Small update for VisualbB

Entry posted by jwierer November 19, 2012

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I can't believe it's been over a year since I last touched visualbB. I haven't abandoned the project, was just waiting for batari to release the final DPC+ kernel before making any futher changes. Since Oct 2011 I've only made a couple of tweaks.

1. Support for the titlescreen kernel 1.1

There was a bug reported here when using the wizard with the 1.1 kernel and the DPC+ kernel. In the original titlescreen 1.0 you needed to declare a constant scorepointers = player1x. The code generator was still doing this even though the 1.1 kernel now includes dpcfix.asm. The latest work in progress will detect the version of the titlescreen kernel and generate the appropriate code. [TO DO] I still want update the wizard to support the 5th sample which now includes the ability to use playersprites. That will have to wait until I have more free time...

2. Support for converting Playfields to data statements

Random Terrain (who inspires about all my improvements to vbb) asked if I could make it simple to convert playfields into a data statement. For example, let's say you have a playfield that looks like this..

playfield:
.XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.
.XX......XX......XX..........XX.
.XX..XX..XX..XX..XX..XX..XX..XX.
.XX......................XX..XX.
.XX..XXXXXX..XX..XXXXXX..XX..XX.
.XX..........XX..............XX.
.XX..XX..XX..XX..XX..XX..XXXXXX.
.XX......XX..........XX......XX.
.XX..XX..XX..XX..XX..XX..XX..XX.
.XX..........XX..............XX.
.XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.
end

From the project explorer you can now right click and select "Convert to data file" and the following will be created.

data maze
$7F,$FF,$FF,$7F,$60,$06,$60,$60,$66,$66,$66,$66,$60,$00,$00,$66,
$67,$67,$7E,$66,$60,$60,$00,$60,$66,$66,$66,$7E,$60,$06,$06,$60,
$66,$66,$66,$66,$60,$60,$00,$60,$7F,$FF,$FF,$7F
end

Note this won't actually save you space as it takes up the same about of space the playfield does,but I am told it is much easier to use when placing random pieces of a playfield. The scrolling trick by theloon will no longer have to be used. You can instantly make direct changes to the appropriate playfield variables. I'll let RT explain...

Here are the latest files.

VisualbB_1.0_Build_566.zip

VisualbB.SoundLib.zip

-Jeff

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Random Terrain 11,221

Posted November 19, 2012

Note this won't actually save you space as it takes up the same about of space the playfield does, but I am told it is much easier to work with byte of data than to muck around with the pixel functions. I'll let RT explain...

This new kind of data is very useful if you want to place random sections of playfield data on the screen to make random mazes or adventure game screens. All you do is choose the playfield variable where you want to start and place the data directly into the playfield variables, instead of using the scrolling trick that theloon posted about.

And in case you were wondering, VbB automatically reverses the appropriate numbers in the data so they can be used directly with the playfield variables.

I'm going to make a new thread in the bB forum some time on Tuesday, November 20, 2012 with an example program.

Update:

Here it is:

What's So Great About VbB's 'Convert to Data File'? (Example Program)