1

Hi to all,

Recently, I have found HPMAN's video library for the Neobitz SDK in the NeoGeoFans.com forum (http://www.neogeofans.com/leforum/showthread.php?t=46638) and I have contacted him to ask for additional information. He suggested me to post my experiences and questions to this forum because maybe other developers could benefit from this in the future.

My actual project is to develop a side-scrolling shooting game for the Neo-Geo, which is really not an all-new idea but comparatively easy to program - particularly by using HPMAN's amazing DATlib. The library offers very useful pre-build functions like scrolling, animation, raster effects and multiple color palettes which make game development on the Neo-Geo a lot easier.

neo-sub.png



The first thing I was playing with was the scrolling function which is able to scroll huge graphics with multiple color palettes and auto-animation without any sprite tearing. The scrolling function provides a great performance because it uses only 21 sprites regardless of the real length of the graphic.

I added 3 scrollable layers to my game to create a parallax scrolling effect. The bottom layer has an 8-frame auto-animation and uses 2 color palettes. Here is a video of the scrolling test:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVH0kJ4ZTkc

Question to HPMAN: How to speed up the auto-animation?



During the creation of the bottom layer graphic I was facing the problem that there is a difference between the RGB color palette of the Neo-Geo and the RGB color palette of an usual Windows PC.
If you create a graphic on your PC with a graphic editor like Photoshop you have much more colors available than the Neo-Geo can actually display. That means you need to know which RGB color code is "Neo-Geo-save" especially if you want to make gradients. Here is an example (PC color - left vs. Neo Geo colors - right):

pc-colors.png neo-colors.png

As you can see, the colors the Neo Geo hardware isn't able to diplay are converted during the graphic compiling proccess to the "nearest neighbor" colors.

Question to HPMAN: I used Furrteks NGPG tool (https://wiki.neogeodev.org/index.php?title=File:Ngpg01.png) to validate which colors are actually displayable by the NeoGeo hardware. Because it only shows the Neo Geo color hex codes I have used "Dotcolor" (http://www.inetis.com/index.php?module=programcki) to get the PC color hex code of the given color.

For example:

Ngpg01.png

Ngpg02.png

Neo Geo color: $344F / R: 17 G: 19 B: 63
is equal to
PC color: #44CFC / R: 68 G: 76 B:252

Is there any easier method of translating the color codes from PC to Neo Geo and vice versa?



For debugging homebrewed code on the computer I have found two emulators which accept to execute Neo-Geo .bin files with wrong CRC checksums (MAMEUI32 0.141u2 and MAME32 0.90u1).
But both of them show a warning message before starting the emulation which has to be confirmed by clicking "OK" or pressing buttons. Dou you maybe use a better version without that annoying warning message?

warning.png



Thanks a lot,
Michael

2

Hey a Blood Money link
good news
I am happy to see you here, and i will test your game in neo geo (CD) with pleasure
avatar
La Neo Geo CD à son site (en tout cas elle essaye...): http://neogeocdworld.info/
Le forum de la Neo Geo sur Yaronet: forums/264

Un petit site sur l'Atari Falcon avec plein de trucs bon pour votre poussin: http://falcon.ti-fr.com/

3

Anto anim speed is handled by the LSPC mode register at 0x3c0006 (https://wiki.neogeodev.org/index.php?title=Memory_mapped_registers)


Just can just write your value in there to set anim speed when using the regular vblank IRQ: volMEMWORD(0x3c0006)=0x1c00;
If you use the Timer interrupt enabled IRQ, use LSPCmode=0x1c00; instead.


There's no easy way to sort out the colors issue on modern drawing utilities like photoshop.
You draw and save images as 24bpp colors, neo geo is 15 bpp color + dark bit, so buildchar tries to pick up the nearest available color.
It's not perfect yet as it's missing dark bit support at the moment. If you loose colors on an image rip from another game that might be the cause.

There's no good way to know how it will end beforehand, a good solution would be to have a color picker plugin for photoshop matching NG color scheme, but nobody did that grin

4

maybe atarashi could help you for the neo geo palette ?

http://furrtek.free.fr/?a=atarashi
avatar
La Neo Geo CD à son site (en tout cas elle essaye...): http://neogeocdworld.info/
Le forum de la Neo Geo sur Yaronet: forums/264

Un petit site sur l'Atari Falcon avec plein de trucs bon pour votre poussin: http://falcon.ti-fr.com/

5

You guys are faster than I could complete writing my first post wink

To KUK: Thanks, I will have a look on that atarashi tool (I haven't seen it before.) I don't know if there will be a NGCD version because, as for now, there is a problem regarding CD compiling. I will post that later.

