IntyBASIC Place Different Color Stack Images?

[First Spear]

I am using Color Stack mode, have an image created with intycolor all black background. Placing other images on this base image also with IntyColor -s0000 (all black background, no Stack change).

 

I want to place a white-on-blue image in a section of the screen, then replace it with white-on-gray, then replace it with yellow-on-blue. Each of these images was created with the following settings (please note that the color conversion is not quite correct). Each image is 16px wide and 8px high.

 

cstestback.bmp

whiteonblue.bmp

whiteongray.bmp

yellowonblue.bmp

 

 

IntyColor commands:

intycolor -b -o20 -s0000 cstestback.bmp cstestback.bas cstestback
intycolor -b -o20 -s7777 whiteonblue.bmp whiteonblue.bas whiteonblue
intycolor -b -o20 -s7777 whiteongray.bmp whiteongray.bas whiteongray
intycolor -b -o20 -saaaa yellowonblue.bmp yellowonblue.bas yellowonblue

Below is the code that makes the background, with the shapes commented-out at the bottom.

How can I place these images properly on my all-black-background screen?

Thanks.

REM stub for showing image
INCLUDE "constants.bas"
MODE 0,0,0,0,0
WAIT
DEFINE 20,16,cstestback_bitmaps_0
WAIT
DEFINE 36,16,cstestback_bitmaps_1
WAIT
DEFINE 52,9,cstestback_bitmaps_2
WAIT
SCREEN cstestback_cards
loop:
GOTO loop
' 41 bitmaps
cstestback_bitmaps_0:
DATA $0000,$FF00,$0000,$0E03
DATA $0000,$FF01,$601C,$0080
DATA $0000,$0080,$0000,$0000
DATA $0000,$0603,$1F0C,$0000
DATA $E038,$0080,$FC03,$0000
DATA $0000,$0000,$00FF,$0100
DATA $0000,$0000,$07FF,$C038
DATA $0000,$0701,$0000,$0000
DATA $700E,$FFC0,$0000,$0000
DATA $0000,$E01F,$0000,$1C03
DATA $0000,$01FF,$300E,$00C0
DATA $0000,$80C0,$0000,$0000
DATA $0000,$0000,$0000,$0F01
DATA $0000,$0000,$0000,$FFFE
DATA $0000,$0000,$0000,$C000
DATA $0701,$000F,$0000,$0000
cstestback_bitmaps_1:
DATA $00E0,$00FF,$0000,$0000
DATA $0000,$00FF,$0000,$0000
DATA $0000,$00FF,$0100,$1806
DATA $0000,$18FE,$8060,$0000
DATA $0000,$0100,$0301,$0707
DATA $7F1F,$FFFF,$FFFF,$FFFF
DATA $FFFF,$FFFF,$FFFF,$FFFF
DATA $F8E0,$FEFC,$FFFE,$FFFF
DATA $0000,$0000,$0000,$8080
DATA $0100,$0C03,$000F,$0000
DATA $8060,$0000,$00FF,$0000
DATA $0000,$0300,$00FC,$0000
DATA $0000,$FF00,$0100,$0806
DATA $0000,$E000,$8040,$0000
DATA $0F07,$0F0F,$0F0F,$0F0F
DATA $C080,$C0C0,$C0C0,$C0C0
cstestback_bitmaps_2:
DATA $0100,$301E,$00FF,$0000
DATA $8070,$0000,$00FF,$0000
DATA $0000,$0000,$0080,$0000
DATA $070F,$0707,$0103,$0001
DATA $FFFF,$FFFF,$FEFF,$FCFE
DATA $80C0,$8080,$0000,$0000
DATA $1F7F,$010F,$0000,$0000
DATA $FFFF,$FEFF,$0000,$0000
DATA $E0F8,$00C0,$0000,$0000
REM 20x12 cards
cstestback_cards:
DATA $0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000
DATA $0000,$0000,$066B,$08A3,$08AB,$08B3,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000
DATA $0000,$0000,$08BB,$08C3,$08CB,$08D3,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000
DATA $0000,$0000,$0000,$08DB,$08E3,$066B,$066B,$066B,$066B,$08EB,$08F3,$08FB,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000
DATA $0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$1902,$190A,$1912,$0000,$091B,$0923,$092B,$0933,$093B,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000
DATA $0000,$0000,$0000,$1942,$194A,$1952,$195A,$1962,$0000,$0000,$096B,$0973,$097B,$066B,$0983,$098B,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000
DATA $0000,$0000,$0000,$1992,$1952,$1952,$1952,$199A,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$09A3,$09AB,$0673,$0673,$0673,$09B3,$0000
DATA $0000,$0000,$0000,$19BA,$1952,$1952,$19C2,$19CA,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000
DATA $0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$19D2,$19DA,$19E2,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000
DATA $0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000
DATA $0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000
DATA $0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0000

