krikzz MD Pro features announced

[Barone]

I think this video with the recent changes to both products shows the differences well

The amount of alias on Mega SD's PCM... Wow.

[eukara]

yay, audio sync!

[Joe Redifer]

(should I bring up the PC Engine, or that SNES can do blending…?)

No! If we ignore that and other facts, the Genesis can still win!

[Sik]

So uh, hearing some reports that the Mega SD's latest firmware actually broke mode 1 support (can more people confirm?). Probably a bug, though with TerraOnion's focus being all on MODE now I'm not sure if there will be any updates to fix it.

On that note, the way to enable it (when it was working) was already annoying for starters (ROM header needs to have its system name as "SEGA MEGASD", which of course precludes anything else using the system name field… can we please stop indicating feature support through that field? there's a bunch of free bytes left in the ROM header you know, not to mention you could append more stuff after the ROM header to make an extended one)

That is amazing! So what’s stopping this being implemented on real hardware? Is it the 1x drive?

On a Mega CD? Pretty much, this stuff is doing ~1MB/s but the CD drive can only do 150KB/s. Note that the video stuff is using a custom mapper (remember Mega Everdrive Pro lets you use custom mappers), so if we were to do it as its own discrete thing, it'd be basically a massive cartridge.

Would be nice if some compression could be implemented through the mapper… and adding an UI. We want to be able to pause and seek, jeez (・＿・)

[Black_Tiger]

The amount of alias on Mega SD's PCM... Wow.

This is the kind of stuff I actually wanted to know about these devices. Everyone just keeps saying "it's real" hardware be cause it's "FPGA" and not "emulation".

These two products exist solely to replace the need for Sega-CD hardware. But most people asking questions or doing reviews and comparisons have been more concerned about SMS compatibility, menus, save states and load times.

There not just a ODEs. They're emulating a cpu, the ASIC chip, hardware sound channels and the convoluted setup inbetween that produce graphics and sound. They're not just streaming data from disc images to the Mega Drive.

[Barone]

^I totally agree.

By the way, I was surprised with those results. I thought the Mega SD would have the upper hand in audio fidelity given the people involved in the project, but looks like I was completely wrong.

[Joe Redifer]

Here is my first "megacolor" video for Mega Everdrive Pro. I edited it using the original Night Trap footage.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Cks...ew?usp=sharing

[Black_Tiger]

Here is my first "megacolor" video for Mega Everdrive Pro. I edited it using the original Night Trap footage.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Cks...ew?usp=sharing

If you get the chance to upload a direct capture video I'd love to see it in action.

[axel]

Is it possible to use sprites over the video while in direct color mode, or is it using up all the VRAM and/or halting the 68k for the entire frame? It would be cool to mix this with actual gameplay. Even if it can't be full screen maybe it could be something like that area in TMNT where Shredder shows up on the TV, except in full motion.

[roce]

I believe that breaks sprites on those scanlines, so sprites would only be possible if you, say, divided the screen in two vertically.
Displaying animations in a small area, without changing palettes during a frame, is a standard thing. Coffee Crisis's intro does it for example.

[Sik]

This kills the sprite bandwidth, yeah, so no sprites overlapping the MegaColor area. Though it's only using plane A, so technically plane B is still free… the bigger problem is that all colors are already being used up (unless you intentionally forego some of them at the expense of quality).

EDIT: the bigger problem is memory usage anyway. A still image is not so bad at just 39KB (for this resolution, that is)… but try that at 30 images per second and you'll see what I mean.

[Joe Redifer]

I would really like to see either a column of black sprites or a different background on top of the right edge to mask all of the gobbledygook.

[wowsux133]

That's T2, right?

Makes me wonder if a full feature length film is doable... I would totally watch T2 on my Sega Genesis.

[turboxray]

I would really like to see either a column of black sprites or a different background on top of the right edge to mask all of the gobbledygook.

They're "cram dots" and are there because of the color trick. They are on top of any graphic, so sprites won't hide it.

[Sik]

Moreover, they're in the border area… your screen is showing more than would be normally visible (though I'm afraid this is going to be the norm for any modern screen, they don't hide the border anymore… I know I had people complain about my games showing dots in what is supposed to be "beyond" the visible area).