As the creator of the Gameduino, a shield that adds a VGA port and graphics capability to any Arduino, [James] knows a little something about generating high quality video with a microcontroller. His latest project, the Gameduino 2, blows his previous projects out of the water. He’s created an Arduino shield with a built-in touchscreen that has the same graphics performance as the Quake box you had in the late 1990s.
The power behind this shield comes from a single-chip graphics solution called the FTDI EVE. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard about the FTDI EVE, but this is the first instance of a project or product using this very cool embedded graphics engine. The Gameduino 2 uses an FT800 graphics chip over an SPI connection to give a 480×272 TFT touch panel the same graphical capabilities as a Voodoo 2 graphics card. From the video, [James] is able to put thousands of sprites on a screen, as well as simple 3D animation, and extremely impressive 2D animations using only an Arduino.
While the Gameduino 2 is designed to be a game console you program yourself, we’re thinking this would be even more useful as a display for standalone projects.
“The same graphical capabilities as a Voodoo 2”? O RLY? What exactly are you guys smoking, and can I have some?
I’d like some too
afair Voodoo 2 had ZERO 2D capabilities :)
So with this kind of power, when can we expect Unreal to be ported to arduino?
Not to detract from the project at all, but why is this being compared to a Voodoo 2 card? Unless this thing can do Z-buffered object occlusion testing, it isn’t comparable. And it has a max interface bandwidth of less than 4MB/sec, which isn’t enough for quake-like games.
EVE is not even doing texture mapping, let alone Z-Buffer, traingle setup… EVE is a sprite/tile accelerator, somewhat similar to what pre 3D area game consoles did. This is a very clever design for memory bandwidth constrained system and no memory mapping, such as a slow emebedded CPU with SPI connection. But it really bears absolutely no resemblence to a PC graphic card, neither the 2D nor the 3D variety.
Yeah, more comparable to Gameboy Color than to Voodoo 2.
well for that price you might as well spring for a UVGA-III …
Well except that then you are limited to VGA displays and can’t use portable LCDs, right? I like 4D System’s offerings, but their LCDs are rather expensive.
GPU stands for Graphics PROGRAMMABLE unit, and AFAIK neither a EVE nor a Vodoo can execute code. You have been all powned :-P
Graphics processing unit.
someone had better tell all those encyclopaedia and text books that have been referring to it as a graphics processing unit for years…
To be fair, he said “powned,” so maybe he is from the distant past and he knew the truth before those encyclopedias were written.
Obvious troll is obvious
To heck with games, GPU/Display for a killer car stereo or better yet Dashboard gauges.
For once, I agree with fartface! This feels weird.
Fartface is spot on here (shudder, that is weird)
There are plenty of projects that this can be used for.
I have a 4×4 and i can imagine a few stats i would like displayed on something like this as well as the radio functions.
It is still a cool project and it may inspire more projects that will be valuable.
This is a cool ardino add on but…
Doesn’t the Beagleboard and the Pi both have GPUs at least as good as this?
no, the py and BBB is MUCH MUCH better … but there are also other add on GPUs out there … not sure the use of this for its cost
Holy shit!
But yes… Using a RasPi with a LCD screen would bring you more GPU power and better results. But… This is truly amazing!
http://store.arduino.cc/ww/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=11_15&products_id=288
Arduino TFT LCD Screen
Code: A000096
The Arduino Graphic LCD (GLCD) screen is a backlit TFT LCD screen with headers. You can draw text, images, and shapes to the screen with the GLCD library. There is an onboard micro-SD card slot on the back of the screen that can, among other things, store bitmap images for the screen to display.
No graphics acceleration but it’s cheaper and out now and it’s an official Arduino accessory.
1.77″ diagonal, with 160 x 128 pixel resolution vs 4.3 inch 480×272 TFT touch panel screen at 60 Hz though.
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11740
Arduino Display Module – 4.3″ Touchscreen LCD for $144.95!! Backordered until late Oct / early Nov. Gameduino 2 is looking pretty sweet.
Ahh 4D systems, brilliant hardware, so much more expensive. I love the transparent OLED though (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11788)
a MAPLE library would be GREAT!
This looks like a perfect solution for a tabletop arcade full of mini-cabinets, each running its own game in MAME. There’s a MAME for the Arduino, right?