'    REM stub for showing image
'    INCLUDE "constants.bas"
'    MODE 0,7,7,7,7
'    WAIT
'    DEFINE 20,2,whiteonblue_bitmaps_0
'    WAIT
'    SCREEN whiteonblue_cards,0,0,2,1,2
'   loop:
'    GOTO loop
'
'    ' 2 bitmaps
'   whiteonblue_bitmaps_0:
'    DATA $F0FF,$F0F0,$F0F0,$FFF0
'    DATA $07FF,$0707,$0707,$FF07
'
'    REM 2x1 cards
'   whiteonblue_cards:
'    DATA $18A1,$18A9

'
'    REM stub for showing image
'    INCLUDE "constants.bas"
'    MODE 0,10,10,10,10
'    WAIT
'    DEFINE 20,2,yellowonblue_bitmaps_0
'    WAIT
'    SCREEN yellowonblue_cards,0,0,2,1,2
'   loop:
'    GOTO loop
'
'    ' 2 bitmaps
'   yellowonblue_bitmaps_0:
'    DATA $F0FF,$F0F0,$F0F0,$FFF0
'    DATA $07FF,$0707,$0707,$FF07
'
'    REM 2x1 cards
'   yellowonblue_cards:
'    DATA $18A1,$18A9
'
'    REM stub for showing image
'    INCLUDE "constants.bas"
'    MODE 0,7,7,7,7
'    WAIT
'    DEFINE 20,2,whiteongray_bitmaps_0
'    WAIT
'    SCREEN whiteongray_cards,0,0,2,1,2
'   loop:
'    GOTO loop
'
'    ' 2 bitmaps
'   whiteongray_bitmaps_0:
'    DATA $F0FF,$F0F0,$F0F0,$FFF0
'    DATA $07FF,$0707,$0707,$FF07
'
'    REM 2x1 cards
'   whiteongray_cards:
'    DATA $18A6,$18AE

Edited March 29, 2018 by First Spear

[+DZ-Jay]

Unfortunately, using Color Stack mode, the only way to change the background (or second colour) of a card is to advance the stack.

 

I say "unfortunately," because when working with dynamic scenes, as opposed to a static screen, changing the stack state as objects move becomes a complex problem.

 

The problem is compounded by not being able to randomly advance the stack, being constrained to a sequence of colours. For every card that requires an advance, you need the following cards to "reset" the stack by advancing it again.

 

You can get creative with this technique, but it adds incidental complexity to your program.

 

Depending on what you are trying to accomplish, you could exploit these constraints. For instance, if the background colour will only ever be Black or Blue, you could set your stack to Black, Blue, Black, Blue. Then, setting a card to Blue requires you to set the Stack Advance flag of it and the next card to set it back to Black.

 

Christmas Carol does something like that to great effect in order to display colourful 8x8 presents in one card. When Carol picks up the present, the engine needs to reset the stack advance flag of both it's card and the next.

