Jump to content
Have You Played Atari Today?
2600|5200|7800|Lynx|Jaguar|Forums|Store  

Asmusr

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content Count

    4,006

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    13

Posts posted by Asmusr

  2. Posted

    Rasmus, you work is epic. I have an older version so if this has changed please excuse me. If possible could you make the function icons at top more descriptive and or isolate the fill and clear ones? I don't know how many times I went for clone and hit fill by mistake. It's a fatal error for me at least. Barring that a back button would be gtreat. Thanks.

     

    If you hit fill by mistake, which I have also done many times, there is now an undo button in the upper left corner. But the fill functions should also have a confirmation dialog.

    • Like 1

  3. Posted

     

    Excellent work, this will undoubtedly be very useful to me once I restart my Alex Kidd porting project. I would suggest however that you consider allowing more than 255 patterns to be loaded while editing and only enforce the limitation when saving. That way you can import a detailed png and simplify the drawing for the TI all within Magellan. Or even allow exporting all of the definitions (you might want to upload new patterns to the VDP during gameplay).

     

    A good idea that I might consider for the next major version.

  4. Posted

    I fixed a few bugs, and added support for transparency in ECM. So here is version 2.0 in 3 different editions (Windows 32, Windows 64, cross platform).

     

    Magellan V2.0
    ------------------
    * Import Map Image
    * Copy and Paste buttons for easy copying of characters
    * Color mode check when opening files
    * ECM screen colors and transparency
    * Shifting of character patterns is now cyclic
    * For various Export options the Setting dialog is now shown before the Save As dialog
    * Windows installer
    Season's greetings from Denmark.

    Magellan_windows_2_0.zip

    Magellan_windows-x64_2_0.zip

    magellan-2.0.zip

    • Like 2

  5. Posted

    It appears that the install4j wizard requires a 32-bit JRE, which I don't have on my computer, I've got the 64bit version (1.7.0_13)

     

    Java SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_13-b20)

    Java HotSpot 64-Bit Server VM (build 23.7-b01, mixed mode)

     

    Guess that's ok though, as most people probably are fine with the 32-bit version.

    The usual cross-platform runs fine for me. It's amazing how well Magellan has progressed in the last year! Well done!

     

    I can either bundle a JRE with the 32-bit version or make another 64-bit version. I guess the latter will be the most useful solution.

     

    Try the attached. You may want to uninstall the 32-bit version first if you still have it installed.

    Magellan_windows-x64_2_0_beta.zip

  6. Posted

    He he, I did some work on exactly that. Loading and preliminary color distribution was actually coded. There were always new test image with new challenges (as you imply), like when a few green colors of source is reduced to only one green color in the output. I thought this loss of information was probably not wanted. I counted colors and wanted to force preservation of patterns (at least with source having less than 16 colors). Many images will need a bit of color massaging (and other stuff) prior to loading with Magellan. Anyways, no worries, I didn't get too far. Great work and very useful.

     

    Here's one test image. When I finally got better results with this one, it was pretty much useless anyway. Additional color changes would have to be done (more easily) outside of Magellan. Image was only intended for test purposes.

     

    http://www.photonstorm.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/screenieEdit997intro2.png

     

    The colors in your test image are imported fine in ECM 2 or 3, but there are 1715 unique 8x8 characters in the image, and I'm not trying to handle characters beyond 255. So a large part of the map is filled with the last character. A more sophisticated algorithm could do a best match to one of the characters 0-255 instead of just choosing the last one.

  7. Posted

    The main change in this beta version is the addition of a map image import function that allows you to import an image of any size with less than 256 unique 8x8 tiles. This is really useful if you want to rip graphics from MAME, SMS Power or other sources. When I started implementing this function I soon realized that an algorithm that produces an optimal color conversion could be extremely complex - especially in the F18A Enhanced Color Modes where there are so many parameters to adjust. The algorithm in the beta version produces a reasonable result in all color modes, but works best if the source image is not too far from the capabilities of the target color mode.

     

    Map files saved from now on will include information about the color mode. If you open a file saved in another color mode than the current, Magellan will ask if you want to change the color mode.

    Other changes include the addition of The Mole's graphics, and a proper Windows installer. The latter will register .mag files to open with Magellan. It still requires Java to be installed. The preferences file is now saved in the user's home directory, so when you run this version of Magellan for the first time all options will have been reset.

     

    The second, smallest, attachment is the usual cross platform version.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Magellan_windows_2_0_beta.zip

    magellan-2.0b.zip

  8. Posted

    Rasmus, any chance you could support sprite overlays in Magellan?

    I for example have a title screen for Tutankham that is made up of tiles and sprites, would be cool if Magellan would support that

    (I remember there's a colecovision drawing tool by Daniel Bienvenue that does that)

     

    I would like to add sprite support at some point, but it seems like a lot of work. Do you think sprite overlays could be added without a full featured sprite editor?

  9. Posted

    I'm not a graphical expert by any stretch of the imagination, but maybe the attached is useful?

     

    Thanks, I really like the idea of the map turning into tiles, but it's very detailed for an icon, and in resolutions below 64x64 it's not recognizable. The splash screen I can use as it is, but do have an idea for a less detailed icon that would work in lower resolutions?

     

    I'm planning to release the next version as a 'native' Windows program with installer and exe file built using install4j. I can also build Mac or Linux versions if there's any interest.

  11. Posted

    I tried loading the png into Magellan, but the colors become messed up and the map is truncated to the screen. Is there another way to load images into Magellan and let it turn it into character definitions, palette definitions and a scrollable map? It'd be great if one could load one of these and spit out map data: http://www.smspower.org/Maps/AlexKiddInMiracleWorld-SMS?gallerypage=The+City+of+Radaxian

     

    I just realized how great a resource smspower is for ripping graphics for the TI. I will definitely add a map importing function to the next update of Magellan.

