Visual bB Title Kernel Editor Strangness

[Yosikuma]

So I have been tinkering with the title editor in Visual bB. When I test out my code in the editor, Stella runs the compiled .BIN as a PAL ROM, which it is not, making me have to force it into NTSC. Will this cause problems with actual hardware? If this is a problem, is there a way to circumvent this? I see there is a scanline height counter towards the bottom -- should this number add up to something?

 

Thanks in advance!

[+Gemintronic]

I have to ask the dumb questions first. Is Region: NTSC selected in both your main project window and in the Title Kernel Editor window?

[RevEng]

It sounds like you've put too much bitmap data in the title screen. f you have too many lines, stella will detect that and assume the ROM is PAL. It will be a problem on real hardware too - some displays may show the screen fine, while others may experience picture roll and/or cut-off part of the display.

[Yosikuma]

Ah good to know, because I just checked and it looks like both items are set to NTSC. Is there a cutoff in terms of scanlines or something that I should be aware of or ... ?

[RevEng]

The titlescreen kernel and other bB kernels will default to 262 scanlines minimum, though as you've discovered you can make any of them use too many scanlines. (alt+L will turn on the scanline count in stella)

 

In terms of bitmap data lines that you feed it, the titlescreen kernel can display ~85 lines using 2-line minikernels, or about ~170 lines using 1-line minikernels.