 

However, keep in mind that this has the potential of causing a race condition -- if a frame interrupt occurs in between the update if both cards, you'll get some weird screen glitches. I know, I've been there.

 

All this to say that, for static scenes, playing with the Color Stack is easy and powerful; but for dynamic scenes, it becomes complex fast. It is possible, but there are some compromises you will have to make.

 

dZ.

[Kiwi]

Use MOBs to place those small images or use BG/FG mode. With Colorstack, you have to be creative.

[First Spear]

I want to dive deep, if you're OK with continuing to look at this...

 

 

The colors I actually want to use are 0,9,A,1 for the background. The whole screen is drawn with lots of foreground colors but only black background, so starting the stack at "0" for IntyColor is cool. I will cycle through those colors in order (no need to skip).

 

There are two tiles where the color needs to have a background change, BACKTAB tiles 118 and 119, the center-right side of the screen. If there is a problem doing those two tiles, then doing 116 and 117 are fine. The entire rest of the screen must always retain the black background.

 

The scenario is the user pushes a bottom-side button, and the two tiles display with a new foreground+background color, and pressing the button again makes the tiles revert back to having any color with a black background. Think of displaying the cards in Poker & Blackjack, where normally the back is shown unless disc is pushed then cards "flip". But for my game mechanic the idea is not to flip unless the button is pushed again.

 

When button is pushed, a variable is checked

if var between 0 and 1, use background color of 0

If var between 1 and 2, use background color of 9

If var between 3 and 4, use background color of A

If var between 5 and 6, use background color of 1

if var > 6, var = 0

 

 

This is turn-based, not high-action, so it's OK to blank out tiles with black blocks first if a redraw needs to occur.

 

 

All ideas appreciated!

 

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

Unfortunately, using Color Stack mode, the on[snip]

 

[+DZ-Jay]

Well, that doesn't sound so bad. Just to be sure, lets review the basics and restrictions of the Color Stack. Feel free to skip ahead if you already feel confident you understand this. It's more as a reference to those following along that may not be.

 

The Color Stack defines a circular stack (actually an array) of four colors that can be used for the background. In Color Stack mode, every BACKTAB card has only a foreground color and takes the background color from the active slot of the Color Stack. It is how the active stack color is selected that complicated and restricts matters.

 

Along with its foreground color, every card in the BACKTAB has an "advance stack" flag. This tells the screen processor to advance the stack to the next slot. When the active slot is the fourth and last color, advancing the stack brings it back to the first one, thus why I said it was a "circular" array.

 

So, what's the end result of this? It's a background that can be painted using each sequential color of he stack.

 

Think of it this way: imagine set your stack to the following colors: Red, Blue, Yellow, and Black. When the screen is drawn, by default the stack starts at zero. Therefore, all cards will have a background color of Red (color #1).

 

Then on the fifth card, you set the Advance Flag. From that card on, the row will continue painting all cards Blue (color #2) until told to advance again. If no other card advances the stack, then Blue will rain all the way to the end of the BACKTAB. If another card sets it's Advance Flag, then the stack is advanced to color #3 and the remaining cards on the screen are painted Yellow.

 

The BACKTAB is this painted, starting from the first card (top, left corner) moving from left to right across the fits row, then left to right across the second row, and so forth until the last row at the bottom of the screen.

 

As you can see, there is no way to go from stack slot #1 to slot #3 or to jump any color: you always advance one color at a time.

 

So, with that out of the way, let us try to address your question.

 

If you only need the background color different on two cards, and they do not move around (or don't move that much), then the problem is not too bad.

 

It seems your special colored cards are adjacent. This brings one limitation: their colors must be adjacent on the stack as well. If this is the case, then we can solve this easily. If not, then we'll have to get creative.

 

Can you give me an example of the colors you will be using across the screen? I'll re-read the above comment just in case I missed it.

 

dZ.

