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Re: Iros

Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2017 4:36 pm
by L4rry
D3thAdd3r wrote:he last boss could do multiple points of damage
The latest release (v1.4) now does 50% damage per final boss shot instead of the 5% previously.
Jubatian wrote:it feels running smoother especially at the space shooter
I've applied the mode 3 optimization in the latest release (v1.4). You can download it directly
from the first post. I honestly didn't notice anything different, but then again, I don't have the best
eye for that. I just applied the changes in the 'videoMode3core.s' directly to my existing kernel.
(As well as the kernal boost which was already present in 1.3). I'm interested to see if you can notice
some render improvements in these builds. (Thank you by the way. Much appreciated). The
biggest slowdown comes in level 5 where all ships travel vertically as well as horizontally.
So that means it uses up to 4 RAM tiles per ship. I'm going to add a ram tile or two to see if it
improve things, or alternatively, I run out of memory :mrgreen:

Re: Iros

Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2017 4:43 pm
by L4rry
My emulator crashes instantly with 1 extra ram tile :mrgreen:
Thought I might have maxed it out. Worth a try though.

Re: Iros

Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2017 4:45 pm
by L4rry
I will tell you what the biggest performance gains I've had during development was though. Removing all signs and traces of any floating point numbers. Goodness. It not only eats up RAM, it's very very slow.

Re: Iros

Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2017 11:44 am
by L4rry
I've updated the knight AI to be slightly more challenging. The player is more likely to take damage now. Released in v1.5 linked in original post.

Re: Iros

Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2017 1:15 pm
by L4rry
Thanks everyone for your input on bugs, performance and balancing. I'm very happy with the shape the latest release (v1.5) is in. Almost can't believe my first code commit on this game was a year and a half ago! Time for me to let go of Iros a bit and move on to some other projects. Time flies by when you're developing on the Uzebox :)

Re: Iros

Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 8:10 am
by Jubatian
The performance boost was quite noticable I think: The first version dropped to half speed often likely because of the blitting taking too long, so you missed a frame. The latest version doesn't exhibit such slow-downs (of course you may less likely notice this if you are running the game from browser, but I believe you also play around with it on a real Uzebox :) ).

If you are using CUzeBox, you may keep an eye on the RAM usage patterns, which could help you seeing whether you can have an additional RAM tile or not. It is pretty tight already, so no wonder it crashed then! (Likely the end of your variables met the bottom of the stack)

Re: Iros

Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 3:21 pm
by L4rry
Jubatian wrote:but I believe you also play around with it on a real Uzebox
Yup. Just tried it on the hardware again, and it does feel smoother. Good job!
Jubatian wrote:if you are using CUzeBox, you may keep an eye on the RAM usage patterns
I need to start using your emulator. The extra debugging facilities will be really helpful. I've
been using uzem until now and have been managing my ram usage on 'feel' and trial and error.
Just checked out the CUzeBox forum again. SD Support! Nice :D

Re: Iros

Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2017 11:14 am
by L4rry
I was thinking about creating a wiki page for Iros. I don't seem to have rights to create a new page though (which is understandable). I do have edit rights. So if an admin can just make a copy of the 'Tank Fu' page then I can edit the contents. Unless there is some other procedure to follow here. I'm not sure.

Re: Iros

Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2017 1:02 pm
by D3thAdd3r
You should have the rights to create new pages;definitely you are a trusted/good member by now, I think it is just messed up user rights for the wiki currently. I can create pages, but can't upload new pictures, where before I could either. I put up a copy of Tank Fu renamed Iros in the "WIP" section, where I think you can change that to be "Released" when you decide. On pictures, is anyone able to upload pictures now?

Re: Iros

Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2017 2:32 pm
by L4rry
D3thAdd34 wrote:I put up a copy of Tank Fu renamed Iros in the "WIP" section, where I think you can change that to be "Released" when you decide
Thank you!
D3thAdd3r wrote:On pictures, is anyone able to upload pictures now?
I can't see any facility on the wiki for uploading pictures.