, and I've played a -lot- in my lifetime. -- 67.183.186.73 06:19, 25 August 2006 (UTC)
Some sprites have been scaled all the time, because scaling was just to save memory. Better name would be good: Zoom is common and affine transformation also, but both are wrong in this case. Flip and mirror are special cases of zoom with negative sign, this treatment would lead to robust and efficient hardware, but this treatment cannot be found in the original documentation. Mode 7 is something different, because you could program each line independently Arnero 21:14, 25 August 2006 (UTC)
The current list of external links has gotten way out of hand. None of them actually provide information about the subject of the article itself - they're just links to resources used by people who make sprite comics. Considering that the "sprite culture" is only one small section of the article (as it should be), the long list of links pertaining to that one subject causes imbalance to the whole article. There is not a single external link to information about sprites themselves, however, there's 15+ links concerning a small section of an article which is, believe it or not, about sprites - NOT SPRITE RESOURCES. Were this article about sprite resources, then that would be understandable. However, it is not, and all of the external links in this article shouldn't be about them.
Please see WP:NOT#REPOSITORY as well.
Also, considering the legal implications involved with sprites, it would be in Wikipedia's best interest not to link to them unless we have a good, valid reason to do so. It seems that the only reason the external link list is there is because some members of the spriting community decided to use Wikipedia as a link repository for all their resource websites.
I understand that we might want to link one or two to give the user a better understanding of the subject, but 20 of them is waaaayy too much. After seeing the first archive or so, the user would have an understanding of what the subject is - seeing 18 more sprite archives won't further their knowledge of the subject. For the time being, I've removed all of them from the article. I'm not going to pick and choose between them and determine which two sites should be kept. That's a matter that should be discussed between all the editors of this article.
One or two external links to sprite resources is all this article needs. Not 20 of them. Ibm2431 15:04, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
It has glimmers of accuracy (I especially like how the oft-forgotten hoaxing gets a mention), but... ugh. -- Andrusi 15:29, 15 January 2007 (UTC)
The whole article... ugh. -- John Lunney 02:40, 20 January 2007 (UTC)
This is a subject that interested me greatly and decided to add as accurate an entry as possible to the article. Please inform me if you object to its contents. - TheHande 16:12, 25 January 2007 (UTC)
I think the article focuses way too much on the use of sprites as objects parallel to the camera in 3d scenes ("Billboarding"). The most common meaning of (software) sprite would be in my experience "a 2d object (image or animation) that moves/animates seamlessly above the background". Now you can render 3d things before or after drawing it, but that's not that relevant. 2d graphics are not a thing of the past, even your mouse cursor that you use to view this page is probably a sprite :) -- Helixdq 17:01, 4 May 2007 (UTC)
Shouldn't there be an actual sprite in the article, or a sprite sheet. I mean like, 2D link or a custom made sprite? I'm willing to make one, even though it may be horrible, it would spruce the article up a little bit with an actual sprite example. If someone can find a sprite willing to give up a single sprite for the article (I know some good ones myself), it would be great! - ~VNinja ~ P.S. I've decided to aquire a custom sprite from a spriter I know and put it in the page, if anybody has any arguments, let's talk here.
Is there any information on the etymology of "sprite" in this context? Ziiv 08:32, 19 August 2007 (UTC)
I came to this page trying to find out how they came up with the term sprite. Anyone have any insight? My programmer buddies and I were making jokes about a can of Sprite soda and none of us knew what the heck a sprite was. 76.214.7.81 ( talk) 00:08, 29 August 2009 (UTC)
Image:SpriteExampleRevealed.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.
Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.
If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.
BetacommandBot ( talk) 05:38, 24 January 2008 (UTC)
Image:SpriteExamplefromZeldaWindwalker.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.
Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.
If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.
