Replace single color backgrounds with multi-colored ones

[john4p]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

Fixed some sprite related genlock color selection bugs. Possibly fixes above problem.

It does:



Thank you very much!

We can get creative now. I'll try to create some better PNGs tomorrow.

Originally Posted by rothers

I feel adding these backgrounds is legit as the system supported it.

It kinda is, although you can now use anything including colors the Amiga doesn't know.

[TCD]

Great stuff! Thank you for requesting it john and thank you Toni for implementing it

[john4p]

You're welcome.

Also thanks a lot @Dan for coming up with the Genlock-idea!

[Toni Wilen]

Some more extra features: "brdntran" makes border area normal even if palette index 0 is genlock transparent. "brdrblnk" makes border area black. (Names are same as BPLCON3 custom register bit names). Also genlock emulation does not need to be enabled anymore.

[john4p]

Thanks again. For these two new options do we have to add them to the config in separate lines or are they new values for genlock_effects?

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by john4p

Thanks again. For these two new options do we have to add them to the config in separate lines or are they new values for genlock_effects?

genlock_effects new strings. (for example: genlock_effects=0,brdntran)

[john4p]

Okay, gonna try this thoroughly tomorrow.

[john4p]

Improved Turrican background (taken from its sequel's start area):



Because with this replacement we lose the T1-feature in world 1 where the background gets darker in some areas I chose a pretty dark background.

Alternative (taken from "Swiateczna Awaria", but inversed):



And finally one for Addams Family which originally has no background gfx at all (colors taken from Harlequin title):

=>

Addams Family Config: genlock_effects=0,brdntran
Turrican Config: genlock_effects=5

PNGs attached.

[john4p]

Okay, now I understand which dimensions the PNG must have exactly and improved it again.
The background is pixel perfect now:

[TCD]

Could you post the config line that you use, john? I'd like to give it a try with your PNG tomorrow.

Edit: Just checked the post before Thank you for the two backgrounds so far

[Retro1234]

Seems some games could of benefited from a copper background. Love to see someone do this on real hardware.

[john4p]

Tried playing through Turrican and only in the Alien world (world 4) the graphics are negatively affected by the PNG, thus I need to turn off the functionality for this world by entering the GUI.

@Toni: Could you please add a toggle that can be mapped in controls for enabling/disabling the custom background PNG (so the picture could be turned on/off by pressing e.g. a joypad-button)?

Originally Posted by TCD

Edit: Just checked the post before Thank you for the two backgrounds so far

Yep, genlock_effects=5 it is.

[john4p]

This is how you can create your own pixel-exact custom background:

1. Start the game, enable "Take screenshot before filtering" in the Output-tab and then click "Save screenshot":



2. You now have a screenshot including all of the border area:



3. Only paint in the drawn area, then the background will fit:



The correct color palette index for the option genlock_effects I found out by trial and error. For Turrican it is 5, but for many other games it is 0.

[CFou!]

Originally Posted by Retro1234

Seems some games could of benefited from a copper background. Love to see someone do this on real hardware.

about Giana Sister....

I wanted to do some tests this weekend so I asked Psygore for the WHDLoad slave's sources code...

Apparently he have already worked on it and he should release an update of the slave with this possibility

In general WHDLoad is a good solution because we have in CHIP a large space of unnecessary memory to make a long Copperlist => the MFM buffer of the track loader which is unused with a WHDLoad patch

[john4p]

^ Nice, looking forward to this, too.

Maybe we could get a vertically scrolling copper background for Turrican that way some day.

[Korban]

Would it be possible to effectively add a parallax background/backgrounds using 2 instances of Winuae both using same input device and writing some code to move the background(s) around and the genlock options?

It's something I considered fooling around with years ago on real Amiga hardware using 2 machines and this thread reminded me about it.

[Retro1234]

Originally Posted by Korban

Would it be possible to effectively add a parallax background/backgrounds using 2 instances of Winuae both using same input device and writing some code to move the background(s) around and the genlock options?

It's something I considered fooling around with years ago on real Amiga hardware using 2 machines and this thread reminded me about it.

I did think of doing this years ago after seeing Gary's post but how could you control two machines with one joystick.

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by Korban

Would it be possible to effectively add a parallax background/backgrounds using 2 instances of Winuae both using same input device and writing some code to move the background(s) around and the genlock options?

Possible? Yes. Not going to happen.

[rothers]

You should add some awesome pixel art as backgrounds, loads freely available online. A nice dark set of mountains would look awesome in Turrican.

[john4p]

Played through Turrican now. Sadly the blue sky in world 5 is not color index 5 as in world 1 but color index 3. And if you replace that with the background pic it affects other parts, too, and looks weird. So for Turrican we can really just replace the background in world 1 (but it's no big deal as you don't see much of the blue background in world 5 anyway).

Originally Posted by rothers

You should add some awesome pixel art as backgrounds, loads freely available online. A nice dark set of mountains would look awesome in Turrican.

Thought about that, too (also had mountains in mind). I'll have a look at the weekend (the pic should have the same low resolution as Turrican).