SpritesMind.Net

Hi,

Is there anything I need to configure to use the WINDOW plane? I wanted to see how the WINDOW plane works but I'm not sure if it's even activated. I couldn't find anything obvious in the SGDK code.

I was attempting to just draw text with VDP_drawTextBG(WPLAN, ...) but nothing appeared on ...

Nope, but as i was surprised by the question i though you were mistaken with some sound extension coming from SegaCD or 32X ;)

Right. I keep forgetting that Sega CD and 32X provide extra hardware features. I'm only working on a vanilla Genesis, so I never think of them.


Not most games ...

Stef wrote:If you are speaking about the YM2612 and PSG chip

Are there others?

Stef wrote:, of course they can be used simultaneously.

Do most games use them together? I'd suppose they do. Do they typically do something like dedicate one for music and the other for sound effects?

TmEE co.(TM) wrote:Auto increment increases the VDP address pointer on any VRAM access, be it CRAM, VRAM, VSRAM, done by 68K or DMA. It only increments though, no decrement.

Okay! I'll try that out, thanks!

Another totally noob sound question. Since the Genesis has two sound chips, can both be used simultaneously?

You supposed to turn the screen off while putting all needed data (graphics, initial nametable data) into the VRAM. When the screen is turned off, there is no need to fit into the vblank time, so you can fill up the VRAM much faster.

Ah, I didn't know you could turn off the screen! I'll try that ...

Hi,

At the very first frame of my game, I fill out the visible tiles of the A plane. (when the screen scrolls around, I just fill out the edges that become visible) Currently this plane fill function, which I've only done a first pass on, is noticeably slow. I'm calling VDP_setTileMap for every ...

I think you already have memory managements methods in last version of SGDK so you should have u32 MEM_getFree()
which returns the number if free bytes.
Basically you have 64 KB of memory so 64 KB - MEM_getFree() will return you the consumed memory :)


Heh! I didn't even know there was a memory ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prqrxj7wA3Q

Added the beginnings of gameplay elements and the structure to add them.

There are now basic enemies that fire enemy projectiles and have death sequences with effects. The player's plane also now has a death sequence.

Added a large explosion sprite ...

Hi,

Is there a way to estimate how much ram is being used by my game? Without having to count every variable in my code, that is.

Also, how can I tell how large my game rom is without the padding?

(as usual, I'm using SGDK)

Thanks!
DJCC

sikthehedgehog on Youtube pointed out that I was probably updating my sprite table too late after vsync, and sure enough that was the problem. I figured it was something like that.

I was waiting for vsync, then drawing sprites through SGDK's functions but only calling its VDP_updateSprites function ...

Latest update:

http://youtu.be/jurSxdhL1fA

From the description:

I've added a few little effects, like a muzzle flash and a poof when the Goplane hits the wall. Refactored the drawing code to be object-specific and more flexible. While the plane is a normal 24x24 sprite (used to be 32x32 until ...

Hi,

Are there ways to change the way sprites overlap each other? I know sprite priorities affect how they've drawn relative to the backgrounds, but what do I do if I want certain sprites to be under or over other ones? Are sprites with higher index (set with VDP_setSprite(index, etc) for example ...

http://youtu.be/tO7LMUyExqs

The last video was boring, so I added an explosion sprite and changed the bullet firing to make it look more exciting.

Genesis can handle 20 sprites per line, actually.

Oh yes, that's right. :) I was just saying I didn't understand why they were disappearing because there were so few sprites on screen :)

Perhaps links in your sprite list are broken at some point, and that's make some part of it disappear.

Yes ...