Best Way to do a snow effect

Havie · 13 December 2023, 21:36

As the title says - what is the best way to do a snow effect in BB2 wihtout using up lots of CPU time?

aNdy/AL/COS · 14 December 2023, 11:41

What type of snow effect do you want? Falling 'dots' or a snowflake image?

As you probably know, there are a couple of source code examples that come with the Blitz2 install that could be easily modified. 'smoothscrolling.bb2' scrolls a screen of dots with the mouse. With some mods, this could easily be snow continually falling down the screen. There are a couple of examples also that bounces balls around the screen. Replace the ball with a snowflake image and just move it down and instant snow effect. On the 'BUM' disks somewhere there are some code examples displaying some nice parallax star field effects that again could be modified quite quickly into snow.

Of course, the CPU time question depends on what else may be happening as well?

Coagulus · 14 December 2023, 12:59

There's probably a way to multiplex a sprite across the screen using manual entries in the copper list but that is something I haven't managed to get my head around in Blitz. Although I am using sprites for a similar effect (but using 8 sprites full screen v height and alternating sprite horizontal positions every other frame which flickers but works)

pink^abyss · 14 December 2023, 21:01

The sprite idea is good. Like here:
[ Show youtube player ]

rothers · 14 December 2023, 21:55

I'd just use colour cycling on a prerendered screen of dots. 16 colours should get you a great result.

Havie · 14 December 2023, 23:32

Thanks Guys - I had forgotten about the Blitz examples but I fear they may be too slow?

Sprites was my first thought but as multiplexing isn't an option (or no one has worked it out in Blitz), I'd only have 8!

I was thinking something along the lines of what Pink showed - I can easily program the falling down with random movement effect but I don't think I can do this on top of my (admittedly simple) x-mas game.

I was thinking that I could do a dual playfield and hardware scroll the the top playfield to make snow but then I would be reducing my colours on the background to only 8.

I'll try plotting them first and see what it looks like!

13 December 2023, 21:36	#1
Havie Registered User Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: UK Posts: 1,894	Best Way to do a snow effect As the title says - what is the best way to do a snow effect in BB2 wihtout using up lots of CPU time?

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14 December 2023, 11:41	#2
aNdy/AL/COS Registered User Join Date: Jan 2022 Location: Wales Posts: 91	What type of snow effect do you want? Falling 'dots' or a snowflake image? As you probably know, there are a couple of source code examples that come with the Blitz2 install that could be easily modified. 'smoothscrolling.bb2' scrolls a screen of dots with the mouse. With some mods, this could easily be snow continually falling down the screen. There are a couple of examples also that bounces balls around the screen. Replace the ball with a snowflake image and just move it down and instant snow effect. On the 'BUM' disks somewhere there are some code examples displaying some nice parallax star field effects that again could be modified quite quickly into snow. Of course, the CPU time question depends on what else may be happening as well?

14 December 2023, 12:59	#3
Coagulus Gets there in the end... Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Wales Posts: 863	There's probably a way to multiplex a sprite across the screen using manual entries in the copper list but that is something I haven't managed to get my head around in Blitz. Although I am using sprites for a similar effect (but using 8 sprites full screen v height and alternating sprite horizontal positions every other frame which flickers but works)

14 December 2023, 21:01	#4
pink^abyss Registered User Join Date: Aug 2018 Location: Untergrund/Germany Posts: 408	The sprite idea is good. Like here: [ Show youtube player ]

14 December 2023, 21:55	#5
rothers Registered User Join Date: Apr 2018 Location: UK Posts: 487	I'd just use colour cycling on a prerendered screen of dots. 16 colours should get you a great result.

14 December 2023, 23:32	#6
Havie Registered User Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: UK Posts: 1,894	Thanks Guys - I had forgotten about the Blitz examples but I fear they may be too slow? Sprites was my first thought but as multiplexing isn't an option (or no one has worked it out in Blitz), I'd only have 8! I was thinking something along the lines of what Pink showed - I can easily program the falling down with random movement effect but I don't think I can do this on top of my (admittedly simple) x-mas game. I was thinking that I could do a dual playfield and hardware scroll the the top playfield to make snow but then I would be reducing my colours on the background to only 8. I'll try plotting them first and see what it looks like!

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