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2016-01-11 05:53

Stablizer

Registered: Jan 2016
Posts: 19

Coding on a PC for the 64?

I've seen various editors out there, currently starting to use the C64Studio for this, but it seems like getting charsets, graphics, music, etc, is a bit problematic when going at it this way, isn't it?

Would love to get some pointers to reading material on the subject (have done some searches already, but haven't come up with anything notable really).

Thanks!
-Stab

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2016-01-12 22:22

Oswald

Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 5094

doesnt need to be in the same source, its your implication :) I think it might be better than writing your own converter for yet another special demo gfx format. fex I still dont have a tool for command line sprite conversion, anyone know one good ? :)

but wait even if its in the same source, there's not much difference (except if convert takes a long time) compared to binary include... source changes, source gets compiled right ?

2016-01-12 23:22

soci

Registered: Sep 2003
Posts: 480

"its all compact in the [asm] source", at least that's how I understood.

There's not much difference if you have a fast machine, the conversion is simple or you're patient. But there was a reason why I optimized the start-up time of VICE many years ago. (e.g. lazy calculation of SID filter parameters)

Those sprite and bitmap conversions I hand craft usually. It's always different because of the arrangement, so I didn't bother to write a general tool for that.

For hires sprites there's a silly trick to create a 24x21 1bit binary pbm image which becames a 63 byte sprite by applying "tail -n +4" on it.

By the way I forgot to recommend "netpbm" for those who like the limitless combination possibilities of small utilities.

It's a collection of command line image conversion and manipulation tools. Using them in the right combination can split out and convert those 1 bit sprite sized pbm images from a bigger image file. With the right parameters, some piping, shell scripting and a bit of creativity of course ;)

The binary pnm format is also very easy to parse in conversion utilities.

2016-01-12 23:39

soci

Registered: Sep 2003
Posts: 480

Quote: I dont understand that make tut.

# our implicit build rule
%.prg: %.s
java -jar /usr/share/java/KickAss.jar $< -o $@

# default build target
all: intro.prg

so how does make know that intro.prg should be fed into the implicit rule? how does it even know its an implicit rule ?

The name is matching the %.prg pattern, and the rule is translated to:
intro.prg: intro.s

It's easier to write and understand explicit rules.

2016-01-12 23:47

chatGPZ

Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11386

moving the silly inline conversion shit done in kickass to external tools speeded up build times for artphosis by at least a factor of 10.... huge difference. getting rid of kickass and using something non java again boosted the speed by atleast a factor of 5 for crowdpleaser. (and this isnt on a slow pc at all)

as for custom used-once demo-specific formats... i'll just knock up a small c program. because speed. because make. and because chances are its not so custom afterall :)

and at the end of the day, its what axis said - thats also why i dont like kickass or anything else closed source when it comes to tools.

2016-01-13 00:02

chatGPZ

Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11386

Quote: