Hello, dunno if this is of any use to anyone, but I've written a
little lib to emulate the GBA video hardware on a PC, because I found
rebuilding/running and debugging on an emulator a bit of an arse....

Anyway, it didn't really take that long... if you wanna write in C/C++
and aren't too arsed about asm or fancy mode 7 effects you should have
no problem... and the VC debugger's a bit nicer than most of the GBA
solutions I've seen.

There's a ReadMe.txt file in the zip on my site that goes into a
little more detail about what it does and doesn't do, along with PC
and GBA binaries of some bastardised 'devoto' examples from the Pern
Project for comparison. They compiled pretty much *as is*, and there's
defines in there to test different modes.... Just look in main.c and
it should all become clear....

You need the VC & DirectX8 SDK installed to compile it..... Check the
.dsw to see what libs are required for the windows build.

I've no idea if it'll just fall over on someone else's machine.. I've
not tried...

If anyones interested you can get it here:-

http://www.boolaala.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/libGBA.zip


Cheers
Jay

A program that i've found work rather well, is Tile Studio
http://www.cs.kun.nl/is/ts/ .

One thing to remember is to create your tiles with the version 2.1and then
generate your .h files with version 2.2.
NEVER save your project under 2.2 or you might find yourself with an unworking
save file.

You can find a export file to use with it on
http://www.ifrance.com/edorul/index.htm inside the DirectGBA-0.7.3.zip file
(.tsd).
On this site, you can also find a tutorial for TileStudio, in french though. I
might make a tutorial for it myself, if people ask, and a simpler export file.

With it, you can create your Tiles / Maps / Palette, import tile from a bitmap,
etc.

Ps: For some reasons, when having more than one map, it won't generate the last
one, so make sure to have an additional dummy one.
   ----- Original Message -----
   From: Jay
   To: gbadev@yahoogroups.com
   Sent: Saturday, November 30, 2002 9:19 AM
   Subject: Re: [gbadev] Graphics


   On Wed, 27 Nov 2002 01:07:13 +0000, you wrote:

   >Anyone know a good source of free graphics for tile based games so that the
   >artistically challenged (me)amongst us can spend more time programming and
>less time drawing :)


         Indeed Tom, I'll second that......

   I need some 256 colour BG tilesets and maps (with xflipped and y
   flipped blocks liberally sprinkled)
   Some 16 colour BG tilesets and maps

         Is there an editor that'll just let me save out data in GBA
   format, so I can setup the registers and load the data into VRAM
   myself ? Ideally as a .c / .h file. ???

         Anyone ?

   Jay






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--- In gbadev@y..., Jay <jay@b...> wrote:
>
> Is there an editor that'll just let me save out data in GBA format

Yes.  My soon-to-be-renamed "Ted" tile editor can save directly
into several binary chr formats including 1-bit, GB, GBA 4-bit,
and 8-bit.  It's real easy to make an ASCII font with the editor.
Then use any old bin2h program to make it a .h; to make it
automatic, put it in your makefile or mk.bat.

http://www.pineight.com/pc/

--
Damian

On Wed, 27 Nov 2002 01:07:13 +0000, you wrote:

>Anyone know a good source of free graphics for tile based games so that the
>artistically challenged (me)amongst us can spend more time programming and
>less time drawing :)


	 Indeed Tom, I'll second that......

I need some 256 colour BG tilesets and maps (with xflipped and y
flipped blocks liberally sprinkled)
Some 16 colour BG tilesets and maps

	 Is there an editor that'll just let me save out data in GBA
format, so I can setup the registers and load the data into VRAM
myself ? Ideally as a .c / .h file. ???

	 Anyone ?

Jay

Hi all,

Just to let you know, I solved the problem by hacking the opcodes as
follows: (it probably won't work for negative offsets though)

...

