next »

[Mega]

Hello, Im a novice developer and I wanted to know what you guys think is the best method to print pixel art to the screen.
I want to know 2 things:

1)How to print a pixel to a window
  (I know all about HDC's, API's widnows, etc.just not the graphic part of it, but if
  there's a lowlevel back water way I'd love to know that especially)

2)How to do this printing quickly, so that I could, say change a screen from all red, to all yellow in less than a second. etc (and I know thats thousands of pixels but we see it everyday. so how, or whats the best approach?)

3)how to load a bitmap, (or build a loader function) and have it stored in memory (or where ever) for use by a program.

Sorry for the baseness of these questions but these are the major problems I need to solve. Ascii graphic display units are too big and the quality is very poor.

I'm willing to read any mountain of information from a noob friendly source if you'd send me in the right direction or breifly explain here, please.  

[thedaemon]

2) POKE 53280, 1

[shadowdim]

Ow. Games nowadays don't draw one pixel at a time.
YOU draw pixel art, save it as an image, and load it in your code.

[siiseli]

Not sure if you really want a lowlevel way but directdraw and openGL's drawPixel are pretty much that.

[increpare]

If you're using a language which sdl has bindings for...

http://lazyfoo.net/SDL_tutorials/index.phpl

[Mega]

2) POKE 53280, 1

Does it work for non commodor, or do I need an emulator? Im using visual studio c++.
This is interesting and I was looking for something like this

Ow. Games nowadays don't draw one pixel at a time.
YOU draw pixel art, save it as an image, and load it in your code.

Thanks

Not sure if you really want a lowlevel way but directdraw and openGL's drawPixel are pretty much that.

ok

If you're using a language which sdl has bindings for...

http://lazyfoo.net/SDL_tutorials/index.php

Thanks this is what I've come to decide as well, a mixture of opengl and sdl. your link is perfect. Everywhere I go people are talking about non directx libraries, you'd think directx would be the main or the prefered. whats your personal opinion or experience with directx

[Sakar]

You're using C++, so I'll have to agree with increpare and say use SDL.

As for why people would suggest non-DirectX libraries, it's mainly because OpenGL and SDL are both cross-platform, and SDL makes it considerably easier to handle basic things like Window management and user input.

[pippy]

Instead of jumping in the deep end, why not learn flixel or gamemaker? this  way you can concentrate on content and art side of things. The only advantage of using low down programming to make a game is you understand how the hardware interacts with software. This comes at a great cost to the quality of your end game.

[Mega]

Instead of jumping in the deep end, why not learn flixel or gamemaker? this  way you can concentrate on content and art side of things. The only advantage of using low down programming to make a game is you understand how the hardware interacts with software. This comes at a great cost to the quality of your end game.

Thanks.
SDL doesnt seem too bad and it has alot of features!
Personally I vote power over ease of use

[Richard Kain]

If you REALLY want the low-end stuff, then you could create an array, assign a different color value to each element in the array, and then use Direct3D or OpenGL to draw each individual pixel. I wouldn't necessarily suggest this method, but it is possible.

It would be a lot easier to draw your sprite in a program like The GIMP, export it as a Gif or PNG, and then load it into your program and either blit it to the screen, or use it as the texture map for a polygon.

[Mega]

If you REALLY want the low-end stuff, then you could create an array, assign a different color value to each element in the array, and then use Direct3D or OpenGL to draw each individual pixel. I wouldn't necessarily suggest this method, but it is possible.

It would be a lot easier to draw your sprite in a program like The GIMP, export it as a Gif or PNG, and then load it into your program and either blit it to the screen, or use it as the texture map for a polygon.

Thanks.
But yea I know, Pixel by Pixel sucks! It sounds detailed, but its more work than its worth. I mean why wouldnt you want to draw it instead of counting bits and gazing at arrays lol.
I'd use per pixel for special stuff like lighting or something like that. OR.. if I'm drawing a REALLY greasy face!