In this version nothing much is added to the code. However an external level editor was added (Windows executable) which helps a lot in churning out pretty levels faster.



Most prominent addition are level elements. Before the level was built mostly of simple primitives (line of an character, etc.). With the editor so called Elements are added. These consist of a variable sized character and color block. Elements can be arranged as single object, lines or areas. This helps a lot in reusing bigger level parts and keeping memory usage down.

The elements are stored in several tables. A major lookup table that points to a elements character and color tables, and two lookup tables holding an elements width and height. The editor tries to fold element tables into each other to save memory. For example if there's a big brick sized 4x2 characters, and you have two smaller elements showing the left and right halfs of the brick, the element data is reused.

Note that the element area code is not implemented in this step.

Moral of the story:
As soon as you see you're going ahead with a project having an easy to use editor is quite important. It aids you in faster content creation, faster testing and overall usually prettier results. Nothing crushes productivity better than annoying tools (or manual boring work without tools).

;------------------------------------------------------------
;draws a level element
;PARAM1 = X
;PARAM2 = Y
;PARAM3 = TYPE
;returns element width in PARAM4
;returns element height in PARAM5
;------------------------------------------------------------
!zone DrawLevelElement
DrawLevelElement
          ldy PARAM3
          lda SNELEMENT_TABLE_LO,y
          sta .LoadCode + 1
          lda SNELEMENT_TABLE_HI,y
          sta .LoadCode + 2
          lda SNELEMENT_COLOR_TABLE_LO,y
          sta .LoadCodeColor + 1
          lda SNELEMENT_COLOR_TABLE_HI,y
          sta .LoadCodeColor + 2
          lda SNELEMENT_WIDTH_TABLE,y
          sta PARAM4
          lda SNELEMENT_HEIGHT_TABLE,y
          sta PARAM5
          sta PARAM6

          ldy PARAM2
          lda SCREEN_LINE_OFFSET_TABLE_LO,y
          clcadc PARAM1
          sta .StoreCode + 1
          sta .StoreCodeColor + 1
          sta ZEROPAGE_POINTER_4
          lda SCREEN_LINE_OFFSET_TABLE_HI,y
          adc #0
          sta .StoreCode + 2adc #( ( >SCREEN_COLOR ) - ( >SCREEN_CHAR ) )
          sta .StoreCodeColor + 2

.NextRow
          ldx #0

          ;display a row
.Row

.LoadCode
          lda $8000,x
.StoreCode
          sta $8000,x

.LoadCodeColor
          lda $8000,x
.StoreCodeColor
          sta $8000,x

          inx
          cpx PARAM4
          bne .Row

          ;eine zeile nach untendec PARAM6
          beq .ElementDone
          ;should be faster?
          lda .LoadCode + 1clcadc PARAM4
          sta .LoadCode + 1
          lda .LoadCode + 2adc #0
          sta .LoadCode + 2

          lda .LoadCodeColor + 1clcadc PARAM4
          sta .LoadCodeColor + 1
          lda .LoadCodeColor + 2adc #0
          sta .LoadCodeColor + 2
          lda .StoreCode + 1clcadc #40
          sta .StoreCode + 1
          lda .StoreCode + 2adc #0
          sta .StoreCode + 2
          lda .StoreCodeColor + 1clcadc #40
          sta .StoreCodeColor + 1
          lda .StoreCodeColor + 2adc #0
          sta .StoreCodeColor + 2jmp .NextRow

.ElementDone
          rts

!zone LevelElement
LevelElement
LevelElementArea

          ; !byte LD_ELEMENT,0,0,EL_BLUE_BRICK_4x3;X pos
          iny
          lda (ZEROPAGE_POINTER_1),y
          sta PARAM1

          ;Y pos
          iny
          lda (ZEROPAGE_POINTER_1),y
          sta PARAM2
          
          ;type
          iny
          lda (ZEROPAGE_POINTER_1),y
          sta PARAM3
          ;store y for later
          tya
          pha

          jsr DrawLevelElement

          jmp NextLevelData

The element line primitives are very similar, they just loop over the element draw routine:

!zone LevelElementH
LevelElementH
          ; !byte LD_ELEMENT_LINE_H,x,y,width,element;X pos
          iny
          lda (ZEROPAGE_POINTER_1),y
          sta PARAM1

          ;Y pos
          iny
          lda (ZEROPAGE_POINTER_1),y
          sta PARAM2
          ;x count
          iny
          lda (ZEROPAGE_POINTER_1),y
          sta PARAM7
          ;type
          iny
          lda (ZEROPAGE_POINTER_1),y
          sta PARAM3
          ;store y for later
          tya
          pha

.NextElement
          jsr DrawLevelElement

          dec PARAM7
          beq .Done

          lda PARAM1
          clcadc PARAM4
          sta PARAM1
          jmp .NextElement

.Donejmp NextLevelData



!zone LevelElementV
LevelElementV
          ; !byte LD_ELEMENT_LINE_V,x,y,num,element;X pos
          iny
          lda (ZEROPAGE_POINTER_1),y
          sta PARAM1

          ;Y pos
          iny
          lda (ZEROPAGE_POINTER_1),y
          sta PARAM2
          ;y count
          iny
          lda (ZEROPAGE_POINTER_1),y
          sta PARAM7
          ;type
          iny
          lda (ZEROPAGE_POINTER_1),y
          sta PARAM3
          ;store y for later
          tya
          pha

.NextElement
          jsr DrawLevelElement

          dec PARAM7
          beq .Done

          lda PARAM2
          clcadc PARAM5
          sta PARAM2
          jmp .NextElement

.Donejmp NextLevelData

The editor exports the level structure to a separate file, this is then included in the main file via the !source macro.

step45.zip

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