Catastrophy: In Development

DildoKKKobold · 08/14/2015, 07:45 PM

Since Gredler and I are going to be asking for help, I figured I'd intro our project. It's currently unnamed, as I'm just learning HuC. Here's the first boss fight. Note, there are a lot of place holder sprites at the moment, we are just getting started.

esteban · 08/14/2015, 09:22 PM

I like it

Gredler · 08/14/2015, 09:39 PM

The droplets and splash are my contributions so far. Working on the blob monster now. Wont be a blob when done lol

turboswimbz · 08/14/2015, 11:15 PM

cool!

elmer · 08/14/2015, 11:28 PM

Quote from: DildoKKKobold on 08/14/2015, 07:45 PMSince Gredler and I are going to be asking for help, I figured I'd intro our project. It's currently unnamed, as I'm just learning HuC. Here's the first boss fight. Note, there are a lot of place holder sprites at the moment, we are just getting started.

Quote from: Gredler on 08/14/2015, 09:39 PMThe droplets and splash are my contributions so far. Working on the blob monster now. Wont be a blob when done lol

Congratulations, guys! Keep on going!

Psycho Punch · 08/15/2015, 12:17 AM

It was cooler when it was piss colored. You figured out how to fix your .pcx files and to upload/assign palettes, great! Looking forward to what you'll create for your project.

TurboXray · 08/15/2015, 12:57 AM

Cool

If you're leery with asm+huc, I'd get with old rover or arkhan and see if they'll share they super cool speed-up array/pointer workarounds for HuC.

sirhcman · 08/19/2015, 03:13 PM

are the hu cards of this game for sale yet?

Gredler · 08/19/2015, 03:57 PM

Quote from: guest on 08/19/2015, 03:13 PMare the hu cards of this game for sale yet?

Thank you for your inquiry Sirchman.

Huecards have been sold out and are available on ebay, oddly enough you will need to pay more for them there than what we originally offered them for - go figure!

Tobias told someone he is printing disc versions that come in a styrofoam cat head, packaged with special limited edition swag like a pez dispenser, 3 west side connection limited edition sound track CD's, an official fan art book, and 3 jelly belly's of random flavor. We can't print more huecards, so his $300 offering is probably your best bet!

Good luck playing the game, it's a one of a kind and very rare.

sirhcman · 08/19/2015, 04:17 PM

Wooo!!! I'll hold out for Catnip edition!

MotherGunner · 08/19/2015, 04:35 PM

Paper Bonk

DildoKKKobold · 08/19/2015, 09:19 PM

pass 1
#[1] Test1.s
1066 --:C002 adc #low(35)
Proc : '_main' is too large (code > 8KB)!
# 1 error(s)

I wasn't expecting this error!

Am I only allowed 8kb per "bank" i.e. subroutine?

NightWolve · 08/20/2015, 01:28 AM

Quote from: Gredler on 08/19/2015, 03:57 PMTobias told someone he is printing disc versions that come in a styrofoam cat head, packaged with special limited edition swag like a pez dispenser, 3 west side connection limited edition sound track CD's, an official fan art book, and 3 jelly belly's of random flavor. We can't print more huecards, so his $300 offering is probably your best bet!

Good luck playing the game, it's a one of a kind and very rare.

Some pretty good work in that write up, kudos!

OldMan · 08/20/2015, 02:21 AM

Quotepass 1
#[1] Test1.s

So I assume this is actually C code, and not straight assembler....

QuoteProc : '_main' is too large (code > 8KB)!
....
Am I only allowed 8kb per "bank" i.e. subroutine?

In HuC, probably. (Not sure about pceas, though)

Serious question though: How do you debug a routine that large, anyway?
I have trouble debugging stuff more than ~60 lines long....

TurboXray · 08/21/2015, 10:45 AM

Quote from: DildoKKKobold on 08/19/2015, 09:19 PMpass 1
#[1] Test1.s
1066 --:C002 adc #low(35)
Proc : '_main' is too large (code > 8KB)!
# 1 error(s)

I wasn't expecting this error!

Am I only allowed 8kb per "bank" i.e. subroutine?

