Survey posted 2006-05-17 01:12 by Jon.

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If we're talking graphics as in graphical games, ASM owns because of the lack of the flashing screen... You know, the ClrDraw Loop BASIC programmers have to use :D

or pixel-off (not sure of the exact command)

I have written DiceRoll6 (posted) as well as a screen test (loop that turns on all pixels across, then off going down) and also a windows-style startup (lost) and I forget what else...

I like doing programs for advanced graph plotting myself. then I can use them in math class.

The best TI-Basic command for small graphics is PxlChg(. Of course, with assembly (not bogged down with Basic) you can do amazing things so fast it's all a blur. I believe a 4 grey version of the new 68k ClosedGL can be successfully created.

For larger graphics and displaying multiple sprites to the screen, the Plots are the best.

Turning a pixel on and off, even in assembly is to slow to make a flickerless grayscale. A notable way of doing grayscale is changing where the screen reads the data of what to display. This seems to be the fastest way to switch a pixel from on to off.

I was referring to what he said about Pxlchg( , not what he said about greyscale.

actually, flickerless grayscale has already been done (to a point)

see link

Let's not forget about RigView.

all of my rigview program have a bit of flicker between levels 2 and 3 of GS to a point... maybe it's flickerless on the SEs

It's flickerless on my 84+ once you set it just right.

If I ported reuben quest to xLIB (right now it still uses Omnicalc) speed would be twice faster and on the 83+ grayscale would be flickerless. Only problem is that on SE the grayscale would run too fast for the LCD and it would show a weird pattern all across the screen. Its not pure basic though

That is true, but that can only be taken advantage of in the TI-85 and higher. Everything below that has to use the (slow) LCD driver memory we all know and love...

heh, even in my xLIB grayscale attempts (BASIC) I had so much fun trying to syncronise grayscale speed with For( loops that slowed it down on SE calcs so it wont flicker :P

Although most of the calcs people use now are "above" the 85, so that's not really an issue.

And ASM is blazingly fast. Just look at any high quality ASM game (like Phoenix) to see just what pure ASM is capable of...

Ehh, using pure BASIC (No asm libraries) on the calc to write graphics programs is a waste of time. You aren't allowed to plot more then one pixel at a time, other then drawing circles and line -.- There even isn't (and, or, xor, cpl) which is annoying. Even when you recall one pic then another it does an "or".. No choices...

Yeah I suggest you become more experience with graphics in BASIC before saying stuff like that. It may take some time but it is possible to and and xor. There is also a faster way to plot more than one pixel at a time in a quicker way than using the draw commands, the stat plots. Pure BASIC graphics may seem like a waste of time to YOU because you apparently haven't taken the time to explore BASIC graphics techniques.

Well, even for all that, ASM is still faster when it comes to drawing...

That said, I didn't know you could use the stat plots to plot points...cool!

You can use the plots to make pure BASIC sprites. I'm thinking of releasing a few demo programs in one package. I've been experimenting with stat plots the past few days. The bad thing is it takes a while to make a lot of sprites appear on screen and when you want to update one, you must update all which is slow.

Wait, are you saying there is no 'and' or 'or' statement in TI-Basic?

Try the "2nd+Math -> Logic" menu: it has AND, OR, XOR

He's referring to the fact that there are no bit level and, or, not, xor statements. You know, like this:

%11110000
And %00110110
-------------
%00110000

Only if you use one bit.

Also if you make each bit an element of a list, you can do the same thing as what you posted.

gotcha

Like this:

{1,1,1,1,0,0,0,0->L1
{0,0,1,1,0,1,1,0->L2
L1 AND L2
Ans
{0,0,1,1,0,0,0,0}

Line() combined with the point-On commands is a incredibly powerful drawing tool when used properly

68k has xor

It should even be possible to output a low-resolution 3-gray-level NTSC composite television signal through the link port (on a TI-86 in machine language), though I have not yet gotten around to finishing the code. I thus far have the code for 1 line done, but I need to find the vertical timings. The total extra hardware requirement will be a few resistors & some connectors.

Testing will have to be all-or-nothing because my oscilloscope appears to have died. :( At least my portable TV tolerates a slightly glitchy signal (found from testing with output from a PC's parallel port).

Wow, well good luck! That's something I'd have never even thought of doing.

I finished the code, but it seems the timing is a bit off. I calculated that a line should be 381 cycles @ 6MHz, but neither of the TVs I tried thus far would sync to it (the picture was strange & kept rolling). Then again, I actually got something on a CRT TV, unlike the time I tried to do it from in Visual Basic. :) I might have to try 380 cycles/line (or maybe newer batteries).