https://beta.ncot.uk/tags/graphics/ Recent content in Graphics on [BETA] NCoT Tech Hugo en-gb Fri, 23 Oct 2026 13:56:58 +0100 https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/from-triangles-to-pixels---the-magic-behind-3d-graphics/ Tue, 31 Mar 2026 20:23:54 +0100 https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/from-triangles-to-pixels---the-magic-behind-3d-graphics/ Every frame of a 3D game you’ve ever seen ultimately reduces to pixels written into memory. No matter how fast the GPU or how impressive the graphics, it all comes down to plotting pixels on the screen. Today we’re taking a short look at how triangles get turned into pixels. It seems easy enough, but this is something early software 3D had to do by hand, and something modern GPUs are doing all the… #Graphics https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/triangle-rasterisation/ Thu, 12 Mar 2026 11:31:02 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/triangle-rasterisation/ These are some notes on how to manually draw triangles in code. Possibly useful if you’re trying to write your own software renderer, or are just curious how it works. #Graphics https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/re-discovering-3d-graphics-the-way-early-games-did/ Sat, 28 Feb 2026 14:37:39 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/re-discovering-3d-graphics-the-way-early-games-did/ This video is my journey through learning how early games drew 3D graphics before 3D APIs and modern GPUs existed. In fact, before old 3D APIs like OpenGL and old GPUs existed, too. #Graphics https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/retro-gamedev-is-hard/ Sat, 28 Feb 2026 14:36:56 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/retro-gamedev-is-hard/ Welcome to the next edition of Gamedev The Hard Way, my attempt at writing a game from scratch for the Agon Light, using nothing but C. This time I create a tilemap system. #AgonLight #Sprites #RetroComputing #GameDev https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/the-reason-you-quit-coding-projects---and-what-to-do-about-it/ Thu, 21 Aug 2025 18:45:17 +0100 https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/the-reason-you-quit-coding-projects---and-what-to-do-about-it/ In this video, I dive headfirst into coding a tilemap engine for my game — no plan, just pure momentum. Everything seems to go great… until I slam into a brick wall: I have no idea how to actually integrate it into my game. #Sprites #Graphics #Programming https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/my-game-engine-has-a-fatal-flaw--heres-how-i-found-it-gamedev-the-hard-way/ Mon, 21 Apr 2025 08:10:43 +0100 https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/my-game-engine-has-a-fatal-flaw--heres-how-i-found-it-gamedev-the-hard-way/ Welcome to the next edition of Gamedev The Hard Way. This time I’m programming some basic enemy behaviours to test out my game’s entity handling code. Things don’t go to plan however and I discover some quite major problems with the physics and tilemap code. #Sprites #GameDev #Graphics #Programming https://beta.ncot.uk/projects/helios/stealing-ideas-from-doom/ Sat, 19 Apr 2025 21:10:09 +0100 https://beta.ncot.uk/projects/helios/stealing-ideas-from-doom/ Part of the fun of making a game from scratch is desinging the systems that run in the background. This time I accidentally try to program a cooperative multitasking operating system. But it’s OK, this is how you do this sort of thing… #Sprites #Graphics #OperatingSystems https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/ms-dos-programming---the-mode-x-deviation/ Sat, 29 Mar 2025 23:14:27 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/ms-dos-programming---the-mode-x-deviation/ After learning about Mode 13h last time, I’ve been digging about in the ancient tomes of wisdom and discovered Mode-X. Let’s make a PC’s VGA card do odd things it was never designed for. #MSDOS #VGA #RetroComputing #Graphics https://beta.ncot.uk/projects/dosdev/mode-x-madness/ Sat, 22 Mar 2025 14:35:37 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/projects/dosdev/mode-x-madness/ After learning about Mode 13h last time, I’ve been digging about in the ancient tomes of wisdom and discovered Mode-X. Let’s make a PC’s VGA card do odd things it was never designed for. #MSDOS #VGA #RetroComputing #Graphics https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/can-i-program-vga-graphics-in-ms-dos-watch-me-struggle/ Mon, 10 Mar 2025 21:24:25 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/can-i-program-vga-graphics-in-ms-dos-watch-me-struggle/ Let’s move into the 1990s and draw some graphics! I’ve got a whole 320x200 