This is a limitation of PCEAS. You also can't have an instruction (more than a byte long) fall between two banks. I updated PCEAS to remove this limitation, but it's not with the official HuC build. I never use 'proc', so I'm not even sure how it handles it or affected by the change.

DildoKKKobold · 09/01/2015, 10:27 PM

Quote from: Nulltard on 09/01/2015, 09:43 PMHey, DickfaceTAS, give up on this yet? No updates in a bit. Should have tool assisted home brew crew!!!

Yuk yuk yuk yuk!

LOL, says the guy getting private updates via DoxPhile. #FuckNulltard has never been more accurate.

DildoKKKobold · 09/08/2015, 08:12 PM

Gredler is a great artist. The game is looking amazing. The cat sprite is still a placeholder. Also, thanks to Sarumaru for the paw!

I'm a little worried about sound and music, I'm going to need to recruit someone to help with that.

Dicer · 09/08/2015, 08:15 PM

Quote from: DildoKKKobold on 09/08/2015, 08:12 PMGredler is a great artist. The game is looking amazing. The cat sprite is still a placeholder. Also, thanks to Sarumaru for the paw!
I'm a little worried about sound and music, I'm going to need to recruit someone to help with that.

That's lookin mighty nifty...

LostFlunky · 09/08/2015, 11:23 PM

Some nice work there guys!

PunkCryborg · 09/09/2015, 12:06 AM

Keep the cat

jtucci31 · 09/09/2015, 12:40 AM

I do like the cat in the game. It's cool to see all the new stuff added! Looking great so far. I like the paw health meter thing, that's clever. Can't wait to play this for myself

Gredler · 09/09/2015, 05:10 AM

Thanks for the encouragement. It's been a lot of fun to work on the PCE with DK - the challenge of getting things within restraints of the system is a lot of fun. Going from ~4098x4098 images with millions of colors to ~32x32 images with about 13 colors has been a rad learning curve. Hyperbolic, but representative of how this has been for me, so hopefully I can get something that looks cool to show up

As for the cat, it will be the main character, and by placeholder he means that the art is far from final. I gave him some quickly drawn frames of animation in order to hook everything up in code. I am working on the cat now with the code on my machine being able to make changes, compile, and view them in game, so I hopefully everyone likes the real star of the game

.

Back to work!

DeshDildo · 09/09/2015, 08:42 AM

This is all looking really good guys. Especially for a first outing. I can't wait to see how it progresses.

NecroPhile · 09/09/2015, 09:32 AM

So what kind of game is it, a side scrolling platformer I presume?

DildoKKKobold · 09/09/2015, 01:08 PM

Quote from: NecroPhile on 09/09/2015, 09:32 AMSo what kind of game is it, a side scrolling platformer I presume?

At the moment, its just a boss rush. We've planned the 5 bosses, each with a different mode of play. The next boss will be 2.5D. Its mainly inspired by Battletoads, and I hope that it is as memorably fun and hard as BT. If we still have the energy, we might add in pre-boss levels, but we've not planned any of that.

sirhcman · 09/09/2015, 01:27 PM

parallax or gtfo!

Gredler · 09/09/2015, 02:03 PM

Quote from: guest on 09/09/2015, 01:27 PMparallax or gtfo!

I'll parallax, I'll parallax all night long.

DildoKKKobold · 09/09/2015, 02:34 PM

Quote from: guest on 09/09/2015, 01:27 PMparallax or gtfo!

I don't really understand parallax from either a HuC or hardware perspective. Maybe Bonknuts will chime in and describe them for us. I'm not sure if the hardware has multiple background layers, or if its just faked using sprites.

Psycho Punch · 09/09/2015, 03:04 PM

You just define two portions of the screen (one 'scroll slow' part and other 'scroll fast' part) divided horizontally. Then you set up the VDC's Raster Counter to the scanline # correspondent to your desired horizontal split.
Then it's easy, only thing that changes is that you write to the Scroll X register twice, once for the top part in the beginning of the picture rendering (VBlank) and again inside the IRQ interrupt handler (fires when the line being rendered matches your configuration for the raster counter registre). That way you can have individual scrolling speeds for each section of the screen.

edit: of course there are other, more complex tricks (like dynamic tiles, used in Ninja Spirit) and you could also set up some sprites to help mask the horizontal divide (like atlantean, some parts of the walls that stick out outside of the horizontal split are just sprites). And of course, I really don't know how this works at all in HuC so hopefully my confusing post was of use.

