Using an FPGA for raytracing on an SNES cartridge #FPGA #SNES #Nintendo #Gaming
SuperRT is a project something akin to the Super FX chip used in titles such as Star Fox, where the SNES runs the game logic and hands off a scene description to a chip in the cartridge to generate the visuals.
The idea originated when I was trying to think of an interesting idea for a project to help me learn Verilog and FPGA design, and the notion of building a simple ray tracer came to mind (partly inspired by a scarily smart friend of mine who is building his own GPU). A bit later – because sometimes my brain hates me and delights in coming up with silly things to do – this turned into “wouldn’t it be interesting to try making a SNES do ray tracing?”, and thus the SuperRT chip idea was born.
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