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JSW Main Sprite possible improvement?


Jay SW1

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Hi, was wondering if there's a version of JSW for Spectrum where the main Willy sprite isn't choppy as it animates?

 

When watching youtube vids of JSW running on the Amstrad or Atari ST for example, the Willy sprite is solid & stable when he walks/jumps etc, which i really like, but the Spectrum version is definitely my fave version so thinking it would be brilliant to have an available version of JSW for Speccy with a nice solid stable main sprite. 

 

Is there a Spectrum emulator that you may have used and noticed it solves this issue, or maybe someone has already had a try at this request and it's seemingly not possible/not worth it?

 

Some might say that the Speccy's Willy sprite is choppy on the original hardware, choppy with the emulators and the imperfection is part of the charm, but i personally think it would be brilliant to have clean animation on the main sprite if there's any possibility of it.

 

Would love to hear any thoughts on this and thanks guys 

 

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Welcome Jay SW1

 

 

Its reasonably smooth on a real machine :)

 

I think some of the issues (some but not quite all) are the video's themselves and perhaps the way that either the video is built/saved (limits of each file format) possibly with regard to emulation and how the screen is actually displayed, flyback etc compared to a 'real' CRT

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I think I sort of meant a persistence of vision effect I guess, in that being how a CRT would work. A higher refresh rate on a LCD/TFT/LED type 'modern' screen would likely show the jagged effects more than a CRT.

 

If we as people could 'see faster' without the persistence then televisions in their form would not of really worked. :D You'd merely see a line or a dot moving at a very high speed. I think the phosphor coating also assists in persistence but I'm not sure without researching, as its slightly off topic (CRT tech) and not what was being asked about I'll stop there. :) :)

Edited by Spider
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The choppy description is basically what I have described as the jagged finger effect, and is nothing to do with television / monitor effects. Otherwise every version would exhibit the same effect on every game format. Since they don't it is evident the effect is game produced on the original spectrum version.

Play any of my versions jsw128 VK or jsw128 VL and the problem does not exist.

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Thanks guys for your awesome replies..

 

Norman Sword,  wow i must say i've been playing your game (JSW 128 VK3) and it's amazing what you've achieved.... and yes you truly have perfectly corrected the Willy main sprite!

I've been playing your game on my PS Vita, with its OLED screen (using RetroArch & Fuse emulator), with a CRT overlay effect and it's just brilliant. ..Looks stunning & plays stunning.

The additions you've made to the JSW experience are truly mind-blowing to me, especially the way that Willy is invincible for a short time after losing a life, and also the way you can slowly break through floors.

 

....now the tricky bit  :thumbsup: ....Dear Mr Norman Sword, is there any chance you can be persuaded to release a standard regular version of Jet Set Willy but with the main sprite 'corrected' in the way you've achieved it in your game JSW 128 VK3? 

 

Sorry i know it's a bit cheeky to ask,  but i figured it's worth asking as it may be something relatively easy for you to do, considering your skills hehheh  :)  

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Thanks guys for your awesome replies..

 

Norman Sword,  wow i must say i've been playing your game (JSW 128 VK3) and it's amazing what you've achieved.... and yes you truly have perfectly corrected the Willy main sprite!

I've been playing your game on my PS Vita, with its OLED screen (using RetroArch & Fuse emulator), with a CRT overlay effect and it's just brilliant. ..Looks stunning & plays stunning.

The additions you've made to the JSW experience are truly mind-blowing to me, especially the way that Willy is invincible for a short time after losing a life, and also the way you can slowly break through floors.

 

....now the tricky bit  :thumbsup: ....Dear Mr Norman Sword, is there any chance you can be persuaded to release a standard regular version of Jet Set Willy but with the main sprite 'corrected' in the way you've achieved it in your game JSW 128 VK3? 

 

Sorry i know it's a bit cheeky to ask,  but i figured it's worth asking as it may be something relatively easy for you to do, considering your skills hehheh  :)  

 

I believe that another jswmm member, called Metalmickey, implemented the Norman Sword's fix for the flickering sprites into his 'JSW As Manufacturer Intended' project:

 

http://jswmm.co.uk/topic/244-jsw-as-manufacturer-probably-intended-kind-of/

 

As well as fixing the 'jagged finger' imperfection, the patch also reduces the issue whereby the attributes of fast-moving entities can be noticeably delayed behind their pixels.  (You can see this in effect when Willy drops into 'Entrance to Hades' - his feet flicker in green as he falls, because green is the defined INK colour of the air cells and it provides a strong visual contrast with the yellow PAPER background in that room.  Try that manoeuvre in the original 'Jet Set Willy' and compare/contrast with the same manoeuvre in the 'As Manufacturer Intended' file.)

 

EDIT: I should point out that whilst the flickering is fixed/reduced in the aforementioned project, the speed of the game is not increased to anything like the same extent as is the case in Norman's more recent files (JSW 128 VK / VL).

 

 

As far as I can tell, the most recent version of that 'As Manufacturer Intended' project is the one which is attached to this post:

 

http://jswmm.co.uk/topic/244-jsw-as-manufacturer-probably-intended-kind-of/page-26?do=findComment&comment=6238

 

Since that version was uploaded, some more refinements were discussed (such as making the end-of-game toilet-dash appear more as if Willy is running, instead of sliding, to the toilet!), but I'm not sure if Metalmickey ever got round to incorporating those changes into a more recent build?

Edited by IRF
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Again, thanks very much everyone for all your help!

IRF, i followed your path to Metalmickey's work and have played it on my Vita, and you are certainly correct, he has fixed the sprite and it runs way better than how the original JSW version was running.

I must credit Norman Sword once more though.... and certainly no disrespect to Metalmickey, but the Willy sprite in Norman's VK3 game is, for me at least, running super-smooth.  The Metalmickey one does actually stammer a little bit.  ...Like i say though, it's still awesome, a huge improvement, and the Metalmickey version of JSW will be the only one i play from now on, when playing 'regular' JSW.  

 

I guess the icing on the cake is, along the way i've discovered Norman's crazy games hehheh :thumbsup:

After playing Norman's game for 20 minutes, i went back to regular JSW and it was like it was in slow motion  :lol: hehhah...Just brilliant  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

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 "jagged finger fix by Norman Sword"
 

 The fix used to reduce the jagged finger look in the file mention in Post#7 is basically a copy of the code I placed on this website.
 So it comes as a surprise that someone else has fixed this problem. Have they really? It seems to me that they have used my code.

 This site mentions so often things like Goeff mode etc that this partial fix to this problem  should be call "jagged finger fix by Norman Sword".
 It was a problem that  prior to my posts, was not fully understood in it's nature or how to remove. The code used to partially cure this problem
 is basically the code I wrote.
:

;
 If you have a problem with what I say here then please show me any code prior to the code I listed that did anything of the same nature.
 Or any version of jsw(1) that fixed the problem prior to my posts.

 

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