DildoKKKobold · 09/11/2015, 12:44 AM

Quote from: Psycho Punch on 09/09/2015, 03:04 PMYou just define two portions of the screen (one 'scroll slow' part and other 'scroll fast' part) divided horizontally. Then you set up the VDC's Raster Counter to the scanline # correspondent to your desired horizontal split.

I believe that the scroll() function in HuC takes care of a lot of this for you, as it allows you to set up as many as 4 virtual screens. I didn't really understand the virtual screen thing until this, so thanks!

sirhcman · 09/12/2015, 06:40 PM

so does this mean we will have parallax?

LostFlunky · 09/12/2015, 07:18 PM

Cat Ass Trophy? Do you ship to Canada?

TurboXray · 09/14/2015, 12:12 PM

I can help with some parallax code for HuC (I've written a few libraries for it). HuC does offer hsync, or scroll, support. That might be enough for what you need, though.

If you find that things start slowing down, it's most likely array or pointer access. This is painfully slow on HuC (local variables are as well; use globals when possible). Bit shifting is also pretty slow. But surprisingly, it's not that difficult to overcome with some function/asm/code. I've done stuff like make C fastcall pragma functions, with asm on the target side, that can easily be used to access far data or pointer/array data. So instead of var=array[index], you'd do something like var=array_access(array,index). HuC treats all near data as far data when a pointer is used, so you get no speed increase when using local ram for arrays (which you would normally think you would).

Anyway.. dynamic tiles, hsync scrolling, sprites - that's how you're going to get parallax out of the system.

DildoKKKobold · 09/14/2015, 12:46 PM

Quote from: TurboXray on 09/14/2015, 12:12 PMIf you find that things start slowing down, it's most likely array or pointer access. This is painfully slow on HuC (local variables are as well; use globals when possible). Bit shifting is also pretty slow. But surprisingly, it's not that difficult to overcome with some function/asm/code. I've done stuff like make C fastcall pragma functions, with asm on the target side, that can easily be used to access far data or pointer/array data. So instead of var=array[index], you'd do something like var=array_access(array,index). HuC treats all near data as far data when a pointer is used, so you get no speed increase when using local ram for arrays (which you would normally think you would).

Interestingly, I've not run into any speed issues yet with the game. Most parts are just doing fun things with state machines, so no one piece of code currently being run is incredibly intensive. Also, I've found that most of my speed comes from sticking to char as much as possible. At least, that has been my dogmatic approach, since the HuC6280 is an 8bit processor.

My biggest concern is just running out of space, atm. I'm not sure how optimal the compile is, so if it ends up burning through chunks of ROM, we won't be able to make the game as cool as possible.

TurboXray · 09/14/2015, 12:51 PM

If you don't use one of the optimized option for HuC (I forget which switch), all char access is treated as int anyways (for operations).

DildoKKKobold · 09/14/2015, 01:31 PM

Quote from: TurboXray on 09/14/2015, 12:51 PMIf you don't use one of the optimized option for HuC (I forget which switch), all char access is treated as int anyways (for operations).

So, afaik, it did help. In my early days, I was accessing some of my arrays using int. array[int]. I was getting major timing issues. When I switched to array[char], the code ran without issues. Perhaps getting your assembly routine might help even more. I don't use a ton of arrays atm, but that might change. Thus far, I've been pointer-free.

TurboXray · 09/15/2015, 01:25 AM

Ahh yeah, int array access will be slower than char. HuC doesn't optimize for split high/low array of 16bit wide elements (something very common with 65x line). Writing backend functions as fastcalls is a nice way to keep it C style, without the inline asm mess, but still get some of that asm speed. I'm not sure how the other HuC guys do it, though. Maybe they can chime in with their closely guarded secrets

Psycho Punch · 09/15/2015, 01:30 AM

Can't you do a "#define int char" to cheat on speed anyway? :v

TurboXray · 09/15/2015, 11:34 AM

This might be some inspiration. The gameboy only has one BG layer.