_stored_branch: .word 0xea000000 +
((target_label-stored_branch_moved_here)/4)-2

...

ldr r10,_stored_branch
str r10,_stored_branch_moved_here

...

stored_branch_moved_here:
mov r0,r0  @ may be overwritten by _stored_branch

...

target_label:

...

It's a bit iffy, but it gets the job done.
--
Cheers,
James.

     /\  apex                                 James Daniels
    //\\  designs            james.daniels@...
   //__\\                       http://www.apex-designs.net

Hi Mike,

> try a bx instead of a b

Thanks, but that would use an extra register.

> to set the target
>    ldr r0, =bt1

Note that you should use adr whereever possible as it's faster and uses
less IWRAM.
--
Cheers,
James.

     /\  apex                                 James Daniels
    //\\  designs            james.daniels@...
   //__\\                       http://www.apex-designs.net

try a bx instead of a b
branch_addr: .long 0

:bt1
   <code>
bt2:
   <other code>

to set the target
    ldr r0, =bt1
    str r0, branch_addr
if you move the code from bt2 to another location new_locn
    ldr r0, =new_locn
    str r0, branch_addr

to branch
    ldr r0, branch_addr
    bx r0

Mike.
----- Original Message -----
From: "James Daniels" <james.daniels@...>
To: <gbadev@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, November 29, 2002 6:57 AM
Subject: [gbadev] Self-modifying code branching problem


> Hi,
>
> I've run into a slight problem when trying to change code to a branch.
> This is because branches are relative to the PC so I need to specify
> what address the offset should be relative to. I've tried:
>
> ...
>
> _stored_branch: b target_label-stored_branch
>
> ...
>
> ldr r10,_stored_branch
> str r10,_stored_branch_moved_here
>
> ...
>
> stored_branch_moved_here:
> mov r0,r0  @ may be overwritten by _stored_branch
>
> ...
>
> target_label:
>
> ...
>
> Unfortunately, this compiles to the same as "b target_label" so it still
> branches to the wrong address when the instruction is moved. I know it's
> possible to do this by hacking the value of _stored_branch manually with
> a .word, but I'd rather get the assembler to do it if at all possible.
> Does anyone know the correct notation?
> --
> Cheers,
> James.
>
>     /\  apex                                 James Daniels
>    //\\  designs            james.daniels@...
>   //__\\                       http://www.apex-designs.net
>
>
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>

Hi,

I've run into a slight problem when trying to change code to a branch.
This is because branches are relative to the PC so I need to specify
what address the offset should be relative to. I've tried:

...

_stored_branch: b target_label-stored_branch

...

ldr r10,_stored_branch
str r10,_stored_branch_moved_here

...

stored_branch_moved_here:
mov r0,r0  @ may be overwritten by _stored_branch

...

target_label:

...

Unfortunately, this compiles to the same as "b target_label" so it still
branches to the wrong address when the instruction is moved. I know it's
possible to do this by hacking the value of _stored_branch manually with
a .word, but I'd rather get the assembler to do it if at all possible.
Does anyone know the correct notation?
--
Cheers,
James.

     /\  apex                                 James Daniels
    //\\  designs            james.daniels@...
   //__\\                       http://www.apex-designs.net

On Thursday 28 Nov 2002 2:11 pm, Luke-Jr wrote:
> Any [simple] way to recompile GDB and GCC to support both ARM and the
> defaults or do I need 2 parellel installs?

GCCs build system is designed so you can install many different cross/native
compilers on the system at the the same time. You still need a full copy of
the sources to build any version, and just use the --target=whatever, so for
gba thats --target=arm-agb-elf

Tom

you could use the threading system from JaysOS
http://badpint.org/jaysos
and run the AI and the main loop in separate threads.