pixel screen, 256 colours and direct access to the video card. No APIs, no helper functions. Just me and the video RAM. #MSDOS #VGA #RetroComputing #Graphics https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/davinci-resolve-proxy-files/ Thu, 06 Mar 2025 21:30:39 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/davinci-resolve-proxy-files/ It turns out making proxy files is quite important when editing video across your LAN. Don’t edit video across your LAN, it ends in tears and frustration. #Graphics #Networking #VideoProduction https://beta.ncot.uk/projects/dosdev/lets-recreate-a-90s-pc-bios-boot-screen-part2/ Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:48:31 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/projects/dosdev/lets-recreate-a-90s-pc-bios-boot-screen-part2/ Thanks to @hobbified on YouTube, making the EPA logo look correct was quite straight forward… #MSDOS #VGA #RetroComputing #Graphics https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/tilemap-game-engine-development-agon-light-c-programming/ Thu, 24 Oct 2024 14:32:42 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/tilemap-game-engine-development-agon-light-c-programming/ In this video, I’ll show you how I built a tilemap system from scratch in C for the Agon Light, and integrated it into my existing game engine. Getting the physics engine to handle collisions with the tilemap was no easy task, but I’ll walk you through how I made it work. On top of that, I explore some game design, sketching out ideas for where the game is… #AgonLight #CProgramming #Sprites #GameDev https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/stealing-the-secrets-of-the-nes-agon-light-tilemaps-in-c/ Mon, 27 May 2024 15:19:47 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/stealing-the-secrets-of-the-nes-agon-light-tilemaps-in-c/ Early computers weren’t powerful enough to draw full-screen moving graphics, so they had to use clever tricks. Let’s explore how Nintendo’s techniques for creating tile-based games on the NES can be applied to modern hardware. Using these methods, I built a scrolling tilemap system for the Agon Light using C programming. #AgonLight #CProgramming #Nintendo #Sprites https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/programming-bitmap-graphics-agon-light-using-c/ Sun, 12 May 2024 08:22:13 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/programming-bitmap-graphics-agon-light-using-c/ The end result is a fairly pretty scrolling text routine that demonstrates how to draw multiple bitmaps to the Agon Light’s display using VDP commands. This builds on my previous Agon Light C Programming video where I explained how the Agon Light’s screen works, and how to draw lines and shapes. #AgonLight #CProgramming #RetroComputing #Graphics https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/programming-windows-screensavers-agon-light-graphics-programming/ Fri, 26 Apr 2024 22:30:02 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/programming-windows-screensavers-agon-light-graphics-programming/ My aim is not to simply program the Agon Light by cloning the Windows 3.11 screensavers, but to learn how to program the Agon Light at all. Ultimately I want to learn how to program games for the Agon Light. #AgonLight #BBCMicro #RetroComputing #Graphics https://beta.ncot.uk/projects/agon-light/agon-light-graphics-tests/ Tue, 26 Mar 2024 15:30:06 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/projects/agon-light/agon-light-graphics-tests/ It’s the Easter holidays and I’ve got two weeks off work. Amongst highly exciting things like weeding the garden and waiting for a new washing machine to be delivered, I’m doing some programming. #AgonLight #RetroComputing #Graphics https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/setting-up-msys2-and-libsdl2-for-graphics-programming-in-windows/ Thu, 17 Nov 2022 22:14:42 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/setting-up-msys2-and-libsdl2-for-graphics-programming-in-windows/ I’m starting a graphics based project, and decided to use SDL2 in Windows. This meant setting up a development environment. Here’s some notes on how I set up MSYS2, VS Code and LibSDL2. #CProgramming #SDL2 #Windows #GameDev https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/who-debugs-the-debuggers/ Sun, 04 Sep 2022 21:20:36 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/who-debugs-the-debuggers/ What do you do when you’re trying to debug code, but your debugging isn’t working, and you need to debug your debugger? #Sprites #Graphics #Programming https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/zx-spectrum-next-hardware-sprites-overview/ Thu, 19 Aug 2021 12:37:23 