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oziphantom
Registered: Oct 2014
Posts: 490 |
Graphician for intense EF game
Hi
I'm putting a plan for an Easy Flash game that is mostly a port, I plan to see what can be achieved with EF tech, so it will be more intense than the usual game. I.e. I anticipate swapping charset mid level, sprite copies ins etc also IFLI loading screen etc.
The game is a run'n'gun like Rush'n'Attack or Contra but with a lower enemy count and it is a "license" so aiming for a better "Ocean" look. |
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oziphantom
Registered: Oct 2014
Posts: 490 |
Because we "cut" code, sculpting sounds over the top. |
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Count Zero
Registered: Jan 2003
Posts: 1932 |
Any artistic stunts given - using an EasyFlash and "IFLI loading screens"?
Wtf - so plan is to fill the memory with gfx to display - delay - to snap-load the whatever game? Surely needs a graphician then of course ... |
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oziphantom
Registered: Oct 2014
Posts: 490 |
People like their Loading Screens even if it is a crt ;) I've been doing some EF conversion work and the loading screen has been a must But in this case it would be the Title screen as well.
So yes IFLI then Choose Save Game screen.
I think the levels can be stored Char by Char and Colour per Char. at 4K with 20 lines high ( space for a HUD ) we can fit 5 screens wide per 8K of Chars and Colour Ram or 10 per 16K chunk. I think the levels will work well with repeated blocks like this as well. Like how Mayhem In Monsterland does it repeats.
With the map in straight RAM the scroller becomes a copy loop which will save a lot of raster. Using a separate 4x4 block map for collision and AI control should speed up the collision and AI routines as well.
For the bosses we can copy in the boss sprites over the normal entities, then after copy them back. We can use tunnels and moving in/out of rooms to hide Charset swaps to change the background look. |
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Count Zero
Registered: Jan 2003
Posts: 1932 |
Aaaaha ... "Using a separate 4x4 block map for collision and AI control should speed up the collision and AI routines as well." ...
Not being too sure but quite so: people here cant wait to get the hand on a (packed) 10 kb preview from what it sounds! As the mindmap is already there but as it also sounds like no code was dedicated to the actual game or it's "AI" yet - Why not start there, get game logic and stuff working in the first place to later allow graphicians to take a glance and decide whether to contribute?
Graphicians and musicians are usually a lot faster then the coder and the implementation.
So far I don't see much an EF would contribute to "whatever" game here unless static code run from ROM or gfx storage comes into play. |
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Oswald
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 5094 |
"With the map in straight RAM the scroller becomes a copy loop which will save a lot of raster. "
it will save nothing, as 'normally' you also just copy the screen mem 1 char up/down left/right, etc. |
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cadaver
Registered: Feb 2002
Posts: 1160 |
If you want speeded-up scrolling without VIC tricks, REU will be a better bet, as it allows to do fast DMA transfers from a large level data area to the screen/colors. |
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oziphantom
Registered: Oct 2014
Posts: 490 |
I'm not thinking of getting "Mayhem in Monsterland" speeds, just having a fixed place "scrolling" window scroller should save me some clocks that I can use for other things. Since the Source will always be in the same place, using unrolled loops should be easier. I will also get CRAM per map tile(1x1) as well for almost "free" |
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Oswald
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 5094 |
Quote: I'm not thinking of getting "Mayhem in Monsterland" speeds, just having a fixed place "scrolling" window scroller should save me some clocks that I can use for other things. Since the Source will always be in the same place, using unrolled loops should be easier. I will also get CRAM per map tile(1x1) as well for almost "free"
best scrolling tech also uses unrolled loops (per column) how can you copy from memory faster ? in fact it will be slower coz you'll need selfmodded abs or (),y adressing to read from a big map. |
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chatGPZ
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11386 |
somehow it sounds like the first line of the first post sums it up - does any code exist already to back this up? |
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oziphantom
Registered: Oct 2014
Posts: 490 |
I don't need to do any block unpacking or calculations. Also since the map is always in the "same" place in RAM I can put each row on its own $100 aligned memory location. Thus my plot new column code becomes a simple load,x store. With some logic to trap when I move over the edge of the "bank" and work out what the next bank is.
I have some code for the scroller, its not in the EF as I'm testing on a single "bank" of map data so can just do a PRG at the moment. I'm trying a 3x3 tile look. |
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