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What is the highest resolution charater driver on 1 cog? — Parallax Forums

What is the highest resolution charater driver on 1 cog?

lmclarenlmclaren Posts: 104
edited 2011-09-16 10:38 in Propeller 1
Hi,
I have found 640 x 480 VGA Tile Map Driver w/ Mouse Cursor which is 1 cog with a character resolution of 40x15, are there any character drivers with a higher character resolution? I don't care about the pixel count, only the character count.

I can do without a cursor, I would like individual color per char if possible. Must run an LCD screen.

I am guessing that 640x480 would be fine if it had its own font.

regards

Lee

Comments

  • RaymanRayman Posts: 14,876
    edited 2011-09-15 06:13
    I imagine that "vga_hires_text" is the best with one cog...

    Parallax also has new examples using it for a primative GUI..
  • lmclarenlmclaren Posts: 104
    edited 2011-09-15 15:08
    Thanks for the reply Rayman,

    As far as I can tell (unless there is a different version somewhere) the vga_hires_text requires 2 cogs and only does color per line instead of color per character.

    I can only spare 1 cog.

    Lee
  • TubularTubular Posts: 4,717
    edited 2011-09-15 16:16
    Lee
    "Must run an LCD screen" - are you talking about a standard PC monitor (VGA cable), or a LCD module (eg using 18 or 24 bit colour?)
  • lmclarenlmclaren Posts: 104
    edited 2011-09-15 16:22
    Standard PC monitor, eg 640x480, 1024x768, 1280x1024 etc
  • kuronekokuroneko Posts: 3,623
    edited 2011-09-15 16:31
    You could try these drivers but they only have colour per line:
    • [thread=129769]50 column VGA text driver in one cog ...[/thread]
    • [thread=129739]64 column VGA text driver in one cog ...[/thread]
    • [thread=129781]80 column VGA text driver in one cog ...[/thread]
  • TubularTubular Posts: 4,717
    edited 2011-09-15 16:33
    Lee also I think that driver you mentioned is 40x30 rather than 40x15. But I'm guessing you're actually chasing more columns...
  • lmclarenlmclaren Posts: 104
    edited 2011-09-15 16:40
    Thanks Kuroneko,
    That is a very good start, nice drivers and they don't take up too much memory.
    Great find and of course, excellent work Bill Henning.

    regards

    Lee
  • Bill HenningBill Henning Posts: 6,445
    edited 2011-09-15 16:45
    You are welcome, and thanks :-)

    Kuroneko helped immensely with those drivers! He figured out a very nice solution to a critical hub synchronization issue.

    Note that the 80 column driver need the Prop to run at 100Mhz (ie 6.25Mhz xtal with PLL16x)
    lmclaren wrote: »
    Thanks Kuroneko,
    That is a very good start, nice drivers and they don't take up too much memory.
    Great find and of course, excellent work Bill Henning.

    regards

    Lee
  • lmclarenlmclaren Posts: 104
    edited 2011-09-16 02:41
    I am using the SVGA50, I have worked out how to change the color per line, is there any chance to mod this to do color per character or is there a hardware limitation?

    thanks

    Lee
  • kuronekokuroneko Posts: 3,623
    edited 2011-09-16 03:55
    lmclaren wrote: »
    ... is there any chance to mod this to do color per character or is there a hardware limitation?
    It's usually down to timing and used/available memory. For these drivers timing is rather tied down. But I can think of a quick and dirty solution which would allow for a per character colour pair (foreground/background). Downside is memory consumption, the font size would double and you'll need a long per character.
  • lmclarenlmclaren Posts: 104
    edited 2011-09-16 05:45
    thanks Kuroneko,
    I am building a coffee roaster, I think I will stay focused on the roaster until it is working and then look at the display. Now I have a 1 cog vga I can make it work.
  • KyeKye Posts: 2,200
    edited 2011-09-16 06:04
    Internal ROM font characters take up two tiles vertically. So 40x30 goes to 40x15. That driver is much better for graphics.
  • RaymanRayman Posts: 14,876
    edited 2011-09-16 07:22
    Bill, kuroneko,
    I didn't appreciate how nice this is... 80 columns with 1 cog could be very useful. All you need is the faster crystal... Nice work.
  • Bill HenningBill Henning Posts: 6,445
    edited 2011-09-16 10:36
    Kuroneko, you are 100% correct! (as usual)

    I have not released a 4 color tile driver version as they are not polished for release (and as you note, the increased memory requirements)
    kuroneko wrote: »
    It's usually down to timing and used/available memory. For these drivers timing is rather tied down. But I can think of a quick and dirty solution which would allow for a per character colour pair (foreground/background). Downside is memory consumption, the font size would double and you'll need a long per character.
  • Bill HenningBill Henning Posts: 6,445
    edited 2011-09-16 10:38
    Thank you... note, you can get 64 columns (and 50 columns) at 80Mhz

    All drivers come with vertical font scaling and I think 5 fonts at last count, so you can choose practically any number of rows on screen.
    Rayman wrote: »
    Bill, kuroneko,
    I didn't appreciate how nice this is... 80 columns with 1 cog could be very useful. All you need is the faster crystal... Nice work.
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