7800 basic incbanner + bankswitching

[+Muddyfunster]

I've been experimenting further with incbanner and sprites.

 

I can get static and sprites banners working nicely but this led me to thinking about using the banners for some simple animation (for a title screen for example).

 

However I then found that with the standard 48k romsize, my experiment splitting the screen in to 4 zones (top left, top right, bottom left etc) meant I quickly filled that 48k up if I had multiple banners of 80x72 in 160B

 

I can compile a 48k ROM that loads in and displays 4 screen sections with incbanner and plotbanner, each 80x72, no issues. (oh for a command to flip a sprite or banner! :D)

 

 

 

 

 

 

If I go to 5 or 6 sections loaded with incbanner,  I can load them but I get black blocks on the right side of the screen when displaying anyting, I assume this is because i'm running low on rom and this is causing an issue somewhere (displaylist ?).

 

I also noticed that if I use a superwide banner (say 160 pixels) then the last third gets cut off and pasted on the main image - I'll make a separate thread for that, this is why i'm splitting the banners at 80 pixels.

 

 

If I go beyond that I'm out of memory (at 7 I get "-1510 bytes of ROM space left in the main area"). 

 

Ok, lets move to a bigger size and bankswitch. I figured this would be easy enough as I've done bankswitching with Bb before, but I cannot seem to get anything to compile. I tried to switch to a bankswitch format, like 128k but whatever I compile, I get "*** (32): ERROR, graphics overrun in bank 0"

 

My understanding is that with a 128k scheme, I'd have 8 banks of 16kb, so 0 through 7. (I assume bank 0 is the first bank). I've tried moving the banners to their own bank (4 in bank 1, 4 in bank 2 etc.) 

 

bank 1

  incbanner gfx/FR1_TL.png 160B
  incbanner gfx/FR1_TR.png 160B
  incbanner gfx/FR1_BL.png 160B
  incbanner gfx/FR1_BR.png 160B

 bank 2

  incbanner gfx/FR2_TL.png 160B
  incbanner gfx/FR2_TR.png 160B
  incbanner gfx/FR2_BL.png 160B
  incbanner gfx/FR2_BR.png 160B

but this doesn't seem to work either.

 

I don't understand the graphics overrun error in bank 0 other than the obvious - ie I've put too much stuff in there. I don't know how to resolve the error.

 

I could reduce the colour resolution from 160B to 160A and that would probably work to reduce the banner sizes so I could get more in to 48k,  but i'd still eventually hit the wall on needing to bankswitch.

 

Any pointers would be appreciated!

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

works_no_bankswitch.bas bankswitch_doesnt_work.bas gfx.zip

[+mksmith]

Hey Muddy!

 

First thing 160B will take up a lot more space than 160A!

 

Not sure about how 48K works but with 128K you get 8 Banks of 16K - within each bank you get 3 GFX blocks which work out to around 2048 bytes per GFX block I believe.

 

There are some key things to remember:

• Bank 8 is shared (code and gfx) regardless of the bank you are drawing from. 
• The remaining bank images are available ONLY where you call your drawing loop (was the 2600 the same? - can't remember). You can for example plotsprite an image from a totally separate bank but that bank MUST be active when you call drawscreen for it to render.
• Make you DL Memory area bigger (using either set extradlmemory on [as you are] or convert to 128KRam as using something like set dlmemory $4000 $5fff) which may help with the rendering.
• You may need to duplicate code across banks to further break up your game
• Read the output log of the compiler as it will tell you how much space you have available in the GFX blocks (and it tells you what is in each)
• If you are using the frame parameter of plotsprite to animate an object such as a ship ALL those images must be in the same GFX Block loaded in the order of render 

 

As an example in Arkanoid I have the level border, vaus, ball and brick images in Bank 8 so they can be accessed regardless of the state of the game.  The main (levels 1-32) game loop is in Bank 2 where I have the backgrounds for the 4 main levels and the main code for the game functionality.  The Doh (level 33) game loop is in Bank 3 with that background and the Doh head images - some of the game code from Bank 2 is duplicated in Bank 3.  The other things I do is use other banks for the title, intor/outro screens so I can store more gfx.  To finish Arkanoid, I am going to have to split Bank 2 into multiple banks as I have no room for the additional enemy objects I've yet to add!!

 

I hope that makes sense??  Unfortunately it isn't too much different from the 2600 in that you must work within your banks for certain things - just the banks are bigger.  It's still be a juggling act!  I have a custom 7800basic for Arkanoid with some stuff Mike has configured for DL memory and additional things for the pokey sound from Sythnpopalooza as I need more stuff available to be accessed from multiple banks!

 

I'll have a play around with your code above and see what I can make of it ?

 

  

 

 

[+mksmith]

Just from my quick play you are doing no wrong - it's just the amount of space required for gfx. Using 160A takes up 3 gfx blocks and 160B is 6 gfx blocks. So 128K is a problem with the 16k banks.

[+Muddyfunster]

Thanks Matt, 

 

That's really helpful, appreciate the info.

 

I thought intuitively, more memory = more space for graphics. Seems that might have been a bit optimistic

 

I understand now that each bank has a bunch of memory available for gfx and I need to design how I'm going to utilise the resources. 

 

I'm learning a lot as I experiment with what I can or can't do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[+mksmith]

All good mate! - yeah I though the same initially but I guess you do get more than the 2600 ?

 

I've definitely learnt a lot with everyone's help over the past 12 months - the community will get you through my friend ?