Difference between revisions of "Sprite (computer graphics)"

Latest revision as of 07:25, 15 May 2016

In computer graphics, a sprite is a two-dimensional bitmap that is integrated into a larger scene.

Description

Originally sprites referred to independent objects that are composited together, by hardware, with other elements such as a background.

This occurs as each scan line is prepared for the video output device, such as a CRT, without involvement of the main CPU and without the need for a full-screen frame buffer.

Sprites can be positioned or altered by setting attributes used during the hardware composition process. Examples of systems with hardware sprites include the Atari 8-bit family, Commodore 64, Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Genesis, and many coin-operated arcade machines of the 1980s.

Use of the term "sprite" has expanded to refer to any two-dimensional bitmap used as part of a graphics display, even if drawn into a frame buffer (by either software or a GPU) instead of being composited on-the-fly at display time.

CSS sprite

In web design, a CSS sprite uses Cascading Style Sheets to display a rectangular area within a larger image.

See also

• 2.5D
• Computer graphics
• Sprite (CSS)
• Spriting
• Tilemap
• Texture mapping
• Video games with isometric graphics

External links

• Sprite (computer graphics) @ Wikipedia