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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Colour Maximite Beta Testers
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Geoffg Guru  Joined: 06/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 3308 |
Do you have a UBW32? Would you like to be a beta tester for the Colour Maximite? I have just about finished the development of the Colour Maximite (two months of hard work) and it should be be published in the September issue of Silicon Chip (editor willing). It is also possible to run the firmware on the UBW32 and enjoy all the features of the Colour Maximite with just a few extra components. So, if you have a UBW32 and would like to experiment with the Colour Maximite, please send me an email at projects@geoffg.net and I will send you the pack with all the firmware and documentation. All I ask is that you have a play with it and let me know if you find a bug. New features in the Colour Maximite are: - Colour VGA with eight colours (black, red, green, blue, cyan, yellow, purple and white). - Synthesised stereo music and sound effects. - Battery backed real time clock (optional). - Arduino compatible connector with an additional 20 I/O lines that are independent of the original 20 I/Os. - 2 channel PWM analog output. - Special commands for animated games. Like the original Maximite it still uses one chip to do everything and has a similar component count so it should cost about the same. Geoff Geoff Graham - http://geoffg.net |
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| Geoffg Guru Joined: 06/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 3308 |
Hey, I have just reached Guru status on the Back Shed !!! I must have hit some magic number of posts, what number do I need to become a god? Geoff Graham - http://geoffg.net |
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crackerjack Senior Member  Joined: 11/07/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 164 |
Geoff, I do believe you have already reached that status; not by number, but by colour! This sounds awesome, pity I don't own a UBW32. |
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djuqa Guru Joined: 23/11/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 447 |
Sounds great mate You are not only a GURU but a Legendary GURU VK4MU MicroController Units |
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elproducts Senior Member Joined: 19/06/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 282 |
273K............................273 Kelvin that is. At that point you can walk on water. www.elproducts.com |
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James_From_Canb Senior Member Joined: 19/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 265 |
Very funny. First time I've heard that one. My mind is aglow with whirling, transient nodes of thought careening through a cosmic vapor of invention. Hedley Lamarr, Blazing Saddles (1974) |
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darthmite Senior Member Joined: 20/11/2011 Location: FrancePosts: 240 |
Anyway , Geoff is my preferred Guru 
I still made test with the ColourMM on my UBW32 base. It's fast , i really don't have think that we can have a blitter who move me part of the screen at this speed !! I go for test the 'real' Sprites system Geoff put on it too. And the integrated Mod's player is awesome ! The most amazing is that everything is in the PIC32 without a whole off external components 
Cheers. Theory is when we know everything but nothing work ... Practice is when everything work but no one know why ;) |
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vasi Guru Joined: 23/03/2007 Location: RomaniaPosts: 1697 |
Can't wait to see some video demos... Geoff, the sources can be compiled for Chipkit Mega by just providing another linker script? Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton Elvish name: Mablung Miriel Beyound Arduino Lang |
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| Geoffg Guru Joined: 06/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 3308 |
I doubt that would work. The interface with the board would certainly be different. Geoff Geoff Graham - http://geoffg.net |
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| aargee Senior Member Joined: 21/08/2008 Location: AustraliaPosts: 255 |
Geoff, Sent through an e-mail the other day, did you get it? rg****@bigpond.com - Rob. For crying out loud, all I wanted to do was flash this blasted LED. |
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| darthmite Senior Member Joined: 20/11/2011 Location: FrancePosts: 240 |
Hi
I just made a Sprite test with the new ColourMM. It's very good
For my 1st example i have recreate the Lemmings Sprites and get the original Amiga Module for the music output from the ColourMM. I made a short little video with my phone 'not da best ...' Here it is : ColourMM Sprite test Cheers. Theory is when we know everything but nothing work ... Practice is when everything work but no one know why ;) |
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Nick Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 512 |
The SPRITE command, along with BLIT, LOADBMP and the MOD player will take the Maximite to a whole new level. Not to mention it's support for so many hardware interfaces and I/O capabilities. Very good Darthmite! You may be able to add to your "Lemmings demo" and make it an "official" demo to promote the new upcoming Colour Maximite. Add some demo's showing the use of these other commands and highlight the fact that this is all done in Interpretive BASIC (not "C", Assembly Language or compiled). The Colour Maximite could become the most popular mini Basic Computer kit if people see what the powerful MMBASIC can do. Nick |
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| darthmite Senior Member Joined: 20/11/2011 Location: FrancePosts: 240 |
Yes Nick, Good idea , but then someone have to made the video .