To HPMAN: Thanks for your fast support - I will check out your advice with the LSPC mode register.

6

Hi Michael / Jojo 23 (NeoHomeBrew.com)

You 're Welcome !
Your first test concerning your new project with the new HPMAN's DATlib seem very good !
you seem very motivated ... that's good too

Concerning your warning message before starting the emulation, You will find few words & tools solution in this section :
topics/148447-ajouter-son-projet-a-un-emulateur Ajouter son projet à un emulateur / Add your project to emulator

Bye,
Fred / FRONT!

7

NGCD is the best console for the hombrew production embarrassed
So we/i could test it if you want
avatar
La Neo Geo CD à son site (en tout cas elle essaye...): http://neogeocdworld.info/
Le forum de la Neo Geo sur Yaronet: forums/264

Un petit site sur l'Atari Falcon avec plein de trucs bon pour votre poussin: http://falcon.ti-fr.com/

8

Notes regarding auto-anim - the following eight animation speeds are possible:

Binary value / Hexadecimal value

0000000100000000 / LSPCmode=0x100 fastest
0000001000000000 / LSPCmode=0x200
0000010000000000 / LSPCmode=0x400
0000100000000000 / LSPCmode=0x800
0001000000000000 / LSPCmode=0x1000
0010000000000000 / LSPCmode=0x2000
0100000000000000 / LSPCmode=0x4000
1000000000000000 / LSPCmode=0x8000 slowest

0000000000001000 / LSPCmode=0x8 auto-anim off

THX to HPMAN king

9

To FRONT: Thanks for your welcome and the link - this could help sun

To KUK: Yes, I would like to make the game also for the NGCD system but currently HPMAN's DATlib can't be compiled for it. I have asked him already for it but and he wrote me that there seems to be a configuration problem with the CD header file.

10

c'est quoi cette histoire HPMAN ? on fait des outils orienté ? non
avatar
La Neo Geo CD à son site (en tout cas elle essaye...): http://neogeocdworld.info/
Le forum de la Neo Geo sur Yaronet: forums/264

Un petit site sur l'Atari Falcon avec plein de trucs bon pour votre poussin: http://falcon.ti-fr.com/

11


For debugging homebrewed code on the computer I have found two emulators which accept to execute Neo-Geo .bin files with wrong CRC checksums (MAMEUI32 0.141u2 and MAME32 0.90u1).
But both of them show a warning message before starting the emulation which has to be confirmed by clicking "OK" or pressing buttons. Dou you maybe use a better version without that annoying warning message?

warning.png


I suggest you download the mame source and add your driver, much more convenient (topics/148447-ajouter-son-projet-a-un-emulateur)

NeoHomeBrew (./8) :
Notes regarding auto-anim - the following eight animation speeds are possible:

Binary value / Hexadecimal value

0000000100000000 / LSPCmode=0x100 fastest
0000001000000000 / LSPCmode=0x200
0000010000000000 / LSPCmode=0x400
0000100000000000 / LSPCmode=0x800
0001000000000000 / LSPCmode=0x1000
0010000000000000 / LSPCmode=0x2000
0100000000000000 / LSPCmode=0x4000
1000000000000000 / LSPCmode=0x8000 slowest

0000000000001000 / LSPCmode=0x8 auto-anim off


Actually you can fit the upper 8 bits anything from 0x00 to 0xff, 0 to change image every frame, 1 for every 2 frames, 2 for every 3 frames etc...


kuk (./10) :
c'est quoi cette histoire HPMAN ? on fait des outils orienté ? non


C'est elle qu'a commencé, en ne lisant pas l'ADPCM-B embarrassed

12

teuteuteu
on fait des outils clairement orienté neo geo CD et vite !
avatar
La Neo Geo CD à son site (en tout cas elle essaye...): http://neogeocdworld.info/
Le forum de la Neo Geo sur Yaronet: forums/264

Un petit site sur l'Atari Falcon avec plein de trucs bon pour votre poussin: http://falcon.ti-fr.com/

