Fabian, Yes, the fonts are user-settable, and you have two choices of 4 colour and 16 colour fonts and 16 palettes. as I couldn't fit the rest of them into 496 instructions, but if you want a 2 colour font or 8bit font let me know when you order it, i'll swap a mode for that instead, or i'll send seperate binary for you to upload initially at runtime.
hinv, Thanks [noparse]:)[/noparse] as for C64 features, maybe fat pixels [noparse]:D[/noparse] but I guess you could mimic it by using the same colour pixel twice [noparse];)[/noparse] and I guess 24x21 pixel sprites, or 12x21 fat pixel sprites. but again, if you REALLY want to have that, then I guess I could make a specific C64 style binary for downloading at runtime, or unless you just want C64 style sprites instead of the 16x16s as standard, let me know when you order one, and I'll make a special modded version for you.
Last request is there even a slim chance that you can fit in an ANSI mode? I had to ask even if the answer comes back as a no. Have already lost exactly how many different modes you have thus far?
All four quadrants, and one in the middle even..... You seemed to over cook things, I only wanted the ability to decide which corner to use. Will certainly look forward to viewing the documentation. Will you be having a Made In England Splash screen (controlled by a bit for those that don't wish to see this?)
I suppose is time for me at least to stop asking questions, and wait a little longer for you to both finalise all the details and start shipping your project.
Thanks Mike [noparse];)[/noparse]
Tell you what Mike, if you give me a list of all the ANSI stuff you want, I'll do you an ANSI mode.
Was thinking about the splash screen, too, yeah, I think it'll merit one lol, but yes, if I do one, it'll be switch off-able [noparse];)[/noparse] as splash screens can get a tad annoying, like the old 3DFX ones etc lol
Mike_GTN said...
You seemed to over cook things, I only wanted the ability to decide which corner to use.
No kidding. I get the impression that when one of us asks something, Baggers goes "Ooh! I hadn't thought of THAT!" and scurries off to his PC, while Coley just facepalms
That said, the release of the PropGFX is going to be a very significant event. For the first time in quite a few years it's going to be possible for simple, homegrown projects to be able to send very high quality graphics output to a standard TV.
These guys are making history.
Post Edited (Fabian Nunez) : 3/28/2008 7:07:26 PM GMT
Am I to understand that you are running a modified graphics_demo.spin on the Hybrid and then sending the frame buffer over the 115Kbuad serial line to the PropGFX Light? This sounds like way more bandwidth than a 115Kbaud serial line could handle, especially with 4 of them. Have you switched to Beau's high speed serial connection for sending over the buffers to the PropGFX Lite? Maybe I am misunderstanding something.
The mixed text and graphics demo uses the 8 bit databus and it uses a modified version of grahphics.spin to produce the data on the Hybrid and then piped through the databus to the Lite.
I think the breakthrough here isn't that we can mix text and graphics but that we can send new display modes over the databus when the Lite boots up.
Fabien Nunez said...
No kidding. I get the impression that when one of us asks something, Baggers goes "Ooh! I hadn't thought of THAT!" and scurries off to his PC, while Coley just facepalms
That's exactly how it is.......
It's not that bad really but I would like to get the datasheet finished so I don't think we will be adding any more modes for the time being, will we Baggers?????? lol
That said, once these babies make their way into your own workshops who knows what different modes you will come up with yourself.
hinv, like Coley said, it's a modified graphics_demo.spin running on the Hybrid, but all I did was increased the resolution to 44 x 15 tiles, that gave me the extra screen space, and modified the part that sets up the screen buffer, ready for graphics, to instead of filling the screen buffer with one display, I just made it display one of the 2 bitmap areas, in each corner, and a section of one in the middle.
then I removed the second buffer on the Hybrid ram side, as it only needed one [noparse]:)[/noparse] as sending bytes ( over the 8bit databus is rather quick ) Oh, and the baud rate for serial is set to 256K at the moment [noparse]:)[/noparse] but yes, that isn't fast enough for this kind of application, which is why we have the 8bit bus mode [noparse]:)[/noparse]
Paul, No worries, I did have them at low res, but no worries, I've removed them [noparse]:)[/noparse]
Coley, Ok, no more graphics modes lol, I can't help it, it's such a great chip to code for. blame those at Parallax for making something so compellingly addictive. lol
Something just occurred to me... would it be possible to have an input, to be used with 8 bit mode, that if set to 1 would set all 10 pins (data and handshaking) to inputs? (ie a !CS input). I've just realized that being able to tristate those 10 pins is going to be necessary if the PropGfx is to be able to share a bus with other devices.