On Wednesday 27 November 2002 15:29, j_north2002 wrote:
> Right now I've got a tight AI loop for the CPU player of a puzzle
> game. The AI is steadily becoming more complex and time comsuming,
> and I need to start breaking up the AI cycle into smaller chunks so
> that it will hand control over to the human player when appropriate.
>
> My question: It seems most appropriate to do this by saving state and
> count variables, dropping out of the AI loop after a certain amount
> of time, and then resuming after the player has had a crack at the
> controls. Would it be just as appropriate to use a timer interrupt to
> do this? I seems that using an interrupt would save a lot of
> complexity and therefore increase the speed.
>
>
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

Any [simple] way to recompile GDB and GCC to support both ARM and the
defaults or do I need 2 parellel installs?

John Seghers wrote:

> Yes, GDB needs the arm support to know how to disassemble the code.
>

While it might be able to pull elf from vba, I never got that to work.
I found it best to start both VBA and Insight with the elf. I also found
that VBA didn't like some of the elf debug info, so use the -N switch
to disable that.

- John
From: "Luke-Jr" <luke7jr@...>
> Does GDB/Insight need to have ARM support? Also, I was under the
> impression it would pull the ELF from VBA...

Yes, GDB needs the arm support to know how to disassemble the code.

Hi,

If you need to get a more recent one, you can also download HAM 2.50
from my site.
It includes the full install of gdb/insight 5.2.1 for ARM

Cheers
Emanuel
http://www.ngine.de

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: chicao74 [mailto:fmoraes@...]
Gesendet: Mittwoch, 27. November 2002 22:26
An: gbadev@yahoogroups.com
Betreff: [gbadev] Re: GDB with VisualboyAdvance


> Don't suppose you have any idea how to do it in 5.2.1 do you?

Is your GDB/Insight cross-compiled for arm? You can download version
5.1.1 cross-compiled from the VisualBoyAdvance site. That may
explain why you can't find it on the menu.

You can also attempt to connect from the console window. Just type:

target remote 127.0.0.1:55555
load (if you haven't asked VBA to load your elf file otherwise
unneeded)

Hope it helps.

Francisco





Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

--- In gbadev@y..., "Wendy" <gadget2032@g...> wrote:
> I'm using the windows version 1.2. I can get insight and vba to
talk
> to one another and start debugging into crts.s. I can then set a
> breakpoint on the first line of my main function and tell it to
> continue to that point. Insight then sits there and does nothing.
I'm
> guessing this isn't normal behavior for this.

In case no one mentioned it earlier, I believe that you must compile
using the -g option for your c/c++ compiles.

Thanks for the reply... sorted it now... it all makes perfect sense if
you don't forget to set bit 6 in BLDMOD....... doh !

Then ofcourse... everything works exactly as you would expect ;)

Jay


On Wed, 27 Nov 2002 22:46:13 +0100, you wrote:

>Hi,
>
>> 1st... In REG_BLDMOD, th manual states that if bit 4 (the OBJ source
>> bit) is set.. all sprites are rendered transparently regardless of
>> their transparency bit in OAM, but I haven't found this to be the case
>> !! I can't get *any* sprite to be transparent without setting it's
>> transparency bit.. regardless of the BLDMOD bit 4 setting ! I've tried
>> this on both VBA and real hardware, and as far as I can tell it just
>> don't work !.... so, am I talking out of my arse here ? Before I start
>> pulling my hair out I just wondered if anyone else had seen this ?
>
>Setting that particular bit in REG_BLDMOD causes 'alpha layers' to blend with
>sprites. Sprites will only be transparent if their OAM entry says so. This is
>from the top of my head, though. After many projects I still have to puzzle
each
>time my project requires alpha blending ;)
>
>> 2nd I've setup the above mentioned sprites in mode 3 with a 16 bit
>> bitmap in the background... the background has priority 0, the sprites
>> have priority 0..... if transparency is going, everything works fine
>> (apart from the problem discribed in 1 above)...... So basically my
>> BLDMOD setting is (1<<10) | (1<<4) sprites(source), bg(target).
>> If I make the spites priority 1 and swap the BLDMOD bits, so
>> it's (1<<2) | (1<<12)... bg(source), sprites(target) no transparency
>> occurs ! As far as I can tell, I'm just swapping the layers and doing
>> the same again ? What gives ?
>
>Hmm... that's strange. I would expect the bitmap to blend with the sprite. Does
>it work in other bitmap modes? Is the sprite hidden when its priority is 1?
>Which layers did you enable in REG_DISPCNT?
>
>What I always do when I need to figure out things like that: open a memory dump
>screen @ 0x04000000 in your devkit/emulator and start fiddling with the
>registers (or go to OAM and change some bits over there). You'll see your
>changes in realtime. That's honestly the quickest way to find out.
>
>
>Gr.,
>Jan-Lieuwe
>
>
>
>
>
>Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ >

