Video Display
Contents
LCD Control Register
FF40 - LCDC - LCD Control (R/W)
Bit 7 - LCD Display Enable (0=Off, 1=On) Bit 6 - Window Tile Map Display Select (0=9800-9BFF, 1=9C00-9FFF) Bit 5 - Window Display Enable (0=Off, 1=On) Bit 4 - BG & Window Tile Data Select (0=8800-97FF, 1=8000-8FFF) Bit 3 - BG Tile Map Display Select (0=9800-9BFF, 1=9C00-9FFF) Bit 2 - OBJ (Sprite) Size (0=8x8, 1=8x16) Bit 1 - OBJ (Sprite) Display Enable (0=Off, 1=On) Bit 0 - BG Display (for CGB see below) (0=Off, 1=On)
LCDC.7 - LCD Display Enable
CAUTION: Stopping LCD operation (Bit 7 from 1 to 0) may be performed during V-Blank ONLY, disabeling the display outside of the V-Blank period may damage the hardware. This appears to be a serious issue, Nintendo is reported to reject any games that do not follow this rule. V-blank can be confirmed when the value of LY is greater than or equal to 144. When the display is disabled the screen is blank (white), and VRAM and OAM can be accessed freely.
--- LCDC.0 has different Meanings depending on Gameboy Type ---
LCDC.0 - 1) Monochrome Gameboy and SGB: BG Display
When Bit 0 is cleared, the background becomes blank (white). Window and Sprites may still be displayed (if enabled in Bit 1 and/or Bit 5).
LCDC.0 - 2) CGB in CGB Mode: BG and Window Master Priority
When Bit 0 is cleared, the background and window lose their priority - the sprites will be always displayed on top of background and window, independently of the priority flags in OAM and BG Map attributes.
LCDC.0 - 3) CGB in Non CGB Mode: BG and Window Display
When Bit 0 is cleared, both background and window become blank (white), ie. the Window Display Bit (Bit 5) is ignored in that case. Only Sprites may still be displayed (if enabled in Bit 1). This is a possible compatibility problem - any monochrome games (if any) that disable the background, but still want to display the window wouldn't work properly on CGBs.
LCD Status Register
FF41 - STAT - LCDC Status (R/W) Bit 6 - LYC=LY Coincidence Interrupt (1=Enable) (Read/Write)
Bit 5 - Mode 2 OAM Interrupt (1=Enable) (Read/Write) Bit 4 - Mode 1 V-Blank Interrupt (1=Enable) (Read/Write) Bit 3 - Mode 0 H-Blank Interrupt (1=Enable) (Read/Write) Bit 2 - Coincidence Flag (0:LYC<>LY, 1:LYC=LY) (Read Only) Bit 1-0 - Mode Flag (Mode 0-3, see below) (Read Only) 0: During H-Blank 1: During V-Blank 2: During Searching OAM-RAM 3: During Transfering Data to LCD Driver
The two lower STAT bits show the current status of the LCD controller.
Mode 0: The LCD controller is in the H-Blank period and the CPU can access both the display RAM (8000h-9FFFh) and OAM (FE00h-FE9Fh) Mode 1: The LCD contoller is in the V-Blank period (or the display is disabled) and the CPU can access both the display RAM (8000h-9FFFh) and OAM (FE00h-FE9Fh) Mode 2: The LCD controller is reading from OAM memory. The CPU <cannot> access OAM memory (FE00h-FE9Fh) during this period. Mode 3: The LCD controller is reading from both OAM and VRAM, The CPU <cannot> access OAM and VRAM during this period. CGB Mode: Cannot access Palette Data (FF69,FF6B) either.
The following are typical when the display is enabled:
Mode 2 2_____2_____2_____2_____2_____2___________________2____ Mode 3 _33____33____33____33____33____33__________________3___ Mode 0 ___000___000___000___000___000___000________________000 Mode 1 ____________________________________11111111111111_____
The Mode Flag goes through the values 0, 2, and 3 at a cycle of about 109uS. 0 is present about 48.6uS, 2 about 19uS, and 3 about 41uS. This is interrupted every 16.6ms by the VBlank (1). The mode flag stays set at 1 for about 1.08 ms.
Mode 0 is present between 201-207 clks, 2 about 77-83 clks, and 3 about 169-175 clks. A complete cycle through these states takes 456 clks. VBlank lasts 4560 clks. A complete screen refresh occurs every 70224 clks.)
LCD Interrupts
INT 40 - V-Blank Interrupt
The V-Blank interrupt occurs ca. 59.7 times a second on a regular GB and ca. 61.1 times a second on a Super GB (SGB). This interrupt occurs at the beginning of the V-Blank period (LY=144). During this period video hardware is not using video ram so it may be freely accessed. This period lasts approximately 1.1 milliseconds.
INT 48 - LCDC Status Interrupt
There are various reasons for this interrupt to occur as described by the STAT register ($FF40). One very popular reason is to indicate to the user when the video hardware is about to redraw a given LCD line. This can be useful for dynamically controlling the SCX/SCY registers ($FF43/$FF42) to perform special video effects.
LCD Position and Scrolling
FF42 - SCY - Scroll Y (R/W), FF43 - SCX - Scroll X (R/W)
Specifies the position in the 256x256 pixels BG map (32x32 tiles) which is to be displayed at the upper/left LCD display position. Values in range from 0-255 may be used for X/Y each, the video controller automatically wraps back to the upper (left) position in BG map when drawing exceeds the lower (right) border of the BG map area.
