saboteur

Finally managed to get some time this weekend and went back through my manicminer experiments and started plowing back through it. Whilst I was doing this i noticed the drawmap.bas example in projects and got waylaid playing with that. I have got it running as expected when using 4bpp tiles of 8x8 no problem. However I cannot get it to work when using 16x16 tiles. for map=0 to no_maps-1 ' Draw map for y=0 to map_height-1 for x=0 to map_width-1 c=maps[map*map_height+y][x] tilex=(c % map_width) tiley=(c/map_width) for i=0 to 7 ' Our tiles are 16x8 big in 4bpp mode, which means they are 8 bytes wide in RAM. Hence we need 2 LPOKEs per line. lpoke strptr(scrbuf)+y*(dest_screen_width_in_bytes*tile_height)+x*tile_width_in_bytes+i*dest_screen_width_in_bytes,lpeek(strptr(tiles)+tilex*tile_width_in_bytes+tiley*(src_screen_width_in_bytes*tile_height)+i*src_screen_width_in_bytes) lpoke strptr(scrbuf)+y*(dest_screen_width_in_bytes*tile_height)+x*tile_width_in_bytes+i*dest_screen_width_in_bytes+4,lpeek(strptr(tiles)+tilex*tile_width_in_bytes+tiley*(src_screen_width_in_bytes*tile_height)+i*src_screen_width_in_bytes+4) next i next x next y 'Bring the map to screen for ph=0 to pi/2 step pi/90/2 rlist[1].x=(352-sin(ph)*336)*65536 vsync next i Now i notice there is a loop for i=0 to 7 and I assumed this was for buidling the 8 rows of the original 16x8 or my 8x8 tiles. But if I change the tile height to 16 and set this loop to be 0 to 15 it just hangs. so am i misunderstaning this. On the plus side I have tile collision working based on the 8x8 tiles it's just my player sprite is 16x16 so it makes sense to draw the map based on 16x 16 tiles as well. cheers

The mechanics of coding a platform game are actualy pretty simple for most coding languages. Display screen -> player moves -> has player hit platform/enemy -> repeat But as Lost Dragon so ably stated above, game design, level design, graphics and sound are the real time consumers. For me game / level design are the hardest to get right. You can have the prettiest graphics and great sounds, but if ain't fun to play, then whats the point. Some of the best games i've ever played have simple audio and visuals but the gameplay is second to none and always keeps you wanting ' just one more go'

well now.... it's got at least 5 chips to go with it

mmmmm bacon

Hey Sporadic, is this all rb+ ? cos it's moving pretty well. It may be my eyesight, but is the road a little narrow re the perspective to the horizon ? Bloody brilliant stuff though - keep up the good work that man.

Out of interest Flux ( and for the sake of completeness ), what was the answer ? It's always good to know, especialy if someone else has a similar problem. Cheers

Just to add my two penneth : The Jag is capable of it's current software catalogue period. Everything else is horsepucky. If someone wants to move the capability discussion forward then grab a computer and get coding. I know it's hard, not from the coding point of view, just hard to devote the time, but with the advent of RB+ nobody has any excuses anymore. So roll up the sleeves, grab a computer and get coding - who knows, next week you may have a button mashing, ear bending, processor melting shmup written

As ever you guys continue to impress. I don't know where you get the time to create an original piece of software ( code, graphics/artwork, sound, music, leveldesign and gameplay ) without doing it full time. As an aside i'd be interested to know how long it actualy takes as a team in man hours to create something this good cos what ever you sell it for will never cover that for sure

Not sure this is exactly true and I'm happy to be corrected, but when the jag was conceived 3D texturing wasn't a big thing hence the original WOW factor when early cybermorph demo's where previewed. I think the jag can handle shifting around primitive blocks and triangles ok, it's just when it was released late the industry had moved on. The Reeboot guys and vladr are the ones to give a definitive answer on this though.

Had to look the Odyssey2 up - I think that was a Philips over here in the UK -> looked pretty good for the time. Course it was competing with the VCS so it was going to struggle with market share - although according to wikipedia it sold 2 million units.

You go too far sir.... I'm shocked and offended that one should deride a cultural icon such as the ZX Spectrum. I demand satisfaction sir - please conatct 'The Laird' who i'm sure will be pleased to act as my second. just make sure to check for your wallet and watch afterwards

May i ask why ? I've always found it pretty good - sure the framerate can be choppy but it for it's time it was ok. I think it's a game that handles the limitations of the jag pretty well and is playable and down right scary at times -> whats not to like Sure given the 20 years since release a lot of coders have maybe figured out better was of doing things but you have to take it as 'of it's time'.

For me pricing wasn't the problem and please don't take offence orion, but for me it would be waiting for the jag version until last. I realise that the other consoles are probably where you would generate more interest but tbh I'd only want it for the jag - although i get that my code/game would be portable over all supported platforms as they came online. As an aside would there be any mileage in selling the sprite/animation designer seperately ??

Or - just playing devils advocate you understand, you could emulate each jag chip in an individual FPGA and throw in all the bottlenecks getting them to communicate -> just like a real one. Actualy it would be intersting to see a PERFECT Jaguar created in an FPGA - you know the one that was envisioned without the limiting bandwidth 4k limited memory etc - just to see what it should have been capable off. But then it wouldn't be a jag of course.

