Rasmus-M / magellan

Map editor for the TI-99/4A
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Export VRAM dump #1

Open ytsejam78 opened 3 years ago

ytsejam78 commented 3 years ago

Hello, I come from MSX world (same vdp as TI99-4/A) and didn't know about Magellan until recently! I am impressed by how powerful and easy to use this tool is. One thing I would love it had, is the possibility to export the map as raw binary (shape/color). Similar to VRAM dump import but the opposite (export). I noticed there is an option to export as binary, but while still must-have feature and very useful, it exports the "name table" i.e. 768 bytes of data, and what I mean is the "pattern table" as if characters were in 0-255 order for each bank already, ending up with 25683 bytes for shapes, and same for the "color table", 25683 bytes representing color data. If my explanation is not clear, please don't hesitate to ask. I hope you find this interesting and consider for adding to a future version. Thanks!

Rasmus-M commented 3 years ago

I think I understand what you mean, but then your calculations are wrong: 768 patterns would only take 6144 bytes (8 bytes per pattern) and not 25683, and the same for the colors. However, the problem with this suggestion is that it would only work if your map is exactly one screen, i.e. 32x24 characters. Also, Magellan can only work work with 256 patterns (unless you choose the new Super Character Set), so where would you get the patterns for the second and third parts of the screen from? Magellan is designed to be a map editor where you can edit big maps (much larger than one screen) and where it is expected that you reuse pattern across the map. It sounds like what you need is a screen editor for working with one screen where each pattern is unique.

ytsejam78 commented 3 years ago

Oh my message did not display properly. I meant to write "256 x 8 x 3" bytes. I see what you mean about being a map editor and reusing the same patterns. Sorry I hadn't noticed. I got too excited and thought it would serve my purpose. As you said, I need a screen editor instead... Being a map editor I thought it would also cover my use case, but now that I think about it... it makes perfect sense for a map editor to only use a unique set of 256 patterns because maps usually scroll. Thanks for the quick reply Rasmus!

Rasmus-M commented 3 years ago

You can try https://raphael.js99er.net/

On Fri, 16 Apr 2021 at 19:25, Mariano Saura @.***> wrote:

Oh my message did not display properly. I meant to write "256 x 8 x 3" bytes. I see what you mean about being a map editor and reusing the same patterns. Sorry I hadn't noticed. I got too excited and thought it would serve my purpose. As you said, I need a screen editor instead... Being a map editor I thought it would also cover my use case, but now that I think about it... it makes perfect sense for a map editor to only use a unique set of 256 patterns because maps usually scroll. Thanks for the quick reply Rasmus!

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