Graphics and Music, with controller input to change songs

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nesmaster14
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Graphics and Music, with controller input to change songs

Post by nesmaster14 »

Hey, I've created a few images using Fox's NES image converter. I have the image file as an NES rom. I would like to somehow have it play my Famitracker music while displaying these images. So when you turn on the game, the full screen will be the image while the music is playing, then you press a button on the controller and that will change the song and possibly change the image. I would really like to make something like this, I just don't have much programming knowledge ( as I'm more of a visual/audio person).

Any help is greatly appreciated! Thank you

I'm willing to learn as much as I possibly can, but I'm also considering hiring someone to help me with this. Basically I need a program that will allow me to have a full screen image with audio playback that has controller input to change the songs/image on screen. Also known as a slideshow :wink:
Last edited by nesmaster14 on Fri Oct 19, 2012 9:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
tepples
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Re: Graphics and Music, with controller input to change song

Post by tepples »

So you want a slideshow, and you want to associate a song played with the FamiTracker driver to each slide. Do I understand you correctly?
Shiru
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Re: Graphics and Music, with controller input to change song

Post by Shiru »

As I remember, the Fox's converter uses tricks to increase color resolution that require precise timings. In this case having FamiTracker music could be a problem, as it wasn't designed to work fast. When there is enough CPU time, like a third of the screen, it is not a problem, but if there is nametable switching every lines or a few, it is. DPCM would be another problem, as it affects the timings.
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Dwedit
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Re: Graphics and Music, with controller input to change song

Post by Dwedit »

I've integrated Famitracker's music driver into a demo before. Make sure you give it enough CPU time, 40 scanlines should be fine.
This means you can have timed code, but you need 40 contiguous scanlines at the bottom of the screen, unless you use a mapper with interrupts.
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nesmaster14
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Re: Graphics and Music, with controller input to change song

Post by nesmaster14 »

Yes, I want a slideshow with Famitracker songs associated to each slide.

Shiru - Hmm, well if not The Fox's utility, maybe something else is better. I've seen similar "slideshow/music" things done before, like Heosphoros "Embered Recollections" ROM. His music uses DPCM, has full screen images, etc.
tepples
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Re: Graphics and Music, with controller input to change song

Post by tepples »

I may be able to help, but first I have a few questions. The first two relate to whether or not you'll be able to test using an image conversion tool that does not rely on raster effects to extend color definition.
1. What operating system does your computer run?
2. Do you have Python installed on your computer? If not, are you willing to install Python 2.7.3?

These relate to the choice of mapper:
3. Are you using DPCM?
4. Are you using Famicom expansion sound?
Shiru
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Re: Graphics and Music, with controller input to change song

Post by Shiru »

I did a program of this kind in the past. It had FamiTracker music, used three splits with timed code to make full screen picture, and allowed DPCM (the picture pieces were overlapped to avoid missing lines). It is also possible to alternate two screen on the whole screen basis, but not per-line (a method of reducing the flicker). This isn't too difficult. Anything more advanced will be difficult.
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Re: Graphics and Music, with controller input to change song

Post by thefox »

Shiru wrote:As I remember, the Fox's converter uses tricks to increase color resolution that require precise timings. In this case having FamiTracker music could be a problem, as it wasn't designed to work fast.
This is indeed a problem when using my converter — it eats all of the CPU time, so you'll have to use something else.
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nesmaster14
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Re: Graphics and Music, with controller input to change song

Post by nesmaster14 »

tepples wrote:I may be able to help, but first I have a few questions. The first two relate to whether or not you'll be able to test using an image conversion tool that does not rely on raster effects to extend color definition.
1. What operating system does your computer run?
2. Do you have Python installed on your computer? If not, are you willing to install Python 2.7.3?

These relate to the choice of mapper:
3. Are you using DPCM?
4. Are you using Famicom expansion sound?
1 . Windows 7
2. No, but I can install it.
3. Yes, I use DPCM on most of my songs
4. Nope, just 2A03 (Square1,Square2,Triangle,Noise,DPCM)
tepples
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Re: Graphics and Music, with controller input to change song

Post by tepples »

nesmaster14 wrote:
tepples wrote:1. What operating system does your computer run?
2. Do you have Python installed on your computer? If not, are you willing to install Python 2.7.3?
1 . Windows 7
2. No, but I can install it.
I asked because I wanted to know to what extent you agreed with Kasumi's sentiment in this post about not wanting to download and install a runtime environment just to run one program.

Anyway, we are going to see if your images can be converted to work in an ordinary NES program without any raster effects. Please install Python and Python Imaging Library, and then download my NES graphics editor and converter.

Follow-up question about Python:
Do you know how to work the Windows 7 command prompt, or just point-and-click tools?

And about image conversion in general:
Are you familiar with the hex codes of the NES palette? My tool requires you to make the palette manually, and then it tries to fit your image to the palette you made.
And could you show me one of your original (not converted) pictures, so that I can see how suitable it'd be for conversion, or do you want to keep them all private?
nesmaster14 wrote:
tepples wrote:3. Are you using DPCM?
4. Are you using Famicom expansion sound?
3. Yes, I use DPCM on most of my songs
4. Nope, just 2A03 (Square1,Square2,Triangle,Noise,DPCM)
Follow-up question about DPCM:
Do you use the same samples in all songs, or different samples in each song? Do you use more than 16K of samples total?
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