Does GDB/Insight need to have ARM support? Also, I was under the
impression it would pull the ELF from VBA...

chicao74 wrote:

> > Don't suppose you have any idea how to do it in 5.2.1 do you?
>
> Is your GDB/Insight cross-compiled for arm? You can download version
> 5.1.1 cross-compiled from the VisualBoyAdvance site. That may
> explain why you can't find it on the menu.
>
> You can also attempt to connect from the console window. Just type:
>
> target remote 127.0.0.1:55555
> load (if you haven't asked VBA to load your elf file otherwise
> unneeded)
>
> Hope it helps.
>
> Francisco

Hi. Remember my stupid english? Fine ^^

Ive finished the editor to make animation sequences for sprites made for my
engine (used in tutorial 3).
With this it is easy to make a big collection of "sequences" to use into your
game.

just saying "sprite 1 -> GO" and all does his work very well ; )

look on http://tharo.bahamut.de -> GBA -> Tools -> Schemata

Feedback is already welcome

cya
Tharo Herberg aka Dummy Newbee

Hi,

> 1st... In REG_BLDMOD, th manual states that if bit 4 (the OBJ source
> bit) is set.. all sprites are rendered transparently regardless of
> their transparency bit in OAM, but I haven't found this to be the case
> !! I can't get *any* sprite to be transparent without setting it's
> transparency bit.. regardless of the BLDMOD bit 4 setting ! I've tried
> this on both VBA and real hardware, and as far as I can tell it just
> don't work !.... so, am I talking out of my arse here ? Before I start
> pulling my hair out I just wondered if anyone else had seen this ?

Setting that particular bit in REG_BLDMOD causes 'alpha layers' to blend with
sprites. Sprites will only be transparent if their OAM entry says so. This is
from the top of my head, though. After many projects I still have to puzzle each
time my project requires alpha blending ;)

> 2nd I've setup the above mentioned sprites in mode 3 with a 16 bit
> bitmap in the background... the background has priority 0, the sprites
> have priority 0..... if transparency is going, everything works fine
> (apart from the problem discribed in 1 above)...... So basically my
> BLDMOD setting is (1<<10) | (1<<4) sprites(source), bg(target).
> If I make the spites priority 1 and swap the BLDMOD bits, so
> it's (1<<2) | (1<<12)... bg(source), sprites(target) no transparency
> occurs ! As far as I can tell, I'm just swapping the layers and doing
> the same again ? What gives ?

Hmm... that's strange. I would expect the bitmap to blend with the sprite. Does
it work in other bitmap modes? Is the sprite hidden when its priority is 1?
Which layers did you enable in REG_DISPCNT?

What I always do when I need to figure out things like that: open a memory dump
screen @ 0x04000000 in your devkit/emulator and start fiddling with the
registers (or go to OAM and change some bits over there). You'll see your
changes in realtime. That's honestly the quickest way to find out.


Gr.,
Jan-Lieuwe

> Don't suppose you have any idea how to do it in 5.2.1 do you?

Is your GDB/Insight cross-compiled for arm? You can download version
5.1.1 cross-compiled from the VisualBoyAdvance site. That may
explain why you can't find it on the menu.