BetacommandBot ( talk) 05:39, 24 January 2008 (UTC)
This article claims the first system to support sprites was the Elektor TV, which the Elektor article states was launched in 1979. However, the Atari 8-bitters also had sprites, and were launched in 1978. I doubt this claim, and will do so until I see specific dates attached to it. Maury ( talk) 21:34, 13 August 2008 (UTC)
I think the potential first use of a sprite could be considered the Magnavox Odyessy in 1972. See http://www.pong-story.com/intro.htm. 83.216.149.7 ( talk) 01:30, 16 December 2008 (UTC)
In general, I think the article concentrates a little too much on the hardware history of sprites. The sprite concept does not belong to any generation of technology or hardware. I agree that Mario is the archetypal sprite and think his image would be acceptable as fair use.
I'd like to rewrite this page somewhat. I'd like to start with a very general definition of a sprite and then use parts of the existing text to describe their history and development. Also an explanation of current uses for sprites and a description of sprite sheets.
I would also like to add -
An animated GIF showing a sprite (probably Mario).
An animated GIF to illustrate rotoscoping (probably a character from Doom, I think this is acceptable fair use).
A picture of a particle system (anyone have suggestion for an archetypal particle system?).
Does anyone have any objections to these ideas? 83.216.149.7 ( talk)—Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.216.149.7 ( talk) 15:45, 14 December 2008 (UTC)
I added a paragraph about use of sprites on the Web -- this is a pretty common technique for Web designers which can really speed up the apparent load time of a Web page. I linked to an article about the technique on A List Apart. -- ESP ( talk) 03:31, 6 May 2009 (UTC)
These machines were designed from the ground up to push sprites! Especially the Saturn. I know I have hardware docs somewhere. I've never edited a table before, though. :| Utils ( talk) 03:45, 30 July 2009 (UTC)
As far as I know, Saturn, unlike PSX, actually has traditional hardware sprites. Dreamcast doesn't. NEC PC-FX would also qualify for inclusion. 80.249.84.110 ( talk) 06:56, 16 June 2011 (UTC)
I'm not sure who initially suggested merging Sprite sheet into this article, but I would support this move. SharkD Talk 05:04, 29 November 2009 (UTC)
I tried my hand at revision the initial overview to reflect what a sprite originally meant and to make clearer its function (a graphical object that can be moved independent of the main screen data without changing the latter), and also to add earlier and better-known examples of sprite graphics than the The Elektor TV Games Computer, which followed the famous Atari VCS. MrNeutronSF ( talk) 02:29, 2 November 2010 (UTC)
This page is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
This page is woefully technically inaccurate. What good accurate information there is here is entirely irrelevant to the subject at hand. In my opinion, this page needs split and completely rewritten. If it has not improved by the time I return from my holidays, my friend and I will prepare a more encyclopaedic entry, with real, relevant, technically sound information and proper references. -- John Lunney 23:16, 25 July 2006 (UTC)
Sigh. This is still one of the most inaccurate articles on Wikipedia. -- John Lunney 18:04, 18 November 2006 (UTC)
Moved back to Sprite (computer graphics), because (computer science) is unnecessarily broad and even somewhat inaccurate. Fredrik | talk 20:08, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)
Isn't "Billboarding" the correct term for a 2-D image that always faces the viewer in a 3-D environment? -- 70.19.225.70 18:30, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC) I'm sure there are several terms used to describe the same technique.
Anyone up for changing the windwalker image? I know sprite is generalized but when I think of sprites I think of Super Mario, Pacman, Earthbound, et cetera. So I feel the windwalker would be confusing, since it does have 3d images as the caption says. I'm asking becuase the windwalker example is valid, but a pre-SNES/Sega example would represent the idea better. If no one objects in a couple weeks or so, and I remember I'm going to change the image. Capi crimm 22:41, 11 November 2005 (UTC)
It's valid and current. Sprites are now used mostly as a 3D Optimization, this has been the case since ray casting in Wolfenstien 3D, and I spent a lot of time getting that image because it has two examples where the sprite illusion is revealed. Why not add an image in the relevant section, like the hardware sprite section. Plowboylifestyle 16:00, 12 November 2005 (UTC)
Sure, but it doesn't seem very relevant to the main topic at all. It's perfectly valid, but the long captions on the pictures look ugly, and the image isn't really appropirate for the top of the page. It's really unnessecary. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.153.128.54 ( talk • contribs) 02:45, 14 April 2006
Definitions as seen here are exactly why Wikipedia is getting a bad name. May I suggest that any person under 40 without an engineering degree abstain from adding entries here? Clearly these young programmers and gamers don't have a clue. Just because a lot of semi-ignorant people misuse the term now doesn't make a sprite a software thing or any moving object on screen. It's dedicated hardware. The term was misappropriated by programmers and gamers would didn't know any better. Resist becoming part of the Wikipedia credibility problem.
