Compileable version of Alien Breed 3D II - The Killing Grounds

[Karlos]

The first time I saw the "DUCK" key option in the menu on my old CRT display, it looked like "OUCH"...

Maybe it's time to rename it to the more conventional "crouch".

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by Torti-the-Smurf

Is there a way to deactivate the FPS Counter and the onscreen Messages ?

I've got a PR for toggling the messages. I've implemented this as a new custom menu option as it allows a much more agressive approach to skipping message processing. The setting will be saved on exit.

If there are any volunteers, https://github.com/mheyer32/alienbreed3d2/pull/147

[Karlos]

I keep forgetting about the FPS counter...

[abu_the_monkey]

I only tested the c dev build but it seems to work.
why anyone would want this as an option is beyond me, but, each to their own I guess.

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by abu_the_monkey

I only tested the c dev build but it seems to work.
why anyone would want this as an option is beyond me, but, each to their own I guess.

I can see it might be distracting and in fullscreen, it does cost some cycles because we render it every frame.

It won't make a blind bit of difference in the ASM only build because messaging doesn't work there anyway. I did test full and small screen RTG/AGA combinations already.

I was thinking of the quickest way to get the pure ASM build to feature parity. I could ask the compiler to just emit the necessary code and tidy it a little, rather than a big rewrite. Except for glyph plotting, I wouldn't feel right not making the attempt to make that as efficient as possible.

[abu_the_monkey]

Originally Posted by Karlos

It won't make a blind bit of difference in the ASM only build because messaging doesn't work there anyway.

oh yeah. I forgot about that

[abu_the_monkey]

I know your going to hate me, but.

An option that would make sense to me, would be the ability to turn the music off and just have the sfx.

runs and hides.

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by abu_the_monkey

I know your going to hate me, but.

An option that would make sense to me, would be the ability to turn the music off and just have the sfx.

runs and hides.

No. That seems fair. If I ever get that mixer done I'll need it.

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by Angus

Wait till you see the resulting hybrid if you successfully mate with the flappy thing on the first level.

Note: This only works if the player is in Duck form during the erm.... procedure.

This is the real reason I removed it from my mod. That and the fact I couldn't take the flying Y fronts seriously.

[Angus]

Originally Posted by Karlos

This is the real reason I removed it from my mod. That and the fact I couldn't take the flying Y fronts seriously.

It's called "Alien Breed" for a reason.

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by Angus

It's called "Alien Breed" for a reason.

Touche!

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by abu_the_monkey

I know your going to hate me, but.

An option that would make sense to me, would be the ability to turn the music off and just have the sfx.

runs and hides.

If we add this, we should definitely make sure all channels are used for the sound effects.

[Karlos]

@abu_the_monkey

Should any music enable/disable toggle also affect the endlevel, or just the ingame?

[abu_the_monkey]

Originally Posted by Karlos

@abu_the_monkey

Should any music enable/disable toggle also affect the endlevel, or just the ingame?

Probably just the in game stuff. I know there is the 'teleport' fx on level completed but it makes it more obvious that it was the end of the level and not a standard teleport if a piece of 'music' plays I think.

anyone else have an opinion?

[Karlos]

In unrelated news, I just found another hardcoded signed division operation in the RotateObjectPtsFullScreen function. This is responsible for calculating the on-screen position of every object (pickups, aliens, decoration, weabpon bolts, etc) and it looks like it can be approximated without any noticable degradation in the projected location of anything.

The reason this never came up before is that the division counters only display in small screen and this code only runs in fullscreen. Probably saves a few hundred divisions per frame. Level F is an ideal testbed for this (turn off walls) as there are objects all over the place.

[abu_the_monkey]

Originally Posted by Karlos

In unrelated news, I just found another hardcoded signed division operation in the RotateObjectPtsFullScreen function. This is responsible for calculating the on-screen position of every object (pickups, aliens, decoration, weabpon bolts, etc) and it looks like it can be approximated without any noticable degradation in the projected location of anything.

The reason this never came up before is that the division counters only display in small screen and this code only runs in fullscreen. Probably saves a few hundred divisions per frame.

good find

[Karlos]

For the 060 experts, I could do with some reordering advice (this is in a loop over every object point):

.objpointrotlop:
	cmp.b	#OBJ_TYPE_AUX,ObjT_TypeID_b(a4)
	beq.s	.itaux

	move.w	(a0),d0
	sub.w	xoff,d0
	move.w	4(a0),d1
	addq	#8,a0

	tst.w	ObjT_ZoneID_w(a4)
	blt		.noworkout

	sub.w	zoff,d1
	move.w	d0,d2
	muls	d6,d2
	move.w	d1,d3
	muls	d5,d3
	sub.l	d3,d2

	add.l	d2,d2
	swap	d2
	move.w	d2,(a1)+

	muls	d5,d0
	muls	d6,d1

	add.l	d0,d1
	asl.l	#2,d1
	swap	d1
	ext.l	d1

	;divs	#3,d1 ; kill this
	muls    #85,d1

	moveq	#0,d3

	asr.l   #8,d1


	move.w	d1,(a1)+
	ext.l	d2
	asl.l	#7,d2
	add.l	xwobble,d2
	move.l	d2,(a1)+
	sub.l	xwobble,d2
	NEXT_OBJ	a4
	dbra	d7,.objpointrotlop

I feel like this is quite badly arranged for superscalar execution. I can see some opportunitues to reorder this code. I can improve my tiny modification by just shoving the register clear of d3 between the muls and shift, but overall there's a lot of other stuff going on here that I think is primary execution unit only.#

Found a no-brainer - replace the clearing of d3 with a move.l xwobble,d3 and then use d3 in the two later places.

[Karlos]

If anyone wants to verify there's no oddities in the positioning of objects https://github.com/mheyer32/alienbreed3d2/pull/150

I've been through several levels in my mod that are very object heavy and I can see no meaningful differences in placement over the visible depth

[Karlos]

Some time ago, I got the impression that under UAE, AGA screenmodes are smoother. I just retested and there's no doubt here. I get far less audio breakup and the frame rate is rock solid.

With RTG screenmodes, it seems my performance is much more variable. It's very odd.

[Karlos]

Anyone else had this experience?