13

140322120825202066.png

cool

14

HPMAN, this is really cool - send me some details please miam

15

crt0_cd.s:********************* Vector Definitions ********************* _IRQ1 = DAT_TIfunc _IRQ2 = DAT_vblankTI _IRQ3 = _irq3_handler _ENTRY_USER = _start _ENTRY_PLAYER_START = _dummy_config_handler _ENTRY_DEMO_END = _dummy_config_handler |; MVS game switch _ENTRY_COIN_SOUND = _dummy_config_handler |; coin sound DUMMY = _dummy_exc_handler TRAP00 = _dummy_exc_handler TRAP01 = _dummy_exc_handler TRAP02 = _dummy_exc_handler TRAP03 = _dummy_exc_handler TRAP04 = _dummy_exc_handler TRAP05 = _dummy_exc_handler TRAP06 = _dummy_exc_handler TRAP07 = _dummy_exc_handler TRAP08 = _dummy_exc_handler TRAP09 = _dummy_exc_handler TRAP10 = _dummy_exc_handler TRAP11 = _dummy_exc_handler TRAP12 = _dummy_exc_handler TRAP13 = _dummy_exc_handler TRAP14 = _dummy_exc_handler TRAP15 = _dummy_exc_handler ************************ Definitions ************************* _CDDA_FLAG = 0 _NGH = 0x7777 _PROGRAM_SIZE = 0x00100000 _WRK_BCKP_AREA = bkp_data _WRK_BCKP_AREA_SIZE = 0x0100 |;256bytes _EYE_CATCHER = 0x02 /*;eye catcher (0-common 1-custom 2-off)*/ _EYE_CATCHER_TILES = 0x01 /*;eye catcher start tiles (upper bits, 0x01 => 0x0100)*/ .include "common_crt0_cd.s" * Names MUST be 16 characters long * <----------------> JPconfig: .ascii "HELLO WORLD JP " .long 0xFFFFFFFF .word 0x0364 .byte 0x14, 0x13, 0x24, 0x01 NAconfig: .ascii "HELLO WORLD US " .long 0xFFFFFFFF .word 0x0364 .byte 0x14, 0x13, 0x24, 0x01 EUconfig: .ascii "HELLO WORLD EU " .word 0xffff, 0xffff, 0xffff, 0x0000, 0x0000, 0x0000, 0x0000, 0x0000 .end

