I wrote:
> I'm quite sure, that you can pack the playfield very
> well. And serial unpacking shoudn't be a big problem too.
> But *working* with this packed data, which can't be
> done just serial, requires a very special algorithm.
> This *might* be the real problem.
After further thinking about that, I found a quite
simple solution:
If you look at the packed data as a stream, then just
decode the data in three streams. The stream positions
differ by exactly one row and the mid-row is the one
that gets recalculated.
That way you'd need a minimum of extra RAM for
unpacking, but a fast algorithm.
So you "only" have to find an effective way of
(de)compressing the playfield. If you can find one or
two dimensional patterns that you can store in ROM,
which are only referenced by RAM, you might be able to
increase compression even more.
BTW: I remember a lot of different rules for Life, what
are the original ones? Or are you planning user
customizable rules? I guess, this would make packing
more complicated and less effective.
Hey, all that lets me remember the development of
Jammed ;-) The basic problem seems very similar...
Have fun!
Thomas
_______________________________________________________
Thomas Jentzsch | *** Every bit is sacred ! ***
tjentzsch at web dot de |
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