Amiga 1200 with 2mb RAM vs SuperFX chip and Starfox/Starwing?

[Amiga_Nut]

So I was wondering if anybody with experience in polygon filled 3D programming could compare level 1 of Starfox/Starwing on Super Nintendo with what is possible on an unexpanded A1200 (which is effectively a 7mhz 68020 thanks to no FAST Ram as we know).

I've looked at Guardian (what little footage there is on youtube) and I think it's the CD32 version which may or may not be faster than the Akiko chip devoid Amiga 1200 AGA machines.

It's doesn't look like there is much going on at all, the intro sequence is definitely do-able with sound too IMO.

[Amiga_Nut]

Starglider II runs quite fast on an A1200, about 200% speed or similar IIRC.

Actually how far off is AMOS 3D compared to the maximum polygon performance of an Amiga with machine code? I might try doing the intro when the ships are flying through the wireframe tunnel at the start (WinUAE 14mhz 020 A500 as it doesn't work on Amiga 1200s).

Zeewolf is also fast but it does use small sized polygons mostly.

[Amiga_Nut]

Apparently Amos 3D doesn't work on the A1200 I read all over various boards Might have to try it with relokick to 1.3 etc

The Amiga bogs down on large polygons which is why Zeewolf is so swift and why on Elite they used the blitter's fill operation I think it is. Also seem to remember Amiga Format or CUA in their review saying something about using textures. Could make the ships wings a single polygon (pentagon probably) and just use 1 simple area texture on one side to make it look like 3 or more of the SNES polygon design.

[Amiga_Nut]

I read the general figure is about 20,000 polygons per second (so divide by 60) you get around 333 or so. I'm not sure there is that many polygons on screen being actively updated each frame in the game, looks DOS 286 era but I couldn't find a similar game on PC AT era DOS gaming to compare.

I did however have a good look at the intro 'launch tunnel' sound effects and music and they should be possible using just 4 channels of Portia/Paula which is nice but will lose stereo effect. Sampled the instruments for the alert sequence anyway so one day.....

[Amiga_Nut]

Unfortunately I couldn't find exact figures from a verified source but did learn there are differences with SuperFX and FX2 and I think Star Fox is running on the first version, which is quoted as 10,000 polygons per second also more specifically. If the N64 is anything to go by then as soon as you do anything to the polygons the figure will drop drastically. Had the Amiga 1200 been configured with 1mb chip and 1mb fast I think you could have got something similar. Remember what the apparent polygon count on screen is could be achieved with further design shortcuts, coding competence can also make a huge difference.

If it was a game that was also converted to an unassisted Megadrive you could get a better idea of the CPU grunt. Talking of which I don't think anything less than a 28mhz 020 with some fast RAM could do Virtua Racing in true polygon based 3D as per the SVP chip of said game, not a stock as sold in shops 2mb only config. Some have stated the raw polygon processing power of the SVP was higher than the FX chip but that was on a site that did not differentiate the different clock speeds/performance of various SuperFX game cartridges sold.

For those who liked Guardian you might like the Windows game called G'tok.