Playing module makes shapes to flicker

[Shatterhand]

I loaded a module on my game, used PlayModule to play it and now most of my shapes (being blitted every frame using a double buffer) are flickering.

I noticed it's only the shapes with 8 colors (4 and 2 colors shapes aren't affected) - I am using dual playfield and the shapes are on the foreground.

Am I doing something wrong ?

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by Shatterhand

I loaded a module on my game, used PlayModule to play it and now most of my shapes (being blitted every frame using a double buffer) are flickering.

I noticed it's only the shapes with 8 colors (4 and 2 colors shapes aren't affected) - I am using dual playfield and the shapes are on the foreground.

Am I doing something wrong ?

Is it a lot of blitting you're doing?

Try removing some of the objects temporarily to see if its a case of the module player is sending the game engine over a frame and causing the blits to not be completed before the frame has completed.

[Shatterhand]

12 16x16 shapes.

But they are "enemies", I can shoot them down, and even when there's only one, still flickering. Then there's a "boss" shape, 32x32px , alone on screen, also flickering.

In the other hand. I've tested the game with a lot of shapes on screen up until I do skip a frame... and there's no flicker and some slowdown.

The game isn't slowing down, it doesn't seem to be skipping a frame, it's just flickering the 3 bitplanes shapes.

Oh, testing on real hardware, 68k A600 2mb Chip Ram.

[Shatterhand]

Also everytime I end the program with the module playing I get a "Program Failed Error" and then a Guru Screen, even if I stop the module before quitting.

Though Blitz 2 is kinda unstable, I always get a Guru after I quit it too.

[Pat the Cat]

Hmmm... might be a hardware problem. Loose connection on the video circuitry somewhere. It can be the amplified sound vibrates the Amiga, shaking connections. With a very loud amplifier, of course.

Long shot, much more likely to be a software issue causing a hardware issue, but I've seen some strange Amiga screens and faults.

[earok]

The flicker is likely to be because the blits haven't finished before the frame is flipped. Are you flipping the frame after a VWAIT, or from an interupt?

In any case I've never had much luck with Blitz's built in Octamed support, I strongly recommend Leffman's OMED library: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?...ge=3&styleid=1

[Shatterhand]

Originally Posted by earok

The flicker is likely to be because the blits haven't finished before the frame is flipped. Are you flipping the frame after a VWAIT, or from an interupt?

In any case I've never had much luck with Blitz's built in Octamed support, I strongly recommend Leffman's OMED library: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?...ge=3&styleid=1

Right after the Vwait. But considering the VWait (and then the frame flip) is executed only after I do all the QBlits, shouldn't I skip a frame instead of having flicker ?

I'll test it later, but I find curious that only the 8 colors shapes are flickering. In a later state of the game I draw more stuff with 4 colors that *do* make the game skip a frame from time to time, but the 4 colors shapes do not flicker, just the 8 colors one (even when there is only 1 one of them on screen, and more of the 4 colors shapes)

I am using a simple ProTracker mod, but I'll take a look into this OMED Library, thanks Earok.. but I'd guess it only works with Octamed modules, not ProTracker ones ?

[Anakirob]

Here's a tip for making sure that module plays correctly, no need to worry about placing it right after the VWait, instead it will execute between every frame, so it won't slow the music down if the unthinkable should happen and your code slows down to <50fps.

SetInt 5
   [code for playing MED Module]
End SetInt

Also, converting a ProTracker MOD to OctaMED should be 1/1 in most cases anyway.

[earok]

Originally Posted by Shatterhand

Right after the Vwait. But considering the VWait (and then the frame flip) is executed only after I do all the QBlits, shouldn't I skip a frame instead of having flicker ?

That is an interesting point..

I wonder if it could be something along these lines though:

- VWait is called
- Tracker system is updated on VBlank interrupt (I presume this is how the system you're using works?) which chews up the CPU for part of the time that the screen draws
- So when the front and back bitmaps are flipped, it's already part of the way down the screen.