You can also attempt to connect from the console window. Just type:

target remote 127.0.0.1:55555
load (if you haven't asked VBA to load your elf file otherwise
unneeded)

Hope it helps.

Francisco

why not just check LCY/REG_VCOUNT 0x04000006 at intervals
if your getting close to redraw time, get the ai to perform the best found
so far move or none at all(save state)
then check the user keys, redraw and return to the ai (if the search is
completed then wait for vblank etc).

especially as your ai is time consuming, you are going to have to write a
timer interrupt to task switch ('cos you don't want a long timer isr) and
then face all the debugging nightmares of kernal development.


Mike.

----- Original Message -----
From: "j_north2002" <johnny_north@...>
To: <gbadev@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 27, 2002 3:29 PM
Subject: [gbadev] interupting ai


> Right now I've got a tight AI loop for the CPU player of a puzzle
> game. The AI is steadily becoming more complex and time comsuming,
> and I need to start breaking up the AI cycle into smaller chunks so
> that it will hand control over to the human player when appropriate.
>
> My question: It seems most appropriate to do this by saving state and
> count variables, dropping out of the AI loop after a certain amount
> of time, and then resuming after the player has had a crack at the
> controls. Would it be just as appropriate to use a timer interrupt to
> do this? I seems that using an interrupt would save a lot of
> complexity and therefore increase the speed.
>
>
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>

Hiya all, I've been messing with the blending modes and have a couple
of questions I'd like to throw out....


1st... In REG_BLDMOD, th manual states that if bit 4 (the OBJ source
bit) is set.. all sprites are rendered transparently regardless of
their transparency bit in OAM, but I haven't found this to be the case
!! I can't get *any* sprite to be transparent without setting it's
transparency bit.. regardless of the BLDMOD bit 4 setting ! I've tried
this on both VBA and real hardware, and as far as I can tell it just
don't work !.... so, am I talking out of my arse here ? Before I start
pulling my hair out I just wondered if anyone else had seen this ?

2nd I've setup the above mentioned sprites in mode 3 with a 16 bit
bitmap in the background... the background has priority 0, the sprites
have priority 0..... if transparency is going, everything works fine
(apart from the problem discribed in 1 above)...... So basically my
BLDMOD setting is (1<<10) | (1<<4) sprites(source), bg(target).
	 If I make the spites priority 1 and swap the BLDMOD bits, so
it's (1<<2) | (1<<12)... bg(source), sprites(target) no transparency
occurs ! As far as I can tell, I'm just swapping the layers and doing
the same again ? What gives ?

Any explanation would be greatly appreciated... I've checked previous
posts and can't see anything relevant :(

Jay

I'm doing artwork tooo, however not for comercial use, but for projects of
Areta Networks (areta.org)
Still I do alot of codeing and stuff.

/Lord Metroid

----- Original Message -----
From: "terminal24" <terminal24@...>
To: <gbadev@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 27, 2002 3:31 PM
Subject: Re: [gbadev] Graphics


> To my knowledge I'm the ONLY artist on this list!
> And also to my knowledge there's no GBA artist dev list.
>
> Graphics take countless hours to make, and make it worth the man hours put
> in, artists are paid for thier troubles.
>
> If your project is non-commercial, the best way to get graphics that I
know
> is to take a screen grab from an emulation of something like Mario World
on
> the snes (turn all the sprite layers off etc) Then import that screen grab
> into a mapper like Mappy, HEYPRESTO! You have your tiles at your finger
> tips.
>
> The only other option is to pay or convince someone to make some custom
> graphics for you, as to my knowledge (again!) there are no free tile
> sources.
>
> hawken
>
> mr hawken bright-roberts
> ------------------------
> http://www.dadako.com/
> ------------------------
> mailto:hawken@...
> ------------------------
> txt: +44 (0)7968 060 215
> ------------------------
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>

On Wednesday 27 Nov 2002 2:31 pm, terminal24 wrote:
> To my knowledge I'm the ONLY artist on this list!
> And also to my knowledge there's no GBA artist dev list.
>
> Graphics take countless hours to make, and make it worth the man hours put
> in, artists are paid for thier troubles.

