P.I. Cole - noir detective game RELEASED
P.I. Cole - noir detective game RELEASED
January 31st 2020 - Game was released. You can download it here: viewtopic.php?p=31854#p31854
P.I. Cole - noir detective game - in development
Graphics are ready. It was a pain in the back to create some (passable) artwork on PC that still looks good on he QL because the difference in pixel sizes.
Well it's ready now - some screens are ok, some might have been better
Now working on the texts and dialogues
P.I. Cole - noir detective game - in development
Graphics are ready. It was a pain in the back to create some (passable) artwork on PC that still looks good on he QL because the difference in pixel sizes.
Well it's ready now - some screens are ok, some might have been better
Now working on the texts and dialogues
Last edited by Andrew on Thu Feb 13, 2020 9:34 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Re: P.I. Cole - noir detective game
Excellent work!!
Really looking forward to playing this!!
How much of the game is complete?
Really looking forward to playing this!!
How much of the game is complete?
--
If vanpeebles parps in the woods and there is nobody around, does it make a sound?
If vanpeebles parps in the woods and there is nobody around, does it make a sound?
Re: P.I. Cole - noir detective game
Thank you Rob!robheaton wrote:Excellent work!!
Really looking forward to playing this!!
How much of the game is complete?
The graphic screens are ready and this was the hard part for me.
The scenario is ready - now I am working on the dialogues
The data structures are ready and the coding will not take long.
The only issue is my extremely limited time to dedicate to this project.
Are there any fast functions that I could use to compress/decompress the screens ?
I tried several ways to compress/decompress, but all are too slow for a QL without at least a Gold Card, and I would want the game to run on QL+Trump Card or a QL+vdriveQL (compiled Superbasic)
- Sparrowhawk
- Super Gold Card
- Posts: 653
- Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2010 12:33 pm
- Location: @131072
- Contact:
Re: P.I. Cole - noir detective game
Looks amazing Andrew - loving the artwork.
This and the Q68 Magnetic Scrolls remakes. Good times!
This and the Q68 Magnetic Scrolls remakes. Good times!
a.k.a. Jean-Yves
Re: P.I. Cole - noir detective game
Impressive! And, apparently, a juicy plot.Andrew wrote: I tried several ways to compress/decompress, but all are too slow for a QL without at least a Gold Card, and I would want the game to run on QL+Trump Card or a QL+vdriveQL (compiled Superbasic)
Those b&w pictures should benefit greatly from RLE compression. Simple and small. Something along the lines of
Code: Select all
void encode(void) {
char c, n, new_c;
if (get(&c) == 0) return;
put(c);
n = 1;
new_c;
while (get(&new_c) != 0) {
if (new_c == c) {
if (n == UINT8_MAX) { put(n); n = 1; put(c); }
else { n++; }
} else {
put(n); put(new_c);
c = new_c; n = 1;
}
}
put(n);
}
void decode(void) {
char c, n, i;
while (get(&c) != 0) {
get(&n);
for (i = 0; i < n; i++) put(c);
}
}
ʎɐqǝ ɯoɹɟ ǝq oʇ ƃuᴉoƃ ʇou sᴉ pɹɐoqʎǝʞ ʇxǝu ʎɯ 'ɹɐǝp ɥO
- vanpeebles
- Commissario Pebbli
- Posts: 2821
- Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2010 7:13 pm
- Location: North East UK
Re: P.I. Cole - noir detective game
Thank you tofro!tofro wrote:Impressive! And, apparently, a juicy plot.Andrew wrote: I tried several ways to compress/decompress, but all are too slow for a QL without at least a Gold Card, and I would want the game to run on QL+Trump Card or a QL+vdriveQL (compiled Superbasic)
Those b&w pictures should benefit greatly from RLE compression. Simple and small. Something along the lines ofCode: Select all
...
