87 replies to this topic

[Sdw]

Wow, this is some seriously impressive stuff!

Is there any binaries of the fixed versions (PAL) released? I get the bankswitch-bug-bars that Glenn mentioned when I run them on my 2600Jr with a Harmony.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Sdw, on Mon Dec 19, 2011 3:28 PM, said:

Wow, this is some seriously impressive stuff!

Is there any binaries of the fixed versions (PAL) released? I get the bankswitch-bug-bars that Glenn mentioned when I run them on my 2600Jr with a Harmony.

Thanks. I will check for the bars when I get home from vacation.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Attached a demo version which I had sitting on my harddisk for quite some time without releasing it. It automatically (left difficulty switch = A) or selectable (left difficulty switch = B, SELECT) showcases nine ships and displays a (fixed!) status display. I hope you like it.

Make sure you have phospor effects enabled when using an emulator.

BTW: I couldn't repeat those Jr. problems with my own Jr. If they still occure, please tell me (screenshot preferred).

Attached Thumbnails

• 

Attached Files

•  Elite Demo v1.0 (NTSC).bin   16K   61 downloads
•  Elite Demo v1.0 (PAL).bin   16K   33 downloads

Edited by Thomas Jentzsch, Sat Jan 14, 2012 11:06 AM.

[Cortat G]

Amazing!

[cd-w]

Very nice work - it would be great to see this made into the full game, but I suspect that isn't possible without some ARM assistance.

Chris

[Thomas Jentzsch]

cd-w, on Sun Jan 15, 2012 2:37 AM, said:

Very nice work - it would be great to see this made into the full game, but I suspect that isn't possible without some ARM assistance.

Yes, I suppose the ARM could help with the kernel, the transformations, the line drawing etc.

But I am not interested into coding that, I like to optimize the existing platform. The maximum I could personally accept would be the DPC functionality, since it was available back then. Not sure if that could be of any help outside the kernel.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Hm, I wonder if a "real" 3D Asteroids would work. Like a FPS, just with Asteroids and UFOs attacking from all directions.

Does such a game exist?

[roland p]

Thomas Jentzsch, on Mon Jan 16, 2012 2:56 AM, said:

Hm, I wonder if a "real" 3D Asteroids would work. Like a FPS, just with Asteroids and UFOs attacking from all directions.

Does such a game exist?

Maybe alianator comes close? : http://www.lemonamig...ils.php?id=1609 That's a sort of 3d-defender.

Btw. the demo you posted looks really good. How many divisions/multiplies does the code? It looks damn fast for a vcs...

Edited by roland p, Mon Jan 16, 2012 3:18 AM.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

roland p, on Mon Jan 16, 2012 3:15 AM, said:

Thomas Jentzsch, on Mon Jan 16, 2012 2:56 AM, said:

Hm, I wonder if a "real" 3D Asteroids would work. Like a FPS, just with Asteroids and UFOs attacking from all directions. Does such a game exist?

Maybe alianator comes close? : http://www.lemonamig...ils.php?id=1609 That's a sort of 3d-defender.

Thanks, I will check it.

Quote

Btw. the demo you posted looks really good. How many divisions/multiplies does the code? It looks damn fast for a vcs...

Quite a lot.

All multiplications (IIRC there are no divisions) are done using square-tables, so they are pretty fast. How detailed do you want to have it? I have to transform all points and have to check the visibility of each polygon.

Note: For the polygon visibility I once switched to using a predefined normal vector, but I found out that this wouldn't work in a real 3D world. So I would have to create the normal vector from 3 transformed points of the polygon. Which means a few optimizing steps wouldn't work there anymore.

Also the math precision is currently very limited, so here it would become more complex too. And the step which transitions a whole object in space is missing too.

Finally all lines are assumed to be completely visible now. So no clipping and only backface culling

So for a real 3D game, this part would for sure become significantly slower and I would have to find some time somewhere else e.g. less complicated bankswitching (I need two double buffers of 1k each, but here I have to use one 1K buffer and four 256b buffers), co-processor etc.

Edited by Thomas Jentzsch, Mon Jan 16, 2012 6:48 AM.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I just checked the code. There are 12 multiplications/point plus 3 multiplications/polygon.

[Sdw]

Latest version ran perfectly on my PAL jr.
Great seeing it actually running on real HW, the alternating line-display actually suits vector graphics very well!

[Philsan]

Thomas, now you have more time for this project...

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Philsan, on Fri Feb 10, 2012 7:06 AM, said:

Thomas, now you have more time for this project...

Maybe, but first I have to support another, long overdue project.