Irgendwer Posted October 25, 2018 Share Posted October 25, 2018 (edited) Even if this is the case, the PM/G objects would have to be in quad mode. Yes, they are in quad mode, so that all PMGs cover the screen. Normally you would have then the two colors of Antic F and could decide if you apply the PMG overlay or not. Not counting the dark, nearly invisible overlay this gives one additional hue for the "foreground" pixels. The trick is that I interleaved the colours of the PMG so that even lines have a different color compared to odd ones (in the example green and red). This way and thanks to PAL mixing you three additional hues, depending if you set for a tile only odd lines, even ones or both in PMG overlay. (Green and red results in yellow.) The effect works also in NTSC - even if the colours are mixing not that smooth. Another good choice (e.g. for the Laser Squad moon base level) would be having red and blue, mixing into purple. Edited October 25, 2018 by Irgendwer 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
popmilo Posted October 25, 2018 Share Posted October 25, 2018 Just a quick attempt at low-res graphics. lasersquad.png Looking better than I thought Guess, players and enemies will be hardest to make looking nice in 8x16 pixels ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pseudografx Posted October 25, 2018 Share Posted October 25, 2018 Looking better than I thought Guess, players and enemies will be hardest to make looking nice in 8x16 pixels ? I would think so Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAM Posted October 25, 2018 Share Posted October 25, 2018 Just a quick attempt at low-res graphics. lasersquad.png That looks fantastic, maybe you should make your own game with this look! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted October 25, 2018 Share Posted October 25, 2018 that would be cool a version for both indiana! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shanti77 Posted October 25, 2018 Share Posted October 25, 2018 (edited) If not again too CPU intensive (http://atariage.com/forums/topic/245646-new-atari-8bit-port-wip-saboteur/?do=findComment&comment=3368722) while this is round based, maybe the PMG "pseudo color ram" could be applied here? LaserSquadPalMixed.png This look very good, 5 colors. Edited October 25, 2018 by shanti77 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mono Posted October 25, 2018 Share Posted October 25, 2018 So here the proposal for the indoor sample you've attached: indoor.png It's possible to give some power without the price to Sophia extension owners by setting two bits of PMCNTL/GRACTL ($D01D): bit 4 - activates additional pixel colour taken from COLPF1 in hires mode (1 - on) bit 3 - activates lowest bit of luminance (1 - on) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted October 25, 2018 Share Posted October 25, 2018 It's possible to give some power without the price to Sophia extension owners by setting two bits of PMCNTL/GRACTL ($D01D): bit 4 - activates additional pixel colour taken from COLPF1 in hires mode (1 - on) bit 3 - activates lowest bit of luminance (1 - on) combine that with old school dithering and or alternation of color line by line and you end up with some nice effect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mariuszw Posted October 25, 2018 Author Share Posted October 25, 2018 So here the proposal for the indoor sample you've attached: indoor.png Thanks for this one. Looks good. I misunderstood the principle previously, hence I was asking incorrect questions. Now I understand that PMG positions are fixed, it is only PMG data that changes and gives chosen colours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mariuszw Posted October 25, 2018 Author Share Posted October 25, 2018 Just a quick attempt at low-res graphics. lasersquad.png That looks great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emkay Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 Imagine how great this "quirk" (different resolution every scanline) modes can look. Particular hi res / color mode interleave offers semi hires and 3 colors in a linear frame mode. And all PMg is still free for additional graphics . On the other hand: A software driven mode plus overlay shouldn't be a problem for that game , as even the AMIGA version uses coarse scrolling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R0ger Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 Imagine how great this "quirk" (different resolution every scanline) modes can look. Particular hi res / color mode interleave offers semi hires and 3 colors in a linear frame mode. And all PMg is still free for additional graphics . On the other hand: A software driven mode plus overlay shouldn't be a problem for that game , as even the AMIGA version uses coarse scrolling. Is there something using this mode ? Even demo ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emkay Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 (edited) Is there something using this mode ? Even demo ? Parts of my game in Post 13 used that. "Spieler" and the "arrow" to the points ... It's just a screenshot. On a real PAL TV you see clean colors. In other words. All the colors were build by playfield. No PMg used there. Edited October 26, 2018 by emkay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gorgh Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 the attempt to port this game is just brilliant! as well as mock-ups you guys made 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yosh Posted January 1, 2019 Share Posted January 1, 2019 Just a quick attempt at low-res graphics. lasersquad.png Blew my mind... Marvelous! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pseudografx Posted January 1, 2019 Share Posted January 1, 2019 Thanks, unfortunately, 5th colour can't be used because the game does not use ANTIC 4, so it won't be as colourful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
popmilo Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 Thanks, unfortunately, 5th colour can't be used because the game does not use ANTIC 4, so it won't be as colourful. It's in bitmap mode ? I guess even then original code could be adapted to use multiple charsets, but would make porting the game like a year longer ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pseudografx Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 I think Mariusz can answer your questions as I do not have anything in common with porting the code. I suppose that he uses bitmap mode, so the limit is 4 colours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mariuszw Posted January 3, 2019 Author Share Posted January 3, 2019 It's in bitmap mode ? I guess even then original code could be adapted to use multiple charsets, but would make porting the game like a year longer ? Yes, it is bitmap mode, just like original game on C64 was. There is one big 16x16 charset (with ~200 16x16 characters) for map items, and the other one for font, game logo and decorations (8x8, ~96 chars). Can't really fit that layout easily in multiple charsets on A8. Screen has 320 pixels (40 characters) a line, so I had an idea to emulate bitmap and have new charset every 3 lines, but this creates a gap for every three line with 8 characters (64 bytes) which makes addressing weird and also would require additional 512 bytes of RAM for these gaps, which I simply can't afford, as there is no free RAM left. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
popmilo Posted January 3, 2019 Share Posted January 3, 2019 Yes, it is bitmap mode, just like original game on C64 was. There is one big 16x16 charset (with ~200 16x16 characters) for map items, and the other one for font, game logo and decorations (8x8, ~96 chars). Can't really fit that layout easily in multiple charsets on A8. Screen has 320 pixels (40 characters) a line, so I had an idea to emulate bitmap and have new charset every 3 lines, but this creates a gap for every three line with 8 characters (64 bytes) which makes addressing weird and also would require additional 512 bytes of RAM for these gaps, which I simply can't afford, as there is no free RAM left. Imho you make it anyway you can, important is that it gets out the door It's up to rest of us to take lessons from how it will look/play like and make a brand new turn based strategy game with more colors and details. Keep up the good work ! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrathchild Posted January 3, 2019 Share Posted January 3, 2019 (edited) With the 16x16 characters, when the top line characters are only used on the top line and similar with the lower line, e.g. Paradroid lettering, you can sometimes get away with alternating the font lines from two sets rather than using the 3 line approach. Edited January 3, 2019 by Wrathchild 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Thag Posted January 4, 2019 Share Posted January 4, 2019 One of my favorite Speccy games, this is looking really excellent. Can't wait to check it out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gryfon Posted March 26, 2020 Share Posted March 26, 2020 (edited) This looks very promising - was there much progress? Edited March 26, 2020 by Gryfon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilmenit Posted May 20, 2020 Share Posted May 20, 2020 On 10/25/2018 at 10:42 PM, mariuszw said: That looks great! Hi Mariusz, any news? This is one of the games I'd love to play (and understand some internals e.g. about how AI works on that big maps). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mariuszw Posted May 20, 2020 Author Share Posted May 20, 2020 No news yet, sorry 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.