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[tkscz]

The guy who did this was also apart of the team that did the 3DS remake of Starfox 64.

The SNES itself is not modded, this is running on real SNES hardware

The chip runs on a 3 core ARM based set that runs like the SuperFX does. The only thing it does is render the ray tracing, everything else is the SNES

Modder says (in his comments) that it would've been possible to do this in a cartridge like the SuperFX chip, but would also had been extremely expensive in the 90s. Says the chips he used would've been weaker than an Intel Premium during the same time period (quick note, did anyone else know ARM created chips in the 80's?)

All the wires are because the board the ray tracing chips are on requires less wattage than the SNES itself and a power converter was needed

Impressive stuff on display here, not as impressive as say the Amiga 500 raytracing demos, but still really impressive.

 

[SF Kosmo]

So in short, he used the same concept of a cartridge-based expansion chip that could offload some of the calculations a la Super FX, and used FPGA to simulate what he claims to be a period-accurare version of what could be done with am add-on processor designed to handle certain calculations.

Pretty cool. Cyberpunk 2077 port now?

 

[tkscz]

Already posted

Modder creates real time Ray tracing expansion chip for SNES

The guy who did this was also apart of the team that did the 3DS remake of Starfox 64. The SNES itself is not modded, this is running on real SNES hardware The chip runs on a 3 core ARM based set that runs like the SuperFX does. The only thing it does is render the ray tracing, everything else...

www.neogaf.com

 

[EviLore]

Merged. Very cool.

 

[N1tr0sOx1d3]

This is remarkable. Some people are so talented.

 

[Cacadookie]

Jesus, this is super dope. This makes me wish there was an ASIC RT PCIE card. I kinda miss the days of Ageia Physx.

 

[teezzy]

Would love to see this utilized alongside the FX chip with like Starfox or Stunt Racer FX

 

[sinnergy]

Imagine what star fox could have looked like

 

[Clear]

Its impressive as hell, but you should bear in mind that FGPA is doing all the heavy lifting while the SNES's chipset is doing relatively little because, well there are severe limits to what you can do with a 65186 @ 3.5mhz! The video hardware similarly is built for sprite/tile-playfield displays so just outputting a full screen animation regardless of how its composed is not an insignificant task.

Not trying to knock it, and I understand what the aims of the project were, It'd just be interesting to see him mix some more standard SNES-type behavior and imagery along with the RT scene.

 

[mckmas8808]

Now imagine what this person could do with a budget and a team behind him. I'm jealous.

 

[bender]

Now imagine what this person could do with a budget and a team behind him. I'm jealous.

But being independent let him have a guerilla operation like this which is far more interesting. /selfish

 

[A Regular Guy]

I wonder if they can modify StarFox with Ray Tracing?

 

[tkscz]

Its impressive as hell, but you should bear in mind that FGPA is doing all the heavy lifting while the SNES's chipset is doing relatively little because, well there are severe limits to what you can do with a 65186 @ 3.5mhz! The video hardware similarly is built for sprite/tile-playfield displays so just outputting a full screen animation regardless of how its composed is not an insignificant task.

Not trying to knock it, and I understand what the aims of the project were, It'd just be interesting to see him mix some more standard SNES-type behavior and imagery along with the RT scene.

He goes into details about this in his chat. He's fully aware it's the FGPA doing it, but comments it could be a cart expansion like the SuperFX was, albeit you'll be paying $300 for whatever game was made on it (in the 90s).

Actually makes me more curious what he could've done with an N64.

 

[Knightime_X]

Cool, but I feel RTX N64 would have been a better use of that time.

 

[#Phonepunk#]

holy crap that is amazing! i like how it runs on original hardware.

obviously, the new chip is made with new technology, so it never would have worked in the 90s. but so dope to see ray tracing on the SNES, the machine where Nintendo did a lot of early 3D experimentation.

 

[mango drank]

Still hilarious to me that 90s cartridge games sometimes shipped with GPUs included.

When was the last time you ordered a game and got a free GPU with it?

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

This is incredible. Also, it's a sad reminder that cartridge technology (of this kind) is dead, since the modern "cartridges" are mainly just storage chips. It would've been cool to see hardware devs work out some way for companies to integrate custom chips to boost the performance of their game, but I can see why it couldn't continue from a business standpoint.

 

[tkscz]

holy crap that is amazing! i like how it runs on original hardware.

obviously, the new chip is made with new technology, so it never would have worked in the 90s. but so dope to see ray tracing on the SNES, the machine where Nintendo did a lot of early 3D experimentation.

Not true. As the modder said, this was something they could've done, but would've been expensive.

ARM had been making low powered CPU chips sense the 1980's and the expansion chip he's using is ARM based, so it was very possible hardware wise, just not financially feasible

 

[RoboFu]

This is why carts will always be superior. Console makers should still add IO ports for these types of things.

 

[Myths]

Excellent work

 

[cireza]

Thing uses three 50 MHz processors. This would have cost at least an arm and a leg.

 

[cryptoadam]

Thing uses three 50 MHz processors. This would have cost at least an arm and a leg.

Still cheaper than a NEO GEO though.

 

[MiguelItUp]

Holy shit, this is actually really amazing!

 

[Clear]

He goes into details about this in his chat. He's fully aware it's the FGPA doing it, but comments it could be a cart expansion like the SuperFX was, albeit you'll be paying $300 for whatever game was made on it (in the 90s).

Actually makes me more curious what he could've done with an N64.

Yeah, I watched it all. I just meant that despite what he's doing being very cool I just wished he was using the SNES side as more than a controller/display for the FGPA side. More mixed-function, even though that's not really what the point of the exercise was for him.

 

[SF Kosmo]

Lest anyone think this wouldn't have been possible, there actually we're examples of real time ray-tracing on PC as early as like 1995 or 1996, and that's without any specialized hardware.

This one is from 1997, an intro in 64K.


A chip like that would have surely been expensive and not worth it for simple results like this but definitely possible.

 

[CamHostage]

Very cool project, and IMO this looks really sweet too. I love untextured, simple-model objects that are then doused with effects work (love the style of shading/lighting techniques since Gouraud-shading in Tobal 2), and this RT makes such simple polygons pop. Would be great to see on a CRT interlaced in its 200x160 glory.

Its impressive as hell, but you should bear in mind that FGPA is doing all the heavy lifting while the SNES's chipset is doing relatively little... Not trying to knock it, and I understand what the aims of the project were, It'd just be interesting to see him mix some more standard SNES-type behavior and imagery along with the RT scene.

I get what you're saying: at some point it's its "own hardware" and the SNES is just a power supply / signal processor. (Not sure where we draw the line, was a SuperFX its own "platform"? Was Sega CD still a Genesis? Was 32X an expansion or a replacement?)

I'd like to see him continue with this technology and put to use "gameplay". (He does at least have interactivity via controller, it's not a locked/pre-pathed demo.) Something like a simplistic Star Fox corridor / Battlezone arena with towers to avoid and objects to shoot, along with a HUD and running scorebox. A tech demo can be fascinating, but seeing an engine put to use shows the stress-success level of an experiment.

 

[BusierDonkey]

Imagine what star fox could have looked like

Look at Minecraft RTX, now reduce resolution to 240i and run it at 1fps.

 

[Kerlurk]

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