DildoKKKobold · 09/16/2015, 12:23 AM

Stupid question time! I'm getting a green border on my TV. I thought this was color 0, but I must be mistaken, because I set it to 0, and it still is bright green.

Psycho Punch · 09/16/2015, 12:34 AM

Mega Cat?

You're writing ZERO to the palette #0 slot #0, but are you updating the higher byte? Remember that they're all 16 bit registers, and a color slot index is like this:
MSB | LSB
---- ---G | GGRR RBBB
Probably the MSB is set to 00000001, giving value '4' for the green color.

edit:
Mega-Neko?

Another thing, if I recall correctly the sprite color #0 is used for the overscan area, but I'm not sure, maybe try inspecting that too?

Gredler · 09/16/2015, 02:14 AM

Quote from: Psycho Punch on 09/16/2015, 12:34 AMAnother thing, if I recall correctly the sprite color #0 is used for the overscan area, but I'm not sure, maybe try inspecting that too?

Yes that green color is what I've been using for index color 0. Should I make two black colors on thr index? Is this not only a emulation issue? I dont see it when testing on the everdrive, only when using an emulator

DildoKKKobold · 09/16/2015, 02:24 AM

Quote from: Psycho Punch on 09/16/2015, 12:34 AMMega Cat?

Hell yes!

Quote from: Psycho Punch on 09/16/2015, 12:34 AMMega-Neko?

Hell no!

Quote from: Psycho Punch on 09/16/2015, 12:34 AMAnother thing, if I recall correctly the sprite color #0 is used for the overscan area, but I'm not sure, maybe try inspecting that too?

Cool, I can give that a try. Its easy to write setcolor(256,0) if that is all it takes.

Quote from: Gredler on 09/16/2015, 02:14 AMYes that green color is what I've been using for index color 0. Should I make two black colors on thr index? Is this not only a emulation issue? I dont see it when testing on the everdrive, only when using an emulator

If you are on a CRT, it isn't a problem. Cue galam coming in to abuse me in 5...4...3...2...1...

sirhcman · 09/16/2015, 05:50 AM

Game looks great dk, you guys should be proud!

TurboXray · 09/16/2015, 11:57 AM

Quote from: DildoKKKobold on 09/16/2015, 12:23 AMStupid question time! I'm getting a green border on my TV. I thought this was color 0, but I must be mistaken, because I set it to 0, and it still is bright green.

Color 0 for BG is the BG color, obviously, but color 0 of the sprite index (@ $100) is the border color when no display is showing (BG or sprites).

Gredler · 09/16/2015, 01:24 PM

Quote from: TurboXray on 09/16/2015, 11:57 AMColor 0 for BG is the BG color, obviously, but color 0 of the sprite index (@ $100) is the border color when no display is showing (BG or sprites).

That makes sense, and there wouldn't be a transparent color on a background sprite, I need to check that mappy pcx file and see if I habitually set the index to my transparent color. 16 bit hall of mirrors!

Thanks for taking the time to answer questions and suggest ideas for fixing issues - this environment is so alien to me. Spoiled by modern workflows, for sure!

sirhcman · 09/16/2015, 03:23 PM

I like the neon green, I say leave it for the people who insist on playing their TG-16 games on a LCD!

reno5 · 09/16/2015, 03:40 PM

Cool projects guys. Keep it up. Can't wait to play this on my Duo

Psycho Punch · 09/16/2015, 04:16 PM

Man this game is going to be great from what I'm seeing so far, no exaggeration. You guys should be proud.

Quote from: guest on 09/16/2015, 03:23 PMI like the neon green, I say leave it for the people who insist on playing their TG-16 games on a LCD!

Die!!!

Dicer · 09/16/2015, 04:22 PM

Quote from: guest on 09/16/2015, 03:23 PMI like the neon green, I say leave it for the people who insist on playing their TG-16 games on a LCD!

I'll just go 16x9, come at me bro...