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Mord's Blog

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About this blog

I'm really not sure what I'll use this blog for so I should probably leave this blank, but that would require backspacing. Much easier to just hit a period and stop typing.

Entries in this blog

(Action RPG) Version 0.018 - 16k Rom

Version 0.018 is complete. This upgrades the rom to 16k. And the amount of space available in each bank is awesome.   I've spliced up the code as detailed in the previous post. The rom plays essentially the same as the previous version/beta as far as anyone were to tell by playing it. There's just a lot more space available to add things now.   As I mentioned, I took a stab at trying to modify the Random Number generator. After reading it over and actually understanding what it was d

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phase 2 complete.

Phase 1 was simple. Just adjusting the hotspots for the existing rom and adding 2 dummy banks. I did that in 10 minutes without any glitches.   Phase 2 was more challenging. The moving of all vertical blank code out of the Display Bank (bank 0) into it's own bank (bank 2) and then adjusting the code to allow quick movement between the banks. One problem with this is that I also wanted the startup code out of the Display Bank. But the Display Bank was where the labels were. Got around thi

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The things you learn through Slashdot.

Now, I didn't RTFA or anything, so let's go by the summary on slashdot. Apparently the Copyright Board of Canada is proposing a tax/surcharge on legally downloaded music to the tune (ha ha.) of 2 cents per mp3, with 1.5 cents extra for an album download. If passed, this would also be retroactively applied to EVERY legally bought mp3 since 1996.   I'm pretty sure this isn't something that has passed. It's just the Copyright Board looking to lobby government.   What I can't understand is th

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P0/P1 Collisions

I've worked on that some more since the last time I looked at it. And I was apparently wrong with it being a problem with the Tick based code. (That might have been a problem as well, but fixing it didn't change the behaviour)   The real problem, (this time I'm pretty sure it's the case!) is that I was examining the P1P0 collision during the Vertical Blank of the following frame in AI routines. The problem is that, by necessity, the AI routines are processed after the Object Manager does it'

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Data/Graphics Separated

Finished part 2. I've removed object data from the graphics data. This has several benefits. One of those being that now different objects can share the same graphics data - but otherwise be different. (Different size, different speeds, different AI/collision, different color, different maxhp, etc)   I have to clean up the code a little bit before I move on to the next milestone. I'll do that either when I wake up later today or tomorrow morning when I get home from work.     *update

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8k->16k

I had this idea that it would be easy to change the 8k rom into a 16k rom.   Yeah, I'm still laughing myself.   I'm still planning on it, since I'll need it for extra room for objects, but I have a few things to separate first.   Collision Routines: For some unknown reason, I decided to put collision labels in the object data itself instead of into a table. (Like what I did for AI routines) This had to be removed and put into a table so that I can push all of those into their own bank.  

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(Action RPG) Forest Kingdom version 1.0

Below is a map I had designed for a forest kingdom in Action RPG back in... I think it was 2005. It was well before I started on the current codebase which is why it doesn't even reflect the ability for alternating playfield colors. (I made a few attempts at starting this game in the past, but always got seriously distracted or had a harddrive failure, etc. )   I'm likely going to modify it before I ever get around to adding it to the actual rom, perhaps even start from scratch, so a looksee

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(Action RPG) Version 0.017 Hold/Drop Objects

Ok, so adding the fire button to drop the objects wasn't as difficult as I feared. Just make sure the latches on the fire buttons are turned off, and add a counter on the frames. Incrementing it (up to FF but no wrapping) when it detects the button is pressed, and taking an action when the button is released based on the counter. If >= SomeValue, then drop the object, otherwise assume the player wanted to use the currently equipped item.   Equipped items don't work yet obviously. So pres

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Begin Debugging Phase!

Always such a fun phase.   After spending a while thinking of how to do what I wanted to do, then another week writing and rewriting and doublechecking what was written, I finally started pasting the new code for holdable objects into the rom. And for the first time sinc... ok for probably the first time, the game didn't need any tweaking just to display the kernel properly on first assembly!   However the key wasn't responding to the collision routines.   That was a quick fix. I j

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(Action RPG) Game Play

One of the things I've been wrestling with as I write the basic engines for Action RPG is exactly how the player will be able to move about and interact in the game. As I make more and more progress it's getting harder to put off these decisions! So on the way to work yesterday I started writing down more notes and thought them over.   I intend on the player having access to a limited inventory screen to store various usable items, this may include some types of keys.   Of those items, o

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(Action RPG) Version 0.016

And finished. Had several weird things happen this version to work around, as well as unexpected (read: braindead) semantic problems to deal with.   Anyway, nonflickering room objects are now added. Having some objects avoid flickering can help with making sure collisions register asap. (As soon as the object it reacts to gets swapped in)     One use, as demonstrated in this version, is castle gates/doors/etc that are locked. The black key does indeed unlock the castle and you can go

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Getting Close for v016.

After so many weeks, I think I have noflicker objects on the path to working. In fact it appears to be working in the rom right now. Just have to do some code clean up, then rewrite the object's AI and collision and test it out. I have those things shortcircuited for now as I was more interested in being able to load the freaking thing properly and make sure it wouldn't flicker.   While there were several changes I had to make in the object manager, and I changed the way I was going about i

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Another Week Passes.

