Integer scaling of bitmap draw calls #275
Description
If we could provide a (positive integer) x_scale and y_scale optionally to draw sprites (and text), it would bring a few benefits:
- sprite storage on Frame could reduce by a significant fraction (and memory is a challenge as soon as we start using sprites) for sprites that don't need to be full-resolution, but we want to draw them larger anyway (e.g. 32-px font could be drawn at 64x64 and save 75% of the space, rather than send bigger sprites just because we want bigger text)
- transfer time is reduced by roughly the same fraction (and might be key to getting real-time updates to the display for live translation, action games etc.)
- sprites could be reused (e.g. text display at different sizes)
- retro-looking pixelated sprites could all just be built at 8x8 or 8x16 etc and be scaled up to pixellated goodness for display
- drawing rectangles becomes trivially easy
Positive integer scaling is all that I'd ask for here. In C, repeating each pixel in x or y x_scale or y_scale times would be straightforward to implement, but I'm not sure how easily that translates into the FPGA, so happy to take other suggestions that might be a better fit.