Though as you've mentioned, such a scenario should affect 2 and 4 colour BOBs too.. which I can't think of an explanation for.

[Shatterhand]

Made a quick test here, replaced the 8 colors BOBs with 4 color ones.

Still flickering.

What you say makes sense because the other BOBs arent flickering, but they are at a lower part of the screen.

I am using Blitz Basic PlayModule function, that's all. just "LoadModule" and then "PlayModule"

[Coagulus]

I've had this problem. Not good practice maybe, but I experimented with moving the vwait to random parts on the main loop until the flickering went away.

[Anakirob]

Originally Posted by Shatterhand

Made a quick test here, replaced the 8 colors BOBs with 4 color ones.

Still flickering.

What you say makes sense because the other BOBs arent flickering, but they are at a lower part of the screen.

I am using Blitz Basic PlayModule function, that's all. just "LoadModule" and then "PlayModule"

The standard module replayer is a bit crap, I think the one you want to use is LoadTrackerModule, etc.

[Shatterhand]

Originally Posted by Anakirob

The standard module replayer is a bit crap, I think the one you want to use is LoadTrackerModule, etc.

Yeah, it's clear it's crap. Whenever I end a program with a Module loaded, Blitz just crashes. When it's an executable and I quit it, I get a "CAN'T FREE MEMORY" error. If I try to free the Module, the game just hangs.

But there's no mention of LoadTrackerModule on Blitz 2 manual. Is this some other library, or it was something added on Amiblitz? (if that's the case, I can't use Amiblitz because I want the game to run on stock old 68k machines, Amiblitz needs an FPU )

[idrougge]

I don't know about LoadTrackerModule, but you can try out StartTracker, part of Neil's CIA tracker lib. It's on one of the BUMs and is installed with Ultimate Blitz CD.

[Graham Humphrey]

LoadTrackerModule is part of the same CIA tracker library the StartTracker command. It's a huge improvement and works really well, the only limitation being that it only works on Kickstart 2 and up, which I am assuming is too limiting if Shatterhand is writing a game for a stock 68000 machine (of course, if it was an AGA game there would be no issue so in that case fill your boots).

I would seriously recommend using the MED player commands, they're much nicer and won't do anything unpredictable.

[Shatterhand]

Yeah, Athough I have an A600 with Kick 2, I'd like my friends with a stock A500 to be able to play the game too

I'll try this, though now I am trying to optimize the whole game, since in advanced levels the screen gets cluttered enough that the game misses a frame from time to time. I spend the whole last night testing a lot of different stuff to see what gives me the best performance, went to bed, had an idea and had to sleep over it

[Shatterhand]

Ok, I downloaded Octamed, converted the .mod I was using to .med, and tried it.

Still get flicker, though a lot less intense.. I actually had the feeling the flicker was happening only when all 4 channels were used at the same time. But not only flicker, I also got shit quickly appearing ramdonly on display from time to time, it really felt like the machine was nearly dying to play that music... and in the middle of the game running it just crashed. But I did *NOT* followed Anakirob's tip to play the song on a interrupt, and I'll try that tomorrow.



One funny thing is that when I wanted to comment the command to play the song I accidentally commented the Vwait command instead and ran the game. I'd expect stuff to be flickering like that, but what surprised me is that the game was running *real* fast with the music also playing a lot fast, so I'm still guessing the music playing is not taking that much of a hit in the cpu at all.

[Anakirob]

I know you are using a double buffered display, but are you 100% sure you're drawing to the buffer which is NOT the currently active display? If you are blitting to the buffer which is currently being displayed then that could cause flickering shapes.

[Amiga1992]

I don't know if this is related, but is this play routine synced to VBL or CIA?

[Anakirob]

The default MOD playing routines are synced to the VBL and the MED playing routines are synced to whenever you call them, usually during or just after the VBlank.