Post Edited (Fabian Nunez) : 3/30/2008 6:53:22 AM GMT
OK, I get the impression that the PropGFX works differently to the way I think it does... the PropGFX will respond to whatever commands my program sends it, so a bug in my code could cause the PropGFX to output >50% of the time (eg if my program gets stuck into an infinite loop querying status). I'd prefer not to find out about my bug when smoke start coming out of the PropGFX or the CPU :P
You'll see below the relevant pin states during data transmission.
The data part of the bus is more or less always in the input state but PropGFX Lite just ignores the data until the CLK line goes high
To use PropGFX Lite on this bus with other devices you will need two extra control pins for each device attached to the bus.
The way PropGFX works is that it pulls PINOK low when it is ready to receive data
The bus master loads the byte of data onto the data bus and brings CLK high
PropGFX brings PINOK high and the bus master then pulls CLK low and the process repeats itself.
Not a bit of magic smoke anywhere
Regards,
Coley
{
PINOK 
CLK 
D0 ──
D1 ──
D2 ──
D3 ──
D4 ──
D5 ──
D6 ──
D7 ──
0 1 0 1 0
1 0 1 0 1
0 1 0 1 0
Data 1 0 1 0 1
0 1 0 1 0
1 0 1 0 1
0 1 0 1 0
1 0 1 0 1
}
send_byte
[b]waitpne[/b] mypinok,mypinok ' wait for pinok to go low
[b]and[/b] mybyteout,#255 ' 8 bit data
[b]or[/b] mybyteout,myclk ' add the myclk pin state
[b]mov[/b] [b]OUTA[/b],mybyteout ' write to the port
[b]waitpeq[/b] mypinok,mypinok ' wait for pinok to go high
[b]andn[/b] [b]OUTA[/b],myclk ' clear the myclk pin state
send_byte_ret
[b]ret[/b]
Post Edited By Moderator (Chris Savage (Parallax)) : 4/1/2008 5:34:20 PM GMT
No it's Bi-directional just that for the most part it is written to.
It's all down to the comms wrapper that we will include in the firmware.
You can check for the status of various aspects of The PropGFX but only after the relevant 'Read' command has been issued.
All will become clearer when we release the datasheet which I am currently in the process of writing.
PS That information is now partially obsolete and i will update it as PropGFX Lite now has 8 additional i/o pins available at the dip40 connector.
Before anybody asks, they currently have no function.....not yet anyway!
Coley
EDIT: DIP40 Layout sheet updated to show General Use I/O
Post Edited By Moderator (Chris Savage (Parallax)) : 4/1/2008 5:34:29 PM GMT
I have a suggestion for (some of) those 8 pins: for the price of some gfx capability, the Hydra Sound System can use two of those pins and the PropGFX becomes the PropMultimedia!
Comments
hinv, Thanks [noparse]:)[/noparse] as for C64 features, maybe fat pixels [noparse]:D[/noparse] but I guess you could mimic it by using the same colour pixel twice [noparse];)[/noparse] and I guess 24x21 pixel sprites, or 12x21 fat pixel sprites. but again, if you REALLY want to have that, then I guess I could make a specific C64 style binary for downloading at runtime, or unless you just want C64 style sprites instead of the 16x16s as standard, let me know when you order one, and I'll make a special modded version for you.
Baggers.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
http://www.propgfx.co.uk/forum/·home of the PropGFX Lite
Last request is there even a slim chance that you can fit in an ANSI mode? I had to ask even if the answer comes back as a no. Have already lost exactly how many different modes you have thus far?
All four quadrants, and one in the middle even..... You seemed to over cook things, I only wanted the ability to decide which corner to use. Will certainly look forward to viewing the documentation. Will you be having a Made In England Splash screen (controlled by a bit for those that don't wish to see this?)
I suppose is time for me at least to stop asking questions, and wait a little longer for you to both finalise all the details and start shipping your project.
With regards
Mike.
Tell you what Mike, if you give me a list of all the ANSI stuff you want, I'll do you an ANSI mode.
Was thinking about the splash screen, too, yeah, I think it'll merit one lol, but yes, if I do one, it'll be switch off-able [noparse];)[/noparse] as splash screens can get a tad annoying, like the old 3DFX ones etc lol
Cheers
Baggers.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
http://www.propgfx.co.uk/forum/·home of the PropGFX Lite
That said, the release of the PropGFX is going to be a very significant event. For the first time in quite a few years it's going to be possible for simple, homegrown projects to be able to send very high quality graphics output to a standard TV.
These guys are making history.
