RetroBytes Portal

General Category => Old Games => Topic started by: flash on February 10, 2013, 08:44:39 pm

Title: Starfield
Post by: flash on February 10, 2013, 08:44:39 pm
I found this scrap of code. I must have made several revisions to it, each time counting the clock cycles to try and get the fastest code I could. I believe this plotted individual stars to a block of character tiles (much like my DS starfield test http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZNQBocChc8&list=UU_56a9OV0yHlcKwszacxsRA)

Anyway, check it out lol... (christ I really was ANAL)
Title: Re: Starfield
Post by: Sokurah on February 10, 2013, 09:26:46 pm
I must have made several revisions to it, each time counting the clock cycles to try and get the fastest code I could.
Nerdy?...anal?...perhaps, but that's what one needed to do if you wanted the best results.

...or so I'm told. :) :)

Btw, I've started work on a new Spectrum game, and that runs currently way too slow (and it's only a bloody puzzle game), but I'll optimize and rewrite as I go along.  ;D
Title: Re: Starfield
Post by: flash on February 10, 2013, 09:39:11 pm
A spectrum puzzle game - intrigued!

It is amazing how much you can speed up ASM code with a bit of 'fiddling' though.
Title: Re: Starfield
Post by: Sokurah on February 10, 2013, 10:34:49 pm
Yeah, putting a bit of thought into your coding can make a lot of difference. I rarely make very efficient code from the start though (he said as if he'd done a load of games in assembler) - early on I focus on getting the framework right and things on the screen, and then later when I can move things around and see them working I start optimising.

On this project I'm drawing on a backbuffer and moving that to the screen area, and that is pretty slow the way it is right now - which is slowing things down, but I'm expecting to get a 100% speed increase on that routine once I put my mind to it.
...the little mind I have. :)

Yeah, well, so...a bit of 'fiddling' can make a bit difference. ;)