I know, im spending more time on graphics than code :(, and small, good
looking graphics are a real bugger to do.

> If your project is non-commercial, the best way to get graphics that I know
> is to take a screen grab from an emulation of something like Mario World on
> the snes (turn all the sprite layers off etc) Then import that screen grab
> into a mapper like Mappy, HEYPRESTO! You have your tiles at your finger
> tips.

I thought of that, the problem is your game then just looks exactly like the
game you ripped the graphics from, which takes the satisfaction out of
creating something new.

> The only other option is to pay or convince someone to make some custom
> graphics for you, as to my knowledge (again!) there are no free tile
> sources.

I would if i could afford it ;)

Tom

--
Email: tb100@... || Jabber: tombadran@...
Homepage:   http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~tb100

No, you shouldn't do so much in interrupts.

   There is easier way to do it:
    Somewhere in your AI code (not neccesarily in tightest loop)
    check how much time elapsed
    (you can count vblank [interrupts] for example),
    and simply jump to other code when you need.
    When that other code finishes it will return to
    your AI loop!

   Voila!
    You made whole game a subroutine of AI ;)


   bye, porneL


--

GG 989217, ICQ 145671338, SMS 501454675, #amigapl @ ircnet

Hi,

If you search for 'snes' and 'tileset' etc you'll find some sites that have
tile-sets from SNES games (sounds logical doesn't it :))  that you can
download and use.... otherwise, the suggestion made by my fellow artist
(you're not alone here, I'm bored too ;)) hawken, is a good one..

Bye

Collin

----- Original Message -----
From: "terminal24" <terminal24@...>
To: <gbadev@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 27, 2002 3:31 PM
Subject: Re: [gbadev] Graphics


> To my knowledge I'm the ONLY artist on this list!
> And also to my knowledge there's no GBA artist dev list.
>
> Graphics take countless hours to make, and make it worth the man hours put
> in, artists are paid for thier troubles.
>
> If your project is non-commercial, the best way to get graphics that I
know
> is to take a screen grab from an emulation of something like Mario World
on
> the snes (turn all the sprite layers off etc) Then import that screen grab
> into a mapper like Mappy, HEYPRESTO! You have your tiles at your finger
> tips.
>
> The only other option is to pay or convince someone to make some custom
> graphics for you, as to my knowledge (again!) there are no free tile
> sources.
>
> hawken
>
> mr hawken bright-roberts
> ------------------------
> http://www.dadako.com/
> ------------------------
> mailto:hawken@...
> ------------------------
> txt: +44 (0)7968 060 215
> ------------------------
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>

Here is how I have used it with winNT,cygwin,devkitadv.
Build with a makefile that has a debug target.
1) Make spawns off VBA with the TCP link option.
2) Make builds a mkinsightini.bat to set some insight options.(I
credit Emanuel Schleussinger's HAM setup for the ini idea and this
general setup)
3) Make runs arm-gdb 5.1.1 using the ini file.(gdb dir also from HAM
I think)

Makefile clip:
# Target to start vba emulator and run insight/gdb connection to it
vbadbg: all
	 $(DEVKITDIR)/tools/VisualBoyAdvance-SDL.exe -Gtcp:55555 &
	 $(DEVKITDIR)/tools/gdb/mkinsightini.bat $(NAME).elf
	 $(DEVKITDIR)/tools/gdb/arm-gdb --command=insight.ini
$(NAME).elf

mkinsightini.bat:
ECHO > insight.ini
ECHO file %1 >> insight.ini
ECHO target remote 127.0.0.1:55555 >> insight.ini
ECHO directory /ecos-d/devkitadv/MyLib >>insight.ini
ECHO load %1 >> insight.ini
rem for "C" ECHO b AgbMain >> insight.ini
ECHO b main >> insight.ini
ECHO c >> insight.ini

The make is run while in your source code directory so GDB will find
source there. The ini's "directory" command can set others to search
too. The /ecos-d/ is how cygwin has your drive mapped. I forget what
it was with devkitadv before I messed with ecos. "pwd" should tell
you. A break is set at "main" and "c"(continue) executed so insight
runs until main before stopping here. If you continue from gdb, f11
on VBA will get you back to GDB. This is for C++. For "C" you may need
a different breakpoint as rem'd out.