I tried the RLE encoding/decoding but it is still too slow in compiled SBasic
On an unexpanded QL I got the following results:
Lbytes data to memory buffer <1 sec
Decode buffer and write decoded data into another memory buffer = 17-20 seconds, depending on the screen
Move_Mem from buffer to screen < 1 sec
It is far to slow for my practical purposes. I need to decode in less than 3 seconds, and do it in Sbasic (I have not used C language since 1997)
Images are 360 x 151 pixels
Code: Select all
100 WINDOW#1,512,256,0,0: PAPER#1,0: CLS#1
110 ConfigDrv$='Dos2_Picole_'
120 FileName$='street'&'_SCC': REMark the compressed file in format - BytesCount, Color
130 mem1=FLEN(\ConfigDrv$&FileName$)
140 mem=ALCHP(mem1): REMark Reserve memory for compressed image
150 all=ALCHP(13590) : REMark Reserve memory for uncompressed image 360 x 151 pixels
155 crt=all
160 LBYTES ConfigDrv$&FileName$, mem : REMark Load compressed image to buffer
170 FOR i=0 TO mem1-1 STEP 2 : REMark Decompress image and write it to uncompressed buffer
180 cnt=PEEK (mem+i)
190 cod=PEEK (mem+i+1)
200 FILLMEM_B crt, cnt, cod
210 crt=crt+cnt
220 END FOR i
230 Loadscr: : REMark Move decompressed image to screen
240 RECHP mem
250 RECHP all
360 DEFine PROCedure Loadscr
390 FOR i=0 TO 150
400 MOVE_MEM all+i*90, 131072+(13+i)*128+32, 90
410 NEXT i
420 END FOR i
440 END DEFine LoadScr
Last edited by Andrew on Mon Nov 04, 2019 12:00 am, edited 2 times in total.
-
- RWAP Master
- Posts: 2839
- Joined: Sun Nov 28, 2010 4:51 pm
- Location: Stone, United Kingdom
- Contact:
Re: P.I. Cole - noir detective game
Looking great - I love more adventures
QREST (part of ACT was probably the fastest display method I have seen for compression) - but there are two ways around this -
a) Why do you need to compress the screens? Is it to fit it on a floppy disk - or is the game going to run from HD disk or SD / CF card?
b) Can you decompress the screens in the background - ie show the text input and allow text input, and show the menu on the left immediately and then just load the graphics in the appropriate frame?
QREST (part of ACT was probably the fastest display method I have seen for compression) - but there are two ways around this -
a) Why do you need to compress the screens? Is it to fit it on a floppy disk - or is the game going to run from HD disk or SD / CF card?
b) Can you decompress the screens in the background - ie show the text input and allow text input, and show the menu on the left immediately and then just load the graphics in the appropriate frame?
Rich Mellor
RWAP Software
RWAP Adventures
SellMyRetro
Retro-Printer Module - add a USB printer to your QL
Also Involved in:
Icephorm
RWAP Software
RWAP Adventures
SellMyRetro
Retro-Printer Module - add a USB printer to your QL
Also Involved in:
Icephorm
Re: P.I. Cole - noir detective game
You can't get any faster than RLE - It is by far the fastest (and simplest) compression method. If compiled S*Basic is too slow, you'll need to revert to a faster language.
However,
If your picture is really only black and white, you can easily squeeze them into half the space by only storing the green (that is, every other) bytes - the red ones are exact copies of them - and then copying to the red byte positions to give white. You'd need machine code for this, however. Maybe the DIY toolkit's "W" edition can help here, it has machine code functions to do that.
Tobias
However,
If your picture is really only black and white, you can easily squeeze them into half the space by only storing the green (that is, every other) bytes - the red ones are exact copies of them - and then copying to the red byte positions to give white. You'd need machine code for this, however. Maybe the DIY toolkit's "W" edition can help here, it has machine code functions to do that.
Tobias
Last edited by tofro on Sun Nov 03, 2019 7:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
ʎɐqǝ ɯoɹɟ ǝq oʇ ƃuᴉoƃ ʇou sᴉ pɹɐoqʎǝʞ ʇxǝu ʎɯ 'ɹɐǝp ɥO