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SoCoder -> Blogs Home -> Blogs

 
spinal
Created : 20 April 2008
 

Restarting menu...
Yes, that right, in an effort to resolve some of the issues with DSision, I have decided to restart the project from scratch. I had ran into some memory issues with the previous version, resulting in some errors in the final build. The icons didn't always load properly, it didn't work on some flash cards (although it should have worked on all) and a couple of other things bugged me about it also.

So I am starting over. Generally my projects improve greatly from a restart, because I don't plan very well and my first versions, usually end up being all of the planning and preparation that should go into most coding projects.

So, my aim with this version is to use my memory responsibly, the DS has very few resources to start with and I need to remember that. Also I need to keep it compatible with some of the more popular DS flash carts, such as the R4DS as the previous version refuses to work on it. Also I want to make it look a bit better, I have learned a little from other coders in the way of using simple effects to enhance the experience of the end user, I will try to put into practise what I have picked up.

So, there you go.

 

Comments
Thursday, 24 April 2008, 17:49
spinal
 		I'm going to keep people up to date with this one, so...

Currently, I have figures out enough of the 3D sprite system in palib to load a .nds icon to a texture and display it on screen. Also I have managed to load a 256 colour bitmap to a texture. My aim with this, is that if a certain file does not have an icon, then a default one will be loaded from an external image. That way I can keep all of the gfx external and hopefully save a bit of ram.

note to jay - I found that sound bug, you were closer than I was, I was reading the correct amount of data, only my image buffer was too small.
Thursday, 24 April 2008, 19:04
Jayenkai
 		!!
I wasn't close at all!
But glad you found it.
Friday, 25 April 2008, 01:07
spinal
 		ClosER You said I might have the format of the texture wrong.
Thursday, 01 May 2008, 19:31
spinal
 		1st progress update.

Currently the menu creates a list of files and folders into an array (global) and creates icons for each file using 3d sprites. I am currently working with 256colour icons (although the ds ones are only 16colour). The icons are currently based on file extension, but will later be created using the following checks -

1. Is file a folder
2. Does file have internal icon (nds)
3. Does file have specific external icon, e.g. dsision.bmp
4. Else load extension's icon type, e.g. _nds.bmp

Perhaps not in that exact order though. Either way, the best looking icon will be loaded for each file.

The first screenshot.


|edit| Added new font, variable width + AA's to a single colour.

- 05/06/08 -
OK, I need to create my own font routine, it seems the PALib on doesn't work very well on the ever popular R4 card. How fun.
Sunday, 25 May 2008, 14:13
spinal
 		OK, Just to prove how serious I am, here is a new logo (not sure I even had an old logo.
Sunday, 25 May 2008, 15:01
Jayenkai
 		Mmmmm.. Lovely!
Sunday, 25 May 2008, 16:23
spinal
 		I have a lower screen also, in the style of the DS health & safety screen.
Sunday, 08 June 2008, 14:17
spinal
 		OK, Jay has informed me that the icons were crapping out after the 32th item. It turns out that palib has only set 128kb for 3d sprites, so that only allows 32 64x64x256 textures for my icons. I'm going to have to re-do how my images are stored and used. I'm going to attempt something similar to that last version, icons were fetched from the files as they were needed, this time however, I'm going to copy all the icons to a struct or just an array, then copy up to 16 of these to the space used for 3d sprites, hopefully giving the best of both methods and keeping some textures free for any gui elements I might add.
Friday, 05 December 2008, 03:09
spinal
 		Here's a random update, there have been quite a few updates since the last post there.

View on YouTube
Friday, 05 December 2008, 03:25
Jayenkai
 		Looking great!
Friday, 05 December 2008, 07:02
shroom_monk
 		Looks pretty good spinal!

The music in that video sounds familiar... hm...

Oh wait, it was in Phoenix's 'Joe' game, wasn't it?
Friday, 05 December 2008, 08:00
Phoenix
 		Looks fantastic!

And yes, the music is slightly familiar