Answers to some frequently asked questions:
- No, I will not publish the ROM. I can’t legally distribute anything containing Nintendo’s assets. However, the code has been written from scratch and will probably be made open source at some point.
- Yes, this can run on actual Gameboy Advance hardware.
- I’ve tried both flat shading and pre-rendered sprites. Neither look very good, and I like the challenge of trying to do things properly. I may add flat shading as a configurable option given that it results in a small (~20%) performance boost though.
- Yes, this is ’real’ 3D: no fixed perspective hacks like Doom, no , no billboarding. The camera can move arbitrarily around the world, in any axis, and at any orientation.
- The code is primarily written in Rust, with a small amount of inline assembly mixed in for circumstances in which I just can’t persuade the compiler to emit the correct instructions. No, using more assembly code would not magically make things faster.
- I have no plan or timeline for this project. It’s my way of kicking back and relaxing in the evenings after work. Life is busy, and I often get distracted, so this might end up falling by the wayside in the future. I’m not sure.