GFA Anyone?

[Architect_414]

If anyone here remembers GFA Basic for Atari ST?

Well thats the main language currently for ones-self
Just started a few weeks ago, got a few textscrollers going, wonder if anyone knows how to do some tricks in GFA?
Post here please if you do, id like to learn some new stuff  

EDIT: Ooops, i think i posted this in the wrong place! Sorry! Move if need be 

[Hotshot]

If anyone here remembers GFA Basic for Atari ST? 

nope I couldnt remmy these but I am sure people out there can help you.

I think you should learn freebasic(they are free to download) as it can do anythings that you want to do on pc such as demo coding.

There is Freebasic forum and also tutorial too.

[p01]

I used to be a GFA coder. And a fan of dots and synchronized effects.

What kind of things have you done, want to do ?

Once you reach a certain level, you end up generating massive .LST with a zillion of CARD{foo}=bar and so on. :p

Hotshot: Do not under estimate GFA basic. It is 2-5x slower than ASM but impressive things can be done. The last effect I worked on, back in the days, was an 800 dots curve in fullscreen, 100% in GFA basic. On Atari ST, doing a fullscreen requires that ALL the code is synchronized and the frequency of the screen is changed 4x per scanline. ... BTW one VBL is 40,000 NOP on Atari ST

[Shockwave]

Hotshot: Do not under estimate GFA basic. It is 2-5x slower than ASM but impressive things can be done. The last effect I worked on, back in the days, was an 800 dots curve in fullscreen, 100% in GFA basic. On Atari ST, doing a fullscreen requires that ALL the code is synchronized and the frequency of the screen is changed 4x per scanline.

Amen to that.

I don't think any language should be bashed and if you're happy with it keep it going, I would also be really interested to see your scrollers

[Architect_414]

If anyone here remembers GFA Basic for Atari ST? 

nope I couldnt remmy these but I am sure people out there can help you.

I think you should learn freebasic(they are free to download) as it can do anythings that you want to do on pc such as demo coding.

There is Freebasic forum and also tutorial too.

Heh, for PC i use c++ (even though im not good at it!)  

I used to be a GFA coder. And a fan of dots and synchronized effects.

What kind of things have you done, want to do ?

Once you reach a certain level, you end up generating massive .LST with a zillion of CARD{foo}=bar and so on. :p

Well ive mainly just done text scrollers  
But im really interested in raster bars, i must say they are one of my favorite oldskool demo tricks  

[Architect_414]

Hotshot: Do not under estimate GFA basic. It is 2-5x slower than ASM but impressive things can be done. The last effect I worked on, back in the days, was an 800 dots curve in fullscreen, 100% in GFA basic. On Atari ST, doing a fullscreen requires that ALL the code is synchronized and the frequency of the screen is changed 4x per scanline.

Amen to that.

I don't think any language should be bashed and if you're happy with it keep it going, I would also be really interested to see your scrollers

Hehe, im really sure you wouldnt want to see my scrollers, their Extremely simple ones, but nevertheless, im proud of them 

[Hotshot]

I don't think any language should be bashed and if you're happy with it keep it going,

I agree

[p01]

I didn't do much rasters, but a few plasmas. The idea is basically the same. First and foremost you should go in Supervisor mode and switch off the interuptions:

Code Select Expand

super%=GEMDOS(32,L:0)
BYTE{&Hfffffa09}=0Then, in your main loop, "stabilize" your code with the beam:

Code Select Expand

REPEAT
b|=BYTE{&HFFFF8209}
UNTIL b|
VOID SHL(1,-b|)Then set the background color ( one scanline = 128 NOP @ 50Hz, so you might need to wait until the next scanline )

Code Select Expand

CARD{&HFFFF8240}=value;And finally on exit, reset the interuptions and switch back to User mode:

Code Select Expand

BYTE{&HFFFA09}=100
~GEMDOS(32,L:super%)

[Architect_414]

Code Select Expand

I didn't do much rasters, but a few plasmas. The idea is basically the same. First and foremost you should go in Supervisor mode and switch off the interuptions:[code]super%=GEMDOS(32,L:0)
BYTE{&Hfffffa09}=0Then, in your main loop, "stabilize" your code with the beam:

Code Select Expand

REPEAT
b|=BYTE{&HFFFF8209}
UNTIL b|
VOID SHL(1,-b|)Then set the background color ( one scanline = 128 NOP @ 50Hz, so you might need to wait until the next scanline )

Code Select Expand

CARD{&HFFFF8240}=value;And finally on exit, reset the interuptions and switch back to User mode:

Code Select Expand

BYTE{&HFFFA09}=100
~GEMDOS(32,L:super%)[/code]

Hmm ill try that right now, as long as it'll work in HI-RES (Monochrome) as this atari wont work in anything but, if not ill have to wait till tommorow till i get the other atari out
Thanks! 

[p01]

Well, you can try than in Saint or Steem. Both are REALLY REALLY good.

[Architect_414]

Well, you can try than in Saint or Steem. Both are REALLY REALLY good.

I generally use STeem for most things, but for coding i prefer going the proper hardware, jsut gives you that feel..that nothing else can 

[Architect_414]

Ok p01,
Im going to ask quite possibly the silliest question.
How in gods name do i get into supervisor mode?
Sometimes i really hate not having much knowledge, but i suppose we all have to start somewhere.

[slippy]

Doin' it the hard way is like

Code Select Expand


pea 0.w
move.w #$20,-(sp)
trap #1




Good ole' times ... I really had that in my mind ...

SLiPPY

[Architect_414]

Doin' it the hard way is like

Code Select Expand


pea 0.w
move.w #$20,-(sp)
trap #1




Good ole' times ... I really had that in my mind ...

SLiPPY

And that'll take me into supervisor mode?
Thanks slippy, good to see you around again 

[slippy]

from within 68k ASM ... yes ... it does

Personally I never used GFA Basic - just for tool coding those days (converting 4bitplane images to 1 bitplane aso.) ... I had my fingers on omicron basic and STOS - but for the "serious" stuff I loved to use Turbo Assembler and its Bugaboo ... my oh my ... that's been fun!

Even my SidSound Designer was completely done in 68k ASM

What group were/are you in?

[p01]

or the easy way

Code Select Expand


super%=GEMDOS(32,L:0) as I said above

[Architect_414]

from within 68k ASM ... yes ... it does

Personally I never used GFA Basic - just for tool coding those days (converting 4bitplane images to 1 bitplane aso.) ... I had my fingers on omicron basic and STOS - but for the "serious" stuff I loved to use Turbo Assembler and its Bugaboo ... my oh my ... that's been fun!

Even my SidSound Designer was completely done in 68k ASM

What group were/are you in?

Ah i see, well me and assembler of any architecture do NOT agree! =P
But i think the source that p01 included had the supervisor mode n whatnot in it, but it crashed my atari, now to try again!

And in answer to your question, ive never been in a demogroup  

[Shockwave]

And in answer to your question, ive never been in a demogroup 

Believe me, you're better off like that sometimes.

[Architect_414]

And in answer to your question, ive never been in a demogroup 

Believe me, you're better off like that sometimes.

Hmm why do you think this? 

[Shockwave]

One reason;

http://dbfinteractive.com/index.php?topic=2410.0

For now, enjoy the learning process and make stuff for the friendship and the fun mate.
We will help you here as much as we can as long as you promise to show us what you make