Building a Tiny 3D Renderer for a Tiny Handheld
by g0xA52A2A on 7/22/2026, 6:09:26 PM
https://saffroncr.itch.io/katavatis/devlog/1534514/building-a-tiny-3d-renderer-for-a-tiny-handheld
Comments
by: busfahrer
For anyone who enjoys this sort of thing, I found this postmortem of an Alone in the Dark clone for PICO-8 highly informative:<p><a href="https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=3804" rel="nofollow">https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=3804</a>
7/25/2026, 11:46:23 AM
by: alex-moon
What an excellent example of designing for the medium instead of trying to make the medium do something it's not good at! Your whole approach shows a real love, like a delicate respectfulness, that I think characterises early games and is less apparent as the systems get better (though I am sure it is still there).
7/25/2026, 10:05:22 AM
by: wewewedxfgdf
Highly relevant:<p>Surface-Stable Fractal Dithering<p><a href="https://runevision.com/tech/dither3d/" rel="nofollow">https://runevision.com/tech/dither3d/</a><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPqGaIMVuLs" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPqGaIMVuLs</a>
7/25/2026, 12:52:07 PM
by: tslmy
This is breathtaking. I did something similar[1] porting a 3D dice roller I wrote to a $60 GBA clone, and I _thought_ that was hardcore already. This is next level.<p>[1]: <a href="https://blog.myli.page/rolling-dice-on-a-60-handheld-08be2780ad64" rel="nofollow">https://blog.myli.page/rolling-dice-on-a-60-handheld-08be278...</a>
7/25/2026, 5:22:39 PM
by: bdickason
I love this post because it goes well beyond "can I render 3d graphics on this device" and into "how can i play with the combo of art and rendering tech to get a nice looking scene on this device.<p>Very cool, thanks for sharing!
7/25/2026, 1:41:59 PM
by: cmovq
+1 for TrenchBroom, it’s amazing software.
7/25/2026, 7:44:02 PM
by: mkirsten
Thanks for sharing both an amazing topic - engineering with significant constraints, a great medium - handheld game devices, as well as some wisdom - If you want to make actual progress, try to aim for "good enough".
7/25/2026, 5:18:49 PM
by: vkaku
Actually done a good job - talks about dithering, perspective correct mapping and the artifacts seen in the PS1 era etc. Pretty good start.<p>Add more lighting and shadows to the game before that dithering pass and then see how far you can push this, and write about it. Cheers! :)
7/25/2026, 2:59:54 PM
by: hahahaa
Amazing. I never get over the 2 bit colour illusion of scale.
7/25/2026, 12:40:21 PM
by: agys
LCD 1 (2022) is an ASCII art project on the same display (by Sharp) of the PlayDate.<p><a href="https://lcd.ertdfgcvb.xyz" rel="nofollow">https://lcd.ertdfgcvb.xyz</a>
7/25/2026, 2:23:06 PM
by: xyzsparetimexyz
Does the upscaling from 200x120 happen pre or post dithering?
7/25/2026, 10:48:22 AM
by: ant6n
Given the 168MHz ARM, the real innovation here is the way stable dithering and a cell shading look was used to make the graphics good looking. Very well done!
7/25/2026, 1:20:39 PM
by: chronogate_op
[flagged]
7/25/2026, 6:50:34 PM
by: Panzerschrek
Looks nice for such wimpy hardware.<p>But using 16-bit Z-buffer for 1-bit display seems to be an overkill. Sorting polygons works mostly fine if done right, especially if BSP tree is already used.
7/25/2026, 2:04:34 PM