Table of Contents

Corning Community College

CSCS1320 C/C++ Programming

PROJECT: Fun With Games (FWG0)

OBJECTIVE

Obtain the latest stable release of Vircon32, along with its DevTools, and modify the “hello, world!” demo to display an image, along with modified text (content, position, attributes).

As has been the case with many projects this semester, you will also be contributing to the project documentation, detailing the necessary steps to obtain, configure, build, and use the items being focused on.

With clarification gained from asking any needed questions, you will proceed to craft useful documentation with the rest of the class. The final result should allow anyone to accomplish the task.

If you struggle with how to form questions, perhaps consider utilizing the college learning commons to receive assistance with forming good questions.

NOTE: Do not add the source code to Vircon32 or DevTools to your repository! Process these outside of your repository. Once installed, your files specifically related to your modified “Hello, World!” cartridge should be added to your repository.

EDIT

You will want to go here to edit and fill in the various sections of the document:

FWG0

URLs

The main Virocon32 site is vircon32.com

The list of Releases can be found on the Vircon32 GitHub repository here: https://github.com/vircon32/ComputerSoftware/releases

  • This repository has .zip and .tar.gz files containing all necessary source code

The list of C header files for Vircon32 is here https://www.vircon32.com/api.html

  • Functions specific to Vircon32 are defined here, including video.h

Build from Source

The aforementioned archive files contain a README detailing the build process.

Cartridge build process

All of the following steps can be simplified by using the Make.sh that is already made for us. It's worth looking within the file to see how it operates. To use this file you can type 

 bash Make.sh

The .sh represents that it is a shell script file.

compile

First we need to compile the C code, which can be done with the following command from the Vircon32 developer tools: 

compile CODE.c -o obj/CODE.asm || abort_build

Where CODE is the name of your file, which may be preceded with “Tutorial” if you're keeping the same name as the demo file.

assemble

Once you've compiled your code successfully, you can use the following Vircon32 tool to assemble the ASM code: 

assemble obj/CODE.asm -o obj/CODE.vbin || abort_build

Where, again, CODE is whatever you decided to name this project.

image processing

To use the images we want with the Vircon32 console/emulator, we have to first use one of the development tools provided to us. This tool is called png2vircon, and if you have it in your path you should be able to use it as such: 

 png2vircon IMAGE.png

where IMAGE is the file name of your png.

packing the ROM

Using the Vircon32 API

displaying text

Text can be displayed with the set_drawing_point() and print() methods 

set_drawing_point(0, 0);
print("Hello World");

The print() method draws text using the drawing point as the uppermost left part of the text

processing textures and regions

select_texture(int texture_id)

  • “Sets the selected texture to the given texture ID. All texture functions will apply to that texture from that moment”
  • Selects a .vtex texture that will be used for other functions (like select_region)

select_region(int region_id)

  • “Sets the selected texture region to the given texture ID. All region functions will apply to that region ID from the selected texture”
  • Selects/creates a region that is used by other functions (like define_region)

define_region(int min_x, int min_y, int max_x, int max_y, int hotspot_x, int hotspot_y)

  • Defines the currently selected texture region, as a rectangle within the selected texture. All arguments are given in pixel coordinates within the selected texture
  • Defines the bounds of the region, used for other function (like draw_region_at
  • Allows a specific portion of a texture to be used as a sprite
  • Allows a single texture/.png/.vtex to be used for many sprites/regions
displaying a region at location
 

SUBMISSION

To be successful in this project, the following criteria (or their equivalent) must be met:

Submit Tool Usage

Let's say you have completed work on the project, and are ready to submit, you would do the following: 

lab46:~/src/SEMESTER/DESIG/PROJECT$ submit DESIG PROJECT file1 file2 file3 ... fileN

You should get some sort of confirmation indicating successful submission if all went according to plan. If not, check for typos and or locational mismatches.

RUBRIC

I'll be evaluating the project based on the following criteria: 

182:fwg0:final tally of results (182/182)
*:fwg0:submitted adequately modified demo code for project by duedate [52/52]
*:fwg0:source file, build script, and cartridge submitted [52/52]
*:fwg0:code compiles, cartridge builds with no warning or error [52/52]
*:fwg0:committed project related changes to semester repo [26/26]

Pertaining to the collaborative authoring of project documentation

Additionally