180 lines
6.5 KiB
Text
180 lines
6.5 KiB
Text
== Introduction
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=== What JoeyLib Is
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JoeyLib is a single-codebase C game library for five 16-bit and 32-bit retro
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machines, for DVX, a DOS desktop whose programs run in windows, and for
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today's desktops, browsers and the PSP through SDL3, and for Windows from
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3.1 on. You write one program against one API, and the same source compiles
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and runs on all of them:
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[cols="2,2,2,4", options="header"]
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|===
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|Platform |CPU |RAM |Notes
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|Apple IIgs
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|65C816 at 2.8 MHz
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|1 MB typical
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|The reference platform. Accelerators run faster with no code changes.
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|Commodore Amiga
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|68000 (A500 class)
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|512 KB chip, 512 KB fast recommended
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|OCS chipset. Native planar bitplanes. Also tested on an A1200 (68020,
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AGA) and an A4000 (68040, AGA).
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|Atari ST, STe, Mega STe
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|68000 at 8 MHz (16 MHz on a Mega STe)
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|512 KB
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|Word-interleaved planar. Shares 68000 assembly with the Amiga port. Two
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builds: the ST build runs on every ST and never uses STe hardware; the STe
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build (`make ste`) uses the STe's 4-bit palette, DMA sound and BLiTTER, and a
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Mega STe's 16 MHz, and runs only there. See <<_the_atari_st_family>>.
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|MS-DOS
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|386 or later
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|2 MB
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|VGA required. DPMI supplied by an embedded CWSDPMI.
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|Sharp X68000
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|68000 at 10 MHz
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|stock
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|Draws into the text plane, 320x200 centred in a 512x512 screen.
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|DVX
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|486 or later
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|what DVX needs
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|A program in a window on the DVX desktop, at 1x to 3x, or on the whole
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screen at 320x200. The MS-DOS port's stage and code; a virtual 70 Hz. See
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<<_dvx_programs>>.
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|SDL3
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|whatever the host has
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|whatever the host has
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|A native program in a window (Linux today), scaled to fit at 4:3 or with
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square pixels, or on the whole screen. Sprites are interpreted; a virtual
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60 Hz. The fast way to try a change without an emulator. See
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<<_sdl3_programs>>.
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|Web
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|the browser's
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|the browser's
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|The SDL3 port compiled to WebAssembly: a program is a web page anyone can
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open. See <<_web_programs>>.
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|Win32
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|386 or later
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|what Windows needs
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|A Windows program for Windows 95 through today: the hosted core with a
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backend written to the Win32 API. See <<_windows_programs>>.
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|Win16
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|386 or later
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|what Windows 3.1 in 386 enhanced mode needs
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|A Windows 3.x program: the hosted core with a backend written to the
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Windows 3.1 API, in 32-bit code through Open Watcom's Win386 extender; 8-bit
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indexed, so every palette is exact on a 256-colour display. See
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<<_windows_programs>>.
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|PSP
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|MIPS Allegrex at 222 MHz
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|32 MB (PSP-1000)
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|PSP homebrew, for custom firmware and PPSSPP: the SDL3 port built with
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pspdev. The stage sits at 1:1 in the middle of the 480x272 screen; the
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d-pad, nub and buttons are joystick 0, Start is Return and Select Escape.
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See <<_psp_programs>>.
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|===
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The Apple IIgs is deliberately the slowest target and the design reference. If
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something performs acceptably there, it performs acceptably everywhere.
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=== The Display Contract
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Every JoeyLib program gets exactly the same screen on every platform:
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* *320 x 200 pixels*, always. There is no other resolution.
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* *16 colours on screen at once*, chosen per scanline from one of 16 palettes.
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* *Colour 0 of every palette is black*, always, and is forced to black by the
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library even if you try to set it to something else. This is not negotiable:
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the Amiga and ST hardware border follows colour 0 of the active palette, and
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colour 0 is the transparent colour for sprite drawing. You have 15 usable
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colours per palette.
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* Colours are *12-bit `$0RGB`*: bits 11..8 red, 7..4 green, 3..0 blue.
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* Origin `(0, 0)` is *top-left*. X increases right, Y increases down.
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Coordinates are signed `int16_t`, so off-screen positions are representable.
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Every drawing primitive clips to the surface rectangle. An out-of-bounds draw
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is a silent no-op, never an error. There are no "fast unclipped" variants in
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the public API, so you cannot corrupt memory by drawing off the edge.
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=== What the Library Hides
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The machines store pixels in genuinely incompatible ways. JoeyLib keeps
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that out of your program:
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[cols="2,3", options="header"]
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|===
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|Platform |In-memory pixel storage
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|Apple IIgs, MS-DOS, DVX, SDL3, Web, PSP
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|Chunky 4bpp packed: two pixels per byte, high nibble is the left pixel.
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|Commodore Amiga
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|Native planar: four separate bitplanes.
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|Atari ST
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|Native planar, word-interleaved: four plane words per 16 pixels, per row.
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|Sharp X68000
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|Text-plane planes, four planes 128 KB apart.
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|===
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Every public entry point speaks in *colour indices, 0 to 15*. Your code never
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sees the storage format. The one place the difference leaks through is
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documented and flagged in this manual -- see <<_writing_portable_code>>.
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=== What You Get
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* Surfaces, palettes and per-scanline palette selection
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* Drawing primitives: pixels, lines, rectangles, circles, flood fill
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* 8x8 tiles, tile banks, tile maps and bitmap text
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* Sprites with colour-0 transparency and *runtime-compiled blitters* -- the
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library emits native 65816, 68000 or x86 code for each sprite at run time
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* Keyboard (both game-style predicates and a typed-character queue), mouse
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and joystick
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* Four-channel Protracker `.MOD` music, a portable chip-tracker music format,
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digital one-shot and streaming sound effects, and a PSG-style tone and
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noise layer
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* Read-only game data files and writable save files
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* An optional RS-232 serial add-on
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* A deterministic, seedable random generator that produces *bit-identical*
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output on every port for a given seed
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=== License
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JoeyLib is distributed under the MIT License (`LICENSE.md`). A program built
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with it has JoeyLib compiled in, so it carries JoeyLib's copyright and
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permission notice, in its documentation for instance. A program also carries
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code from the libraries each port links (libxmp-lite for music on most
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ports, the toolchains' C libraries and start files), whose terms
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`LICENSES.md` lists with what a shipped program owes them. On the Atari ST
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that includes MiNTLib's LGPL parts: a closed-source game lets its users
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relink it against a changed MiNTLib (by shipping its object files, for
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instance). For Windows 3.x, see the Win16 port's "Shipping" note in
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<<_windows_programs>>.
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=== How to Read This Manual
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If you are new to JoeyLib, read <<_getting_started>>, then
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<<_anatomy_of_a_joeylib_program>>, then <<_writing_portable_code>>. Those three
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chapters are the whole programming model.
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<<_creating_assets>> covers getting graphics, music and sound into a form the
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library can load.
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<<_building_your_program>> explains how to get your own program, in a
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directory of its own, compiling for every target.
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The API Reference documents every public function: its exact signature, each
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parameter, what it returns, and any per-platform behaviour you need to know
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about.
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