17 Oct
2008
17 Oct
'08
8:37 a.m.
Bryan Pope wrote:
And thusly were the wise words spake by e.stiebler
So what's the practical upper limit on a vector display? Did the speed at
which the CRT guns could deflect become an issue, or were the limitations in
vector display's heyday purely on the 'computer' side (i.e. how fast the
machine could pull data from memory and drive the CRT)?
I'm just wondering what could be done with a vector display on more modern
hardware; whether a lot more detail than the old systems could be achieved...
cheers
Jules
Eric Smith wrote:
The Star Wars vector arcade game from 1983 is just beautiful IMHO.. :-)
Absolutely no jaggies at all! Vector displays had the advantage for many years
because they didn't
require as much expensive memory and processing power, and produced
sharper lines. It wasn't until the late 1970s that the memory cost
dropped enough that it essentially ceased to be an issue, and it wasn't
until the mid 1990s that bitmap displays with high enough resolution to
rival the sharp lines of vector displays became commonplace.
Still think that the vector displays look "sexier" ;-)