ASM Brain Teaser... doing my head in.

mcgeezer · 07 March 2019, 13:52

I've got a proper brain teaser going on with Rygar at the moment that would make for a good challenge, I still haven't managed it properly so far but I would be interested to see how the other coders would manage it.

Simply put... We have a value in d6 which represents all of the platform positions on the Y axis on any given 16x16 tile.

For example... d6=00000589

Would mean there are currently platforms at row 5, 8 and 9.... they are always in ascending order.

Now in d7 I have the current platform where a sprite is placed, for example d7=5 would mean we are standing on the uppermost platform.

What I need to do is two fold..
1) Check to see if the current platform nybble in d7 exists in any of the nybbles in d6, if it does then we set d6 to be -1

2) Check to see if the current platform nybble in d7 -2 also exists in any of the nybbles in d6, if it does then we set d6 to be -1.

This determines if the sprite will make a jump or not so think along the lines of a an enemy sprite moving right or left and you are checking to see if it needs to jump onto the next platform.

The problem bit I'm having is it has to be done in ascending order (most significant nybble first in the long word) and as fast as possible, it's the fast as possible bit I'm struggling with and keeping everything in registers.

Keep in mind that most of the nybbles in d6 will be 0 left justified, so if you reach a 0 then you can assume the check is complete.

I'll post my solution when it is done.

Geezer

meynaf · 07 March 2019, 15:06

There is a coding trick to do this, provided some conditions are met :
- d7 would contain $55555555 rather than just 5 (a table lookup can perform the conversion)
- all nibbles of the longword are always checked (so unused ones have to be cleared)
- actual position is unknown, only information we have is that it's there
- I set D6 only for .B
- there is a temporary available (D1 below)

If these are ok, then the code is rather small and fast :

Code:

 eor.l d7,d6          ; this, because below code in fact checks for nibbles =0
 move.l d6,d1
 not.l d6
 sub.l #$11111111,d1
 and.l #$88888888,d6
 and.l d1,d6
 sne d6               ; could have been bne found

Second test is the same, just sub $22222222 from D7 (and copy D6 somewhere).

Note that longword ops are painful for 68000 so if possible you should limit this to 16-bit quantities.

mcgeezer · 07 March 2019, 15:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by meynaf

There is a coding trick to do this, provided some conditions are met :
- d7 would contain $55555555 rather than just 5 (a table lookup can perform the conversion)
- all nibbles of the longword are always checked (so unused ones have to be cleared)
- actual position is unknown, only information we have is that it's there
- I set D6 only for .B
- there is a temporary available (D1 below)

If these are ok, then the code is rather small and fast :

Code:

 eor.l d7,d6          ; this, because below code in fact checks for nibbles =0
 move.l d6,d1
 not.l d6
 sub.l #$11111111,d1
 and.l #$88888888,d6
 and.l d1,d6
 sne d6               ; could have been bne found

Second test is the same, just sub $22222222 from D7 (and copy D6 somewhere).

Note that longword ops are painful for 68000 so if possible you should limit this to 16-bit quantities.

That looks a lot damn faster than my fastest effort!

ugghhh..... I'll get my coat.

Code:

	moveq	#$9,d7		; Current Platform
	move.l	#$79,d6
	bsr	CHECK_NEXT_PLATFORM_POSITION
; d6 will be -1 if no platform or platform two position higher.
	tst.w	d6
	nop
	nop
	

CHECK_NEXT_PLATFORM_POSITION:
	move.w	d7,d5
	subq.b	#2,d5

	move.l	d6,d4
	swap	d4
	
	moveq	#5,d3
.loop1:	subq.b	#1,d3
	beq.s	.block2
	swap	d6
	lsl.l	#4,d6
	swap	d6
	and.w	#$f,d6
	subq.b	#2,d6
	cmp.b	d5,d6
	beq.s	.set_jump
	addq.b	#2,d6
	cmp.b	d7,d6
	beq.s	.set_jump
	bra.s	.loop1
	
	nop
	
.block2:	move.l	d4,d6
	moveq	#5,d3
.loop2:	subq.b	#1,d3
	beq.s	.exit
	swap	d6
	lsl.l	#4,d6
	swap	d6
	and.w	#$f,d6
	subq.b	#2,d6
	cmp.b	d5,d6
	beq.s	.set_jump
	addq.b	#2,d6
	cmp.b	d7,d6
	beq.s	.set_jump
	bra.s	.loop2

.set_jump:	moveq	#-1,d6

.exit:	rts

meynaf · 07 March 2019, 15:27

There is an even faster way, but it needs data representation to be changed from D6=$00000589 to D6=%1100100000 (value with bits 9,8,5 set to 1).

mcgeezer · 07 March 2019, 15:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by meynaf

There is an even faster way, but it needs data representation to be changed from D6=$00000589 to D6=%1100100000 (value with bits 9,8,5 set to 1).

