ah that's why, what code are you using to display the map? I've been playing around with dual-layer sprite maps but I can't get them to load quickly.

so you use a string as a map, hmm, this is what I did, it's kind of slow
:ClrDraw
:For(A,0,60,7)
:For(B,0,94,5)
:If [B](A/7+1,B/5+1
:Then
:Text(-1,A,B,"O
:StorePic 2
:Text(-1,A,B,"X
:RecallPic 2
:End
:End
:End

I always found collision detection to be slower with strings than matrices, because with matrices all you got to do is put every solid tiles at the top or bottom, event tiles in the middle and then you only have to check if the tile number is below or above a certain number or between a certain number and another. With strings you need to check for every possible characters you can walk on so the more non-solid tiles you got, the slower your walking engine will be. This is the reason why in Illusiat 13 there are only two possible tiles you can walk on

true. Had Illusiat used matrices it would alerady hit about 130 KB right now I think

With strings you need to check for every possible characters you can walk on so the more non-solid tiles you got, the slower your walking engine will be.

Couldn't you just use inString( on a string of all your tiles (which can be easily ordered) and use the resulting number as if you had read it from a matrix?

Yeah that's true, but I don't know. Strings are WAY WAY smaller than matrices, especially for what I'm doing, that the slighter delay in hit detection doesn't really bother me.

It might not be as slight as you think.  I just tested access times (16*8*14=1792 reads) for a screen-sized matrix (8 rows x 16 columns) and string (128 elements), and accessing the string took 75% more time than for the matrix (4 trials of each; 15 seconds for the matrix, and 26 seconds for the string).

The biggest problem with matrices is that storing the matrices needs approximately double the memory than that for strings, and they take up about nine times as much RAM.  Plus, at the instant you store the matrix an extra copy is put in Ans, so matrices require 18x more RAM than strings.

hmm, interesting stuff, I just played around with your code trevmeister66
and I was able to cut four bytes from it and display the same amount.

Code: [Select]

For(A,2,9)
Text(-1,8A-16,0,sub(Str1,14A-12,12
StorePic 1
Text(-1,8A-16,0,sub(Str2,14A-12,12
RecallPic1
EndI also was testing it out and it loads at about teh same speed, but it might be a little faster, I can't really tell.
EDIT: oh yeah I modified it some more and made it 15*8 and I also made it so it doesn't waste memory by making the maps have extra characters that aren't displayed.

Code: [Select]

For(A,1,8)
Text(-1,8A-8,0,sub(Str1,15A-14,15
StorePic 1
Text(-1,8A-8,0,sub(Str2,15A-14,15
RecallPic 1
Endthis also cut's two more bytes. and that excludes the bytes saved on the maps.
EDIT2: ok, I also added a little bit of game play to it, but I'm having some trouble detecting tiles above your character... how did you do detection?

lol that's why I had it at 2,9 instead of 1,8... I had a border around the entire string, which made it ALOT easier to check if you left the map.

Here's my string:

(14 spaces for top border and bottom border)
"              "
" XXXXXXXXXXXX "
" X                  X "
" X                  X "
" X                  X "
" X                  X "
" X                  X "
" X                  X "
" XXXXXXXXXXXX "
"              "

Normally this string would all be one string, but I made it like this to show you how it works. You do all your hit detection and movement like you normally do, but then you just check to see if your character went onto the border, and if it did, then you change screens depending on whichever side you went on (top, bottom, etc..)