    • Like 2

  12. Posted

    I tried loading the png into Magellan, but the colors become messed up and the map is truncated to the screen. Is there another way to load images into Magellan and let it turn it into character definitions, palette definitions and a scrollable map? It'd be great if one could load one of these and spit out map data: http://www.smspower.org/Maps/AlexKiddInMiracleWorld-SMS?gallerypage=The+City+of+Radaxian

     

    Magellan could really benefit from improved import functions. The existing Import Character Image function expects a 64*256 bitmap with unique characters (no map). I have added the Magellan file to my original post if you want to see how it looks.

     

    Regarding the use a masking sprite, the tiles can have as many as 32 different colors within a 16x16 area, so you would need to plan the colors carefully or use several 8x8 masking sprites. I don't know if that's easier than changing the base sprite pattern - perhaps the invisible part could be changed to an outline as you suggest?

     

    The problem using the tile priority is that it affects all instances of a tile on the screen, and also that the 'background layer' of each tile would be limited to one (transparent) color through which the sprites are visible. There are many places where tile priorities would be really useful, e.g. drawing the bridge that you walk under in a Commando clone, but I think the model may be too simple for an isometric game.

     

    Another option for an isometric game would be to use the bitmap layer and software sprites. Much less colorful but, but it would allow you to draw real isometric tiles in back to front order. The GPU could easily handle this.

     

    I'm not sure if I'm going to do any of this. I'm still looking for the really good idea for my next game...

  15. Posted

     

    How have you fared with EPROM programming? I'm about to go there and need current advice. Which programmer did you acquire?

     

    ...lee

     

    I'm using a very cheap Chinese programmer TOP853 (search on ebay). It works fine and supports lots of EPROMs but I didn't manage to install the USB driver under 64 bit Windows, so it's running on an old XP installation. I think their latest models have 64 bit drivers.

  16. Posted

    Thank you for the code. I didn't know how the algorithm worked, e.g. that you only cast one ray for each column.

     

    I made a VDP RAM dump of a typical screen and imported it into Magellan. I only counted around 25 unique patterns in the first pattern table, and if this is the general case that a small set of patterns is used over and over, I guess you could do this a good deal more efficiently by updating the name table instead of the pattern tables. Any thoughts?

  17. Posted

    I can't think of a good way to do that without a firmware change. I really didn't consider double-buffering due to the already limited memory.

     

    The demo is actually using 3 buffers: the original image and two display buffers. Each one is 4K so there is still room for name table, pattern table, color table and the program. With more optimization, e.g. incremental calculation of the source address, I think you could double the frame rate.

  19. Posted

    Is there any way to use the PIX instruction on an off screen bitmap buffer? I know you can use it to calculate the address only, and you can then adjust the base address to point to your buffer, but that hardly saves any code (calculating the address is just two shifts and one add anyway). It would be really useful to be to be able to draw to a buffer that's not currently visible and then change the bitmap layer base address to point to your buffer once the drawing is done.

  21. Posted

    I'm starting this thread as a one-stop resource for keeping track of ROM images for homemade cartridges.

     

    Jon's site is the most comprehensive list have found:

    http://www.hexbus.com/TI-99_4A_Home_Computer_Page/Downloads_and_Links.html

    Including:

    Turbo forth:

    http://www.turboforth.net/download.html

     

    Cortex Basic:

    http://www.avjd51.dsl.pipex.com/ti/ti.htm

     

    Fred Kaal's Mega Mod (128K):

    http://home.vodafonethuis.nl/fgkaal/Modules/modules.html

     

    Pitfall:

    http://atariage.com/forums/topic/158467-pitfall-binaries-and-source-code

     

    My own games:

    Titanium: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/215393-titanium/

    TI Scramble: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/216064-ti-scramble-scramble-clone

    Road Hunter: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/221039-road-hunter/

    Flappy Bird: flappybird.zip

    (also see post #2)

     

    Atarisoft muticart with Ms Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Moon Patrol and Defender: atarisoft-multicart.zip

    (requires a 64K cart that starts up in the highest bank, 32K not required)

     

    Please post links to any other ROM images you are aware of.

    • Like 11

  23. Posted

    By PC only, do you mean emulation only? Because I have ran Magellan in MESS :).

     

    Nevermind - I have run Titanium in MESS - indeed, everything I've mentioned is about Titanium, not Magellen.... whoops! :dunce: :dunce:

     

    I'm afraid I got myself rather confused... anyway, Titanium I'd like to try out on the real hardware, but not sure what, if anything, can be omitted... sorry about the confusion there Rasmus :).

     

    You don't need the objects files TIC and TIO.

  24. Posted

     

    I did mean Megellan - I got confused with who had authored it :dunce: . But I'll remember that - looking at the Scramble thread, it looks like something worth trying out too :).

     

    Megellan has a few music files it appears, so I was thinking to try and cut some of those out to see if I can get it on one SSSD disk.

     

    I'm afraid that won't work. Magellan is for the PC. The samples are graphics/map files. :)

  25. Posted

    Indeed - I've been playing with Magellan on MESS the past week or so - although I'd like to try it out on the actual hardware, I'm just not sure what files to omit to get the game onto a SSSD disk, if that's at all possible...

     

    Assuming you mean TI Scramble, you don't need the TISC file.

AtariAge
Forums
Store
General
Follow AtariAge

Copyright ©1998-2021 AtariAge

×
×
  • Create New...