OK. What constitutes fair use of commercial sprites? Like characters from NES, SNES and Game Boy Advance games? Is the distribution of sprite sheets of commerical sprites illegal? It is rather obvious that the people ripping them are using technically illegal software/methods to do it. On the other hand, I've never ever heard of anyone being sued for using sprites. Has anyone ever been? I would think the game companies would like it, because it helps generate a community of people dedicated to their characers whom they are trying to sell new 3D games about.
This is exactly the "haze of legal doubt" that the creative commons people are talking about. Right now, I'm not only using sprites, I'm animating them in Macromedia Flash to make sprite cartoons. I'm not trying to sell these, just release them on Newgrounds so I don't much care about the legality issues, but it would be nice to know.
All of this is relevent to wikipedia for two reasons:
Can somebody help me out on this? -- Nerd42 03:52, 19 December 2005 (UTC)
I have zero legal knowledge about this. But I'd have to say that I don't think that the extraction of sprite sheets is an illegal process. There is nothing illegal about hacking something that you bought. You can do whatever you want to a game you own, its distributing that is the problem. That being said, I think one sprite sheet seems like fair use. Personally I'd like to see screenshots and sprite sheets next to one another. Hopefully Secret of Monkey Island. Plowboylifestyle 05:42, 19 December 2005 (UTC)
"The entire sprite cartoon community/culture is organized crime." I think your being a little over dramatic. Grow a pair.
Actually, I think you'll find that the End user agreement would have a clause about editing/extracting game resources.
Lets not confuse hardware sprites with billboarding and affine texture mapping. There is a difference between a sprite engine and modern graphics accelerators and texture mapping. I think people are missing that point here. There is still a lot of stuff in the hardware section that doesn't belong. Plowboylifestyle 16:01, 27 December 2005 (UTC)
I think the reason this page is having problems it because it needs sources. I think most of the content is true, but it's time to start citing sources. In addition I think that a table could be used to list the various sprite capabilities of systems. Plowboylifestyle 04:15, 31 December 2005 (UTC)
PlayStation#Graphics_Processing_Unit
can anyone please confirm that this info is about hardware sprites and not a benchmark test for the renderer, please -- Arnero 02:13, 7 January 2006 (UTC)
Super_Nintendo#Technical_specifications
OutRun [2] The revolutionary graphics were made possible by state of the art, highly expensive hardware. The Out Run arcade machine was powered by two MC68000 processors running at 12 MHz each and a graphic chip that included hardware sprite zooming capabilities
Hang on 0.90u4: Aaron Giles tweaked Hang-On, Space Harrier and 16A sprite systems (based on System 16B pixel scaling). Also fixed documentation on Hang On/Space Harrier road chip. Added 6844 zoom-table dump [3]
Original_Amiga_chipset#Denise 8 separate hardware sprites (used for the mouse pointer, for example) with 16 pixel width and arbitrary height with 3 colours (plus a fourth transparent "colour"). Two sprites could be attached to make a single 15-color sprite.
o Simultaneously displayable: 64 o Sizes: 16×16, 16×32, 32×16, 32×32, 32×64 o Palette: Each sprite can use up to 15 unique colors (one color must be reserved as transparent) via one of the 16 available sprite palettes. o Layers: The HuC6270A VDC is capable of displaying one sprite layer. Sprites could be placed either in front of or behind background tiles. o Colision detection: The HuC6270A VDC can detect if there has been a colision between sprite #0 and any other sprites.
