Alphadata priorities

[+TwentySixHundred]

Hi guys back again with another question. For some reason or another im finding the top row my maptiles (alphadata) are taking priority over certain sprites. So the player sprite is actually going behind the displayed tiles and only on the top row? Im a little confused because i haven't changed anything other then creating a pattern for those tiles as a status bar

[RevEng]

The object priorities are always in the order you've drawn them, with the last object you plotted going on top.

 

Maybe what you're seeing, with sprites disappearing when they move vertically into some zones, is due to having drawn so many objects in those particular zones that Maria doesn't have time to draw any more.

[+TwentySixHundred]

Thanks Mike, yeah im guessing the later explanation is probably the case. I am plotting a string of text, two scores along with three sprites and "maptiles" within that one zone. I guessing im hitting a sprite limitation per zone of Maria's?

 

Having said that the first to be plotted is the screendata "restorescreen" function followed by the lives "helmet" sprites and text/numeric strings followed by the players sprite.

 

I guess i could always try plotting those sprites after the players srite and see what happens. Either or as it's only the status bar it's not a major issue, however i was a bit confused as to why the maptiles were taking priority on that one row alone ?

 

[RevEng]

Yeah, basically Maria has too much going on in that zone, and doesn't have the time to draw the last object - the player sprite.

 

The score/text on top of the maptiles is basically characters on top of characters... that's very expensive in terms of Maria's time.

[+TwentySixHundred]

Cheers mate, all good atleast i know whats going on and obviously Maria is drawing the priority sprites first ?