[First Spear]

Here are the 4 views that I want to show, so the color stack will be 0,9,A,1

 

 

The backcolor of the rest of the screen is always 0, but I want to display one of the 4 views. Please note that there are two adjacent tiles that make up the graphic representation.

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

Well, that doesn't sound so bad. Just to be sur[snip]

 

[+DZ-Jay]

If the changed background colours will always only be one of your 4 colours (as it appears from your samples above), then you don't need to complicate matters too much. You can just set the advance bits of those cards and then just update the color stack itself.

 

You see, if a backtab card has the advance flag set so as to get the second color stack slot, then updating the second color stack slot in the STIC will make that card immediately change colours.

 

Does this make sense?

 

From your sample images above, it seems to me that your color stack should be set to:

• 0x0 (Black)
• 0xA (Orange)
• 0x0 (Black)
• 0xA (Orange)

You will paint most of the screen with Black background (#1), and when you get to your special cards, you set the advance flag (#2). The background is now Orange. You paint your two cards with the new Background and set the advance flag (#3) on the third card afterwards. The background is now Black again, and you'r done: paint the rest of the screen with that background color.

 

Note that the stack is ready with slots #3 and #4 to do the same thing again on the same screen, if you need to.

 

Now, the user presses a key, so you update your color stack to the following:

• 0x0 (Black)
• 0x9 (Cyan)
• 0x0 (Black)
• 0x9 (Cyan)

Now, automatically, and without any further effort from you, the cards with the advance flag flag on slot #2 will now change from Orange to Cyan.

 

Does this make sense?

 

I guess I am not picturing your screen usage correctly, so it's hard for me to offer more details.

 

-dZ.

[First Spear]

Why wouldn't the stack be Black-Orange-Cyan-Darkblue?

 

Normally, the special tiles do not display, there is white foreground and black background content in that space.

 

The screen area is normally all black background everywhere.

 

On a keypress, I do some logic and determine if the 2-tile-area should have a black background or orange background or cyan background or darkblue background. If the background was black before, the calculation will determine if the background should be black or orange and then draw the shape across the 2 tiles using the new (or current) color.

 

I think I get your explanation, but not how to implement it in IntyBASIC.

 

 

Thanks.

 

 

If the changed background colours will always only be one of your 4 colours (as it appears from your samples above), then you don't need to complicate matters too much. You can just set the advance bits of those cards and then just update the color stack itself.

 

You see, if a backtab card has the advance flag set so as to get the second color stack slot, then updating the second color stack slot in the STIC will make that card immediately change colours.

 

Does this make sense?

 

From your sample images above, it seems to me that your color stack should be set to:

• 0x0 (Black)
• 0xA (Orange)
• 0x0 (Black)
• 0xA (Orange)

You will paint most of the screen with Black background (#1), and when you get to your special cards, you set the advance flag (#2). The background is now Orange. You paint your two cards with the new Background and set the advance flag (#3) on the third card afterwards. The background is now Black again, and you'r done: paint the rest of the screen with that background color.

 

Note that the stack is ready with slots #3 and #4 to do the same thing again on the same screen, if you need to.

 

Now, the user presses a key, so you update your color stack to the following:

• 0x0 (Black)
• 0x9 (Cyan)
• 0x0 (Black)
• 0x9 (Cyan)

Now, automatically, and without any further effort from you, the cards with the advance flag flag on slot #2 will now change from Orange to Cyan.

 

Does this make sense?

 

I guess I am not picturing your screen usage correctly, so it's hard for me to offer more details.

 

-dZ.

 

[+DZ-Jay]

Why wouldn't the stack be Black-Orange-Cyan-Darkblue?

 

I think I get your explanation, but not how to implement it in IntyBASIC.

 

You perhaps do not get it as much as you think if you asked that first question.

 

In Color Stack mode, you do not get to select the background color for a particular tile. You are selecting the background color for the rest of the tiles from that point on.

