Chars remaked, now let's go into Game Mapping...

[José Pereira]

Hello.

 

I've remake into A8 a Game.

The Game it's a normall 4Way Scrolling/Platform.

I have 118Chars for Backgr. Gfxs. but need:

- 4/5 Players on Screen at a time (normal C64 size 3x3Chars and with shifting 12Chars total eachone).

- Some more Chars for Bullets/Fire and Bonus...

 

How to construct Screen?

 

49 wide it will be better (not Sprites Masking...)

How it will work as 1Charset by Line (Chars 0->47 as Tiles) and the others for Enemys...

(Probably 1Charset by two Lines possible...)

 

But how this Tiles thing work?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another thing:

To use the Chars I have and make a Map, wich program better to use?

 

Invision P.C.?

But will I have to Plot each character again or any that I can take .bmp or .fnt from G2F?

And any Program that saves Fonts so that a Coder take it (A8 coding)?

And finally by now, the most important would be a Program just to Build some Game Objects and see if I'm forgetting any Char (even a P.C. or C64 one...)?

 

 

 

Hope you can help me once again.

Greetings.

José Pereira.

[José Pereira]

Hi again.

 

I'm crazy trying too understand this once and for all!

 

 

Let's see if now I can explain better:

 

 

 

Think a 30Lines Screen.

1Charset by two Lines (15Charsets=15Kb.)

 

Now it would be:

Charset0: Line0&1

Charset1: Line2&3

And so on...

 

 

On each charset:

1st Line: Chars 0->47

2nd Line: Chars 48->95

All this Chars are empty (you have a Blank Screen)

 

 

 

Fonts:

You have Data of 118 Blocks/Squares (or more 256,512,...)

 

 

 

Now you will assign each Char to the Block/Square you want:

Charset0,Line0,Char0 will have Block1

" " 1 " " Block2

" " 2 " " Block1 again

Whatever Blocks squares you want to put there... on Charset0 and on the other ones...

 

 

 

 

Something like having (Basic) 1Line of Data, each one a cell

512Lines=512 cells

 

But only 96 (48+48) used in each Charset.

You call each Cell to the desired Charset/Line/Char.

 

 

 

 

 

Hope you understand better now.

If not, or probably not this way, how in hell can we get more than 128Chars on an A8 Game?

 

In my case 118Chars(4ways Scrolling) for Backgr. Gfx and more:

1Enemy=12Chars

5Enemys=60Chars

Bulletts/Fire=some more...

HOW?

HOW?

 

 

 

Thanks.

Greetings.

José Pereira.

[analmux]

...I have 118Chars for Backgr. Gfxs...

So, if I understand you correctly, the TOTAL screen does not need more than 118 background graphics?

 

In that case, these 118 chars will not all be used at the same line, I suppose.

 

Then you should keep track of WHICH of those 118 chars are needed in WHICH screen region. Each of the 15 fonts is only filled up with data of a part of these 118 chars.

 

 

How to construct Screen?

In widescreen mode you can do finescrolling in all directions without PM-masking at screenborders. The screen will always be 48 chars wide (at least using antic 4 gfxmode). So, why would you need a 49 wide screen?

 

 

How it will work as 1Charset by Line (Chars 0->47 as Tiles) and the others for Enemys...

This would really be a waste of space, OR you should be sure that sprites will be restricted to certain zones of the vertical coordinates. Then it might be possible to use the free space in other font-zones (where no sprites are needed) for other RAM usage purposes.

 

However, if you're using TILES (f.e. 2*2 or 3*3 char blocks), then you might do font-changing on every line, f.e. change like this:

Line 0 : Font 0

Line 1 : Font 1

Line 2 : Font 2

Line 3 : Font 0

Line 4 : Font 1

Line 5 : Font 2

etc.

 

F.e. when you need 20 tiles, you'd need 20*3*3 = 180 pieces of font definitions. You can spread these out into font 0,1,2, so 60 each. Then you still have fontspace left for 68 other chars in each of the 3 fonts. This should be enough for f.e. 5 sprites (of 12 chars each). And then there's still 8 left for fireballs/bullets/bonus.

 

Then you'd only need 3 fonts, thus 3 kB, and you can move the sprites freely across the screen, at least, when keeping their y-co fixed.

 

 

Is this a bit into the direction you're worrying about?

[José Pereira]

49 was an error, "9" was at right of "8"Key.

 

 

Yeah, but the problem is that I have 118 at a Line (and more of Screen Scrolling Left Side and Bottom Grround=

and I'll go into 256 (C64 Mode and all the Moving things are traditionaly C64 Sprites).

 

 

This is the Big Problem:

I would not have, off course 118 on a Line (visibble Screen will be 40/42Chars) but will have in the same Line

if I do GameMap Scrolling... See now...

 

Thanks.

José Pereira.

[analmux]

The hardware doesn't offer solutions for that: 128 chars per font is simply the limit.

 

Possibly you can dynamically redefine the gfx data of the font, i.e. "do it on-the-fly".

 

Keep a table somewhere in memory. This is a table which tells an update-routine which fontspace will become free after scrolling some chars left or right. Then the update routine can delete all unused gfx, and insert new gfx.

 

For up & down scrolling there's of course no real limit, only RAM size.

[José Pereira]

The hardware doesn't offer solutions for that: 128 chars per font is simply the limit.

 

Possibly you can dynamically redefine the gfx data of the font, i.e. "do it on-the-fly".

 

Keep a table somewhere in memory. This is a table which tells an update-routine which fontspace will become free after scrolling some chars left or right. Then the update routine can delete all unused gfx, and insert new gfx.

 

For up & down scrolling there's of course no real limit, only RAM size.

 

 

 

Thanks.

 

I am seeing things better now.

I have seen Map better and I don't have all in the same Line (although, I still have not many Chars left for "Moving Things")

 

 

Possible solution:

1.)- Doing things "on the Fly" changing it possible.

2.)- C64 is using 4x4Chars Tiles, and with 1.) I think 1Charset by 4Lines or even

 

 

I was counting CHARS on Total (G2F get's 118Chars) and rolling horizontally the Map seems more than it is really...

 

 

 

 

Greetings.

José Pereira.