Post Edited (Fabian Nunez) : 3/28/2008 7:07:26 PM GMT
That's the plan anyway, not making history, well maybe, but just to allow homegrown projects to be able to have semi decent TV graphics abilities.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
http://www.propgfx.co.uk/forum/·home of the PropGFX Lite
Am I to understand that you are running a modified graphics_demo.spin on the Hybrid and then sending the frame buffer over the 115Kbuad serial line to the PropGFX Light? This sounds like way more bandwidth than a 115Kbaud serial line could handle, especially with 4 of them. Have you switched to Beau's high speed serial connection for sending over the buffers to the PropGFX Lite? Maybe I am misunderstanding something.
Thanks,
Doug
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Paul Baker
Propeller Applications Engineer
Parallax, Inc.
The mixed text and graphics demo uses the 8 bit databus and it uses a modified version of grahphics.spin to produce the data on the Hybrid and then piped through the databus to the Lite.
I think the breakthrough here isn't that we can mix text and graphics but that we can send new display modes over the databus when the Lite boots up.
That's exactly how it is.......
It's not that bad really but I would like to get the datasheet finished so I don't think we will be adding any more modes for the time being, will we Baggers?????? lol
That said, once these babies make their way into your own workshops who knows what different modes you will come up with yourself.
Best regards,
Coley
Post Edited (Coley) : 4/1/2008 5:59:12 PM GMT
then I removed the second buffer on the Hybrid ram side, as it only needed one [noparse]:)[/noparse] as sending bytes ( over the 8bit databus is rather quick ) Oh, and the baud rate for serial is set to 256K at the moment [noparse]:)[/noparse] but yes, that isn't fast enough for this kind of application, which is why we have the 8bit bus mode [noparse]:)[/noparse]
Paul, No worries, I did have them at low res, but no worries, I've removed them [noparse]:)[/noparse]
Coley, Ok, no more graphics modes lol, I can't help it, it's such a great chip to code for. blame those at Parallax for making something so compellingly addictive. lol
Baggers.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
http://www.propgfx.co.uk/forum/·home of the PropGFX Lite
·
Post Edited (Fabian Nunez) : 3/30/2008 6:53:22 AM GMT
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http://www.propgfx.co.uk/forum/·home of the PropGFX Lite
·
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http://www.propgfx.co.uk/forum/·home of the PropGFX Lite
·
You'll see below the relevant pin states during data transmission.
The data part of the bus is more or less always in the input state but PropGFX Lite just ignores the data until the CLK line goes high
To use PropGFX Lite on this bus with other devices you will need two extra control pins for each device attached to the bus.
The way PropGFX works is that it pulls PINOK low when it is ready to receive data
The bus master loads the byte of data onto the data bus and brings CLK high
PropGFX brings PINOK high and the bus master then pulls CLK low and the process repeats itself.
Not a bit of magic smoke anywhere
Regards,
Coley
{ PINOK  CLK  D0 ── D1 ── D2 ── D3 ── D4 ── D5 ── D6 ── D7 ── 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 Data 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 } send_byte [b]waitpne[/b] mypinok,mypinok ' wait for pinok to go low [b]and[/b] mybyteout,#255 ' 8 bit data [b]or[/b] mybyteout,myclk ' add the myclk pin state [b]mov[/b] [b]OUTA[/b],mybyteout ' write to the port [b]waitpeq[/b] mypinok,mypinok ' wait for pinok to go high [b]andn[/b] [b]OUTA[/b],myclk ' clear the myclk pin state send_byte_ret [b]ret[/b]Post Edited By Moderator (Chris Savage (Parallax)) : 4/1/2008 5:34:20 PM GMT
I was going by this diagram, from the other thread. I'm guessing it's (partially?) obsolete now:
So, it sounds like the PropGfx is a write-only device, then. There are no status or error codes one needs to read from it?
It's all down to the comms wrapper that we will include in the firmware.
You can check for the status of various aspects of The PropGFX but only after the relevant 'Read' command has been issued.
All will become clearer when we release the datasheet which I am currently in the process of writing.
PS That information is now partially obsolete and i will update it as PropGFX Lite now has 8 additional i/o pins available at the dip40 connector.
Before anybody asks, they currently have no function.....not yet anyway!
Coley
EDIT: DIP40 Layout sheet updated to show General Use I/O
Post Edited By Moderator (Chris Savage (Parallax)) : 4/1/2008 5:34:29 PM GMT
I have a suggestion for (some of) those 8 pins: for the price of some gfx capability, the Hydra Sound System can use two of those pins and the PropGFX becomes the PropMultimedia!
Coley
Post Edited By Moderator (Chris Savage (Parallax)) : 4/1/2008 5:28:59 PM GMT
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http://www.propgfx.co.uk/forum/·home of the PropGFX Lite
·