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Zaz
Account closed
Registered: Mar 2004
Posts: 33 |
loading times & drive compatibility
Hi all,
I'm working on my first multi-load demo for the C64.
I'd like to have good synchronization between the music and the effects, so I have to take into account loading times.
So the question is, what's a good strategy to do this? Given that loading times will vary between different drive models, and maybe between different drives of the same model.
Is a simple safety margin good enough, and if so, how can I determine how long it should be? Any other issues to consider?
I would like to use Krill's loader, btw.
Thanks in advance.
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Oswald
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 5094 |
indeed, you're right there. it's also a good idea to load all your data in one file tho. I doubt there's zero delay. |
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Zaz
Account closed
Registered: Mar 2004
Posts: 33 |
So what's a reasonable way to handle load errors? Just crash? |
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WVL
Registered: Mar 2002
Posts: 902 |
I think all of the things I ever did just crash :) Good enough to show the viewer that something is wrong ;) |
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MagerValp
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 1078 |
I'm using:
lda #2
sta $d020
eor #8
jmp * - 5
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raven
Account closed
Registered: Jan 2002
Posts: 137 |
@Zaz:
It depends on the application I guess.
In my loader I didnt include any error checks/feedback, I figured its quite useless in a "trackmo" style demo where timings are usually tight, no time to re-load if something goes wrong! :)
(Also, it saves precious cycles!) |
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Krill
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 2980 |
If your demo crashes because there's not enough slack with loading times, you are doing something wrong though. A loader is not a raster effect.. :) |
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Krill
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 2980 |
Quote: So what's a reasonable way to handle load errors? Just crash?
That's bad style. At least there should be some error-indicating screen, like Magervalp suggested. Best would be a human-readable error printout, i think. |
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WVL
Registered: Mar 2002
Posts: 902 |
Quote: If your demo crashes because there's not enough slack with loading times, you are doing something wrong though. A loader is not a raster effect.. :)
That's bad ofcourse, but if demos crash because the disk is bad or the drive is a lot of shit, then it's ok imo. |
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tlr
Registered: Sep 2003
Posts: 1790 |
Quote: That's bad ofcourse, but if demos crash because the disk is bad or the drive is a lot of shit, then it's ok imo.
I would usually refrain from calling a particular drive a "lot of shit".
Perhaps there are loaders that break on drives that are within spec?
This is a mechanical device. Lots of things have a wide tolerance range.
You have to test it on a multitude of configurations to be anywhere near sure.
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Krill
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 2980 |
Quote: That's bad ofcourse, but if demos crash because the disk is bad or the drive is a lot of shit, then it's ok imo.
I don't think so. The worst that may happen is that the load call never returns because the loader is spinning around an erroneous block or so. Second-worst are too long loading times and bad sync due to that. But never should the demo crash.
Also, what is really bad are loaders not checksumming the header and data, which makes demos quite flaky under data party conditions with a lot of EM fields adding up. |
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