Sega Genesis Each plane can be scrolled independently in various ways. Planes consist of tables of words, where each word describes a tile. The word contains 11 bits for describing which tile, 2 bits for flip x and flip y, 2 bits for the selection of the color table, and 1 bit for a depth selector. Sprites are composed of tiles also. A sprite can be up to 4 tiles wide by four tiles high. Since each tile is 8x8, this means sprites can be anywhere from 8x8 pixels to 32x32 pixels. There can be 80 sprites on screen at one time. On a scan line you can have 10 32 pixel wide sprites or 20 16 pixel wide sprites. Each sprite can only have 16 colors but they are out of the 4 different color tables. Color 0=transparent. [4]
the sprites can be doubled in their size on the screen in X and/or Y direction (X/Y expansion).
ANTIC Player sprite are eight pixels wide and either 128 or 256 pixels high, missiles are two pixels wide and either 128 or 256 pixels high. [5]
Sega Master System#Specifications 8x8 or 8x16 pixel sprites, max 64
Nintendo Entertainment System#Technical specifications Hardware-supported sprites
[6] Bit 6 - Indicates whether to flip the sprite horizontally. bit 7 - indicates whether to flip The Sprite vertically. 8x16 sprites
Game Boy Advance#Graphics The GBA has hardware support for simple 2D operations using graphical elements called sprites. It can scale, rotate, sum-blend, and alpha-blend sprites against a background (with one alpha value for the whole screen, not the alpha-blending of image edges seen in the PNG format), and it can change the scaling and rotation of sprites and the background on each scanline to give a pseudo-3D effect.
http://www.obsolyte.com/sgi_indigo/ [8] Blitter: This is a machine I'd drooled over since it's inception around 1989/1990. Yes, those are SIMMs you are seeing, but those are proprietary texture RAM modules, and they aren't all that big - the Indigo, while it will support some textures, isn't really that fast at moving 24bit textures. While it's geometry engines will move polygons, the texture slows it down considerably. This makes the Indigo Elan great for CAD, but not for 3-D games.
sounds great 2 me! good work all! -- Nerd42 ( talk) 03:26, 7 January 2006 (UTC)
In the Wind Waker box on the right side of this page; the incorrect occlusion of the flower and the grass is noted as being an artifact of the flower's existance as a sprite. The flower is actually a full 3D object just the same as the cliff behind or the character Link. The incorrect occlusion here stems from an optimisation implemented in many 3D engines today. For correct rendering results all of the transparent, blended or masked polygons must be rendered in a back to front order and in such a way as they do not intersect as par the painter's algorithm (intersecting polygons need to be split into non-intersecting sub-polygons). Dynamic sorting and splitting of individual polygons is an irksome and expensive task so most modern 3D engines cheat a little by grouping such polygons into small bunches (for example, each grass object's constituent polygons may be joined into one group, as with the flowers; although how this is done is anything but standard and depends competly on the design of the particular engine). These groups are then sorted in a back to front order according to their smallest enclosing sphere/cuboid or some similar means and then the groups are drawn in a back to front order. While this may accelerate the rendering process it does result in erroneous results when there is no obvious "group level" order such as the two bunches of grass and flower pictured (the bounding volumes most probably intersect in this example). Generally with some artistic adjustment of groupings and object design these errors can be kept to permissible bounds though.
Classification of the flower object or grass objects as sprites is downright erroneous, whatever the argument about the bill-board explosion.
While I believe the definition of a sprite presented here which appears in summary to be "any polygon 2D or 3D which is apparently planar", to be highly dubious, since the objects generally agreed to be "not sprites" are in turn made of planar polygons; this fallacy has begun to embed itself so far into culture as to infuence the naming of such objects in such reputable APIs as OpenGL and DirectX. With the recent addition of "point sprites". These "point sprites" as defined by both APIs however have a few things in common that may help disambiguate the modern useage of the term "sprite", in their parliance a "point sprite" is a planar polygon that ALWAYS FACES THE SCREEN OR PROJECTION SURFACE, DOES NOT HAVE A SPECIFIC ORIENTATION UPON THAT PLANE and HAS FOUR SIDES FORMING AN ORTHOGRAPHIC RECTANGLE BOTH BEFORE AND AFTER PROJECTION. The only two spacial properties that a point sprite possesses are a point coorinate specifying its central origin upon the plane of projection and a size. As a "point sprite" appears to be differentiated from a regular sprite as having a point of origin I propose the the above upper case text as a formal disambiguation of sprites from polygons so far as the field of computer graphics is concerned.
