regarding Chrono Trigger DS use of "Mode-7"

[Zinx]

Hello everybody.
So i was intrigued by recent developments regarding the use of "HD Mode-7" in the SNES emulator bsnes and the GBA emulator mgba.
Now this led me thinking , did the DS port of CT used hardware "Mode-7" or software "Mode-7"
for various points in the game that used it (the bike race and the endings).
If it did used the hardware capability that the DS inherited from the GBA that means it ones of the only titles if not the only that used it in such big extant on the NDS.
If it was done in software - well its still cool I guess.
Of course they might have used the NDS 3D engine capabilities for these sections but
I kinda ruled that out.
If this is not the right place to discuss it please move it.
Thanks.

[trig]

Do NDS emulators (i think of DeSmuME) have any GBA hardware emulation? They can emulate everything necessary to run CTDS. Can we rule out GBA hardware use? (Another thing to check - is it pixel-for-pixel similar to the original? uh, assuming GBA's mode7 is like SNES's)

another thought - NDS emulators usually translate and pass 3D to a PC's GPU right? So we can have features like high-resolution rendering, nicer antialiasing etc.
When i configuring these in DeSmuME, it seems not to affect the mode7 graphics in CTDS; i think this  suggests it's not done with NDS 3D hardware.

[Zinx]

Actually the NDS have access to the GBA 2D features even in NDS mode(affine transformations rotation and scaling) .
It's still possible it was done in software though.

[trig]

Oh ok, so those bits are implemented in emulators?

[Zinx]

Oh, ok. So those particular bits are implemented in emulators?

the NDS have 2 2D engines - one that the console retains from the GBA hardware and a brand new one that could be used for the lower/upper screen.
Basically almost every 2D game used one or both of the engines to render 2D graphics.
BTW i tinkered with Desmume and found out it uses the Main GPU BG3 Layer for the "Mode-7" effects which means its probably made in hardware.
I am still looking for more NDS games that used this feature like CTDS did though its very interesting.