common_crt0_cd.s:_ZERO_DIVIDE = 0x00c00426 _CHK_CMD = 0x00c00426 _TRAPV_CMD = 0x00c00426 _NPC_1010 = 0x00c00426 _NPC_1111 = 0x00c00426 _IRQ4 = 0x00c00426 _IRQ5 = 0x00c00426 _IRQ6 = 0x00c00426 _IRQ7 = 0x00c00426 ********************** Exported Symbols ********************** .globl _start .globl atexit ********************** Imported Symbols ********************** .globl __do_global_ctors .globl __do_global_dtors .globl main .globl memset .globl __bss_start .globl _end .globl _sbrk_base1 .globl _sbrk_base2 ********************** Program Start ************************* .org 0x0000 .long 0x0010f300 |;reset stack ptr .long 0x00c00402 /*;reset ptr*/ .long 0x00c00408 /*;bus error*/ .long 0x00c0040e /*;address error*/ .long 0x00c00414 /*;illegal instruction*/ .long _ZERO_DIVIDE /*;division by 0*/ .long _CHK_CMD /*;CHK command*/ .long _TRAPV_CMD /*;TRAPV command*/ .long 0x00c0041a /*;illegal privilege*/ .long 0x00c00420 /*;trace exception handling*/ .long _NPC_1010 /*;no package command (1010)*/ .long _NPC_1111 /*;no package command (1111)*/ .long 0x00c00426, 0x00c00426, 0x00c00426 /*;unused*/ .long 0x00c0042c /*;uninitialized interrupt*/ .long 0xC00522, 0xC00528, 0xC0052E, 0xC00534 .long 0xC0053A, 0xC004F2, 0xC004EC, 0xC004E6 .long 0xC004E0 |; 0x64 .long _IRQ1, _IRQ2, _IRQ3, _IRQ4, _IRQ5, _IRQ6, _IRQ7 /*;4-7 unused*/ .long TRAP00, TRAP01, TRAP02, TRAP03 .long TRAP04, TRAP05, TRAP06, TRAP07 .long TRAP08, TRAP09, TRAP10, TRAP11 .long TRAP12, TRAP13, TRAP14, TRAP15 .long 0xC00426, 0xC00426, 0xC00426, 0xC00426 .long 0xC00426, 0xC00426, 0xC00426, 0xC00426 .long 0xC00426, 0xC00426, 0xC00426, 0xC00426 .long 0xC00426, 0xC00426, 0xC00426, 0xC00426 .org 0x100 .ascii "NEO-GEO" .byte _CDDA_FLAG .word _NGH .long _PROGRAM_SIZE .long _WRK_BCKP_AREA .word _WRK_BCKP_AREA_SIZE .byte _EYE_CATCHER .byte _EYE_CATCHER_TILES .long JPconfig .long NAconfig .long EUconfig jmp _ENTRY_USER jmp _ENTRY_PLAYER_START jmp _ENTRY_DEMO_END jmp _ENTRY_COIN_SOUND |;* Standard IRQ1 handler _irq1_handler: move.w #2, 0x3C000C rte |;* Standard IRQ3 handler _irq3_handler: move.w #1, 0x3C000C _dummy_exc_handler: rte |;* Dummy atexit (does nothing for now) atexit: moveq #0, d0 _dummy_config_handler: rts |;* Entry point of our program _start: |;* Setup stack pointer and 'system' pointer |;lea 0x10F300, a7 |;lea 0x108000, a5 |;* Reset watchdog move.b d0, 0x300001 |;* Flush interrupts move.b #7, 0x3C000C move.l #0, TInextTable |;* Enable manual reset (A+B+C+START or SELECT) bclr #7, 0x10FD80 |;* Enable interrupts move.w #0x2000, sr |;* Stop CDDA move.w #0x0200, d0 jsr 0xc0056a |;* Initialize base pointers for malloc move.l #0x120000, _sbrk_base2 move.l #_end, d0 add.l #32, d0 and.l #0xFFFFFF0, d0 move.l d0, _sbrk_base1 |;* Initialize BSS section move.l #_end, d0 sub.l #__bss_start, d0 move.l d0, -(a7) clr.l -(a7) pea __bss_start jbsr memset |;* Jump to main jbsr main |;* Call global destructors jbsr __do_global_dtors |;* For CD systems, return to CD Player jmp 0xC0055E

Add volMEMBYTE(0x10fd80)=0x80; at the start of your main.

16

It works - thanks a lot! Your video lib looks perfectly also on the real CD-System.
You just made my day boing !

For those who are interested here is a link to the NGCD demo:
http://www.neohomebrew.com/forum-pics/neosub-demo.rar

Just unpack and burn the files to a CDR and feed your toploader NGCD.

17

so i test it on my neo geo CDZ and it's ok
avatar
La Neo Geo CD à son site (en tout cas elle essaye...): http://neogeocdworld.info/
Le forum de la Neo Geo sur Yaronet: forums/264

Un petit site sur l'Atari Falcon avec plein de trucs bon pour votre poussin: http://falcon.ti-fr.com/

18

I have made a new video of the actual status of the project:

- new animated background layers > two layers with 8-frame animation (the water-like raster effect has been "faked" graphically)
- up to 10 enemies can be spawned at the same time
- up to 15 enemy torpedos can be shown at the same time
- up to 10 player torpedos can be shown at the same time
- enemies can fire at the player now
- player hit detection & armor bar

19

Absolutely Fantastic Work!!
RetroIsTheOnlyFuture!

20

love
avatar
La Neo Geo CD à son site (en tout cas elle essaye...): http://neogeocdworld.info/
Le forum de la Neo Geo sur Yaronet: forums/264

Un petit site sur l'Atari Falcon avec plein de trucs bon pour votre poussin: http://falcon.ti-fr.com/

21

The graphic below contains 3632 basic "NeoGeo-safe" colors of the 15-bit RGB555 color palette arranged to a color chart.
I have made this graphic for myself but I think this chart could be interesting for future developers or designers for the system.

neo-geo-15-bit-rgb555-color-chart.png

22

Been looking into colors for next update (also adding dark bit), turns out the system DAC isn't linear, which is the source of color conversion difficulties:

140528060548464140.png

Did you take that into accound making your chart?

