Sprite (computer graphics)

Hardware composition of sprites occurs as each scan line is prepared for the video output device, such as a cathode-ray tube, without involvement of the main CPU and without the need for a full-screen frame buffer.

The CPUs in modern computers, video game consoles, and mobile devices are fast enough that bitmaps can be drawn into a frame buffer without special hardware assistance.

Beyond that, GPUs can render vast numbers of scaled, rotated, anti-aliased, partially translucent, very high resolution images in parallel with the CPU.

According to Karl Guttag, one of two engineers for the 1979 Texas Instruments TMS9918 video display processor, this use of the word sprite came from David Ackley, a manager at TI.

(1962), which performed an entire screen refresh for every little movement, so he came up with a solution to the problem: controlling each individual game element with a dedicated transistor.

[11][12] Ramtek released another sports video game in October 1974, Baseball,[10] which similarly displayed human-like characters.

The Atari VCS, released in 1977, has a hardware sprite implementation where five graphical objects can be moved independently of the game playfield.

The VCS's sprites are called movable objects in the programming manual, further identified as two players, two missiles, and one ball.

Some 2.5D games, such as 1993's Doom, allow the same entity to be represented by different sprites depending on its rotation relative to the viewer, furthering the illusion of 3D.

Sprites remain useful for small details, particle effects, and other applications where the lack of a third dimension is not a major detriment.

These are base hardware specs and do not include additional programming techniques, such as using raster interrupts to repurpose sprites mid-frame.