NESICIDE2 Progress

essial · Post by **essial** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 6:29 pm

Well you can help (or not help) with whatever you want. This is an open source project after all. Feel free to join as content quality control if you would like to; or you can do nothing and simply give encouraging feedback as the app develops

essial · Post by **essial** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 10:56 pm

New updates:

- APU (Sound) system ported to libSDL to support cross-platform audio. It's not 100% yet but it's getter there.
- Emulator is now in it's own thread and does not affect the speed of the user interface.
- Source Code Designer has full syntax highlighting and line number counting.
- You can now create, delete, and rename source code items.
- Added setting in project properties to specify the 'root' source code file.
- Started implementation of the source assembler.
- Full load/save support for the project, as well as source code items.
- Started implementation of the emulator debugger windows and tools.

tokumaru · Post by **tokumaru** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 11:13 pm

Nice! I like how you guys seem very commited to the project! Keep it up! =)

Celius · Post by **Celius** » Sat Dec 19, 2009 12:44 am

I, too, am interested to see this project reach completion. Keep it up =).

essial · Post by **essial** » Sat Dec 19, 2009 2:27 pm

Just a reminder, we are on irc.freenode.net, channel #nesicide. We currently have 5-6 people on average there; The more people we have helping us test things as we go along -- and giving suggestions, the better this program will be when its done. We support all 3 platforms (and it most likely works on several other platforms too) so pretty much anyone with a PC can help us test.

I plan on building the first beta installers for mac, win, and (packages for) linux on xmas eve, and releasing it first thing on xmas day.

essial · Post by **essial** » Sun Dec 20, 2009 12:22 am

Assembler support is well on its way as shown in the below screenshot. Most of the text you see in the debugger output is just informational while I write the assembler, and will be removed once the assembler is done (I have to see what it's doing right now :p). It already supports line number reporting of syntax errors, detection of labels, as well as opcode compilation for a few parameter types. Hopefully I'll be able to finish up the basic assembler support soon.

Lastly.. I plan on making the macro system work like NASM's macro system. I think that will add great flexibility and power to your code.

Hamtaro126 · Post by **Hamtaro126** » Sun Dec 20, 2009 12:56 pm

Sorry if this is a bump, But should I suggest:

a Sprite Editor with a option to use thier own Mapable/Custom Sprite Formats?

Also a 2-type MetaTile editor for Hacks and Homebrews: SMB-style format and Normal Format, with size options: 2x2, 4x4, 8x8, 16x16 and 32x32 metatiles.

Just so people can use these as easy tools for faster project completion.

Post by **tepples** » Sun Dec 20, 2009 2:58 pm

What is a "sprite editor"? Is it a tile editor (of which there are many)? Or is it an editor to create (x, y, tilenumber) data structures that get inserted into OAM?

tokumaru · Post by **tokumaru** » Sun Dec 20, 2009 3:32 pm

tepples wrote:an editor to create (x, y, tilenumber) data structures that get inserted into OAM

I believe he meant something like this: meta-sprites and animations. This is as hard to implement as a level editor though, because every programmer uses their own format.

Post by **tepples** » Sun Dec 20, 2009 3:55 pm

Every word processor had its own format for rich text until everyone standardized on interchange formats: RTF, HTML, then ODF. Likewise, every image editor had its own format for bitmaps until everyone standardized on interchange formats: BMP, then PNG. And every digital camera had its own protocol for connecting to a PC until USB came around and cameras pretended to be hard drives.

Ideally, everyone could standardize on some common format for a display list, and NESICIDE could edit this format. Then anyone wanting a more compact format could write something in Python or C++ or VB to convert it. Likewise, developers of CHR RAM games standardized on a format identical to CHR ROM for storage of tiles in PRG ROM, although some used a more compact representation such as RLE (e.g. Contra), 1bpp (e.g. the font in Jeopardy!), or a more sophisticated codec (e.g. Bee 52).

Post by **Memblers** » Sun Dec 20, 2009 4:02 pm

But like Hamtaro said, it would make the process faster when the programmer doesn't already have their own format. And if the editor and format is good enough, it may even be tempting to switch over to it unless you've already created a ton of data otherwise (which most of us haven't, I'm sure).

I'd considered coding an animation displayer thing, but was still planning on writing the frames out by hand (well, and using macros when appropriate).

Hamtaro126 · Post by **Hamtaro126** » Sun Dec 20, 2009 4:03 pm

tepples wrote:What is a "sprite editor"? Is it a tile editor (of which there are many)? Or is it an editor to create (x, y, tilenumber) data structures that get inserted into OAM?

#2, an OAM editor, for use with the OAM data structures

(Y, Tile, Attribute, and X are the actual format for NES OAM)

cpow · Post by **cpow** » Sun Dec 20, 2009 9:59 pm

Hamtaro126 wrote:
tepples wrote:What is a "sprite editor"? Is it a tile editor (of which there are many)? Or is it an editor to create (x, y, tilenumber) data structures that get inserted into OAM?
#2, an OAM editor, for use with the OAM data structures

(Y, Tile, Attribute, and X are the actual format for NES OAM)

So you would like something like a canvas to place sprite tiles onto and move around at-will until you get it "just right" and then the ability to click a button and have it gen a sprite list for you fit for blasting into OAM? If I understand you correctly, then this type of thing is indeed on my list of features. I would also like it to be able to animate so you can test sprite movements without having to code them! Then a 'tutorial' might take such a list of sprite data and 'play' your sprite for you on the emulator with code.

essial · Post by **essial** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 12:43 am

Updates:

- Fixed bug dealing with multiple OpenGL rendering windows.
- Finished CHR memory inspector.
- Began work on OAM debugger.
- Assembler now assembles all single (and no) operand instructions.

essial · Post by **essial** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 9:02 pm

Almost made this a new topic but..
NESICIDE2 has officially been used to compiled and emulate a NES application without support for 3rd party tools.

(Simple NES app that sets a color emphasis bit to create a blueish background)

(The first program to be compiled and ran in NESICIDE2)