 

Think of the BACKTAB not as a grid, but as a continuous line of tiles starting from the top-left corner, folded at the right edge, wrapping around to the left side again, and so on. Like this:

         +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
ROW #0:  | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10| 11| 12| 13| 14| 15| 16| 17| 18| 19| --,
         +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+   |
           .________________________________________________________________________________/
           |
           v
         +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
ROW #1:  | 20| 21| 22| 23| 24| 25| 26| 27| 28| 29| 30| ...                               |
         +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+

In Color Stack mode, you "paint" the screen starting at the top-left-most position, using the first color. When the "paintbrush" reaches the right edge, it resets to the left on the next row, but keeps its color. Thus, it "paints" the screen from left to right, top to bottom (just like the TV raster does, but in bigger blocks).

 

When you set the Advance Flag on a tile, what you are doing is changing the color of the "paintbrush," so that all subsequent tiles from that point will use that color -- until you advance the stack again or reach the bottom-right-most edge of the screen.

 

So, why can't you set the stack to Black-Orange-Cyan-Dark Blue? Because you will have a hard time getting it back to black afterwards for the rest of the screen.

 

Think of it this way:

You start with stack color #1: Black. Your "paintbrush" is painting the screen from top to bottom, left to right. It reaches position #138 (Column 18, Row 6). You advance the stack color to #2: Orange. Then you continue "painting" the next two tiles in that row with the new color.

 

Now what? If you advance the stack you'll change the background to Cyan, but you're done with Orange and you want to go back to Black. Advance it again and you are now in Dark Blue. It takes another time advancing the stack to get back to the first color, Black.

 

Each advancement consumes one card on the BACKTAB, i.e., the only way to advance the stack is to set a flag in the BACKTAB word of a particular tile, thus it changes on that tile and all afterwards. You can think of it like this: To advance the color stack, you must paint a tile in the new color.

 

Now your screen has your two special Orange tiles, followed by one in Cyan, followed by another in Dark Blue. As far as I understand that's not what you intended. I thought you only wanted to paint the Orange tiles in a sea of Black.

 

There's another problem: What if you wanted the special tiles Cyan instead of Orange? How do you get from Black (color #1) to Cyan (color #3) without stepping on Orange (color #2)?

 

You can get around these problem by using "reverse video." That is, ignoring the background and painting the foreground in all Black pixels. This works great if the space is blank (you can even use a GROM card for that), but not very well otherwise. Also, it requires additional code, which let's face it, is not necessary since the problem is that the stack is not working in your favour.

 

That is why I said that, if the special tiles will only be one of those colors at a time, you are better off just using colors #1 and #2 and repeat them in #3 and #4. That way, when the "paintbrush" hits the position of the special tiles, you advance the stack to the special color, then advance again to return to Black for the rest of the screen.

 

Then your logic actually updates the values in the color stack to the special color you need at any point.

 

-dZ.

 

 

UPDATE: Edited for clarity and added the simple illustration of the BACKTAB painting algorithm.

Edited April 4, 2018 by DZ-Jay

[+DZ-Jay]

First Spear, I think I may be missing something from your explanations and that perhaps my descriptions are not following what you intend to do. If so, I apologize.

Here's my understanding of the requirements and constraints. Please correct me if any of it is wrong.

• You plan to use the Color Stack.
• MOBs are reserved for other purposes, so they are not available for the background scene.
• The "base" background color is Black, that is, most of the screen background is going to be a black field.
• There are two adjacent tiles that need to be painted with a background special color.
• The foreground color of these special tiles will be used to draw some scene details (i.e., they won't be blank of a single solid color).
• Depending on game state, the special background color for the adjacent tiles is either:
  • Orange
  • Cyan
  • Blue
• The special colored tiles can be only one of those special colors at a time.
• There may be more than one set of special colored tiles but they will always be:
  • Each composed of only adjacent tiles (i.e., contiguous tiles in the BACKTAB array)
  • All sets of the same special color when visible

 

Here are some questions I have for you, to better understand your requirements:

• Are those special tiles in your mock-up screenshots the only place where you need to change the background color?
• Are those special tiles static (i.e., they are painted then disappear, but do not move to different positions)?
• Can you provide a quick-and-dirty mock up of an actual background scene, with some of the foreground detail?

