I think what's holding up new art is the lack of dedicated drawing tools. You can use a normal paint package that handles FLASH, such as Artist III, but right now you still have to use the emulator to tweak the palette. Plus a lot more thought is required about how to make best use of the palette. I expect once BASin's screen editor is extended to support the mode there will be a few new images, but I don't expect the demo sceners who produce most of the really interesting screens to even get interested in the mode until it has been realized in hardware.
I wonder what the chances are of that being realised through an interface similar to what Eduardo Mello is currently producing for the Colecovision- the Opgrade Module- which he will be using to make enhanced arcade conversions. Something similar for the Spectrum would be exceptionally tasty.
Thanks! You know there have now been more releases in the last two months supporting ULAplus than the Fuller Box got during the entire time it was on sale. Words cannot express how gratified I am by the reaction of the community. Thank you everyone, you've really made my year!
How far away are you from producing ulaplus in sillicon? I been following the work done with ulaplus and am mighty impressed, particularly by the amount of recoloured games... A ulaplus upgrade would also go rather nicely with my Spectrum +3e :)
How far away are you from producing ulaplus in sillicon? I been following the work done with ulaplus and am mighty impressed, particularly by the amount of recoloured games... A ulaplus upgrade would also go rather nicely with my Spectrum +3e :)
Only CSmith can answer that question. Note that the first machine to get the ULAplus treatment will be the original 16K/48K/+ machines. The ULAs in the 128, +2, and +3/+2A haven't been reverse engineered yet and there's quite a bit of extra logic in there to replicate, particularly in the +3/+2A ULA.
the only good effect of colouring monochrome games has been with the 256 colour mode in EmuZwin
here is Knight Lore
but it's very hard to do and only a few games are available.
Actually there was more games changed into 256 colors, atached to the emulator years ago. And all of them looked as well as this one (or close).
That was an interesting idea.
This mode, introduced with Spec256, would be almost impossible to achieve in real hardware.
Yarek Adamski said once that it would be possible to make a graphic card for Spectrum (based on several Z80 CPUs) and it could support these 256-colors games.
But he never started it. It was only a theoretical consideration.
Actually there was more games changed into 256 colors, atached to the emulator years ago. And all of them looked as well as this one (or close).
That was an interesting idea.
Ironically, it works best with monochrome games. Anything that already uses the attributes for colour will lose that variety. For example, where you have different colours of the same sprite in Manic Miner, when re-coloured, they all come out the same - though admittedly with no attribute clash.
I'd rather have seen part of the palette set aside to automatically include at least a small range of shades based on the ink/paper/bright settings of the current attribute, and maybe even have them redefinable. Then you could combine fixed and variable coloured pixels in a sprite.
Anyway, I remember trying some of these out in Spec256 and it crashing a lot. Maybe I should try EmuZwin.
Anyway, I remember trying some of these out in Spec256 and it crashing a lot. Maybe I should try EmuZwin.
Its hit and miss with EmuZwin if you check the Sabrewulf in the Knightlore piccy his legs are one block forward and the ball that is bouncing leaves a pixel trail in its wake.
also when I try JetPac all the sprite's jump half a character...sigh.
They are unfortunately a bit buggy too. It's a pity that we don't have a stable, user friendly emulator with good documentation which would support 256 color games.
They are unfortunately a bit buggy too. It's a pity that we don't have a stable, user friendly emulator with good documentation which would support 256 color games.
English wasn't Vladimir's first language so documentation was always going to be suspect. However, he did have some rudimentary write-up on doing 256 colour games using EmuzWin. Unfortunately, it wasn't detailed enough to do the job.
he did have some rudimentary write-up on doing 256 colour games using EmuzWin. Unfortunately, it wasn't detailed enough to do the job.
Eh? it's very easy you don't need a tutorial. But before starting be sure to get Version 2.5 of emuzwin. (this is a copy-paste from my blog post)
-setup:
1.open a game, and pause.
2.select 256 color mode from "effects" menu
3.a window will open. do not touch any settings, click ok. monochrome data will be copied to the extended gfx memory. (this window is also kind of hard to understand behaviour, it will only shown once, so don't make mistakes)
4.open gfx editor now.
