256 colour TV.Spin
Baggers
Posts: 3,019
Hi All,
I originally posted my plans on the hydra part of this forum, but I guess since they're mainly HYDRA users, they're not that bothered by not having a PAL display.
Anyway, I have been thinking of modifying parallax's TV.SPIN to use >4 colours per block, in fact using one byte per pixel, but generating scan lines with one or more cogs, to create a line so it could have sprites, or character map etc.
It will use the TV config block like tv.spin, but slightly modified.
I will be doing a PAL spectrum type display, for my Manic Miner port, and I'll also be doing·a character map display, like the C64 or maybe an NES display.
I was wanting to know if there would be any interest in me doing this and posting it? so if people would like it, let me know.
PS, I've already done the hard part, in making it now use a byte per pixel, instead of 2 bits, now just to write the display renderers to generate the buffers.
I've attached the display driver test binary, it runs on 5Mhz clock on demo/proto board,·pins for tv are 12/14 as usual.
Cheers,
Baggers.
I originally posted my plans on the hydra part of this forum, but I guess since they're mainly HYDRA users, they're not that bothered by not having a PAL display.
Anyway, I have been thinking of modifying parallax's TV.SPIN to use >4 colours per block, in fact using one byte per pixel, but generating scan lines with one or more cogs, to create a line so it could have sprites, or character map etc.
It will use the TV config block like tv.spin, but slightly modified.
I will be doing a PAL spectrum type display, for my Manic Miner port, and I'll also be doing·a character map display, like the C64 or maybe an NES display.
I was wanting to know if there would be any interest in me doing this and posting it? so if people would like it, let me know.
PS, I've already done the hard part, in making it now use a byte per pixel, instead of 2 bits, now just to write the display renderers to generate the buffers.
I've attached the display driver test binary, it runs on 5Mhz clock on demo/proto board,·pins for tv are 12/14 as usual.
Cheers,
Baggers.
Comments
This is exactly the sort of thing I am looking for, well done.
I am looking forward to seeing the full release.
Maybe other users of this forum could say which TV system they are currently using.
I for example being from the UK am using PAL @ 50Hz
Regards,
Coley
very nice driver, it looks very good on my TV. I thought also to write such a driver which is capable to show the real graphic potential of the Speccy. I think there are enough guys who need a PAL driver like this.
Very good work. Did you use currently two Cogs for the driver?
Thomas
Kaio, Currently this driver is on one cog, but it's renderer will be on a seperate cog, depending on what you want to do with it, IE, it could use the CardboardGuru's Dodgy Kong renderer to display 4 colour tile map + sprites over the top of it. or it can do a spectrum display, which I'm going to add next. before release.
I'm also wanting to do a tilemap 320x200 and 320x512 using 8x8 characters, or maybe C64 style. I'm tempted to do a C64 style sprite display too. with fat and thin pixels [noparse]:)[/noparse]
Cheers for the feedback guys,
Jim.
Your job is excellent !!!
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Regards.
Alberto.
it works fine on my TV also (PAL, Germany), can't wait to try out the full release.
I think a lot of people would profit from this driver.
It's amazing how a hand full of people do all the brilliant work on this forum.
Thank you, I wish I could give something back other than saying "I like this" and "I want more of this"
I think many people here feel this way.
Clemens
I'm glad it works for you in Germany too [noparse]:)[/noparse]
Don't worry about not giving back, by saying "I like this" and "I want more of this" it's more than enough to keep us going to do bigger better things [noparse];)[/noparse]
Jim.
Just to let you know, I've attached another example binary, this time
I've modified CardboardGuru's Fantasia to work with my resolutions [noparse]:)[/noparse]
I've not got it doing Interlaced mode at the moment, cos that's a little more tricky with interlacing the display, so look later for that version
But this version supports a whopping 336x272 display in PAL from pins 12-14.
Can you guys let me know if this still works on all your PAL displays?
Cheers,
Baggers.
Gerry
I've tried this on my TV too, it is fine but there is a thin blue line at either edge of the screen is this correct?
Also, the colours shimmer but the text is rock steady.
Keep up the good work....
Regards,
Coley
The thin blue line is the border colour I have it so you could change the border colour on the fly like speccy loading etc.
As for the colours shimmering I think that's the colour roll, that you get with the crystal not being exactly divisible by the pixel clock speed. ( someone correct me if i'm wrong. )
Cheers for all the feedback guys.
Jim.
Looks very nice.
On my TV some cropping occurs on the left and top side (see attached image).
Clemens
Ah, looks like I've not taken into account of safe area, and I've opened screen area to 336x272 for this demo, so I guess it's just outside your tv's viewing.
So probably best to keep 320x264 ?
Thanks for the image though, it's clearly shown me that It's a screen safe area issue.
Cheers,
Jim.
Now after much modifying to get interlaced·rendering to work with render cogs [noparse]:)[/noparse]
Here's another binary for testing, I've also reduced screen size to 320x480·to be·safe area friendly.
There's some funny lines at top and bottom, I'm not sure exact cause of this if it's all my mods to get fantasia working , so I'm going to do my own tilemap display to be thorough.
So I'll do a tile display, then tidy up and release source·[noparse]:)[/noparse]
Jim.
I'd like to see Fantasia on PAL too. As you know I'm on a Hydra, and so this doesn't work for me with the pin differences. And you've distributed it in binary format, so I can't change it! Please post the source.
I'd like to see Dodgy Kong on PAL too.
Clemens
It's unfinished as it needs tidying, and I wanted to take it away from TV.spin, as it still has 16x16 tiles for the size.
I'll be fixing that so you just enter your pixel resolution before final release.
But·since you asked nicely, I thought I'd post it for you [noparse]:)[/noparse]
Enjoy.
let me know what you think.
Jim.
You'll have to help me out here with what I need to change, since you're used to porting back and forth to the Hydra. I've set modepins=HYDRAPINS. But no display. What else do I need to change?
EDIT: Never mind. I found it.
_clkmode=xtal1 + pll8x
_xinfreq = 10_000_000 + 0000
Post Edited (CardboardGuru) : 6/7/2007 4:21:30 PM GMT
Interesting to see that the colours are different. That orangey brown is green in the original. You can return it to the original colours by changing the pal burst line in the wtab block from $02_AA to $02_5A
But there's something very wrong with the display. It's wavy like in sitcoms when there's a dream sequence coming.
Cheers for the $02_5A tip.
Could be to do with the Clock and tv pixel clock being out.
I wonder if someone had a clock that was 4.433618 MHz to try it?
Or are you talking about the interlacing aspect of it? as it's only drawing 50% if the screen at a time so it's now running at 25Hz instead of 50.
Oh and like Clemens asked any chance of a PAL Dodgy Kong? lol
I had the same dot crawl problem, funny that this only showed up with the fantasia driver.
I have tried it with a 4.433618 MHz crystal and encountered some scrolling pixels going up the screen (at the same rate as the dot craw!!)
I have tried also Chips graphic demo with the same crystal and it was fine, rock steady no problems at all.
Seems a strange coincidence that the pixels scroll up the screen at the same rate as the dot crawl colour problem....
I wonder if this is some issue with the colour burst timing and that these scrolling pixels are always there just not visible with a 5Mhz crystal.
Feel free to PM me if you want any code testing.
Best regards,
Coley
Cheers for the code testing [noparse]:)[/noparse] might take you up on that.
Baggers.
No probs, I'm moving from Fantasia now anyway cos your still modifying it anyway, and I don't want to have to re-mod it every update [noparse]:D[/noparse]
I'm going to do my poly renderer, see what I can come up with [noparse]:)[/noparse]