 

-dZ.

[First Spear]

I needed a re-re-read. At a different time of the day... I get it now.

 

So... How to modify the code in the first post to programatically set the Color Stack before writing one of the new background-color tiles?

 

All of your requirements and constraint understanding is 100% right.

 

The tiles are static, and do not move. They just change on a key press, and change back, in those BACKTAB locations only.

 

The image above is accurate, stuff with a black background is all over, and BACKTAB 118 and 119 change.

 

 

Thanks.

 

 

First Spear, I think I may be missing something from your explanations and that perhaps my descriptions are not following what you intend to do. If so, I apologize.

Here's my understanding of the requirements and constraints. Please correct me if any of it is wrong.

• You plan to use the Color Stack.
• MOBs are reserved for other purposes, so they are not available for the background scene.
• The "base" background color is Black, that is, most of the screen background is going to be a black field.
• There are two adjacent tiles that need to be painted with a background special color.
• The foreground color of these special tiles will be used to draw some scene details (i.e., they won't be blank of a single solid color).
• Depending on game state, the special background color for the adjacent tiles is either:
  • Orange
  • Cyan
  • Blue
• The special colored tiles can be only one of those special colors at a time.
• There may be more than one set of special colored tiles but they will always be:
  • Each composed of only adjacent tiles (i.e., contiguous tiles in the BACKTAB array)
  • All sets of the same special color when visible

 

Here are some questions I have for you, to better understand your requirements:

• Are those special tiles in your mock-up screenshots the only place where you need to change the background color?
• Are those special tiles static (i.e., they are painted then disappear, but do not move to different positions)?
• Can you provide a quick-and-dirty mock up of an actual background scene, with some of the foreground detail?

 

-dZ.

[+DZ-Jay]

I needed a re-re-read. At a different time of the day... I get it now.

 

So... How to modify the code in the first post to programatically set the Color Stack before writing one of the new background-color tiles?

 

All of your requirements and constraint understanding is 100% right.

 

The tiles are static, and do not move. They just change on a key press, and change back, in those BACKTAB locations only.

 

The image above is accurate, stuff with a black background is all over, and BACKTAB 118 and 119 change.

 

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

Aha! No worries, I just wanted to be sure I understood well.

 

Soooo... I am no IntyBASIC expert, but here's what I believe will help. You need to use:

   MODE 0,color1,color2,color3,color4

Replace "color1, color2, color3, color4" with the constants for the colors of each stack slot. For example:

' Using Constants.bas...
MODE 0, STACK_BLACK, STACK_BLUE, STACK_BLACK, STACK_BLUE

You need to call WAIT at some point after, for it to take effect. Also, according to what I see in the manual, you cannot use PRINT AT until after the WAIT.

 

To advance the color stack on a particular BACKTAB, you need to ADD (if not set already) $2000 to its word value. You can toggle the flag by XORing $2000 instead: it'll be set if not already, and cleared otherwise.

      POKE <btab-addrs>, (PEEK(<btab-addrs>) XOR $2000) 

That will toggle the "advance color stack" on the card at <btab-address>. To get the BACKTAB address you use this function:

btab-addrs(x,y) = ($200 + ((y * 20) + x))

Where "x" is the column, "y" is the row, and $200 is the base address of the BACKTAB.

 

Note that, for your purposes, once you have set the advance bit on a card, you do not have to change it. All you have to do is update the stack colors when the user presses a key. If you want to paint them all black again, just set the stack to all black colors. Easy peasy.

 

-dZ.

Edited April 10, 2018 by DZ-Jay