Example

Pixel Bits Demo

4

was8bit 2020-11-20 10:29

Demonstrates one way of editing pixels in a character

Pixel Bits Demo.nx | Open in app
2020-11-20 10:38
Pixel Bits Demo.nx | Open in app
2020-11-20 10:34
Pixel Bits Demo.nx | Open in app
2020-11-20 10:29

was8bit 2020-11-20 10:34

First copy has an error in it....


Alice 2020-11-20 13:15 (Edited)

Very nice...I was looking more of a frame by frame animation thing...but this can be used for different things. Reversi anyone?

Would be good for character design.


GAMELEGEND 2020-11-20 15:47

i can make music with this :)


Alice 2020-11-20 16:05

Yep...beat pad...very good idea, sequencer. Was looking to buy one a few years back. You should do that with retro beats and include some recent stuff. People could create a song and save it/copy it. Sound tool.


was8bit 2020-11-20 16:18 (Edited)

Here is your frame animation :)

https://lowresnx.inutilis.com/topic.php?id=118


was8bit 2020-11-20 16:22

Also, you can use COPY to copy an entire character into another character .. so lefs say use have a bottom background filled with on character, rather than putting a new charcter all over the background to animate it, simply use COPY to replace the original character image with a new character image... the effect applies to ALL instances of the original character :)


Alice 2020-11-21 00:40

was8bit...I’m looking for the screen to change, not just a wall paper of one sprite changing. More like a TV. I want to be able to send an entire image for the entire screen and then have all the screen change...not just create effects or scrolling. I don’t want repeating images...I want an entire image map. I guess I didn’t make that clear.


Alice 2020-11-21 01:34 (Edited)

...what I was suggesting is the entire 32/32 background be replaced with a new image. Because there are not enough characters to do that (1024)...it would not be possible to do without repeating characters. Since the limit in size of a character is 8x8 (...yes or 16x16) and we need repeating characters, the highest character with repeating “pixels” would be a character representing 4 “pixels“ at a time (2x2). That gives 16 possible different characters. The next size up is a character representing 16 pixels (4x4)...but that would mean we would need (2 power 16) over 35,000 characters to show all the possible combinations...which we don’t have. So because the resolution in backgrounds is 32 x 32 cells and each cell could show a character with 2 “pixels“ wide by 2 “pixels” high, that would give us a resolution of 64x64. This would be entirely made up of repeating characters chosen by the 4 pixel combination ( 1 of the 16 characters representing the 16 different 4-pixel combinations. The pixels would all be 4 actual pixels wide by 4 actual pixels high when you draw them on the character (top left 4x4, top right 4x4, bottom left 4x4, bottom right 4x4) these 16 characters can represent any combination of pixels in any size of background...they are all the combinations of a grouping of 4 pixels.

This way, you can update one row of cells every 8 lines of screen update (raster) to the second background and switch the entire backgrounds after the full screen has been drawn which will control the FPS smoothly. This enables you to load an entire screen with a new image (resolution 64x64). The fun thing is that you can design different “pixels” because each “pixel” is actual 4x4 actual pixels in size (each character contains 4 of these 4x4 “pixels” making an 8x8 Character.

Actually if 4 different shades are used (4 shades like the char design tool) that would use up 4 power 4 =256 characters (combinations) so you could a nice single color graphic with scaled colors from a pallet. (Strictly using characters...no POKEing). You could have different pallets used, but it would change blocks of 4 pixels at a time which might be hard to make a nice image with.

Hopefully this is more clear.


was8bit 2020-11-21 04:25

Nathanielbabiak (sp?) has already resolved how to fill the whole screen... it takes quite a few tricks to pull off... otherwise you can only have an 128x128 sized pixel screen.... with top left corner (char#0) unused...


was8bit 2020-11-21 04:26

I encourage you to experiment, as you may figure something out that others have overlooked ;)


Alice 2020-11-21 05:22

Hopefully my explanation was more clear for you. Thanks for the info.


was8bit 2020-11-21 06:28

Well, bit math is abit alien to my brain, as is all the tricks done to accomplish full screen pixels... if i wasnt constantly brain tired from work and such i could possibly process it, but what i posted is the "workable" limits of what i can currently do...

Also, i am still lucky and have an old copy of the original lowres, and enjoy its pixel based format... honestly i never could make good games from it, as game graphics for me was unbearable horrid on it... so i stuck to just doing math type screensavers...

So, even "IF" lowres NX had full pixel power, honestly wouldnt use it as my main way of making games... i would continue using characters to make games...


was8bit 2020-11-21 06:45

BTW, did you see this :)

https://lowresnx.inutilis.com/topic.php?id=854


Alice 2020-11-21 07:35 (Edited)

Ok...going to do this...drawing 256 characters of 4 pixels with color ranges for each pixel of 0 to 3. Basically color by number base 4 from 0 to 255...lol. Hurts the brain. Then just going to make a base 4 decoder to decimal for 4 characters that I will get from an array, 2 characters from index 0, two from index 1 (and so on...) and concatenate them together. Decode them for the decimal ID of the character and feed the cells 4 at a time every raster call.

To get the image you can use a cross-stitch pattern maker (yes...needle and thread). There is one I’ve used online that lets you upload any image, say how many stitches by how many stitches you want it (resolution), pick your colors (4), and pick your symbols (0 to 3). It will translate your image into what we need to make this thing work. Then I will just read the data in an array and that should do it.

Wish me luck.


was8bit 2020-11-21 07:54

Good luck :)


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