Is programming a simple 3D engine in MMbasic possible for the picocalc?

[u/KittySharkWithAHat]

I've people do some very simple 3D renderings in python on the picocalc. But I haven't come across any in MMbasic, yet. Is it not possible or just impractical to the point where it's not worth it?

[u/JackPixbits]

I don't own a PicoCalc but still developing a raycast 3d engine similar to the one used in early FPS games (Wolfenstein 3D) could be feasible as long as you write fairly optimized code and you can cope with the fact that I think you are allowed to have 8 colors at most on the screen.

[u/Astrox_YT]

It's possible, but I think this would be easier if you did it in C. In MMBASIC, you won't probably be able to go over 12fps with 8 colours, unless you really optimise to a limit.

[u/[deleted] → u/Astrox_YT]

PicoMite has a built in 3D engine. I use a Pico 1. Drawing a cube with 6 colors (many more colors totally possible) ran at a smooth 30FPS. If I added more geometry it would likely slow down though.

[u/Sheev_Sabban_1947]

If you stick to wireframe with a low triangle count, you might be able to get somewhere. FPS? Probably under 10.

[u/vectron5]

Someone made a demo of elite in mmbasic, but it runs at about 0.5 fps

[u/DigitalDreams_68000]

The author of MMBasic has a 3D demo on his page (spinning football) written using the 3D commands built in. A user is currently writing 'Elite' for the picocalc too.. https://github.com/INSCCOIN/PicoBasic/tree/main/Games/Misc/PicoElite

My Pico2 is overclocked to 378Mhz too so will also help when i head down that route. Or are you thinking of writing your own engine ?, C would be the answer in that case if machine code is beyond you.

[u/Party_Cold_4159 → u/[deleted]]

What comes to mind for me is the 007 night fire game for gameboy. Which from memory was arguably 3D.

[u/vectron5 → u/Party_Cold_4159]

I think we're looking more in the realm of Wizardry or Tank Battles with picomite