Tile based graphics "engine" in Bb

[TheMajorHavoc]

Hello,

It's been a while since I posted anything , so I thought I would share something I've been working on.
My wife fell very ill this year and my prior project has stagnated from neglect.


I started writing some routines to simulate tile based graphics on the VCS.

It uses the vertical nature of player graphics and uses SC Ram to hold the data for displaying 16x8 tiles (25 onscreen 5x5)

Uses assembly optimizations to speed up some things.
These are double-width sprites to make 16x16 tiles.
most of it is implemented in the vblank which makes the display left-biased due to timing

 

Well, really the whole bitmap display is just using one sprite

It is very flicker heavy


Here is a little platformer demo for your amusement (or torture for those who despise flicker, sorry)
looks ok on my 13" bench CRT; On stella, use the phospor effect to help

Top of screen is a map displaying your position and a not-yet-visible enemy flying around.
you can move left and right, fire button is jump.

 

9-15-18 - *UPDATED DEMO* got color tables working. I think it's looking pretty good

platform_tile.bas.bin

 

 

Old demo - Milons_secret_flicker_castle.bin

 

 

Edited September 16, 2018 by TheMajorHavoc

[fluxit]

I'm sorry to hear about your wife's illness, and hope that her condition improves(if it hasn't already.)

 

 

Boy, Milon does like his flicker. The title's a bit off though, unless it is meant to imply that the castle is almost a secret due to the flicker=D.

That said, I like the sprite movement. It's nice that you can hang on the edge of a drop without falling. I've not seen that before.

--edit-- Is it intentional though? It only seems to occur when moving to the right.

Edited September 12, 2018 by fluxit

[+Gemintronic]

You might consider trying to port some of the text mode demos from the assembly crowd to batari BASIC. Basically replacing the DRAWSCREEN command.

 

Not sayin it would be easy (or all the asm programmers available for questions). But, the payoff would be huge!

[+Random Terrain]

Have you seen this:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/258191-bus-stuffing-demos/

[Jinroh]

Despite the flicker, the execution is neat, I like it.

 

I believe a few demos have used the venetian blinds technique (if you do not want to use the new bus stuffing method) to keep the kernel time down and minimizing flicker (as well as adding additional colours.) You could take a peek at Paul Slocum's Homestar Runner RPG as well that may give a few ideas (the code is available IIRC).

 

Edited September 13, 2018 by Jinroh

[TheMajorHavoc]

I have looked at those bus stuffing demos before and that's what sparked the idea.

But, I'm not ready to move this project to Assembly yet

 

I have slowly been editing of the standard display kernel in Bb to get venetian blinds for the playfield a striped playfield.

(This is not in the same aspect of player graphics venetian blinds to overcome the scanline limitation, purely aesthetics)

 

Here's a demo with that.

also, you can cycle "tile" colors with the RESET button

and may find one easier on the eyes heheh.

 

If using Stella - the 32-bit versions appear to have a bug that cause some artifacting(?) for some reason.

tested on a 2600 Jr and 64-bit stella ok.

 

*ADDED BINARY TO FIRST POST*

Edited October 4, 2018 by TheMajorHavoc

[TheMajorHavoc]

I'm sorry to hear about your wife's illness, and hope that her condition improves(if it hasn't already.)

 

 

Boy, Milon does like his flicker. The title's a bit off though, unless it is meant to imply that the castle is almost a secret due to the flicker=D.

That said, I like the sprite movement. It's nice that you can hang on the edge of a drop without falling. I've not seen that before.

--edit-- Is it intentional though? It only seems to occur when moving to the right.

Thank you for the condolences Fluxit

 

No, the edge hanging is just an accident.

I originally had planned on a Tutankham-like 4 way scrolling demo when I decided to

work up a platforming routine.

[TheMajorHavoc]

Hello,

 

Can someone test the latest demo in the latest 32-bit stella?

 

* There is still a bug in the Stella 32-bit version.

use Mame or Z26 on 32-bit windows systems

Edited September 20, 2018 by TheMajorHavoc

[TheMajorHavoc]

I have continued to work on this as I learn 6502 assembly.

 

I have a Rastan - style platform game developing out of this project.

I have reduced flicker about 20% I hope;

But I need feedback on if it's acceptable on different TV's.

 

If some of you guys would test it on your setups, that would be great!

 

test.bas.bin

 

joystick left & right to walk, hold down to attack, fire button to jump

up to climb vines

Edited January 7, 2019 by TheMajorHavoc

[+Muddyfunster]

You might consider trying to port some of the text mode demos from the assembly crowd to batari BASIC. Basically replacing the DRAWSCREEN command.

 

Not sayin it would be easy (or all the asm programmers available for questions). But, the payoff would be huge!

 

This would be amazing to get something like this in bB, unlikely, but amazing all the same.

[Lillapojkenpåön]

You might consider trying to port some of the text mode demos from the assembly crowd to batari BASIC. Basically replacing the DRAWSCREEN command.

 

Not sayin it would be easy (or all the asm programmers available for questions). But, the payoff would be huge!

Do you have any forum links to that sort of thing? I've only found bins. I have thought about that, jumping to another kernel that only draws the pf and bg and bitmap on top, So you could do something like the game over screen in WoW or titlescreen on top of pf and bg.

[+Gemintronic]

Do you have any forum links to that sort of thing? I've only found bins. I have thought about that, jumping to another kernel that only draws the pf and bg and bitmap on top, So you could do something like the game over screen in WoW or titlescreen on top of pf and bg.

 

Probably have to ask SpiceWare for source of his bus stuffing examples. The tricky part is still making it play nice with batari BASIC. Whatever RAM he's using might conflict. Also, making sure there's enough time between the assembly bB runs and his display kernel.

 

I suspect we'll all have to wait until SpiceWares C compiler is ready before enjoying this kind of tile based display.