5. Click yellow pacman face to turn it off. Only regular speccy data will be shown.
-Try to find the sprites on memory:
7. At the bottom left corner of the gfx editor, there is a textbox, you can type the width of the sprite (in characters) if the sprite you want to edit is 3 characters in width just type 3 there. Then you will scroll and find your sprites.
8. Use triangle shaped arrows to shift bytes left or right
9. Use red grid button to show grid, don'T forget to select "anchor grid to byte 0".
10. You may see couple of same sprites around memory. One is screen, and generally games uses a buffer to create image, so dont be fooled by them. Try and find real sprite data.
10.When you find your sprites you are ready to draw new sprites over them. Click pacman again to show 256color pixels.
-editing
11.Start drawing
12.unpause the emulator to see the results and pause again before editing.
-saving
13. to be on the safe side save your gfx work seperately. Click "save" in GFX editor window. Make backups.
14. Save your game in emuzwin (ezx) format from emulator window, File > save as...
I'm using V2.5 because later versions are far more buggy, and won't work/crash with 256col games ocassionaly.
Hmmm, is that a linux command? I'm still giving my first steps with linux via Ubuntu, but that's a little beyond my abilities. If the Windows version could convert pictures in batch mode it would be greatly appreciated.
Hmmm, is that a linux command? I'm still giving my first steps with linux via Ubuntu, but that's a little beyond my abilities. If the Windows version could convert pictures in batch mode it would be greatly appreciated.
I'll try to add a batch mode to my gui port when I get home.
it now supports Batch Converting.
(I also updated converter code to v0.12-just a minor change, you won't notice anything as CULA64 already has palette adjustment scrollbar)
Get it there:
<see next post>
Ask here if you didn't understand how to make it work.
Scrplus 0.13.
Main changes: it runs on windows now (with the oh-so-classy GUI (You mean the orange rectangles - Ed.)), and if run without args (eg. click on the executable) it assumes you want gui mode.
This isn't just a palette file; the game has been patched to use the full range of colours.
I have resisted the temptation to make any other patches to the code, so all of the original bugs are still there. If anyone can do a better title screen or has any other suggestions for ULAPlus-related improvements to Chaos, please let me know.
This isn't just a palette file; the game has been patched to use the full range of colours.
I have resisted the temptation to make any other patches to the code, so all of the original bugs are still there. If anyone can do a better title screen or has any other suggestions for ULAPlus-related improvements to Chaos, please let me know.
I'm sorry , I just jumped into this topic and I saw this.
I tried to track the discussion but I'm not too sure whether it runs on Emuzwin or Spin enhanced ula...........Help please ?
Comments
Today I was in a seminar, and I realized, caravaggio and ulaplus use almost the same palette :P
Here are the results :)
http://www.mojontwins.com/juegos_mojonos/sgt-helmet-zero/
And another one:
http://www.mojontwins.com/juegos_mojonos/uwol-quest-for-money/
Ok. How about using more than 16 colours on screen at once in the next one guys?
http://members.fortunecity.com/jonathan6/egghead/id7.html
I wonder what the chances are of that being realised through an interface similar to what Eduardo Mello is currently producing for the Colecovision- the Opgrade Module- which he will be using to make enhanced arcade conversions. Something similar for the Spectrum would be exceptionally tasty.
https://discordapp.com/invite/cZt59EQ
Please check your e-mail inbox. :)
Thanks! You know there have now been more releases in the last two months supporting ULAplus than the Fuller Box got during the entire time it was on sale. Words cannot express how gratified I am by the reaction of the community. Thank you everyone, you've really made my year!
Only CSmith can answer that question. Note that the first machine to get the ULAplus treatment will be the original 16K/48K/+ machines. The ULAs in the 128, +2, and +3/+2A haven't been reverse engineered yet and there's quite a bit of extra logic in there to replicate, particularly in the +3/+2A ULA.
Actually there was more games changed into 256 colors, atached to the emulator years ago. And all of them looked as well as this one (or close).
That was an interesting idea.
http://mister_beep.republika.pl/
Yarek Adamski said once that it would be possible to make a graphic card for Spectrum (based on several Z80 CPUs) and it could support these 256-colors games.
But he never started it. It was only a theoretical consideration.
http://mister_beep.republika.pl/
I'd rather have seen part of the palette set aside to automatically include at least a small range of shades based on the ink/paper/bright settings of the current attribute, and maybe even have them redefinable. Then you could combine fixed and variable coloured pixels in a sprite.
