Re: [stella] Star Fire - Return of the Starfield ?!?

Subject: Re: [stella] Star Fire - Return of the Starfield ?!?
From: Manuel Polik <mpolik@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 29 Jul 2002 10:39:43 +0200
Hi Clay!

>> That won't work. +8 does the trick, nothing else.

>I think someone mentioned this already, but (if I'm understanding the
>problem correctly) this can be fixed by manually positioning the first star
>at the top of each frame. This is good programming practice anyway... you
>don't want to depend on preexisting register values if you can help it.

Oh, don't worry. I am positioning the first star at the top of each
frame. I explained the priciple in my reply to Thomas.

>> Total randomness won't work, since you've got to *repeat*
>> what you're doing every frame

>I think a small table of ~20 entries would work for this. Each would contain
>a valid HMOVE value, which would be repeated (/me grabs calculator)... uhm,
>23 times to allow arbitrary positioning of each star. 

Uhm... so, if I'm repeating the same HMOVE value 23 times, my
positioning precission is only in jumps of 23 pixels (besides having
constant vertical gaps of 23 lines). Right now I have 8 pixels, so I
probably fail to see the benefit of your idea?

>So if you left the
>missile turned on, you'd see a zigzag pattern going down the screen.

Yup.

>To increase the rather sparse star density this technique would yield, you
>could flicker with a second 50%-offset starfield, or use another missile. I
>guess it depends on where you have cycles to spare.

No, I won't flicker. And the problem with adding the missile would be,
that it'd have the same color as the sprites. 
(->That is why the Starmaster crosshair is *glowing* when an enemy is
near, or why it can indicate a near base with a blue(?) and a comet with
an orange crosshair. Hehe, I think that's as good a manual-trick as
declaring the HMOV blanks being the referees in Pele Soccer was ;-))

Greetings,
	Manuel
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