Another old skool intro for you

[pmc]

Hello boys and girls.

Check out the attached .zip file for source code and an executable version of another new old skool intro I coded.

I won't say what it contains - check it out for yourselves.

I hope you like it - the scrolltext contains all the information I won't write here.

[StingRay]

That's one cute little intro! Nice one, I like!

[pmc]

Cheers Stinger!

I said in the scrolltext it was originally going to be used for something else, well, I was going to put it into the megademo as another part of mine but I dunno - somehow at the time I stopped liking it. It was more intro / cracktro than megademo part if you see what I mean...?

I'd finished it all except for the scroller and then just stopped working on it.

Anyway, out of boredom this morning I had another look and decided it wasn't *that* bad and thought it deserved at least being finished so I just tacked on a scroller as I'd already converted the font graphics (always for me the worst part of doing a scrolltext! ) for something else I coded that didn't see the light of day either.

[StingRay]

Originally Posted by pmc

It was more intro / cracktro than megademo part if you see what I mean...?

I do! Typical crack intro like screen. Then again, many (mega)demo screens looked liked that back in the day. =)

Originally Posted by pmc

as I'd already converted the font graphics (always for me the worst part of doing a scrolltext! )

That's what I call "slave work". Too bad most of the time I am the slave. Reminds me of something that happened at Evoke 2006 (I think), friend of mine (won't mention any names ;D) was coding some Java intro, graphics artist (another friend of mine) drew the font, however, the chars weren't in ascii order. Have gave the font to the coder and coder's reply was: "Draw a new font, this one is unusable since the chars aren't in the correct order!". If I would have been the graphics artist I would have told him to *censored*, however, graphics artist went back to his table and redrew the font. I of course asked the coder what the problem was to type in a small conversion table, reply "that's not my job". Some people apparently have nice slaves.

[pmc]

Originally Posted by StingRay

That's what I call "slave work". Too bad most of the time I am the slave.

LOL. You're not wrong.

I've converted several fonts now taking them through from the original .ttf on PC through to .iff on Amiga, layed out in ASCII order, hand edited to the correct size and spacing and then, due to the way I lay out my fonts for my scroller routine, manually editing the raw data to how I need it.

Needless to say, this is what I would call a ball ache (normally takes a couple of days) and it has to be done *every* time I want a new font.

Yes, as you say - I too, am that slave.

Originally Posted by StingRay

Reminds me of something that happened at Evoke 2006 (I think), friend of mine (won't mention any names ;D) was coding some Java intro, graphics artist (another friend of mine) drew the font, however, the chars weren't in ascii order. Have gave the font to the coder and coder's reply was: "Draw a new font, this one is unusable since the chars aren't in the correct order!". If I would have been the graphics artist I would have told him to *censored*, however, graphics artist went back to his table and redrew the font. I of course asked the coder what the problem was to type in a small conversion table, reply "that's not my job". Some people apparently have nice slaves.

That's one understanding graphician!

[StingRay]

Originally Posted by pmc

manually editing the raw data to how I need it.

Why do you have to edit the raw data? The way I usually do it is like this:
1. use the font and draw the characters you need (e.g. ABCDEFGHIJK...Z) using the text tool in PPaint (f.e.)
2. save the text lines as brush, convert to raw bitmap/chunky data as needed
3. hack a small routine which calculates the character offsets in the font
4. ???
5. profit!

Originally Posted by pmc

That's one understanding graphician!

Indeed! He's one of a very rare breed. =)

[pmc]

Originally Posted by StingRay

Why do you have to edit the raw data?

Well... mainly because of the way I lay out my font data so that character selection is nice and easy. The font bitmap data isn't stored in my code as, for example, a standard 320*256 screen. Instead I store it like this:

ABCDEFG.........XYZ etc.

In one long bitmap that's the character's height high. This is what I have to edit by hand - ie change the 320*256 into the correct ???*??? font bitmap.

Then selecting from the bitmap based on the scrolltext is as easy as:

               movea.l     scrolltext_ptr(a5),a0
                          movea.l scroll_ptr(a5),a0
                          move.b (a0)+,d0
                          cmp.b #255,d0
                          bne.s .notend_scroll
                          movea.l     scrolltext_ptr(a5),a0
                          move.b     (a0)+,d0
.notend_scroll:      move.l      a0,scroll_ptr(a5)
                          movea.l    font_ptr(a5),a0
                          subi.b      #32,d0
                          lsl.b        #1,d0        ;depending on char size
                          adda.w    d0,a0

Not sure if that's lame or not () but it seems to work OK - provided as I say I lay the font out right in the first place.

[StingRay]

Originally Posted by pmc

The font bitmap data isn't stored in my code as, for example, a standard 320*256 screen. Instead I store it like this:

ABCDEFG.........XYZ etc.

I know, that's how I store my fonts too.