213.202.168.128 23:22, 11 March 2006 (UTC) Alan
Would the Wind Waker images on this page also constitute decent depictions of a stylized particle system? Is that worth mentioning in this article? Similarly, is it worth mentioning in the particle system article that particles are often rendered as sprites? Do I have my facts right that textured billboarded quads are, more or less, sprites? Food for thought. 129.61.46.16 14:55, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
In regard to the Amiga, sprites and BOBs are different things. Sprites are closer to the hardware and move faster, whereas BOBs allow greater variety in size and colours. JIP | Talk 13:03, 8 August 2006 (UTC)
I'd second that -- also, BOB in Amigaland stands for Bitmap Object Block, and was not a replacement for but a complement to the MOB (sprite) hardware -- BOBs are more like parallax background layers as I understand it (not an Amiga programmer however) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.168.205.250 ( talk • contribs) 15:03, 24 August 2006
I'm pretty sure I know what the intended meaning is in this article's table with regards to "anisotropic zoom" (mode-7 effects like those seen in Pilotwings), but that term fails the google test... "anisotropic zoom" only yields about 2 results -- this article, and some other page, so perhaps a more descriptive term is in order. Also I notice NES's entry for anisotropic zoom has it as -2, -1, +1, +2... did the NES's hardware really have sprite scaling effects (even if limited ones compared to SNES's Mode 7)? I can't think of any games for the NES that scaled sprites in any way, and I've played a -lot- in my lifetime. -- 67.183.186.73 06:19, 25 August 2006 (UTC)
Some sprites have been scaled all the time, because scaling was just to save memory. Better name would be good: Zoom is common and affine transformation also, but both are wrong in this case. Flip and mirror are special cases of zoom with negative sign, this treatment would lead to robust and efficient hardware, but this treatment cannot be found in the original documentation. Mode 7 is something different, because you could program each line independently Arnero 21:14, 25 August 2006 (UTC)
The current list of external links has gotten way out of hand. None of them actually provide information about the subject of the article itself - they're just links to resources used by people who make sprite comics. Considering that the "sprite culture" is only one small section of the article (as it should be), the long list of links pertaining to that one subject causes imbalance to the whole article. There is not a single external link to information about sprites themselves, however, there's 15+ links concerning a small section of an article which is, believe it or not, about sprites - NOT SPRITE RESOURCES. Were this article about sprite resources, then that would be understandable. However, it is not, and all of the external links in this article shouldn't be about them.
Please see WP:NOT#REPOSITORY as well.
Also, considering the legal implications involved with sprites, it would be in Wikipedia's best interest not to link to them unless we have a good, valid reason to do so. It seems that the only reason the external link list is there is because some members of the spriting community decided to use Wikipedia as a link repository for all their resource websites.
I understand that we might want to link one or two to give the user a better understanding of the subject, but 20 of them is waaaayy too much. After seeing the first archive or so, the user would have an understanding of what the subject is - seeing 18 more sprite archives won't further their knowledge of the subject. For the time being, I've removed all of them from the article. I'm not going to pick and choose between them and determine which two sites should be kept. That's a matter that should be discussed between all the editors of this article.