FF44 - LY - LCDC Y-Coordinate (R)
The LY indicates the vertical line to which the present data is transferred to the LCD Driver. The LY can take on any value between 0 through 153. The values between 144 and 153 indicate the V-Blank period. Writing will reset the counter.
FF45 - LYC - LY Compare (R/W)
The gameboy permanently compares the value of the LYC and LY registers. When both values are identical, the coincident bit in the STAT register becomes set, and (if enabled) a STAT interrupt is requested.
FF4A - WY - Window Y Position (R/W), FF4B - WX - Window X Position minus 7 (R/W)
Specifies the upper/left positions of the Window area. (The window is an alternate background area which can be displayed above of the normal background. OBJs (sprites) may be still displayed above or behinf the window, just as for normal BG.) The window becomes visible (if enabled) when positions are set in range WX=0..166, WY=0..143. A postion of WX=7, WY=0 locates the window at upper left, it is then completly covering normal background.
LCD Monochrome Palettes
FF47 - BGP - BG Palette Data (R/W) - Non CGB Mode Only
This register assigns gray shades to the color numbers of the BG and Window tiles.
Bit 7-6 - Shade for Color Number 3 Bit 5-4 - Shade for Color Number 2 Bit 3-2 - Shade for Color Number 1 Bit 1-0 - Shade for Color Number 0
The four possible gray shades are:
0 White 1 Light gray 2 Dark gray 3 Black
In CGB Mode the Color Palettes are taken from CGB Palette Memory instead.
FF48 - OBP0 - Object Palette 0 Data (R/W) - Non CGB Mode Only
This register assigns gray shades for sprite palette 0. It works exactly as BGP (FF47), except that the lower two bits aren't used because sprite data 00 is transparent.
FF49 - OBP1 - Object Palette 1 Data (R/W) - Non CGB Mode Only
This register assigns gray shades for sprite palette 1. It works exactly as BGP (FF47), except that the lower two bits aren't used because sprite data 00 is transparent.
LCD Color Palettes (CGB only)
FF68 - BCPS/BGPI - CGB Mode Only - Background Palette Index
This register is used to address a byte in the CGBs Background Palette Memory. Each two byte in that memory define a color value. The first 8 bytes define Color 0-3 of Palette 0 (BGP0), and so on for BGP1-7. Bit 0-5 Index (00-3F)
Bit 7 Auto Increment (0=Disabled, 1=Increment after Writing)
Data can be read/written to/from the specified index address through Register FF69. When the Auto Increment Bit is set then the index is automatically incremented after each <write> to FF69. Auto Increment has no effect when <reading> from FF69, so the index must be manually incremented in that case.
FF69 - BCPD/BGPD - CGB Mode Only - Background Palette Data
This register allows to read/write data to the CGBs Background Palette Memory, addressed through Register FF68. Each color is defined by two bytes (Bit 0-7 in first byte). Bit 0-4 Red Intensity (00-1F)
Bit 5-9 Green Intensity (00-1F) Bit 10-14 Blue Intensity (00-1F)
Much like VRAM, Data in Palette Memory cannot be read/written during the time when the LCD Controller is reading from it. (That is when the STAT register indicates Mode 3). Note: Initially all background colors are initialized as white.
FF6A - OCPS/OBPI - CGB Mode Only - Sprite Palette Index, FF6B - OCPD/OBPD - CGB Mode Only - Sprite Palette Data
These registers are used to initialize the Sprite Palettes OBP0-7, identically as described above for Background Palettes. Note that four colors may be defined for each OBP Palettes - but only Color 1-3 of each Sprite Palette can be displayed, Color 0 is always transparent, and can be initialized to a don't care value. Note: Initially all sprite colors are uninitialized.
RGB Translation by CGBs
When developing graphics on PCs, note that the RGB values will have different appearance on CGB displays as on VGA monitors: The highest intensity will produce Light Gray color rather than White. The intensities are not linear; the values 10h-1Fh will all appear very bright, while medium and darker colors are ranged at 00h-0Fh. The CGB display will mix colors quite oddly, increasing intensity of only one R,G,B color will also influence the other two R,G,B colors. For example, a color setting of 03EFh (Blue=0, Green=1Fh, Red=0Fh) will appear as Neon Green on VGA displays, but on the CGB it'll produce a decently washed out Yellow.
RGB Translation by GBAs
Even though GBA is described to be compatible to CGB games, most CGB games are completely unplayable on GBAs because most colors are invisible (black). Of course, colors such like Black and White will appear the same on both CGB and GBA, but medium intensities are arranged completely different. Intensities in range 00h..0Fh are invisible/black (unless eventually under best sunlight circumstances, and when gazing at the screen under obscure viewing angles), unfortunately, these intensities are regulary used by most existing CGB games for medium and darker colors. Newer CGB games may avoid this effect by changing palette data when detecting GBA hardware. A relative simple method would be using the formula GBA=CGB/2+10h for each R,G,B intensity, probably the result won't be perfect, and (once colors became visible) it may turn out that the color mixing is different also, anyways, it'd be still ways better than no conversion. Asides, this translation method should have been VERY easy to implement in GBA hardware directly, even though Nintendo obviously failed to do so. How did they say, This seal is your assurance for excellence in workmanship and so on?