I know that these systems have been analyzed to a great extent, and I've digested quite a bit of information about them in the last few years. One of the aspects that intrigues me greatly is how much the limited memory played into that generation of gaming. Most games were products of their limited memory space, and some were severely compromised because of it (later Playstation Capcom fighters). Both the PS1, Saturn, and 3DO had the same amount of main DRAM, but they differed somewhat is in the additional RAM pools for graphics, sound, and CD-buffer.
The PS1 had 1MB of VRAM used as the frame butter, CLUT space, and textures. It also had 512KB of Sound RAM with a decent compression solution (I've heard anywhere from 2:1 to 4:1). The Saturn had multiple discrete pools of VRAM, split up between the VDP processors which had its advantages and disadvantages. It also had 640KB of sound RAM, but no baked-in compression that I'm aware of. Additionally, there was 512KB of CD buffer RAM. The Saturn was also the only 32-bit system to dabble with ROM/RAM expansion cartridges (1MB and 4MB). The 3DO, as far I understand, had 1MB of VRAM for frame buffer/textures, but nothing else.
To start things off, three things I've always been confused as to how textures are stored in the Playstation's memory space. I've dabbled in various VRAM viewer utilities using PS1 emulators to get a better understanding of it. Obviously, the current frame's graphical assets must reside in VRAM, and I have witnessed how sprite data is often transferred to/from main RAM to the VRAM's workspace. What I'm not clear is this: do all textures/sprites have to be redundantly loaded/sitting in main DRAM or can some of those assets get loaded directly in VRAM and sit there exclusively? In other words, do all textures/sprites need to have a redundant memory space in DRAM even if they are actively loaded in VRAM? That would seem to be a waste of resources if it is, but I'm not clear if the CPU needs to keep tabs of those assets at all times.
Second, how do the Saturn's RAM expansion cartridges work? In the case of Capcom fighting games, I'm guessing that the cartridges hold vast amounts of sprite/character data that are streamed to the 2MB of system DRAM as needed, and then those are streamed to the Saturn's VRAM in real-time. Seems like that would be expensive constantly DMAing memory back and forth across the various pools of RAM, but the result seemed to work fine. Anyone have any insight on this?
Lastly, the 3DO seems to be limited to its 2MB main DRAM and 1MB VRAM. Does this mean that all sound data/samples had to share main DRAM space? While unsurprising give the age, that must have really been a tight squeeze getting an entire next-gen level game to fit inside.
The PS1 had 1MB of VRAM used as the frame butter, CLUT space, and textures. It also had 512KB of Sound RAM with a decent compression solution (I've heard anywhere from 2:1 to 4:1). The Saturn had multiple discrete pools of VRAM, split up between the VDP processors which had its advantages and disadvantages. It also had 640KB of sound RAM, but no baked-in compression that I'm aware of. Additionally, there was 512KB of CD buffer RAM. The Saturn was also the only 32-bit system to dabble with ROM/RAM expansion cartridges (1MB and 4MB). The 3DO, as far I understand, had 1MB of VRAM for frame buffer/textures, but nothing else.
To start things off, three things I've always been confused as to how textures are stored in the Playstation's memory space. I've dabbled in various VRAM viewer utilities using PS1 emulators to get a better understanding of it. Obviously, the current frame's graphical assets must reside in VRAM, and I have witnessed how sprite data is often transferred to/from main RAM to the VRAM's workspace. What I'm not clear is this: do all textures/sprites have to be redundantly loaded/sitting in main DRAM or can some of those assets get loaded directly in VRAM and sit there exclusively? In other words, do all textures/sprites need to have a redundant memory space in DRAM even if they are actively loaded in VRAM? That would seem to be a waste of resources if it is, but I'm not clear if the CPU needs to keep tabs of those assets at all times.
Second, how do the Saturn's RAM expansion cartridges work? In the case of Capcom fighting games, I'm guessing that the cartridges hold vast amounts of sprite/character data that are streamed to the 2MB of system DRAM as needed, and then those are streamed to the Saturn's VRAM in real-time. Seems like that would be expensive constantly DMAing memory back and forth across the various pools of RAM, but the result seemed to work fine. Anyone have any insight on this?
Lastly, the 3DO seems to be limited to its 2MB main DRAM and 1MB VRAM. Does this mean that all sound data/samples had to share main DRAM space? While unsurprising give the age, that must have really been a tight squeeze getting an entire next-gen level game to fit inside.
