bB - changing background color on the fly

[Yoruk]

Hello there,

 

Is there a way to update/change COLUBK at mid-screen ?

 

I'm looking for a way to split my screen in two colors (horizontally !!), without using the playfield. Something like this :

 

 

 

Maybe by using a small assembly routine inside my game loop ?

 

Thanks !

 

 

[+Karl G]

Adding the code to the game loop will not have an effect.  Mid-screen changes like that need to be part of the kernel code, and bB code runs during overscan. What you want is the background kernel option to allow you to do this.

[Yoruk]

Thanks for the tip, but I didn't manage to make it work.

 

So if I understand correctly, by setting up the background kernel option it allows me to use the playfield color table to paint the background instead of the playfield blocks.

 

So I added :

 set kernel multisprite

 set kernel_options pfcolors no_blank_lines background

and

 

 pfcolors:
   $0E
   $0E
   $0E
   $0E
   $0E
   $B6
   $B6
   $B6
   $F4
   $F4
   $C4
   $0E
end

 

before my main loop. But there is an error during the assembly :

 

--- Unresolved Symbol List
pfcolortable             0000 ????         (R )

      2561 bytes of ROM space left

So maybe I'm not filling the data in the good array...?

 

[+Random Terrain]

The kernel options are for the standard kernel only. They will not work with the DPC+ kernel or the multisprite kernel.

 

https://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-batari-basic-commands.html#kernelopchart

[+Karl G]

I mistakenly assumed you were using the standard kernel. Both the standard kernel and DPC+ have a way of changing the background color mid-screen, but the multisprite kernel does not. Also, you would use "bkcolors" instead of "pfcolors" to define them. 

[Yoruk]

Aouch sorry for being not accurate enough in my description.

 

My main constraint is to have the multi-sprite kernel. I'll have only one sprite on a scanline at a time, so it should work.

 

So in this case my only chance to have my two colors background is with a standard playfield ? They say that the PF is mirrored (no so problems here), and that I must use the "playfield" command to draw my background. But I don't know if there is color limitations ?

 

I'm not yet familiar with the pfheight variable, I'll try that...

 

Thanks !

 

[+Karl G]

The Multisprite kernel is a special case, and it has its own limitations. It doesn't have any kernel options like the standard kernel does. If you wanted to set COLUBK to one color, and COLUPF to another color, then that would be one way to have two different colors on the screen like you were wanting, but I don't know if you were planning on using the playfield for anything else.

[Yoruk]

Many thanks ! It should work perfectly. ?

 

No, I'll not use the PF for anything else than pure drawing (no collisions checks....).

[+Gemintronic]

There is a modified multi sprite kernel that supports a multi colored background used in this flappy bird demo:

 

It has its quirks.  One of which is that your player sprites can cause the background color to spill over to other rows depending on the y position.  So, you have to program around that and it usually involves very chunky vertical movement (to skip lines that would cause the background color to bleed).  Also, one background theme per game.  You could *probably* get around that by making a multi kernel game using RevEngs multi kernel framework.

 

 

[Yoruk]

Ill study that, thanks !!