Where on Earth did you get that code trick from, did you figure that out yourself? I do very much appreciate it, the standard of this forum is awesome.

ross · 07 March 2019, 16:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by meynaf

There is an even faster way, but it needs data representation to be changed from D6=$00000589 to D6=%1100100000 (value with bits 9,8,5 set to 1).

Code:

    btst d7,d6

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcgeezer

Where on Earth did you get that code trick from, did you figure that out yourself? I do very much appreciate it, the standard of this forum is awesome.

There was some interesting coder competition in the past

meynaf · 07 March 2019, 16:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcgeezer

Where on Earth did you get that code trick from, did you figure that out yourself? I do very much appreciate it, the standard of this forum is awesome.

Originally this code trick was for checking the presence of a null byte in a longword. It's not my invention, I just found it somewhere on the internet years ago, and adapted it for nibbles.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ross

Code:

    btst d7,d6

Yeah, you guessed it right

ross · 07 March 2019, 16:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by meynaf

Yeah, you guessed it right

This made me remember one of the probably less used instructions in 68k coding:

Code:

   btst    d7,#%1100100000

A quick check of belonging to a small set of constant values

meynaf · 07 March 2019, 16:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by ross

This made me remember one of the probably less used instructions in 68k coding:

Code:

   btst    d7,#%1100100000

A quick check of belonging to a small set of constant values

Yes, but unfortunately it's limited to 8 bits so your example here doesn't work

ross · 07 March 2019, 16:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by meynaf

Yes, but unfortunately it's limited to 8 bits so your example here doesn't work

You are right!

So a register mask is the only possibility in this case.

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07 March 2019, 13:52	#1
mcgeezer Registered User Join Date: Oct 2017 Location: Sunderland, England Posts: 2,702	ASM Brain Teaser... doing my head in. I've got a proper brain teaser going on with Rygar at the moment that would make for a good challenge, I still haven't managed it properly so far but I would be interested to see how the other coders would manage it. Simply put... We have a value in d6 which represents all of the platform positions on the Y axis on any given 16x16 tile. For example... d6=00000589 Would mean there are currently platforms at row 5, 8 and 9.... they are always in ascending order. Now in d7 I have the current platform where a sprite is placed, for example d7=5 would mean we are standing on the uppermost platform. What I need to do is two fold.. 1) Check to see if the current platform nybble in d7 exists in any of the nybbles in d6, if it does then we set d6 to be -1 2) Check to see if the current platform nybble in d7 -2 also exists in any of the nybbles in d6, if it does then we set d6 to be -1. This determines if the sprite will make a jump or not so think along the lines of a an enemy sprite moving right or left and you are checking to see if it needs to jump onto the next platform. The problem bit I'm having is it has to be done in ascending order (most significant nybble first in the long word) and as fast as possible, it's the fast as possible bit I'm struggling with and keeping everything in registers. Keep in mind that most of the nybbles in d6 will be 0 left justified, so if you reach a 0 then you can assume the check is complete. I'll post my solution when it is done. Geezer

07 March 2019, 15:06	#2
meynaf son of 68k Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Lyon / France Age: 51 Posts: 5,355	There is a coding trick to do this, provided some conditions are met : - d7 would contain $55555555 rather than just 5 (a table lookup can perform the conversion) - all nibbles of the longword are always checked (so unused ones have to be cleared) - actual position is unknown, only information we have is that it's there - I set D6 only for .B - there is a temporary available (D1 below) If these are ok, then the code is rather small and fast : Code: eor.l d7,d6 ; this, because below code in fact checks for nibbles =0 move.l d6,d1 not.l d6 sub.l #$11111111,d1 and.l #$88888888,d6 and.l d1,d6 sne d6 ; could have been bne found Second test is the same, just sub $22222222 from D7 (and copy D6 somewhere). Note that longword ops are painful for 68000 so if possible you should limit this to 16-bit quantities.

07 March 2019, 15:27	#4
meynaf son of 68k Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Lyon / France Age: 51 Posts: 5,355	There is an even faster way, but it needs data representation to be changed from D6=$00000589 to D6=%1100100000 (value with bits 9,8,5 set to 1).

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