Graphics ETC.

headkaze · **Reply #30 on:** January 19, 2009, 11:34:41 pm

When I took a look at the new sprite I thought it looked wonkey. IMHO It needs to be mirrored because shadows only make it look unballanced. It does blend too much into the background but I think making it mirrored will also brighten it up a bit by removing the shadowed side.

What do you guys think?

Also Flash why are you trying to fit every level palette into the one palette? Surely you could just write a new palette as the level changes?

flash · **Reply #31 on:** January 19, 2009, 11:50:06 pm

I am doing it all in one palette at the c64 levels only used 3 of the 16 colours each. It is just easier. Grit got complicated with different palettes and also the starback uses some of the palette itself. I just makes it easier to do and also leaves the other colours to brighten up the levels a bit with incidental graphics - when I can be bothered.

I have matched the exact c64 colours (-1).

Not sure about the ship, I sorta liked the fading on the right, but also, i do agree it makes it clearer!! Aaarrrgh! I don't know anything now - brain melted!

Spent 2 hours trying to get sound - again! No matter what I do, NOTHING!

BaDToaD · **Reply #32 on:** January 20, 2009, 06:53:07 am

If you Mirror it it loses it's sense of being 3D

Don't look at the sprite in large view, look at it in game. IMHO if you still think it looks wonky then you are over analysing it. All the other sprites in the original game are bas relief but because you aren't looking for it you don't see it. In my opinion the mirrored versions lighting looks all wrong. It makes the ship look lit from above when everything else in the game is lit from top left.

flash · **Reply #33 on:** January 20, 2009, 07:35:59 am

I agree BT, but it is a double edged sword thing. Yours looks correct and HK's idea stands out more? Perhaps the right hand side needs a little lightening?
The one thing to remember, on a real DS you suffer a certain amount of blur. The screen is not as good as a pc's, that is why a lot of DS games use bright colours. Until we get the sprite movement working on the DS, there is now way to know for sure!

BaDToaD · **Reply #34 on:** January 20, 2009, 09:36:06 am

Sorry guys I'm sticking to my guns on this one.

People have commented to me before about the main sprite and as it says on the c64 warhawk wiki:

"Although there have been three-dimensional elements integrated into the the background and the enemy sprites, the own spacecraft lacks such effects and looks rather odd."

I rest my case.

If it doesn't work on the DS then I'll have a go at lightening it but with the limited palette that could be hard.

flash · **Reply #35 on:** January 20, 2009, 10:00:08 am

I did not disagree, I agreed - but have the same issues with possible visibility problems on the DS, we will have to see - when I get it working in hardware. Am playing with that at the moment!

Perhaps you could try MAGIC, you were always quite good at that

Any joy with the motherfu**ershipythingmadoo?

BaDToaD · **Reply #36 on:** January 20, 2009, 10:24:49 am

I've not had a chance at the mothership as yet. I may have a go tonight if I get time but I'm cooking for the GF tonight so I may have no creative energy left

flash · **Reply #37 on:** January 20, 2009, 10:45:41 am

How bloody hard is meatballs and beans!!??

flash · **Reply #38 on:** January 21, 2009, 10:47:43 pm

Level 3 with the c64 double pixels removed

BaDToaD · **Reply #39 on:** January 22, 2009, 06:47:11 am

Looking good

flash · **Reply #40 on:** February 01, 2009, 10:28:33 pm

I was just having a bit of fun

What do you think?

Would look better if I could get a high quality scan of the original artwork - sadly I do not have any copies

flash · **Reply #41 on:** February 08, 2009, 10:40:09 pm

Got the original game and did a scan!

Takes a while as it is a bit large!! (sorry)

flash · **Reply #42 on:** February 12, 2009, 07:57:19 am

Need some help/input here?

I cannot decide whether to have the aliens animating or to use the availible oam memory to have a larger variety of aliens?

We could have lots of different aliens instead and uses sprites together to create larger aliens? Is the animation gonna be that noticable on the DS screen with fast moving aliens?

any input would be great!

HK: can you work out how many 32x32 4bit sprites we can fit in oam memory?

flash · **Reply #43 on:** February 12, 2009, 03:39:57 pm

I appear to only be able to address sprites numbered 0-63?

?

Ok, so on the basis of this, the DS is worse than the C64 for addressing sprites, taken from Captain Apathy's tutorial,
"The problem with this is that you have to keep the different frames in your Sprite Buffer, which can be relatively small. With 64x64 sprites, at 256 bit color, assuming you're using the E bank like I suggested, you have enough space to store 16 sprites. Thats not alot. You can use some of the larger banks to hold 64 sprites, but even that's fairly limited. However, assuming you're using 8x8 sprites, you can hold 1024 sprites with Bank E."

So, not sure what to do now? I think split the sprites up a bit. Ie. have the first 32 as "game wide" sprites and the last 32 as level specific. Then the sprites in the first 32 can be animated using dmacopyasync (we, some of them - though we do have a lot of vblank free). This way, we can have both animation and variety. Bit of an arse mind, but, doable!!??

What do ya recon HK? Should I try this way and code an anim system based on pulling sprite data from a anim bank using dma?

flash · **Reply #44 on:** February 12, 2009, 08:22:26 pm

Oh, had another play - for some strange reason, I think it is to take my mind off alien attack waves

Thought the text in a style for the old game of yore was fun

BaDToaD · **Reply #45 on:** February 14, 2009, 10:25:55 am

The Box Scan looks great

As for animations or different types of enimies... I know I'm gonna regret this but... different types of enemies!

flash · **Reply #46 on:** February 14, 2009, 10:34:27 am

I think what I have a way to get both

A bank of standard and animating enemies and a level set minor bank for incidental changes? will take a bit of a fiddle, but will enably both variety and animation...

flash · **Reply #47 on:** February 24, 2009, 01:14:27 pm

BadToad:

Here is the WIP sprite set up!

Remember, you can only use the first 16 colours in the palette

BaDToaD · **Reply #48 on:** February 24, 2009, 02:10:32 pm

Thanks mate.

flash · **Reply #49 on:** May 06, 2009, 10:33:17 pm

That is ok...

Hope the timewarp does not freak you out!!