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Post by Jonathan Cauldwell on Oct 4, 2014 19:48:48 GMT
Just a quick update to fix a couple of bugs. AGD Spectrum version 4.6This should stop text messages being corrupted when multiple messages are added and/or amended without returning to the menu and the correct screen should now be shown when positioning objects. |
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jj
Cold Store
Posts: 3 
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Post by jj on Oct 22, 2014 10:35:42 GMT
Hi,
We were scratching our heads because of objects positioning on blank screens or why was there a wrong screen number.
Thanks! We will check it today.
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Post by gabriele1969 on Oct 31, 2014 10:13:13 GMT
Any chance to get a 128k AGD? I keep runing out of memory because the amount of sprites i use for my animations ...
I am now starting a new project but already used up about 12 k for teh main character sprite (well he is doing a number of different things even when you don't press a key...)
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Post by Jonathan Cauldwell on Oct 31, 2014 22:29:39 GMT
12K is rather a lot. That's 96 sprites!
The 128K memory banks are used for editor routines and data. In fact, they have to be paged in, copied to lower RAM and then the game is paged back in again. Memory management is a real pain, I've looked into all sorts of alternatives and nothing is simple. Doing any sort of extra memory management in the game itself just isn't possible.
One solution going forward might be to replace the 8 x 8 blocks with 16 x 16, seriously reducing the space used for maps. Unfortunately, AGD is now at the stage where it's running into problems even if I try and add tiny new bits of functionality.
BiNMaN uses a trick whereby he uses a single sprite frame for left and right movement and then edits the pre-shifted versions in some other editor when the game is complete. It's a clever little method of cutting a 4-frame 512 byte sprite down to 128 bytes. I'm not sure which tools he uses to do this but maybe he could help?
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Post by Jonathan Cauldwell on Nov 3, 2014 23:54:11 GMT
I've been moving a few bits and pieces around and think I've managed to give the tool a bit of breathing space memory-wise. I'm also messing about with the engine and will look at implementing 16 x 16 blocks next year.
Guess we'll be up to version 5.0 then.
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Post by BiNMaN on Nov 15, 2014 0:33:20 GMT
12K is rather a lot. That's 96 sprites! The 128K memory banks are used for editor routines and data. In fact, they have to be paged in, copied to lower RAM and then the game is paged back in again. Memory management is a real pain, I've looked into all sorts of alternatives and nothing is simple. Doing any sort of extra memory management in the game itself just isn't possible. One solution going forward might be to replace the 8 x 8 blocks with 16 x 16, seriously reducing the space used for maps. Unfortunately, AGD is now at the stage where it's running into problems even if I try and add tiny new bits of functionality. BiNMaN uses a trick whereby he uses a single sprite frame for left and right movement and then edits the pre-shifted versions in some other editor when the game is complete. It's a clever little method of cutting a 4-frame 512 byte sprite down to 128 bytes. I'm not sure which tools he uses to do this but maybe he could help? Spectrum Graphics Editor (SGE), you can open the tap file you create and if you set the width to 16 and scroll through the code you will see the bank of sprites. You can use the drawing tool to redraw the pre shifted sprites and add extra animations. It's what I did to sneak in extra graphics into HomeBrew SE, also it stops the player sprite 'dancing on the spot' when you press left and right and there is no need for animate or animback. The only draw back is a sprite only animates when moving horizontally not vertically. You will get an R Tape loading error the first time you try to run the code, just save it out to fresh tap file and everything will be good. |
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Post by gabriele1969 on Nov 18, 2014 20:37:23 GMT
EH? what? me don't understand you, sorry  seriuosly guys: I have no idea what you are talking about...it's my problem: i am completely ignorant of coding sorry |
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Post by andrewvanbeck on Apr 13, 2015 8:17:28 GMT
This AGD thing is addicting, I would have kicked so much butt back in the 80's if it was available then.
Anyway, wanted to suggest a couple of commands that would make my world bigger...
GETBLOCK - like return the block at Column,Line - then we could programmatically adjust screens as we go.
REDRAWSPRITE - To force a draw of the current sprite. Would allow sprite masking and borders, as well as a possible choice of hats for sprites - just saying.
DRAWMODE - To control sprite drawing, maybe set whether or not to XOR the pixels and allow finer control.
PASTEIMAGE / PASTEOBJECT - To draw a sprite image at a specific location on the screen - so outside playfield areas can have held items etc displayed without resorting to the character set.
PAINT - To set the block colour at column,line.
FILL - To fill an area with the current colour, using column and line plus 2 passed variables for the extents.
PLAYERSPRITE - To set the sprite index to the player sprite, like the OTHER and SPAWNED commands, usually AI needs to track the player position or behaviour, and it might be handy to reference it directly rather than using a variable.
If possible I'd love to see just 1 more variable for sprites - would be especially handy for X and Y direction control - ala bouncy sprites and easier AI coding. Would be great to also have a fixed colour variable for sprites - so we can specify the ink colour of a sprite, and not have to use a variable like parama to store it.
Also, it would be great if there was a way to force objects to not pre-shift... it eats up memory of course and I think most people could get by with them being fixed on an 8x8 grid - even if they drop them. [EDIT] - looks like that's the case anyway, my bad - objects only take up 34 bytes so far as I can tell... this might also explain why my object spawn sprite isn't showing the object, probably needs to be positioned on a multiple of 8 position.
Anyway, I hope you keep it up - I'm having a blast using AGD and looking forward to finishing my first speccy game.
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Post by unclechicken on Jun 18, 2015 2:25:26 GMT
Another feature I would recommend is SCREENWIPE.
Let me explain. If you play a game like Skooldaze where the screen scrolls the new screen when you move to the edge, instead of the next screen appearing instantly, you could make a command called SCREENWIPE with the variables UP DOWN LEFT RIGHT, and the screen scrolls the new screen in that direction instead of just instantly appearing.
Hope this makes sense, it would be a really good addition to AGD.
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Post by underground on Aug 14, 2015 21:49:53 GMT
Hi everybody. My name is Fran and just discovered this awesome tool. I'm now learning with the 4.0 release, as the link on this topic is down.
Please could someone reupload again this version (4.6) ?
Many thanks Jonathan for create this fantastic tool and sharing with us.
Regards,
Fran
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Post by lamptonworm on Aug 20, 2015 14:10:05 GMT
Hi all, the download doesnt appear to be working. Is it mirrored anywhere?
Cheers,
LW
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Post by andrewvanbeck on Aug 21, 2015 10:45:24 GMT
If your still stuck Lamptonworm, feel free to send me a PM with your email and I'll send it to you.
Just wondering though, did you ever use the TGC/Apollo forums? - name is familiar is all.
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Post by lamptonworm on Aug 22, 2015 19:22:46 GMT
I'm the same LamptonWorm from those forums, I recognized your name also  will PM you in a sec, thanks! Cheers, LW. |
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Post by benobiwan on Aug 23, 2015 21:57:34 GMT
Hi guys,
Download site's still not playing ball. Any chance somebody could email AGD to me as well please?
My new Vega has re-ignited the childhood dream of making a speccy game, an after watchin' a few of the tutorial vids, I might actually be able to do it this time round!
Cheers,
Ben.
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Post by kas29 on Aug 24, 2015 2:35:47 GMT
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will PM you in a sec, thanks!