Video Modes
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The Uzebox currently supports 9 video modes (as of v3.1).
Mode 1
- The mode used in the original kernel (i.e: used for Megatris)
- 240x224 resolution
- 6 or 8 pixels wide tiles
- Configurable tile height
- Allows more than 256 unique tiles on screen by using 16 bit vram array (each entry is a direct memory pointer to a tile in flash)
- no scrolling
- no sprites
- CPU cycles left: high
- RAM consumption: medium
- Program memory consumption: very low
See also
Usage and implementation details
Mode 2
- 144x224 resolution, 6x8 pixels tiles, 32x32 vram
- 8 bit vram array, each entry is an index into a 256 tiles table
- full screen scrolling
- multiples screen sections with independent scrolling, height, sprite priority and tile memory
- maximum 32 sprites at once, 6x8 pixels, up to 5 per scanline. No sprites flipping. (though now vertical flipping will be possible)
- Sprites blitting independent of background offset
- CPU cycles left: low
- RAM consumption: medium-high
- Program memory consumption: high due to unrolled loops (low if horizontal scrolling not required)
See Also
Mode 3
- Up to 240x224 resolution, 8x8 pixels tiles, up to 32x32 vram
- 8 bit vram array, each entry is an index into a 256 tiles table
- Full screen scrolling
- 1 scrolling main section and 1 static overlay section for scores, etc.
- Configurable number of sprites using 'ramtiles', sprites can be flipped on the X/Y axis and can be overlaid on other sprites. With the 4K RAM & CPU limit, about 20 sprites can be displayed at once. Aggregated sprites will allow a bigger total sprites count to to the tiles overlapping required when blitting sprites which position are not multiples of 8. (see note below about MAX_SPRITES)
- CPU cycles left: lowest
- RAM consumption: high
- Program memory consumption: medium
See also
- Usage and Implementation Details
- Ramtiles Effects Primer
- Sprites Techniques for Mode 3
- Hello World Tutorial for Mode 3
Mode 4
Developed by David Etherthon
- 288x224 resolution, 16x16 pixels tiles
- full screen scrolling
- no sprites
- 8x8 text area section
- CPU cycles left: high
- RAM consumption: low
- Program memory consumption: medium
Mode 5
- Based on Mode 1, but using 8-bit indexes to save RAM
- 240x224 resolution, 6x8 pixels tiles, 40x28 vram
- 8 bit vram array, each entry is a index to a tile table (maximum 256 unique tiles on screen)
- no scrolling
- no sprites
- CPU cycles left: high
- RAM consumption: low
- Program memory consumption: very low
Mode 6
Monochrome 1bpp ramtile-only video mode.
- Submodes: 240x224 (30x28 ramtiles) or 288x224 (36x28 ramtiles)
- Supports up to 256 ramtiles
- Foreground/Background colors can be changed per scanline in 240x224 submode
- Optimized point and lines functions
- CPU cycles left: low
- RAM consumption: medium
- Program memory consumption: medium
Mode 7
Mode 7 is a video player. It plays uncompressed full screen movies at 30FPS with sound.
- 170x114 (147x114 effective) resolution, 30fps
- 256 colors per pixel
- Sound at 15.7Khz
- no scrolling
- no sprites
- CPU cycles left: low
- RAM consumption: low
- Program memory consumption: medium
Video Mode 7 Implementation Details
Mode 8
- 120x96 bitmapped mode
- 4 colors per pixel (2 bits per pixel)
- Global 4 color palette out of 256 colors
- no scrolling
- no sprites
- CPU cycles left: high
- RAM consumption: medium
- Program memory consumption: very low
Mode 9
- 360x240, tiles only, 60x28 tiles, 6x8 pixels tile, real-time code generated tile data
- 8 bit vram array, each entry is an index into a 256 tiles table
- 256 colors per pixel
- no scrolling
- no sprites
- CPU cycles left: high
- RAM consumption: low
- Program memory consumption: very high (depending on tile count)
Video Mode 9 Implementation Details
Mode 10
- Based on Mode 5, but using 12x16 pixel tiles to save RAM
- 192x192 resolution, 12x16 pixels tiles, 16x12 vram (with black border)
- 8 bit vram array, each entry is a index to a tile table (maximum 256 unique tiles on screen)
- no scrolling
- no sprites
- CPU cycles left: high
- RAM consumption: very low (around 3KB free)
- Program memory consumption: very low (depending on tile count - 192B per tile)
Mode 11
NOTE: This mode is a current work-in-progress.
Palette video mode 3 / Flash/RAM saver video mode 3 / Platformer video mode 3
- 240x224 resolution, flexible 16x4/8x8 pixel tiles, up to 32x32 vram
- Palette support for 16x4 tile lines, either 16 colors without or 136 colors with additional restrictions.
- 8 bit vram array, each entry is an index into a 256 tiles table
- Up to 4 different tilesets, one selectable for each 8x8/each two 16x4 pixel lines.
- full screen scrolling
- 1 scrolling main section and 1 static overlay section for scores, etc.
- configurable number of sprites using 'ramtiles', sprites can be flipped on the X axis and can be overlaid on other sprites. With the 4K RAM & CPU limit, about 20 sprites can be displayed at once. Aggregated sprites will allow a bigger total sprites count to to the tiles overlapping required when blitting sprites which position are not multiples of 16|4 or 8|8. (see note below about MAX_SPRITES)
- CPU cycles left: lowest
- RAM consumption: higher than video mode 3 with direct video sprites, slightly more than half of video mode 3 if sprites are in palette video, too.
- Program memory consumption: low