Anyway, I remember trying some of these out in Spec256 and it crashing a lot. Maybe I should try EmuZwin.
- IONIAN-GAMES.com -
Its hit and miss with EmuZwin if you check the Sabrewulf in the Knightlore piccy his legs are one block forward and the ball that is bouncing leaves a pixel trail in its wake.
also when I try JetPac all the sprite's jump half a character...sigh.
and as for Spec256 that bugger is hopeless.
ASH
Bytes:Chuntey - Spectrum tech blog.
They are unfortunately a bit buggy too. It's a pity that we don't have a stable, user friendly emulator with good documentation which would support 256 color games.
English wasn't Vladimir's first language so documentation was always going to be suspect. However, he did have some rudimentary write-up on doing 256 colour games using EmuzWin. Unfortunately, it wasn't detailed enough to do the job.
Bytes:Chuntey - Spectrum tech blog.
Eh? it's very easy you don't need a tutorial. But before starting be sure to get Version 2.5 of emuzwin. (this is a copy-paste from my blog post)
-setup:
1.open a game, and pause.
2.select 256 color mode from "effects" menu
3.a window will open. do not touch any settings, click ok. monochrome data will be copied to the extended gfx memory. (this window is also kind of hard to understand behaviour, it will only shown once, so don't make mistakes)
4.open gfx editor now.
5. Click yellow pacman face to turn it off. Only regular speccy data will be shown.
-Try to find the sprites on memory:
7. At the bottom left corner of the gfx editor, there is a textbox, you can type the width of the sprite (in characters) if the sprite you want to edit is 3 characters in width just type 3 there. Then you will scroll and find your sprites.
8. Use triangle shaped arrows to shift bytes left or right
9. Use red grid button to show grid, don'T forget to select "anchor grid to byte 0".
10. You may see couple of same sprites around memory. One is screen, and generally games uses a buffer to create image, so dont be fooled by them. Try and find real sprite data.
10.When you find your sprites you are ready to draw new sprites over them. Click pacman again to show 256color pixels.
-editing
11.Start drawing
12.unpause the emulator to see the results and pause again before editing.
-saving
13. to be on the safe side save your gfx work seperately. Click "save" in GFX editor window. Make backups.
14. Save your game in emuzwin (ezx) format from emulator window, File > save as...
I'm using V2.5 because later versions are far more buggy, and won't work/crash with 256col games ocassionaly.
bash script?
something like:
(Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use sed." Now they have two problems.)
I'll try to add a batch mode to my gui port when I get home.
it now supports Batch Converting.
(I also updated converter code to v0.12-just a minor change, you won't notice anything as CULA64 already has palette adjustment scrollbar)
Get it there:
<see next post>
Ask here if you didn't understand how to make it work.
(Based on AY_Chip's scrplus V0.12 converter.)
http://www.veanewmedia.com/ardae/fish/cula64_v5.zip 40kb
Aaand,
I've fixed some of the bugs of SpeccyView (an ula64 capable SCR viewer app) and added a feature.
here it is:
SpeccyView V1.1
http://www.veanewmedia.com/ardae/fish/speccyview11.zip
both apps need dotnet framework 2.1+ (vista&7 has it, xp users needs to install it seperately from microsoft website)
Main changes: it runs on windows now (with the oh-so-classy GUI (You mean the orange rectangles - Ed.)), and if run without args (eg. click on the executable) it assumes you want gui mode.
http://dev-null.chu.cam.ac.uk/tar/scrplus0_13.tar.gz <-- For Linux
http://dev-null.chu.cam.ac.uk/tar/scrplus0_13w.zip <-- For Windows
[edit]Arda: There's no need to update cULA as the algorithm hasn't changed at all.[/edit]
hurray! \o/
Source code and build scripts: http://www.seasip.info/ZX/chaos256_src.zip
This isn't just a palette file; the game has been patched to use the full range of colours.
I have resisted the temptation to make any other patches to the code, so all of the original bugs are still there. If anyone can do a better title screen or has any other suggestions for ULAPlus-related improvements to Chaos, please let me know.
I'm sorry , I just jumped into this topic and I saw this.
I tried to track the discussion but I'm not too sure whether it runs on Emuzwin or Spin enhanced ula...........Help please ?