>The source for this [sound] work is 14k in size and when assembled increases to >40k in Z80 - Sam and 143k on the Amiga and rather amusingly 780k on the >PC ( no Idea - perhaps I have missed an optimising flag ). Sounds about right if you ask me - this is why SAM's so great isn't it. I'll bet the PC tracker allocated itself a huge chunk of memory just to be on the safe side. (Cynical whingeing session - - I'll shut up).
>It has a built in level editor and the whole display is constructed from data rather >than being totally predrawn. The graphics can be edited on any platform and >changed. This sounds really useful. I seem to remember a Shaun Harrap/Pete Hollingsworth Monty Mole level editor coming out in Your Sinclair about ten years ago, which did roughly the same thing, but I've lost it. Does anyone know of a copy (vintage 1987 YS)? Isometric projection is quite easy to manage from 2D designers, depending on how 3D you want to go (fake 3D with a certain amount of blocks in any one column is really easy, total 3D is a bit more complicated).... >I take the point about Head-Over-Heels, fantastic game. Isometric sprite projection >follows on logically as a module on the game engine I have developed so far. I >think I might implement the rules and a level editor and leave it to some of you folks >to go put the thing together. If I recall it was a Crammond game... Jon Ritman and Bernie Drummond? Them of Match Day and Batman fame. As far as I can see, Head over Heels wasn't *too* 3D - it didn't have more than one main floor on a screen for a start. >PS: I have some good code from an early Amiga project that renders compressed >textures on reduced polygon shapes, if I get time Ill make it available the algorithms >should be reusable and as it ran on the Amiga 500 reasonably well I see no >problem with the SAM, if I remember correctly the SAM outperformed the Amiga >on integer calculations ever so slightly. You can correct me if I am remembering >incorrectly. !! Wow. I did some investigating on textured polygons for Open3D (my project), and the speed really dips. The current method I use is based on gouraud-shaded polys, so you can traverse the screen fast. Textured polys you either traverse the texture (good for expanded textures near the camera), or the screen (good for compressed polys). If your routine work faster than mine then brilliant! And to everyone who's been annoyed with the lack of release of Open3D, I heartily apologise. Should've come out months ago now. BTW I don't know about the Amiga, did it have really slow integer routines? >I started out reporting Atic-Atac as a first milestone - because the game engine >although top down lends itself to map design and fast sprite requirements. I have >made serious progress on this and have created versions for PC, Amiga and >SAM which do all you want SAM of course! >Proper 4 bit, 8 bit and 24 bit graphics depending on platform ( re-usable game engine - I never thought Id ever do one of those ). This sounds cool - do you have three different versions of the graphics data, or select one to compile depending on the platform? I'm also surprised there isn't more support for GIFs and JPEGs on the SAM. People have written bespoke programs for themselves (including a lot of Amiga and Archimedes to SAM conversions), but not so much available in the PD. >Ive got to admit Im feeling really enthusiastic about this, I will see if I can rescue some of the early ports I did and make the available. >PPPS: I ported Mozilla M9 to the PSION Series 5Mx ( C++ ) and got it running in 1Mb memory ( OK I admit that is before you try and load a page ). Whose up for a browser project? :@) If only I knew you were joking..... -howard=tobermory The NTICS Group: providers of Database Services to learndirect and Sheffield TEC. Contract management: Sheffield Libraries, Archives & Information Service. National Training Information Central Support Unit 4 AVEC 1 Sidney Street Sheffield S1 4RG Tel: 0114 275 1046 Fax: 0114 273 0024 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.ntics.org.uk The contents of this e-mail are confidential to the addressee named above and may be legally privileged. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination, distribution or reproduction of this message is prohibited. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender and may not necessarily reflect the views of NTICS or Sheffield City Council.