23

Hi HPMAN,

this is an interesting diagram - I did not knew it before. Great that you are working on an improvement of the graphics compiler - dark-bit colors would be nice grin

The values in the color chart are based on numbers which are divisible by eight. My goal was to have a chart with 24-bit colors which are displayable as 15-bit colors after compiling.
I have noticed a small difference between the values before and after compling but I think that is an emulator issue (?):

rbg-values-blue.png

24

Looked into mame to get the info.

What mame does is calculate exact color values from the DAC resistor values in ohms.

It runs the code for both dark bit states, so you end up with two sets of values:
private static double[] _noDB = { 0.0000000000000000, 7.7986725921356159, 13.8249195716471380, 21.6235921637827530, 30.4148230211259190, 38.2134956132615360, 44.2397425927730550, 52.0384151849086720, 64.7123893723533140, 72.5110619644889310, 78.5373089440004580, 86.3359815361360750, 95.1272123934792260, 102.9258849856148400, 108.9521319651263700, 116.7508045572619900, 138.2491954427379700, 146.0478680348735700, 152.0741150143851100, 159.8727876065207200, 168.6640184638639000, 176.4626910559995000, 182.4889380355110400, 190.2876106276466400, 202.9615848150912700, 210.7602574072268700, 216.7865043867384100, 224.5851769788740200, 233.3764078362172000, 241.1750804283528000, 247.2013274078643400, 254.9999999999999400 }; private static double[] _withDB = { 0.0000000000000000, 7.6868626613063098, 13.6267110582412330, 21.3135737195475410, 29.9787642921561930, 37.6656269534625000, 43.6054753503974270, 51.2923380117037340, 63.7846048431222390, 71.4714675044285460, 77.4113159013634660, 85.0981785626697730, 93.7633691352784240, 101.4502317965847300, 107.3900801935196500, 115.0769428548259600, 136.2671103126034200, 143.9539729739097400, 149.8938213708446500, 157.5806840321509700, 166.2458746047596200, 173.9327372660659400, 179.8725856630008500, 187.5594483243071700, 200.0517151557256700, 207.7385778170320000, 213.6784262139669000, 221.3652888752732200, 230.0304794478818700, 237.7173421091881900, 243.6571905061231000, 251.3440531674294200 };

Values are then rounded up for RGB display.

I also noted displayed values when taking screenshots are not exactly calculated ones, that's probably because raw picture runs through further color/gamma adjustments before output.

What I do right now is pick closest value from table for each RGB value, calculate delta to real value for RGB and add up values, with and without dark bit, then picks the color with the smallest delta.

25

I have made a color chart with these DAC resistor values compared to Furrteks palette tool (linear) and compared to the real system output (Neo-Geo CD).
It proves that you are right and real system has almost the same irregular steps between the values.

But in my opinion I would prefer a linear system because it is a lot easier to handle from the designer's point of view.
Because if I know any color with RGB values divisible by eight will be converted to an unique Neo-Geo color, I can a create Neo-Geo-safe color palettes much faster and can be sure it is displayable.
With an irregular system it would be much more complicated to calculate the "safe" values and I would have to verify any color to ensure that the color is a "safe" one or not.

rbg-values-blue2.png

26

Kinda off topic but you shouldn't use blue to illustrate color values, as it's not very well perceived by the human eye: http://nfggames.com/games/ntsc/visual.shtm

Green is the way to go grin

27

This looks awesome Michael. I actually found this on Youtube a a couple of weeks ago and was surprised I hadn't heard about it before. Keep up the good work!. Do you have plans to turn it into a full shooter with levels and bosses?

28

Hi CosmicR,

thank a lot for your feedback. Yes, the plan is to make 5 different stages with a big boss submarine / ship at the end of each stage boing

--
I have made a video today of the actual status of the game. The new features are:

- smoother submarine movements (slightly delayed acceleration & deceleration)
- scroll-back if no input (x-axis)
- submarine moves up and down if no input
- scrolling on Y-Axis added
- new animated waterline layer + cloudy sky
- collision detection on foreground layer added
- sound effects for torpedo launches and explosions

29

Also, I have made a new color test chart (this time in green wink ) to verify which RGB value will be identified as an unique color after compiling.


neo-geo-green.png

30

Nice progress.

I have a library update around the corner which includes an overhaul of the color conversion, don't waste too much time working out colors on this version smile