Pixel Pimp, graphics utility
Hi All,
I'm writing a 16x16 block and sprite utility for the speccy. I know there are numerous PC tools available that are much better than this but this is more for me to use (but I'm posting to see if other people could find use of it), specifically:
Numerous ways of manipulating blocks (line fill, mirror, shift, orpaste, flip), data and attributes, something to take 4 frames of a sprite going left > right, preshift it and mirror it so I have preshifted data to use in games. Also easy access to block data.
It bears some similarities to AGD, but the code is all mine, I guess there are only so many ways of presenting this kind of utility.
If anyone has interest in this could I get a bit of feedback on how user friendly it is? It's pretty much how I want it to be but I could make changes before uploading to WOS.
I guess the biggest flaw is the data saving, I had an unsuccessful look at custom loaders & hit some problems trying to use the ROM save/load routine, in the end I decided to put an option to exit to basic, from there the data can be saved or print peeked etc (though I will just be ripping it from the debugger).
The controls will be horrid on a rubber key as I'm using cursors, I'd be willing to change this but suppose most use of this would be on a PC.
I know I'm probably reinventing the wheel here but it was fun to do & it's going to be a really useful tool for me, maybe others...:smile:
PIXELPIMP
RZX
May still have some bugs in, if you find any let me know. Also apologies to any fans of 'de stijl' if my loading screen disobeys any of its rules ;-)
I'm writing a 16x16 block and sprite utility for the speccy. I know there are numerous PC tools available that are much better than this but this is more for me to use (but I'm posting to see if other people could find use of it), specifically:
Numerous ways of manipulating blocks (line fill, mirror, shift, orpaste, flip), data and attributes, something to take 4 frames of a sprite going left > right, preshift it and mirror it so I have preshifted data to use in games. Also easy access to block data.
It bears some similarities to AGD, but the code is all mine, I guess there are only so many ways of presenting this kind of utility.
If anyone has interest in this could I get a bit of feedback on how user friendly it is? It's pretty much how I want it to be but I could make changes before uploading to WOS.
I guess the biggest flaw is the data saving, I had an unsuccessful look at custom loaders & hit some problems trying to use the ROM save/load routine, in the end I decided to put an option to exit to basic, from there the data can be saved or print peeked etc (though I will just be ripping it from the debugger).
The controls will be horrid on a rubber key as I'm using cursors, I'd be willing to change this but suppose most use of this would be on a PC.
I know I'm probably reinventing the wheel here but it was fun to do & it's going to be a really useful tool for me, maybe others...:smile:
PIXELPIMP
RZX
May still have some bugs in, if you find any let me know. Also apologies to any fans of 'de stijl' if my loading screen disobeys any of its rules ;-)
Post edited by R-Tape on
Comments
And yes, you are reinventing the wheel but as long as you:
- will find it useful for your tasks
- have fun with coding
it's perfectly okay to create such tools.
ZX-ALFA should help you... again :)
Take a look at routines "SAVE ALFA" and "LOAD/VERIFY ALFA" in the assembly source code, they are exactly what you need. If you need assistance to adapt them for use in your program, let me know and I will modify them for you accordingly.
Ah good olf ZX-Alfa! This is similar to what I was trying but I was doing it without a header, I'm assuming that's possible. If I decide to go down the ROM call route it'd be great if I could use your code, thanks very much :smile:. The problem is that if I'm using the ROM call there is still the chance of space bar interrupt then probably back to basic anyway.
Which tools do you guys use for graphics by the way?
Sorry Crisis, it's just the name you like ;), I didn't include a proportional font, the main instructions seens are just ldir'd from the hidden loading screen as they wouldn't fit into the bottom segment, the rest is ROM font.
Thanks heavens for ZX Paintbrush!
Sure. There's explicit code to save/load/verify the header in the source code I mentioned and it would be very easy to skip this part. However it's much more convenient for users to support standard headers, since each block can have a proper name and it allows any program to load these blocks directly afterwards.
You are welcome!
ZX-ALFA works properly when SPACE is pressed during tape operations. Give it a try.
I still use our own tools from decades ago, mostly ZX-ALFA for editing characters and ZX-BETA for larger blocks...
Sure! In this case, could you please document where they were taken from? Otherwise users will never be able to locate this information just based on the font names.
The very reasons I used for creating Fontasy4.
Is ZX-BETA in the archive Einar? I'm intrigued to see it but couldn't find it.
No, actually most of the titles I created in the 80's that are not archived yet.
I'm planning to check later which ones are missing and then convert them from the original tapes for proper preservation, but this will have to wait a little longer. My current priority is to finish other Spectrum projects I'm working on right now...