Magellan

[The Codex]

Thanks for the kind words all, and for the VDP dumps retroclouds. I'll get onto engineering them into Magellan, and will take a look at your suggested list of improvements. I do have a gallery mode under consideration, and I've also begun implementing the code for swapping and replacing characters.

 

Cheers folks!

[The Codex]

Did I get close with the VDP import?

 

 

If so, next up is the dialog that asks the user to specify all the offsets in the file (where characters begin, where colorsets begin, etc).

[sometimes99er]

Amazing !

[The Codex]

Thanks! Added a dialog that asks for the starting address of the character, map, and color data, which you can specify in decimal or hexadecimal. Tried it on the Gorf title screen and it worked fine, so I think this feature is ready to go. Just gotta wrap up character swaps and there'll be a new release.

 

I'll handle sprite loading in the app once I figure out how I'm handling sprites overall. But once that's in there should be VDP support for that too. This is actually quite fun.

 

PS - I want to include the ColecoVision default font as a loadable option in the next release, too. I assume the one in the Gorf files is that font? If not, does anyone have a dump that does contain it?

Edited June 23, 2010 by The Codex

[sometimes99er]

PS - I want to include the ColecoVision default font as a loadable option in the next release, too. I assume the one in the Gorf files is that font? If not, does anyone have a dump that does contain it?

Well, here it is anyway ...

 

[Opry99er]

Hey, that's the Beryl Reichardt font!!! You can't steal it!!!! hehehe

[The Codex]

Is that really the default font? More ornate than I expected. The ones that load up with Gorf are pretty plain, similar to TI BASIC but with some minor differences. Anyway, thanks!

[Opry99er]

Hey Codex--- question for ya--- is there a way to import portions of a defined character set into a currently existing map? For instance, it has become apparent to me that I need to have battle sequence graphics for each world in memory for quickness of loading... Also, the colecovision font that sometimes posted... I need to put that into my worlds, but as of now, the only way I have to do it is copy and paste the hex for each character one by one for each world. Could there be an "Import partial character set" which can be defined by the user, similarly to how character sets are exported. This would be useful as long as it didn't erase the current data saved into the current map. Just a thought.

[The Codex]

Yes, that should be possible. I'll add it to the request list and see when I can work it in.

[Opry99er]

Wow. Great! Thanks for the speedy response. This program is becoming a monster!!! I plugged Magellan in a couple posts to the OLUG this morning.... Those guys have no idea what they're missing over here at Atariage. . I love this program, Codex.... It's the motherlode, man... Really is.

[sometimes99er]

Is that really the default font? More ornate than I expected. The ones that load up with Gorf are pretty plain, similar to TI BASIC but with some minor differences. Anyway, thanks!

There's generally two different system 8K system ROMs available. One apparently has updated characters. The first looks a bit like the TI, and then the one I posted. I tried and find information about this update, but can't find any. I'll ask Daniel Bienvenu.

 

[+retroclouds]

Did I get close with the VDP import?

 

 

If so, next up is the dialog that asks the user to specify all the offsets in the file (where characters begin, where colorsets begin, etc).

 

Didn't have a chance to check this out earlier. Looks perfect!

 

Very well done

[sometimes99er]

Is that really the default font? More ornate than I expected. The ones that load up with Gorf are pretty plain, similar to TI BASIC but with some minor differences. Anyway, thanks!

There's generally two different system 8K system ROMs available. One apparently has updated characters. The first looks a bit like the TI, and then the one I posted. I tried and find information about this update, but can't find any. I'll ask Daniel Bienvenu.

 

The real OS7 (ColecoVision) bios rom file contains the font that also fit the text mode screen (40x24), the other one (as far I as know) is a hack someone made to look nicer, regardless of the text mode screen.

Doh.

[+retroclouds]

Just bumping the thread. Any news on the new Magellan version ?

I'd really love to give the VDP dump import feature a try ?

 

Edit: oh, perhaps you could also show the Magellan version number in the window title or something.

That way it's easy to find out if you are having the most recent version

Edited July 8, 2010 by retroclouds

[The Codex]

Ah, oops, kinda dropped the ball there during my move. Yes, I'd be glad to post a new version, probably tonight if I can get everything together. Thanks for reminding me, and for the ideas!

[Opry99er]

Sweet! I've been anxiously/patiently awaiting this new release. =) Codex, have you had the time to look into implementing the "moving" of tiles around in the character set? I am curious, since one of my maps is 90x65, as to whether moving a tile will change the graphics on the map? For instance (and I don't even know if you've had time to do any of this, so I'm just stabbing in the dark) if I have a brick pattern set as c#96 and I have it displayed all over my map in different places--- then I decide I need to move it to a later set... say c#128... will the tiles on the map which WERE #96 now be exported as #128, or will I need to re-paint my map?

 

Those are just some thoughts... Glad to see you back posting a bit, buddy. I know this move has been taking a ton of your time and I hope all's well. =) I have really been missing your input around here... I actually have a few slight issues with my RPG--- one of which (I hope) will be cured by this new Magellan release. =)

[The Codex]

Thanks man, I'm gradually getting back to normal here. And yes, the new release contains the tile shifting feature as well. You can replace one tile with another or swap them, either with or without the graphics exchanging as well. I did some test runs with it and it works beautifully, the only downside being is that you have to figure out the numbers of the character tiles you want to swap (though the dialog box does show the associated image after you pick it).

