CreatorJo 2021-09-24 02:07
Recently, I've been starting to learn C. After thinking about how LowRes NX was written in C, and the kinds of features I'd like to see in LowRes NX, I've decided that eventually I'm going to try to write a mod for it. I'd like to know if this seems a bit farfetched to any of you.
Timo 2021-09-24 08:00
It depends a lot on what you want to change.
Everything was made to fit exactly into the virtual 64 kB of address space (memory, etc.). So you cannot easily change for example the number of colors or sprites, because then it won't fit into the memory anymore. It would be possible to change the memory map, but then you would lose compatibility with some existing programs.
Anyway, if you have a specific idea, tell me and I might give you some advices.
wryhode 2021-09-24 13:25
Im considering the same thing. Would changing the sound to update every raster line take a lot of work?
CreatorJo 2021-09-24 16:05
@Timo I was just planning on adding a few new commands, and a HOVER.X and HOVER.Y pair for finding where the mouse is hovering, and not just clicking.
G-9 2021-09-24 18:16
They are good ideas, but it’s impossible on mobile . There is no mouse :)
CreatorJo 2021-09-24 18:24
@G-9 I never intended to port the mod to mobile, as iOS is way too hard to get applications onto and from, and you need to pay absurdly high prices to get your app on the App Store, not that I'd be able to do that in the first place as Timo owns LowRes NX.
Timo 2021-09-25 12:11
Orczr, not sure if it would be a lot of work, but I guess it’s tricky. You will need very short audio buffers.
Or actually maybe it’s not possible.. The audio runs on a different thread and takes the current audio register values every frame. The rasters are not really timed, the code executes as fast as possible and only waits after every frame. Hm, this would need tricky buffer things…
wryhode 2021-09-25 22:20
@Timo Thanks for the information! I’ll see what I can do :)
nathanielbabiak 2021-10-03 04:05
Timo, if the audio registers are modified with the POKE command, when does the sound update?
Is it during the next clock cycle, or the next VBL, etc?
nathanielbabiak 2021-10-03 04:06
I'd create a digital/sample PWM player if the update were fast enough...
Timo 2021-10-03 07:29
Audio is updated each VBL only. The clock cycles are just a counter to limit the number of commands per VBL.