ECS Denise.. is it worth it ?

[Piru]

@Argus

Adoom used ECS for half-brite mode, iirc.

OCS Denise has half-brite aswell (only the very first A1000 chips didn't have it).

There may be some other games as well.

I can't remember any requiring ECS Denise.

[Piru]

@Zac67

ECS Denise adds 'special' video modes like DblPAL, DblNTSC, Productivity

Actually only Productivity (640 x 480) and Superhires (1280 x h), and with only 4 colours.

DblPAL and DblNTSC are AGA.

Wikipedia:  Enhanced Chip Set (Note: Some of the features listed there are from ECS Agnus)

@Nostalgiac

It's not worth it, really.

[Piru]

@LoadWB

OCS Denise had half-brite?

Yes.

[Piru]

@AmigaHope

Interesting, I was quite certain that there were some more limitations in ECS Denise. Anyway, I think these modes pretty much drain all time from CPU (well at least memory accesses) while displayed, so the usability is quite limited.

Never had ECS Denise myself, only "half-ECS" A500 (OCS Denise, ECS Agnus).

[Piru]

@Nostalgiac

Productivity isn't exactly standard VGA, but it's often close enough. If not, there's "VGAOnly" that is supposed to modify it closer.

[Piru]

@LoadWB

Does anyone have HB vs EHB info off the top of the head?

HB is just shorter name for EHB.

[Piru]

@AmigaHope

The high pixel clock (35ns) modes on ECS Denise weren't any slower than 16-color hires modes on OCS/ECS, because they limited you to 2 bitplanes instead of 4, thus keeping the bandwidth the same.

Yeah. 16 colour hires is painfully slow, too :-D