[+retroclouds]

Thanks man, I'm gradually getting back to normal here. And yes, the new release contains the tile shifting feature as well. You can replace one tile with another or swap them, either with or without the graphics exchanging as well. I did some test runs with it and it works beautifully, the only downside being is that you have to figure out the numbers of the character tiles you want to swap (though the dialog box does show the associated image after you pick it).

 

Looking forward to that

 

Have some more ideas for a future version, but just want to see what's in the newest one first

 

ok, here's one anyway

 

Suppose you have a map that contains something like the screen below.

 

.............................
....---..........123.........
.................456.........
.......---.......789.........
.............................

 

Would it be possible to "group" the characters that make up 123456789 to an object (you know like you can with Powerpoint).

With this object you could then do stuff, like:

 

1. Clone to another position (similar to what's already in place)

2. Move the object to another position

3. Mirror/flip/rotate the object as such

4. Pixel move the object. That would work on the patterns that makes up the object.

(You kinda can do that now by manually working on each character individually).

Ofcourse one would have to be aware that if, the pattern is used at another location, that character will shift too.

 

I know this was asked before, but it would really be cool if one could undo the previous actions.

I find myself saving the map project a lot each time when I do an action, because I mess it up a lot.

Do understand that is hard to do.

 

How about if Magellan would save the map project to "memory" in the background when one does an action ?

An undo would be a re-open from the file in memory.

ok, this might not be the most efficient option, but perhaps still a possibility ?

 

Anyway, that's a great tool you have there

[The Codex]

New version is up now, includes source code as well if you're so inclined to look at or tinker with such things. Has VDP import, character swap & replace, and some significant bug fixes. Oh, and an About dialog that tells you what version it is (thanks for the suggestion retroclouds!).

 

As for the new items on the wish list, some of it sounds more doable than others. The hardest one, at least using built-in Java methods, is undo, but that's also the most useful. I'd rather like to have it in there myself. Good idea about doing a memory snapshot retroclouds, I'll look into strategies like that instead of the native methods. The trickiest part will be dealing with destructive edits (ones that are inherently difficult or even impossible to reverse).

 

Anyway, let me know what you all think of the new version, and I hope you find it useful!

[sometimes99er]

Excellent. I'm not fully aware of features suggested, but here's what I have to add. I think I've mentioned it before. When entering text, it would be nice to have "Enter" move to the next line. When importing character images, it would be nice if GIF would be recognised up there with PNG. I've chosen GIF generally for character and sprite definitions to allow future animation possibilities. And last but not least, it would be nice to be able to change colors of all characters/sets in one go.

 

As for the new items on the wish list, some of it sounds more doable than others. The hardest one, at least using built-in Java methods, is undo, but that's also the most useful. I'd rather like to have it in there myself. Good idea about doing a memory snapshot retroclouds, I'll look into strategies like that instead of the native methods. The trickiest part will be dealing with destructive edits (ones that are inherently difficult or even impossible to reverse).

At first I thought about having kinda reverse methods to undo with my Beryl sprite tool, and then have a stack with actions taken by the user. However having a action history with just 32x32 pixel graps and info about fore- and background colors should be easy and not too memory hungry. This might be a totally different ballgame with 256 characters, 32 colors and 768 byte screens. Maybe a limited undo history of maybe say 25 or something ?

 

Edited July 10, 2010 by sometimes99er

[+retroclouds]

Just played with the import function. Very cool

 

I tried to import Tutankham VDP dump but could only get it to partly import.

Dunno what is causing the issue, most likely I goofed up when doing the export from the emulator.

Will play a bit more with it and let you know.

[Opry99er]

Curious... it appears that the standard character set does not load with this new version...

 

Also, when I use "replace character," it makes every tile I touch turn to the offending character pattern... Perhaps I'm missing something... I will continue playing with it. =)

 

Thanks Codex!

[+retroclouds]

Played a bit more with the VDP dump import and I think something is wrong with the color import.

The way it looks, it doesn't import background colors.

 

I looked for readVramDumpFile in Magellan.java and I think there is something wrong with the way the variable intColorBack is set.

Don't have a JDK on my laptop so can't try it out, but I could imagine the colorBack assignment statement is missing a bit shift.

 

int setNum = readPos - colorTableOffset;
int colorFore = (readInt & 0x0000FFFF)>>4;
int colorBack = (readInt & 0xFFFF0000);

 

Should read

 

int setNum = readPos - colorTableOffset;
int colorFore = (readInt & 0x0000FFFF)>>4;
int colorBack = (readInt & 0xFFFF0000)>>8;

[The Codex]

Thanks for the bug reports gents, I'll look into those.

 

Odd that the character set doesn't load for you Owen, it shows up when I start the app. Is anyone else experiencing this problem? If so, let me know what OS you are running under please.

 

I see what you're saying about the character swap, trading the images doesn't always work how you think it might. I'll work on that for the next release.

 

And thanks for the VDP info Filip, I'll check into that too. If you could post some more test files for me, that will help speed my error checking and get it working as expect.

 

Cheers all!

[+retroclouds]

ok, here's a VDP dump where the background colors are not correctly imported:

 

Name table >0800

Color table >0780

Pattern table >1000

 

You'll have to switch the background to "black".

 

VRAM.zip

 

After importing you'll see that the walls on the screen are missing.

To make them visible, you have to set the background color of L1 to yellow and L2 to white.

 

Thinking about it, perhaps the pulldown for the screen background color could be added to the import dialog as well