Could a game not be sold to a user but tied to the JAG SD interface by hwinfo or serial no or something ?? I don't usualy an advocate of anything like DRM but in the case of this commuity and what appears to be wholesale theft and profiteering from other peoples hard work by certain tuckfards i'm all for it.

Unless.......you're in on the conspiracy ( Runs back into cover to watch the ensuing carnage )

Best explanation EVER. should be pinned in the (RB+) programming section for idiots like me to refer to.

Yeah ill give that a go and see how I get on. There is always something waiting to trip you up

Yep that works - must be gimps bmp formating then.

a case of rtfcl - read the f***ing comments luke. However still doesn't fix this issue - just gives me a slightly wider/deeper mess on the screen The image i'm attempting to use can be found here. cheers

Hands up - i don't get it. I have my image, which i have resized to 320x200px and then saved as a 16bit windows bitmap using the GIMP. I added it to the assets using : ABS,BACKGROUND_2,gfx_noclut16,assets\GFX\AP70573254.bmp and then create an entry in the rapinit : dc.l 1 ; (REPEAT COUNTER) ; Create this many objects of this type (or 1 for a single object) dc.l is_active ; sprite_active ; sprite active flag dc.w 0,0 ; sprite_x ; 16.16 x value to position at dc.w 0,0 ; sprite_y ; 16.16 y value to position at dc.w 0,0 ; sprite_xadd ; 16.16 x addition for sprite movement dc.w 0,0 ; sprite_yadd ; 16.16 y addition for sprite movement dc.l 320 ; sprite_width ; width of sprite (in pixels) dc.l 200 ; sprite_height ; height of sprite (in pixels) dc.l is_normal ; sprite_flip ; flag for mirroring data left<>right dc.l 0 ; sprite_coffx ; x offset from center for collision box center dc.l 0 ; sprite_coffy ; y offset from center for collision box center dc.l 0 ; sprite_hbox ; width of collision box dc.l 0 ; sprite_vbox ; height of collision box dc.l BACKGROUND_2 ; sprite_gfxbase ; start of bitmap data dc.l 16 ; (BIT DEPTH) ; bitmap depth (1/2/4/8/16/24) dc.l is_RGB ; (CRY/RGB) ; bitmap GFX type dc.l is_opaque ; (TRANSPARENCY) ; bitmap TRANS flag dc.l 320*200 ; sprite_framesz ; size per frame in bytes of sprite data dc.l 320 ; sprite_bytewid ; width in bytes of one line of sprite data dc.l 0 ; sprite_animspd ; frame delay between animation changes dc.l 0 ; sprite_maxframe ; number of frames in animation chain dc.l ani_rept ; sprite_animloop ; repeat or play once dc.l edge_wrap ; sprite_wrap ; wrap on screen exit, or remove dc.l spr_inf ; sprite_timer ; frames sprite is active for (or spr_inf) dc.l spr_linear ; sprite_track ; use 16.16 xadd/yadd or point to 16.16 x/y table dc.l 0 ; sprite_tracktop ; pointer to loop point in track table (if used) dc.l spr_unscale ; sprite_scaled ; flag for scaleable object dc.l %00100000 ; sprite_scale_x ; x scale factor (if scaled) dc.l %00100000 ; sprite_scale_y ; y scale factor (if scaled) dc.l -1 ; sprite_was_hit ; initially flagged as not hit dc.l 0 ; sprite_CLUT ; no_CLUT (8/16/24 bit) or CLUT (1/2/4 bit) dc.l can_hit ; sprite_colchk ; if sprite can collide with another dc.l cd_keep ; sprite_remhit ; flag to remove (or keep) on collision dc.l single ; sprite_bboxlink ; single for normal bounding box, else pointer to table dc.l 0 ; sprite_hitpoint ; Hitpoints before death dc.l 0 ; sprite_damage ; Hitpoints deducted from target dc.l 320 ; sprite_gwidth ; GFX width (of data) and when i try and use it i get a load of rubbish on the screen. So i'm either getting the assets declaration wrong or the rapint config wrong. Cheers

Hi all, been quite a while since i've had the time to muck about with rb+, had to move our companies it system into a new building and this has taken up a whole heap of time, dealing with contractors, phone comapnies etc. I also ran into some issues with manic miner that I think I'm going to have to come back too when I can get my head around them. Anyhoo i'm having a go at something over the christmas period and have a question regarding importing images for backdrops. So i have an image in jpeg format that I reduced to 320x200 ( although i could reduce it to any size I suppose ). So far so good, but where i really come unstuck is what to convert to and then the format in the op. Should i convert it to bmp format ? idealy i'd like to keep it at best quality so I figure 24bit bmp, but when i try to use this i just get a jumbled mess on the screen. I get the same result using a 256 colour bitmap. Any pointers as what the list settings sould be for either. All help appreciated. cheers

Looks like your 'building an ELITE fighting force' Sorry couldn't resist getting two references to my favaurite 8 bit game and my favourite 80's movie

I like it. What resolution and depth is the background image and how do you import that into RB+ -> cos i've only been able to get low res/colour backgrounds to work properly and I was to scared to ask Nice work though.

Hi Sporadic, This is a really nice piece of work - is it coded entirley in RB+ ? Will you release source when you finaly happy with it ? I'd love to see how you've acheived everything. cheers