Comparison of 4th generation ("8/16-bit") system hardware

[Stef]

Well you do not save colors but it can make the picture better... Vectorman is not a good example, Jurassic Park 2, Ecco the dolphin and the Travellers Tales logo are better examples imo.
Still you have to play with tile priorities or sprites mask, making the feature not easy when it comes to improve the picture quality (and not only having shadow or light effect).

[Kamahl]

Travellers Tales logo are better examples imo.

The Travellers Tales logo is using overlay sprites, so it is indeed saving colors (if you can make any pixel darker, then you can remove the darker shades from the palette), that is very useful but only for static screens like I said.
Ecco is probably the only really good example of tile based shadow used well.

[evilevoix]

Great thread!

[Stef]

The Travellers Tales logo is using overlay sprites, so it is indeed saving colors (if you can make any pixel darker, then you can remove the darker shades from the palette), that is very useful but only for static screens like I said.
Ecco is probably the only really good example of tile based shadow used well.

I really do not agree with that, of course it is easier to use on static screen but it can help, even in game.

[Drakon]

So there's green, green and more green. You can't save colors by using this which would be the only actual advantage. This is what I keep trying to say, you can increase color counts, but you don't actually get any extra colors, since you can't save any palette entries. That picture could have been done with all the colors it already has without any shadow and highlight use.
Color counts don't mean SHIT. Vectorman looks like a 3 color game.

Now that's not true at all! Vectorman TOTALLY looks like a 4 colour game!

[Kamahl]

I really do not agree with that, of course it is easier to use on static screen but it can help, even in game.

I could see it being used on an RPG to get extra colors out of sprites... come to think of it I'm not really sure why it wasn't.

[evilevoix]

That's what I'm saying.

[Kamahl]

That's what I'm saying.

Well, it would still cut the number of sprites in half... maybe every developer thought it was unacceptable?
Looking at most typical RPGs I'm not seeing where the problem is.

[Stef]

Indeed, seeing how small are sprites in RPG in general you could easily always use a sprite overlap to apply shadow or highlight effect to increase the number of colors, at least on sprites... which could be a good start.

[Kamahl]

Indeed, seeing how small are sprites in RPG in general you could easily always use a sprite overlap to apply shadow or highlight effect to increase the number of colors, at least on sprites... which could be a good start.

Not to mention that some sprites, if they're not moving (they can be animating), could be drawn in the second background layer, saving even more sprites. In fact, come to think of it, most npc sprites are static in RPGs.
The FF style battle system also works really well for this since all the player sprites are in a column.

[Stef]

For RPG another problem come to mind, you have to play a lot with priority to make, for instance, a house appears above or below your sprite.
Highlight / Shadow effect works with priority, low priority layer will appears in shadow which is very unpractical... that may explains why we never saw it used in RPG.

I do like how they used the shadow effect in this sequence, they mixed layer shadow with line scrolling :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFUwN_MOZhw&t=172s

[Kamahl]

Yeah the same trick was used in vectorman. Shadow/Highlight is great for... shadows and highlights

[Stef]

ah yeah, they used it in a water level... i remember now.

[evilevoix]

Someone make an RPGS using all these colors then:

[Kamahl]

Someone make an RPGS using all these colors then:

Pier Solar uses shadow and highlight the same way Vectorman does, for shadows and highlights. If you color count screenshots it passes 64 quite a few times. It's just a neat effect, not true increase in color.
Even with the sprite shadow trick, you wouldn't get that many extra colors.