A few months ago I created a youtube channel with the idea of uploading video's about my homebrew remake of BatteryCheck. At least a video of every working platform is what I had in mind but for some reason...mostly being lazy I guess...I did not go through with it! I did record and upload a gameplay video of the Linux version that shows what's working:
I have also uploaded a video showing an advanced method of saving VRAM which is essential for making it work on the PSP and DSi later. It goes through the sprites and finds similar 8x8 or 16x16 blocks (don't remember exactly but it's configurable) that are the same and stores them only ONCE! This helps especially well in the sprite of Freddy the dragon that has only a few differences in his animation frames. But compared to all others it's HUGE!
When a block shows as red it's a unique block and added to the texture on the right. If a later block is identical then it shows green and only the index to it is saved, reusing the previously saved block. Some sprites are the same but have a 1 or 2 pixel offset...so getting it done right is time consuming. But this prototype script I wrote in python shows that at least the idea is working and I should implement it in C++ to be used in my game. Or maybe I make it a separate library to be shared on github. The method is called "Spite dicing" and here is the video:
The third and currently last video on there, or actually it was the first one posted, is about an old project from 2016 where I was making a SNES controller wireless! Yeah, now you can buy them relatively cheap but not in 2016 and the years before! This is also using an original controller so it feels absolutely authentic while playing...which was important to me! Clone controllers just don't really feel the same.
The funny thing is that the wireless SNES controller is one of my very few projects that actually got finished! At least the controller side is. It's got a build in battery, charger, transmitter and arduino to make it all work. There is a mini USB charging port and a pinheader to reprogram the Arduino inside without opening it! I have been thinking of upgrading that charging port to USB-C to be more future proof and not having to dig out an older cable. This could be an idea for a video...a timelapse of me opening the controller and upgrading this port and putting it back together.
The receiver part is working and I have it in a third party DS cart case. It has the tranceiver module and an arduino with USB port that shows up as a game controller to the PC. It's using some library that I forgot the name of to do this. I really need to dig into my old files to find the arduino sketches and try tweaking them to make new receivers for other consoles. The plan was back then to make one for the SNES, Wii and Sega Genesis. I was also modding a Genesis/Mega Drive controller using the same parts and code to be wireless. This one I did not complete though...but it's in a bin somewhere to pickup some day.
This might seem like a comercial or advertisement of my youtube channel....but with a low subscriber count and few video's and watch time you can't make money. So for now it's just about sharing progress on my game and other mostly gaming related projects. It's possible something about modeltrains will popup there too though. Or even someting about solar panels and related topics. We will see where it goes.
Thanks for reading
I have also uploaded a video showing an advanced method of saving VRAM which is essential for making it work on the PSP and DSi later. It goes through the sprites and finds similar 8x8 or 16x16 blocks (don't remember exactly but it's configurable) that are the same and stores them only ONCE! This helps especially well in the sprite of Freddy the dragon that has only a few differences in his animation frames. But compared to all others it's HUGE!
When a block shows as red it's a unique block and added to the texture on the right. If a later block is identical then it shows green and only the index to it is saved, reusing the previously saved block. Some sprites are the same but have a 1 or 2 pixel offset...so getting it done right is time consuming. But this prototype script I wrote in python shows that at least the idea is working and I should implement it in C++ to be used in my game. Or maybe I make it a separate library to be shared on github. The method is called "Spite dicing" and here is the video:
The third and currently last video on there, or actually it was the first one posted, is about an old project from 2016 where I was making a SNES controller wireless! Yeah, now you can buy them relatively cheap but not in 2016 and the years before! This is also using an original controller so it feels absolutely authentic while playing...which was important to me! Clone controllers just don't really feel the same.
The funny thing is that the wireless SNES controller is one of my very few projects that actually got finished! At least the controller side is. It's got a build in battery, charger, transmitter and arduino to make it all work. There is a mini USB charging port and a pinheader to reprogram the Arduino inside without opening it! I have been thinking of upgrading that charging port to USB-C to be more future proof and not having to dig out an older cable. This could be an idea for a video...a timelapse of me opening the controller and upgrading this port and putting it back together.
The receiver part is working and I have it in a third party DS cart case. It has the tranceiver module and an arduino with USB port that shows up as a game controller to the PC. It's using some library that I forgot the name of to do this. I really need to dig into my old files to find the arduino sketches and try tweaking them to make new receivers for other consoles. The plan was back then to make one for the SNES, Wii and Sega Genesis. I was also modding a Genesis/Mega Drive controller using the same parts and code to be wireless. This one I did not complete though...but it's in a bin somewhere to pickup some day.
This might seem like a comercial or advertisement of my youtube channel....but with a low subscriber count and few video's and watch time you can't make money. So for now it's just about sharing progress on my game and other mostly gaming related projects. It's possible something about modeltrains will popup there too though. Or even someting about solar panels and related topics. We will see where it goes.
Thanks for reading