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/zx-spectrum-next-hardware-sprites-overview/ An overview of the Spectrum Next’s hardware sprites #SpectrumNext #ZXSpectrum #Sprites #RetroComputing https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/devlog-02-layer-2-graphics/ Thu, 18 Mar 2021 12:37:23 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/devlog-02-layer-2-graphics/ An overview of the Spectrum Next’s Layer 2 bitmap display #SpectrumNext #ZXSpectrum #RetroComputing #Graphics https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/quazar-graphic-oled-display-real-pixels-for-your-rc2014/ Sat, 06 Feb 2021 17:00:00 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/quazar-graphic-oled-display-real-pixels-for-your-rc2014/ I found a real bitmap display for the RC2014 and here’s how I made it work. #RC2014 #Z80 #RetroComputing #Graphics https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/microstudio-dev-game-programming/ Sun, 06 Dec 2020 11:14:42 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/microstudio-dev-game-programming/ How I wrote a game in a week using just my web browser. #Sprites #Graphics #Programming https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/how-i-became-a-better-computer-science-teacher/ Fri, 18 Sep 2020 17:48:06 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/videos/how-i-became-a-better-computer-science-teacher/ How writing code for a 40 year old computer made me a better computer science teacher. #Sprites #Graphics #Programming https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/shadertoy-3-raymarching/ Wed, 27 May 2020 21:07:21 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/shadertoy-3-raymarching/ Let’s draw a lit 3D scene without defining any 3D objects. Yeah no it confused me too. #Shadertoy #Graphics https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/shadertoy-2-sinewaves/ Tue, 26 May 2020 20:34:26 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/shadertoy-2-sinewaves/ Today I figured out how to draw a line, and then make it wiggle using some basic maths. #Shadertoy #Graphics https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/shadertoy-1-mandelbrot/ Mon, 25 May 2020 15:13:03 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/shadertoy-1-mandelbrot/ Let’s spend this week learning about GLSL and making fancy images from code. The first one, a nice computationally intensive fractal. #Shadertoy #Graphics https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/reading-mice-and-joysticks-on-the-spectrum-next-using-c/ Sat, 18 Apr 2020 21:22:32 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/reading-mice-and-joysticks-on-the-spectrum-next-using-c/ Today’s lesson in curing headaches by banging your head on the wall until they stop involves joysticks and mice. This is a bit technical, so ensure your seat back and tray table are in the upright and locked position. Please keep all arms inside the ride at all times. #SpectrumNext #CProgramming #Sprites #RetroComputing https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/gameboy-advance-dev-workflow-in-2020/ Sun, 01 Mar 2020 08:35:57 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/gameboy-advance-dev-workflow-in-2020/ How to write GameBoy Advance (GBA) homebrew using modern tools and systems in 2020. Compilers, editors, debugging and more! This isn’t the definitive way of doing things, but it’s a way that seems to work for me. Also you might read this and think it a bit convoluted and full on. I didn’t create it all in one go, it’s a workflow that has evolved over time. #Nintendo #Windows #Sprites #Linux https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/text-printing-using-bitmap-characters-in-c-and-sdl/ Mon, 04 Feb 2019 22:13:22 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/text-printing-using-bitmap-characters-in-c-and-sdl/ Back in the mists of history, sometime around the 90s it was quite common for games and demos to display text on the screen. Since we’re talking about old computers with barely any usable RAM, the text was stored as images. A giant single image with every character placed within it. To display words programmers had to be a bit inventive. That’s the topic of today’s post. #CPlusPlus #SDL2 #GameDev #Graphics https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/odroid-go-graphics-programming/ Mon, 30 Jul 2018 21:16:30 +0000 https://beta.ncot.uk/blog-posts/odroid-go-graphics-programming/ Making a microcontroller produce graphics is very similar to making an old 8 or 16 bit computer draw images. They both have small screens, not much RAM and not enough CPU power to draw all the screen all the time. #ESP32 #Sprites #Graphics #Programming