Can a player and a missile be combined?

[rdefabri]

I think the answer to this is "no", but can you combine a player and a missile to create a multicolor "player"?

 

Assume you have a playfield and you need (say) 4-5 multicolored players on screen.  Assume you are using 160x192 graphics mode (which I think eliminates the option to use a redefined charset).

 

If memory serves, each player has a corresponding missile, but I haven't found anything to suggest they could be combined.  Seems inefficient to combine 2 players for multicolor, especially if you need the maximum amount of players on screen.

[MaPa]

You can combine player 0 and missile 1 etc.

[rdefabri]

14 minutes ago, MaPa said:

You can combine player 0 and missile 1 etc.

Ok - so let me see if I understand.  I want to have (for example) 4 multicolor "players" on screen.  Fine if they are only 2 colors for each.  Does this work?

 

P0 + M0 (forgive my nomenclature, I think the missiles start at M1, but just so I understand, I made it M0)

P1 + M1

P2 + M2

P3 + M3

 

It's not ideal, but gives some flexibility for smaller overlay / underlays.  

 

 

Edited September 16, 2022 by rdefabri

[Wrathchild]

You would typically use that combo to extend the width of your PM/sprite, e.g. 10 pixels instead of 8 or some doubled/quad width combo

 

What MaPa was indicating was that by using:

P0 + M1

P1 + M0

P2 + M3

P3 + M2

 

You can use overlap of the player and missile to produce another colour.

[Rybags]

In multicolour PM mode you could put missile 1 with player 0.  But potentially also get unwanted results when player 0 overlaps player 1.

You could set 5th player mode then have PF3 as all missiles colour then use missiles together or indivually to add colour to players.

[rdefabri]

I'm thinking something like this:

 

 

While this is 3 colors, forget the lighter orange color.  If the player is orange, with an open center, I'd want to overlay that on top of (say) a white missile.

Sounds like it's doable, but could get wonky.

[drpeter]

3 hours ago, rdefabri said:

I'm thinking something like this:

 

 

While this is 3 colors, forget the lighter orange color.  If the player is orange, with an open center, I'd want to overlay that on top of (say) a white missile.

Sounds like it's doable, but could get wonky.

First, consider that ordinarily players & missiles have 4 independent colours between them, one for each player and its corresponding missile (such that the colour of player 0 is the same as the colour of missile 0 etc.)  In this scheme, to produce your 2-colour graphic your would need to have an orange player & missile, say Player 0 and Missile0, and a white player & missile, say Player 1 and Missile 1.  If you make Missile 1 double-size, so that it's effectively 4 pixels wide rather than just 2, you can then place the white missile 1 'behind' the open centre of orange Player 0 so that the white shows through the gap.  This scheme commits you to also having a white player (Player 1) that you use elsewhere.

 

If you set the 4 missiles to be a '5th player', instead of taking the colour of their respective player they all take the colour of playfield colour 3.  If you set playfield colour 3 to white, you can again make a missile double-size and place it behind the centre of Player 0.  This scheme commits you to having playfield colour 3 as white, as well as all 4 missiles.

 

If you set the multicolour players option, any areas of Player/missile 0 that overlap with Player/missile 1 will be displayed as a combined colour mixed from the colour of Player/missile 0 and that of Player/missile 1. This colour-combining is done by  a bitwise OR between the two colours.  This scheme won't easily allow creation of your graphic from a player and a missile, because you need a 3-pixel-wide area for the centre and this can't be created from an overlap with a single missile- also you can't create white by ORing with a non-greyscale colour.

Edited September 16, 2022 by drpeter

[rdefabri]

1 hour ago, drpeter said:

First, consider that ordinarily players & missiles have 4 independent colours between them, one for each player and its corresponding missile (such that the colour of player 0 is the same as the colour of missile 0 etc.)  In this scheme, to produce your 2-colour graphic your would need to have an orange player & missile, say Player 0 and Missile0, and a white player & missile, say Player 1 and Missile 1.  If you make Missile 1 double-size, so that it's effectively 4 pixels wide rather than just 2, you can then place the white missile 1 'behind' the open centre of orange Player 0 so that the white shows through the gap.  This scheme commits you to also having a white player (Player 1) that you use elsewhere.

 

If you set the 4 missiles to be a '5th player', instead of taking the colour of their respective player they all take the colour of playfield colour 3.  If you set playfield colour 3 to white, you can again make a missile double-size and place it behind the centre of Player 0.  This scheme commits you to having playfield colour 3 as white, as well as all 4 missiles.

 

If you set the multicolour players option, any areas of Player/missile 0 that overlap with Player/missile 1 will be displayed as a combined colour mixed from the colour of Player/missile 0 and that of Player/missile 1. This colour-combining is done by  a bitwise OR between the two colours.  This scheme won't easily allow creation of your graphic from a player and a missile, because you need a 3-pixel-wide area for the centre and this can't be created from an overlap with a single missile- also you can't create white by ORing with a non-greyscale colour.

Ok that's what I was missing - the colors "paired" if you will.