How much memory this take?

[José Pereira]

Hello.

 

Probably this amy seem a little bit strange, but I think you can give me the answers.

 

 

- Create one charset in each line on ANTIC Mode4 - 128 chars with PF10 and another 128 with PF11. Screen with 25 lines, soo, 25 different charsets. How much memory takes this screen?

 

- 1Software sprite with 4chars(horiz.)x5(vert.) - same question?

 

- 1 Player (8x16) normal size - ?

 

- The same player but with size2 - ? and with size4 - ?

 

- The Player - size 0 - with 10 different shapes - ?

 

 

 

And how many different shapes could you do of the same Software Sprite?

The same for a Player?

 

 

Greetings.

Jos]e Pereira.

[Heaven/TQA]

Hello.

 

Probably this amy seem a little bit strange, but I think you can give me the answers.

 

 

- Create one charset in each line on ANTIC Mode4 - 128 chars with PF10 and another 128 with PF11. Screen with 25 lines, soo, 25 different charsets. How much memory takes this screen?

 

dlist aprox 24+3+3+3 bytes (assuming $70,$70,...$41,adr)

25*1024 bytes = 25kb but you can interleave data or code in each font as you only use 40 chars per line (40*8 per font used)

 

- 1Software sprite with 4chars(horiz.)x5(vert.) - same question?

 

aehm.... 4*5*8 bytes?

 

 

- 1 Player (8x16) normal size - ?

 

aehm.... not really a question? 16 bytes?

 

- The same player but with size2 - ? and with size4 - ?

 

aehm... read the f... manual... 16 bytes

 

- The Player - size 0 - with 10 different shapes - ?

 

16 bytes x 10 shapes?

 

And how many different shapes could you do of the same Software Sprite?

The same for a Player?

 

what do you mean? in memory? or prerendered or what? are you copy data into the software sprite? or do you use predefined shapes???

Greetings.

Jos]e Pereira.

 

 

Jose... I hope you get it why people esp. coders tend to say... you should talk to programmers how they would do an engine for a typical game and this restricts the engine...

 

look...for my game Beyond Evil I am using a softsprite engine with 12x16 sprites using 3 colours so I can transfer them later to c64 hardware sprites...

 

I am handling 2 of these sprites per frame...no overlays used... now you say BOOOH...lame... but now I am telling you why a game must be written around limits...

 

base machine is 64k machine. so my sprite system needs 8kb (24 lines), each sprite is preshifted so... 4x3x16 bytes and each of them with 2 facing... each sprite can not cross each other as I am using a virtual background screen with "action" chars defining walls, traps, loot etc...

 

the whole level map needs ram, too...

 

why I am not using player/missles?, well...they will be used as armor/weapon overlays...

 

the 5th color is used for doors...

 

and the battle system is based on Diablo 1 formulars... so I can not handle a lot of many sprites per frame as there is a complicated attack system running beneath...

 

so...I hope you get it that these are restrictions which limit my engine...

[PeteD]

I like it. aehm.

Edited July 31, 2009 by PeteD

[Shawn Jefferson]

Jose, you should go check out http://www.atariarchives.org/. Read at least De Re Atari and Atari Graphics and Arcade Game Design, (Mapping the Atari is a good reference once you get the general principles of the Atari hardware) and then start designing your games.

 

Designing a game with 25k of font data isn't an effective method. Besides that, you can cover 3 lines of a 40 character wide screen with one charset... but all this you would know or be able to figure out if you read some books first.

[Nukey Shay]

Maybe he was planning on sideways scrolling via shifting of D/L vectors? But yeah, char. reuse is much more effective and less wasteful. Depending on how many unmatching bitmaps are being filtered into the character set(s) for software sprites, you wouldn't even need to change character sets every 3rd line. Simple platformers use loads of empty space onscreen.