Custom Characters for VGA/TV output

Chuck Davis

I've searched for an answer on this but I'm not finding it anywhere, and the sample objects don't give me a clear indication of how to do it.

Is it possible to define custom characters to use instead of, or in addition to the predefined character set?· I need to define some special graphics-type characters, but I'd still like to operate a character display, not a full graphics display, to minimize the memory requirements.· I would only need maybe 32 characters at the most, in addition to the standard character set.

Maybe this has already been done somehow and I'm just not finding the solution.

Thanks in advance!



·

deSilva

There were multiple postings according to this task in the last months, I remember I could even help here and there... However it will take me as long as you to search for them

deSilva

Well, I won't look unhelpful, though..
Just define your characters and put there address into the appropriate tile when needed!

When you want to use TV.SPIN you have to change it a little bit here and there so it takes your characters rather than the ROM characters.
And note that the glyphs have to align to 16 longs = 64 bytes - this is nasty but important. It seems to exist no other possibility but to copy the bitmaps to such an address...

Edit: The interleaving of characters is also a little bit nasty, but you need not use it; however not using it will take double space (32x32) for your glyphs then..

Note also the 32 height characters are very high-res. If you use TV.SPIN in 16 bit-height mode you can no longer use the ROM-font without further modifications...

My own SILVATEXT.SPIN is not yet ready for publishing, will still take a week or so...

Post Edited (deSilva) : 8/30/2007 8:54:46 PM GMT