13th February 2005, 8:14 PM
Actually ABF either screen can show full 3D. They tend not to have both show full 3D at once though. Bottom or top, each could show Mario 64 equally well. And, as in the case of that minigame, they can show 3D on both screens at once. However, since showing more means processing more, they just go ahead and limit how much 3D is being done at times like that.
Oh and, from what I can tell, that second weaker processor is actually the GBA inside the system. I mean, is it? I'm not sure, didn't really read the specs. On the one hand, just like how the GBA actually had the GBC hardware all on one chip so as to allow nearly perfect GBC and GB emulation (not even really emulation since it was the actual hardware), I can see how they would put all the GBA's abilities on one processor, the weaker one, so that they wouldn't have to emulate GBA games but actually play them on the normal hardware. If that's not the case, then the second processor could just be for when the games really are processing two totally different images. Wait, that makes sense now. It's not that each one is assigned to a screen, it's that each one is assigned a specific rendering task. This means that the rendering of 3D scenes would not be limited by also rendering other 2D scenes. The weaker one would just be the 2D one. In theory that means they could just as easily split it horizontally, with 3D on the left of both screens and the 2D processor on the right of both screens, but for obvious reasons, no they won't be doing that :D.
Anyway I think I get how it was designed better now.
Oh and, from what I can tell, that second weaker processor is actually the GBA inside the system. I mean, is it? I'm not sure, didn't really read the specs. On the one hand, just like how the GBA actually had the GBC hardware all on one chip so as to allow nearly perfect GBC and GB emulation (not even really emulation since it was the actual hardware), I can see how they would put all the GBA's abilities on one processor, the weaker one, so that they wouldn't have to emulate GBA games but actually play them on the normal hardware. If that's not the case, then the second processor could just be for when the games really are processing two totally different images. Wait, that makes sense now. It's not that each one is assigned to a screen, it's that each one is assigned a specific rendering task. This means that the rendering of 3D scenes would not be limited by also rendering other 2D scenes. The weaker one would just be the 2D one. In theory that means they could just as easily split it horizontally, with 3D on the left of both screens and the 2D processor on the right of both screens, but for obvious reasons, no they won't be doing that :D.
Anyway I think I get how it was designed better now.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)