Adding this special type of room object is proving to be a bit more difficult than I had planned. The idea is that one of the 3 room object slots would be able to avoid flickering even in the worst of conditions by just causing the other sprite to handle the flickering of all the other possible objects. This is best for when collision between two objects is important.   At any rate it's not working properly yet. Haven't had a chance to check the object's AI and collision routines - I jus

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Back to the Code.

I've also been playing Aardwolf more actively lately, but the main thing to report is that I've added the new code to the main sources yesterday. I had added most of it and things worked for the most part, properly. I noticed one of the hearts that would jump to a new position/room whenever I entered a new room and it kind of puzzled me for a bit.   Then I remembered this was expected. Local_03 slot is cleared when leaving a room - all local/room slots will be like that eventually, so obv

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The kind of visitor you never want to see.

I live up the road from a fire hall. I'm use to seeing - and hearing - the trucks go by at least 2-3 times a day. This is the first time one of those loud beasts stopped at my apartment building. Seems half of the apartments are pretty much apathetic to this situation. I am not. I slipped on my sneakers and went downstairs, and despite being on the top floor, I was the first person down to let the gentlemen into the building. I saw a total of probably 3-4 others that were at least interest

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Definitely a bit late.

The code is getting written, modifications being made, etc but I still haven't gotten to the point where I can compile the code and actually expect it to work. Right now the point is to determine how to load the object in the roomloader bank without needing data that is in the display bank. I really don't want to make complete item copies in the roomloader bank, although a lite version of the data might be done - and the rest of the processing handled in the Vertical Blank on the following fra

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Perhaps a bit late.

For version 0.016. While writing the code I've been thinking about how it would react in flicker conditions. And it's quite likely I'll need to make some extra modifications to the Object Manager to give object preference at times. In other words, some objects, particularly room-loaded objects, may be negatively affected by flickering. So for those objects, it would be best to not let them flicker at all, at the cost of the other objects flickering a little worse. (or perhaps a lot worse, bu

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Room Loader

Accomplished step 1. Optimize the Room Loader as it is now. Probably saved 30-50 bytes with the simplistic/obvious fixes I used. I'll probably ponder better ways later that include redesigning the room data's format. One that'll let me do all down-counters. Since the rooms currently used in the rom are test rooms only, I'm guessing it's safe to put it off until I have all the things I know I'll want implemented added to the format that relate to the room.   Remaining steps:   1. Write

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(Action RPG) Version 0.015

And done. Mostly it seems a couple of the glitches that cropped up were just me confusing the meaning of some variables. And then "fixing" things that weren't broken. In the end I refreshed some of the code I was fixing and found the real culprit. (A comparison on the Heart AI and unnecessary checks on hardware sprites on the key AI)   Flicker works as expected although I can think up a few ways to help reduce flicker. Right now, for instance, even if the key isn't displayed on the scr

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Fix one, get another.

Modified the heart placer to spam more hearts out, but more problems surfaced. The display itself is fine. These are with the AI routines. The flickerishness works, although it helped to unmask the AI glitches. The black key can still be lost when moving from screen to screen - if you're leaving a screen currently experiencing flicker. And the heart AI isn't correctly testing for itself. I'm guessing it just accidentally successfully found itself since the value being loaded just happened

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On track for a weekend version 0.015!

I wrote a small diagram for visualizing what the display code was doing in the top 2 lines where the graphics corrupt. I'm going to keep that diagram. It kind of puts the code into a very simple to understand light. At any rate I knew for a while that there was a 1-off error corrupting the graphics I just wasn't sure what variable was off. Turns out it wasn't a variable but a constant. I was loading Gamefieldsize and Gamefieldsize+1 as the scanline to calculate the initial switchdraw grap

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So close, yet still so far.

I've ironed out 99% of what I found wrong with the display since version 0.014. There's no more stretching at the top of the screen, an object of coordinate Y can now be positioned in exactly the same place regardless of if P0 or P1 is displaying it. (noticable when you pick up a heart when the key is in the same room. )   While not intended, in the rom so far the heart always ends up being slotted in P0. The key will display with P0 if the heart isn't on the screen. If the heart is present

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Display Fixing

I've fixed the stretching effect you'd see in version 0.014 when the object would get too close to the top of the screen. At least I think I have.   *checks*   Ok, it's almost fixed. Looks like one of the two sprites, while it doesn't stretch, it doesn't display proper data for one scanline above where it should start displaying. But otherwise it's progress! I'll do some quick checking on that now this evening.   After this is fixed I'll be working on object coordinates. In the

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Long Weekend

And thus starts my long weekend as I decide to use a vacation day owed me tomorrow/friday. Was just feeling lazy all week in between coding. (I've already gotten some of the various bugs dealt with!)   Friday is suppose to rain however, so I guess it'll be a long weekend in front of the computer/tv! Last few games I've completed recently include GC version of Twilight Princess, Grandia III, and .hack//GU Vol 1. I tried getting back on track with Shenmue II but once again lost interest.

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Action RPG Version 0.014

I'm done for the day. There are apparently some timing issues with moving between horizontal rooms. This is probably just a branch or something being pushed over a page boundary again. I'll deal with it when I jump back into the code for the next version.   There are now two objects, both operating differently. The heart's been given an AI routine to make it flash it's color. Otherwise it acts the same way it use to as I haven't altered the Heart Placer function to fill up the item slots

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