Regards,
+BillJ

Or you could possibly use LQ 16-color graphics for your game and make it
open source. If the game's good/popular, someone will probably volunteer
to make better tiles for it.

terminal24 wrote:

> To my knowledge I'm the ONLY artist on this list!
> And also to my knowledge there's no GBA artist dev list.
>
> Graphics take countless hours to make, and make it worth the man hours put
> in, artists are paid for thier troubles.
>
> If your project is non-commercial, the best way to get graphics that I
> know
> is to take a screen grab from an emulation of something like Mario
> World on
> the snes (turn all the sprite layers off etc) Then import that screen grab
> into a mapper like Mappy, HEYPRESTO! You have your tiles at your finger
> tips.
>
> The only other option is to pay or convince someone to make some custom
> graphics for you, as to my knowledge (again!) there are no free tile
> sources.
>
> hawken
>
> mr hawken bright-roberts
> ------------------------
> http://www.dadako.com/
> ------------------------
> mailto:hawken@...
> ------------------------
> txt: +44 (0)7968 060 215
> ------------------------
>
>

--- In gbadev@y..., Joe Trewin <joe.trewin@f...> wrote:

> Incidentally, is there anyway of reading data back from VRAM? I notice that
> there's a 'Forced Blank' flag in DISPCNT which is supposed to allow access
> to VRAM data, but I guess this will be very slow and think I read somewhere
> that the screen goes white whilst this is all going on.

You can just read back from VRAM without doing anything, surely? e.g. Copying
sprite data from VRAM to work ram via DMA transfer...

#define OAMData    ((u16*)0x6010000)

REG_DMA3SAD = (u32)&OAMData[nOAM]; // reads from VRAM
REG_DMA3DAD = (u32)&MyOAMData[0]; // copy into array in WRAM
REG_DMA3CNT = 128 |DMA_16NOW; // 16 bit transfers from VRAM via DMA

I've done this sort of thing before, kind of, except I copied from VRAM to
another position in VRAM (for the same reason as you too, to save unpacking gfx
twice) but I doubt the desitination has any effect on it.

Right now I've got a tight AI loop for the CPU player of a puzzle
game. The AI is steadily becoming more complex and time comsuming,
and I need to start breaking up the AI cycle into smaller chunks so
that it will hand control over to the human player when appropriate.

My question: It seems most appropriate to do this by saving state and
count variables, dropping out of the AI loop after a certain amount
of time, and then resuming after the player has had a crack at the
controls. Would it be just as appropriate to use a timer interrupt to
do this? I seems that using an interrupt would save a lot of
complexity and therefore increase the speed.

To my knowledge I'm the ONLY artist on this list!
And also to my knowledge there's no GBA artist dev list.

Graphics take countless hours to make, and make it worth the man hours put
in, artists are paid for thier troubles.

If your project is non-commercial, the best way to get graphics that I know
is to take a screen grab from an emulation of something like Mario World on
the snes (turn all the sprite layers off etc) Then import that screen grab
into a mapper like Mappy, HEYPRESTO! You have your tiles at your finger
tips.

The only other option is to pay or convince someone to make some custom
graphics for you, as to my knowledge (again!) there are no free tile
sources.

hawken

mr hawken bright-roberts
------------------------
http://www.dadako.com/
------------------------
mailto:hawken@...
------------------------
txt: +44 (0)7968 060 215
------------------------