Originally Posted by pmc

In one long bitmap that's the character's height high. This is what I have to edit by hand - ie change the 320*256 into the correct ???*??? font bitmap.

Hint: you are a coder! You don't edit things by hand if some small piece of code can do that for you. *hint hint*

Originally Posted by pmc

Then selecting from the bitmap based on the scrolltext is as easy as:

               movea.l     scrolltext_ptr(a5),a0
                          movea.l scroll_ptr(a5),a0
                          move.b (a0)+,d0
                          cmp.b #255,d0
                          bne.s .notend_scroll
                          movea.l     scrolltext_ptr(a5),a0
                          move.b     (a0)+,d0
.notend_scroll:      move.l      a0,scroll_ptr(a5)
                          movea.l    font_ptr(a5),a0
                          subi.b      #32,d0
                          lsl.b        #1,d0        ;depending on char size
                          adda.w    d0,a0

Not sure if that's lame or not ()

That's fine and will do the job. =) You can optimize the cmp.b #255,d0 tho (ugly! ) like this: move.b (a0)+,d0 bpl.b .notend_scroll. That will of course only work if you don't use any other special characters to control the scroll (like dc.b -1 ; stop scroll or smth similar).

[pmc]

Originally Posted by StingRay

I know, that's how I store my fonts too.

I've been doing something the way you do it? That makes me feel a whole lot less lame.

Originally Posted by StingRay

Hint: you are a coder! You don't edit things by hand if some small piece of code can do that for you. *hint hint*

All right, nice one - I'll have a think. It's something else to relieve the boredom and if it's one less step in that arduous font conversion process then: \o/

Originally Posted by StingRay

You can optimize the cmp.b #255,d0 tho (ugly! )

LOL!

[StingRay]

Originally Posted by pmc

All right, nice one - I'll have a think.

You know width/height of each char and you know how many chars are in your font. That's all you need.

[Kitty]

Good stuff pmc, looking forward to the megademo

[Plagueis/KRX]

Dude, that intro ruled!!! I'm so happy to see it, and it could not have come at a better time for me...I'm just finishing up a c64 project and I'm ready to resume coding on the Amiga. Also, things in my personal life/schedule are getting cleared up again thankfully, and I'll be able to prioritize my time in such a way that Amiga coding can sneak up there a bit higher on the ol' precedence table.

I loved the music PMC!!! It's the first thing that struck me, probably since I'd watched the piece several times (sans scroller) when you previewed it to me a few weeks ago....so I was accustomed to the cool effects, but the music was so good it made it feel new again.

So Cheers....oh, and Thanks for the greet!!!

[pmc]

Originally Posted by Kitty

Good stuff pmc, looking forward to the megademo

Thanks Kitty - by the way, none of that intro would've been done at all if you hadn't drawn me that nice logo so I'd say kudos goes to you.

@ Plagueis - thanks man. Yeah, I prefer the new music too. Nice to know you'd watched it a few times - people (well, at least one, ie. you ) actually watch and enjoy my code!

I'm looking forward to your new Amiga intro - my advice would be to resist the temptation to look at the source codes I've posted too closely before you've had a really good go at doing the intro yourself. You'll learn more that way and it's more fun too.

[Galahad/FLT]

Quite nice, but the interference part would work better when the two sets of circles don't move so far apart.

[pmc]

Yeah, I see what you're saying there actually.

Wouldn't be too hard to acheive - they're both following the same sinus paths, one slightly behind the other.

A quick tweak of the source code to close the gap in the path a little and voila.

A nice little home project for someone with the source code...

[WayneK]

There were 2 bugs in the intro I noticed:

[1] The sine of the logo at the top suddenly snaps back to 0, it doesn't look very smooth (ie: it ripples and then suddenly jerks back to original position).
[2] There was no greet to me.

Obviously 2 is pretty serious, so I thought I should inform you!

And just FYI, I store my fonts the exact opposite way, one tall bitmap <charwidth> wide + <numofchars> tall

[pmc]

WayneK - you PM's and posts always make me roll up. Superb.

Regarding bug 1 - that's intentional.

That black and white Retro logo reminded me of old TV's or old movies and that gave me the idea of putting an effect on it that made it look like it was suffering static interference until someone banged the top of the TV to make it right again...

Thinking about making the logo suffer interference was what then made me add an interference effect to the intro.

See - what I said to Kitty was the truth - I wouldn't have made it at all without her logo.

Regarding bug 2 - that's unforgivable.

Sorry man - that will be rectified in all future productions.

[Leffmann]

Great intro! I like the detail where the white bar blends into the grey frame.

[pmc]

Originally Posted by Leffman

Great intro!

Thanks man - appreciated.

Originally Posted by Leffman

I like the detail where the white bar blends into the grey frame.

You noticed! Yeah, not in any way difficult to do of course but I liked the way it looked.

[korruptor]

Man, that's ace