One or two external links to sprite resources is all this article needs. Not 20 of them. Ibm2431 15:04, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
It has glimmers of accuracy (I especially like how the oft-forgotten hoaxing gets a mention), but... ugh. -- Andrusi 15:29, 15 January 2007 (UTC)
The whole article... ugh. -- John Lunney 02:40, 20 January 2007 (UTC)
This is a subject that interested me greatly and decided to add as accurate an entry as possible to the article. Please inform me if you object to its contents. - TheHande 16:12, 25 January 2007 (UTC)
I think the article focuses way too much on the use of sprites as objects parallel to the camera in 3d scenes ("Billboarding"). The most common meaning of (software) sprite would be in my experience "a 2d object (image or animation) that moves/animates seamlessly above the background". Now you can render 3d things before or after drawing it, but that's not that relevant. 2d graphics are not a thing of the past, even your mouse cursor that you use to view this page is probably a sprite :) -- Helixdq 17:01, 4 May 2007 (UTC)
Shouldn't there be an actual sprite in the article, or a sprite sheet. I mean like, 2D link or a custom made sprite? I'm willing to make one, even though it may be horrible, it would spruce the article up a little bit with an actual sprite example. If someone can find a sprite willing to give up a single sprite for the article (I know some good ones myself), it would be great! - ~VNinja ~ P.S. I've decided to aquire a custom sprite from a spriter I know and put it in the page, if anybody has any arguments, let's talk here.
Is there any information on the etymology of "sprite" in this context? Ziiv 08:32, 19 August 2007 (UTC)
I came to this page trying to find out how they came up with the term sprite. Anyone have any insight? My programmer buddies and I were making jokes about a can of Sprite soda and none of us knew what the heck a sprite was. 76.214.7.81 ( talk) 00:08, 29 August 2009 (UTC)
Image:SpriteExampleRevealed.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.
Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.
If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.
BetacommandBot ( talk) 05:38, 24 January 2008 (UTC)
Image:SpriteExamplefromZeldaWindwalker.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.
Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.
If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.
BetacommandBot ( talk) 05:39, 24 January 2008 (UTC)
This article claims the first system to support sprites was the Elektor TV, which the Elektor article states was launched in 1979. However, the Atari 8-bitters also had sprites, and were launched in 1978. I doubt this claim, and will do so until I see specific dates attached to it. Maury ( talk) 21:34, 13 August 2008 (UTC)
I think the potential first use of a sprite could be considered the Magnavox Odyessy in 1972. See http://www.pong-story.com/intro.htm. 83.216.149.7 ( talk) 01:30, 16 December 2008 (UTC)
In general, I think the article concentrates a little too much on the hardware history of sprites. The sprite concept does not belong to any generation of technology or hardware. I agree that Mario is the archetypal sprite and think his image would be acceptable as fair use.
I'd like to rewrite this page somewhat. I'd like to start with a very general definition of a sprite and then use parts of the existing text to describe their history and development. Also an explanation of current uses for sprites and a description of sprite sheets.
I would also like to add -
An animated GIF showing a sprite (probably Mario).
An animated GIF to illustrate rotoscoping (probably a character from Doom, I think this is acceptable fair use).
A picture of a particle system (anyone have suggestion for an archetypal particle system?).
Does anyone have any objections to these ideas? 83.216.149.7 ( talk)—Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.216.149.7 ( talk) 15:45, 14 December 2008 (UTC)
I added a paragraph about use of sprites on the Web -- this is a pretty common technique for Web designers which can really speed up the apparent load time of a Web page. I linked to an article about the technique on A List Apart. -- ESP ( talk) 03:31, 6 May 2009 (UTC)
These machines were designed from the ground up to push sprites! Especially the Saturn. I know I have hardware docs somewhere. I've never edited a table before, though. :| Utils ( talk) 03:45, 30 July 2009 (UTC)
As far as I know, Saturn, unlike PSX, actually has traditional hardware sprites. Dreamcast doesn't. NEC PC-FX would also qualify for inclusion. 80.249.84.110 ( talk) 06:56, 16 June 2011 (UTC)
I'm not sure who initially suggested merging Sprite sheet into this article, but I would support this move. SharkD Talk 05:04, 29 November 2009 (UTC)
I tried my hand at revision the initial overview to reflect what a sprite originally meant and to make clearer its function (a graphical object that can be moved independent of the main screen data without changing the latter), and also to add earlier and better-known examples of sprite graphics than the The Elektor TV Games Computer, which followed the famous Atari VCS. MrNeutronSF ( talk) 02:29, 2 November 2010 (UTC)