Loading data to VRAM

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bytemaniak
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2018 2:39 am

Loading data to VRAM

Post by bytemaniak »

Hello, I'm new to this forum and to SNES programming in general, but not new to 6502/65816.

So I was writing a pong game and in the meantime I accidentally deleted some important files, and thus I was forced to rewrite the entire source code. However, I seem to have hit a very big wall.

I followed the superfamicom.org wiki for loading data to VRAM. It was working just fine in the previous code, but now it simply won't load data to VRAM at all, despite all arguments being correct.

I have a file called initdma.asm which contains this code:

Code: Select all

.macro LoadSprites
	lda #$80
	sta $2115  ; Increment VRAM word after writing to $2119.
	ldx #\2
	stx $2116  ; Set initial VRAM word address.
	lda #:\1
	ldx #\1
	ldy #\3
	jsr LoadSpritesRoutine
.endm

LoadSpritesRoutine:
	php

	stx $4302
	sta $4304	; Set DMA source address and bank

	sty $4305	; Set DMA transfer size in bytes
	
	lda #1
	sta $4300	; Set transfer mode to 1-word

	lda #$18
	sta $4301	; Set DMA destination to $2118

	lda #1
	sta $420B	; Begin DMA transfer

	plp
	rts
And in the main file, I call it using:

Code: Select all

LoadSprites sprite, $0000, $0800    ; sprite is located at $01:8000. Set initial VRAM address to $0000, transfer size is 2kB. 
Is there something really obvious that I'm missing? Every single debugger says the VRAM is completely empty after calling this macro.

Thanks in advance.
niconii
Posts: 219
Joined: Sun Mar 27, 2016 7:56 pm

Re: Loading data to VRAM

Post by niconii »

The code seems correct to me.

A few things I'd check:
1. Are you sure that A is 8-bit and X/Y are 16-bit here?
2. Are you sure that the DMA is happening during vblank or forced blank? VRAM is inaccessible during rendering.
3. Have you tried something simpler in place of the DMA, like setting the background color, just to make sure the program as a whole is working?
bytemaniak
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2018 2:39 am

Re: Loading data to VRAM

Post by bytemaniak »

Indeed changing the background color works. I have written a color palette to CGRAM prior to this. I did not know the VBLANK part though! Worth a try.

Edit: Turning the screen off prior to DMA did the trick. Thanks a lot!
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