So I'm aware that the VDP1 has several interesting modes for drawing primitives (ex, half-translucent, shadow, etc.). But nowhere in that list do I see a mode (at least that I recall) which enables you to control the _degree_ of translucency.
If this is not possible, then I am not surprised, as the Saturn's polygons are unfortunately quite "blending impaired", I'd say.
But this bring up an interesting question: is there any other possible way to fade a sprite, for instance? Even, er...sprites aligned parallel to the drawing plane (completely flat and 2D) still only have the same set of drawing options as other 3D primitives, so I would assume this means that there are no additional lucency options for them either.
And is it possible to blend background layers variable..y? I recall that Radiant Silvergun seemed to have cloud and "machine energy" type layers that would fade in and out of opaqueness. How could these be done?
And how in the world can you fade the screen out, ex., like how NiGHTS does a fade to white when the level ends?
I'd say maybe some palette trickery might be involved, but that would only work for 8-bit primitives. I don't really know how to control fading/blending/lucency/whatever of the RGB sprites and shapes. Is there a way to do this at all?
(I am aware that the hardware half-translucency is glitched in the Saturn due to the unusual rastering method -- but I am not asking if translucency exists, I mean to ask if there is any way to achieve variable levels of it.)
[EDIT: considering the SNES could fade sprites back in the 16-bit era (though I believe the layers were additive and not combinatorial translucency (pardon my lack of a better term)) I would certainly hope that by the 32-bit era Sega, even though the 3D translucency wasn't top notch, would have gotten the sprite lucency working.
If this is not possible, then I am not surprised, as the Saturn's polygons are unfortunately quite "blending impaired", I'd say.
But this bring up an interesting question: is there any other possible way to fade a sprite, for instance? Even, er...sprites aligned parallel to the drawing plane (completely flat and 2D) still only have the same set of drawing options as other 3D primitives, so I would assume this means that there are no additional lucency options for them either.
And is it possible to blend background layers variable..y? I recall that Radiant Silvergun seemed to have cloud and "machine energy" type layers that would fade in and out of opaqueness. How could these be done?
And how in the world can you fade the screen out, ex., like how NiGHTS does a fade to white when the level ends?
I'd say maybe some palette trickery might be involved, but that would only work for 8-bit primitives. I don't really know how to control fading/blending/lucency/whatever of the RGB sprites and shapes. Is there a way to do this at all?
(I am aware that the hardware half-translucency is glitched in the Saturn due to the unusual rastering method -- but I am not asking if translucency exists, I mean to ask if there is any way to achieve variable levels of it.)
[EDIT: considering the SNES could fade sprites back in the 16-bit era (though I believe the layers were additive and not combinatorial translucency (pardon my lack of a better term)) I would certainly hope that by the 32-bit era Sega, even though the 3D translucency wasn't top notch, would have gotten the sprite lucency working.