As you see it's not mine who can be the one in quality to promote anything
Here are the sources , sprites to copy on the SD-Card and the 3 mod's to copy on "a:" 2012-07-23_205305_sprites.zip I have do a little 8 colour sprite editor especially for the ColourMM. Here it is : 2012-07-23_205605_SprMite.zip Just for info , the crossed color is used as the transparent one. Cheers. Theory is when we know everything but nothing work ... Practice is when everything work but no one know why ;) |
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| Nick Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 512 |
I'd love to help but I haven't got a colour maximite or UBW32. If you make the greatest promotional demo, I'll organize the video later. You've got skills, show us what you got!
Even your sprite editor would be good to show off the available development tools for the new Colour Maximite. Nick |
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| darthmite Senior Member Joined: 20/11/2011 Location: FrancePosts: 240 |
Heya 
The beta test continue ! This time i use bmp ,Sprites , Amiga music modules and ... Blitter
Everything at same time for see if it's stable. I converted a original Lemmings level for the Maximite and load it as bmp at start. I don't have manage to get the real colours but for a test it will be OK
In the video you will see that the screen up down movement is very smooth ! ColourMM test 2 Here a picture. 
And here the source code for those who want see how i made the demo. 2012-07-25_110448_SPRITES3.zip Cheers. PS : Sorry for my Frenglish language in the video  Theory is when we know everything but nothing work ... Practice is when everything work but no one know why ;) |
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| Nick Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 512 |
Fabulous! 
This shows the power of the new MMBASIC in regards to games and what you can do with so little interpretive BASIC code. The only thing is the flickering of the software sprites. Have you got a delay between the SPRITE ON and OFF commands? Unfortunately, I haven't got a Colour capable Maximite yet so I can't run any tests but I would look into keeping the SPRITES ON and avoid as much SPRITE OFF time to minimise the flicker. This may mean, rather than erasing all of the sprites at once, then updating their positions all at once, then finally turning on the sprites all at once... instead, do them one at a time. Each sprite should be turned OFF, moved, then turned ON individually. I'm only guessing since I haven't looked at your code in detail but this was a problem I mentioned to Geoff when I was explaining to Geoff the operation of the software SPRITE commands. I can't wait to get my hands on a Colour Maximite! |
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| darthmite Senior Member Joined: 20/11/2011 Location: FrancePosts: 240 |
I tell this to Geoff too , he will look at new command i have propose to no more have a flicker sprite. The thing is that i have to put the sprites off for check if i have a active pixel at left or right from each sprite to decide the direction they have to run. Because this is done in the time the sprites are off it take some time that made the flicker effect. The new commands i have propose to Geoff are TestPixel(x,y) who return the pixel color BUT who will ignore it if it is a sprite pixel. The 2nd command is a Animate command that will automatically draw a sprite from a animation set. It's like Sprite Move but for animation .
So , with the normal Sprite Move they are no flicker because the command erase the sprite and redraw it directly to the new position. The Testpixel combined to the Animate command can be a easy solution. Geoff will soon hate me
Each time i send him a mail is for made it work more
And Nick , prepare your MaxMan for colour , it's a must have m8
Cheers. PS : And don't forget that this is a beta version (who work great) Theory is when we know everything but nothing work ... Practice is when everything work but no one know why ;) |
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| Nick Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 512 |
Ok. How about this for an idea. A flag be set when a sprite is written over a background pixel? It's a difficult problem made more difficult when multiple sprites are on top of each other. How do you identify which pixel is a background pixel and not a pixel from a previously drawn sprite? This is not a problem on a system with a hardware based sprite system but the Maximite is doing pretty good with this software sprite system. A hardware system also has a collision detection flag to identify when sprites themselves overlap/collide. Let me give it more thought. Maybe there is another way to identify the background objects? Nick |
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| darthmite Senior Member Joined: 20/11/2011 Location: FrancePosts: 240 |
The new sprites system save the background before drawing a sprite. I think the good way is to check the pixels in this buffer. I don't know how this background is saved when Sprites overlap each other. But is something to look at
Darth. Theory is when we know everything but nothing work ... Practice is when everything work but no one know why ;) |
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| Nick Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 512 |
Yes. I suspect that each sprite has the current background stored prior to drawing the sprite. That means, overlapping sprites will pick up a background with the previous sprite drawn. This will be no good for what you suggested. I could be wrong, but that was my understanding. It would also mean that the sprites need to be turned off in the reverse order they are drawn. Geoff is the one who will know for sure. The problem is compounded by the fact that Lemmings utilizes a lot of overlapping sprites and relies on them walking on a jagged landscape. The flicker is not that bad. Without the sprite command, doing it any other way would create a worst flicker effect. It's still pretty good for interpretive BASIC with no hardware sprite capability on a single chip computer. Nick |
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