Omnimaga
Omnimaga => News => Topic started by: DJ Omnimaga on January 12, 2013, 03:05:02 am
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As reported on Cemetech (http://www.cemetech.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8673) and TI-Planet (http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=134407), TI has finally published screenshots of the TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition showing how the interface looks like, in native resolution, via their Classroom activities page (http://education.ti.com/calculators/downloads/US/Activities/Search/Subject?d=1023). Until now, only camera pictures of the calculator screen showing the interface were available.
As you will see, you can change the color of graphs and stat plots, meaning that there is at least a minimum of colors possible in TI-BASIC (some games use graphs and plots for graphics)! We do not know yet if there will be any proper color commands for Output(), Disp, Text(), Pxl-On/Off/Change() and other graphical commands, though.
(http://img.removedfromgame.com/imgs/84pcse1.png) (http://img.removedfromgame.com/imgs/84pcse2.png)
Also, the screen appears to show 26x10 text characters at once, as seen below in the Window options, so here is a fake mockup to the right showing what Illusiat 11 might look like on a 84 Plus C Silver Edition calculator:
(http://img.removedfromgame.com/imgs/84pcse3.png) (http://img.removedfromgame.com/imgs/84pcseillusiat11intro.png)
On the home screen, between each line of text, there is a 6 pixels gap, except the line below what you input, which has a 7 pixels space. A dotted line separates new entries, though, so what is displayed with home screen commands might be different than what is seen in the Illusiat 11 mockup above (showing the game intro). If, for example, with Output() there is a 2 pixels gap between each line of text, then between 12 and 13 lines of text could be displayed, depending of the screen margin, or it could be done on the graph screen via the Text(-1 command, if still available. Also note that in the fake Illusiat 11 screenshot, the "G" letter was made-up, because it was not available in any of the TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition screenshots on their Classroom activities pages and Doc/PDF files, so it is subject to be way different on the real device.
Also, it seems that the graphics resolution is limited to a 265x165 pixels area of the screen:
(http://img.removedfromgame.com/imgs/84pcse4.png) (http://img.removedfromgame.com/imgs/84pcse5.png)
The background color around the graph/image area appears to be changeable, though (as you can notice in the older picture to the right). Hopefully it is possible to change graphing to full screen via the MODE menu or using this area via ASM libraries.
Hopefully there are more news and discoveries soon! (http://img.removedfromgame.com/imgs/84pcseploticondude.png)
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Wow, great :) I wonder how current asm/axe/basic progs will be displayed on the graph screen. Will it be stretched to the full screen so that every pixel in current progs is 4x4 pixels in the new graph, or will it only take the same amount of pixels? because then a lot of games will become unplayable because of the smallness it will have.
The color graphs is a huge improvement. I remember using those 5 different settings like full line, thick line etc, but those were really disturbing at times.
Also it's strange how the graph screenisn't full screen, that looks kinda waste of pixels
Does anyone have an idea of the price yet or when it'll come out (in europe if possible)? Since this calc might be my reason to start asm :)
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The color graphs is a huge improvement. I remember using those 5 different settings like full line, thick line etc, but those were really disturbing at times.
Also it's strange how the graph screen isn't full screen, that looks kinda waste of pixels
In early OSes the Nspires graph screen didn't fill up the entire screen as well, so this might be just an early version which can change.
The color graphing sure is a nice addition, I borrowed a friends TI84SE once, but sometimes found it hard to distinguish different graphs :P
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It's nice to see some more new pictures. As far as pricing goes, I'd wager it'll be priced similarly to the Nspire CX. Hopefully we won't have to wait too much longer to find out the MSRP since they plan on releasing the calculator this spring.
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since this calc shares the same resolution as the nSpire, is it easier to port the ti-84PSEC to nspire?
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Sweet, this is awesome. The colored graphs make it easier to differentiate between different equations. @floris, it should be possible, however the langauges aren't backward compatible, so we would have to wait and see the new differences in basic and the z80 before we port.
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It's nice to see some more new pictures. As far as pricing goes, I'd wager it'll be priced similarly to the Nspire CX. Hopefully we won't have to wait too much longer to find out the MSRP since they plan on releasing the calculator this spring.
it's rumored to be between $150 and $10000, the former being more likely but the latter 1% possible, knowing TI.
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Hopefully it is possible to change graphing to full screen via the MODE menu or using this area via ASM libraries.
While I'm not sure of the former, notice that on the WINDOW screen text is everywhere, so it's definitely possible to access the area with ASM. If not by a TI ASM library, someone will write another library :)
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since this calc shares the same resolution as the nSpire, is it easier to port the ti-84PSEC to nspire?
Maybe from a graphical standpoint (sprites won't need to be redone for size), but nothing else.
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Hopefully it is possible to change graphing to full screen via the MODE menu or using this area via ASM libraries.
While I'm not sure of the former, notice that on the WINDOW screen text is everywhere, so it's definitely possible to access the area with ASM. If not by a TI ASM library, someone will write another library :)
Yeah on the TI-89 in TI-BASIC, you were stuck with the calc GUI around a limited area of the screen all the time, but by using Flib (68K incarnation of xLIB and Celtic III), you could display sprites anywhere on the screen. Since the TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition supports ASM natively, then someone might be able to write small libs for BASIC coders (of course that might take a long while if the calc uses something else than a Z80 and ARM, though, and even ARM might take a while since very few ARM coders are around (the few we have also only do C)
Also if somehow there are no color command for text/output/etc, there are people who used stat plots for graphics before, so you might be able to do a primitive form of sprites like the small dude at the end of the news post. Stat plots icons are scaled up 2x, though, so by using those, get ready for pixelized graphics :P (after all, however, they're trying to keep the graphics similar to the older models, so that graphical games are as compatible as possible with them. I'm betting that if Line() lets you choose the thickness of lines, the default will be 2 pixels.
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Wow, that are some cool new insights, that makes you to want to have it now.
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Will this still have a z80 processor, or will it be ARM based with the OS supporting the same BASIC programs?
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I think it is a z80
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Initial tests done by a person whose school happened to be selected for beta testing indicate that it is most likely a native Z80 platform. He reported that the UI was a bit slow and that the screen flickered during screen changes. These suggest that the hardware has not been substantially upgraded, specifically that there is not enough RAM for a full frame buffer and that the Z80 has trouble computing pixels to be pushed to the graphics chip's internal RAM in real time.
EDIT: So I found 8xp files for the Coin Toss activity on the Web site, which I promptly downloaded. Source Coder easily parsed the files, so it looks like BASIC programs can be ported pretty easily.
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By flickering do you mean for example if you move a pixel around the screen just constantly flashes? It would be pretty bad >.<. According to early tests, though, TI-BASIC commands display seemed to be at the same speed as the older models and everything else was about 1.5x faster than the regular 83+. I sure hope that in ASM display isn't so slow that it's barely useable for any real-time game, though...
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Yeah, well, we will make awesome games on it anyways, so.... :P/me runs
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It will definitively need an Axe port, though, to be popular enough. Before Axe arrived, almost nobody wanted to code in ASM anymore because they found switching from TI-BASIC straight to ASM too overwhelming, then Axe arrived and some people used it as a bridge, along with people using it to make games. Sadly I don't think Runer112 has any plan to do a TI-84PCSE version of Axe and Quigibo is gone.
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That calls people like calc84..........
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Vijfhoek did some more tests today or yesterday it seems, comparing speed with old 84+. If anyone or himself could post them here to summarize things up on the new discoveries it would be greatly appreciated. Also it would be nice to know if the Text(-1,X,Y,String and Circle(X,Y,R,ComplexList tricks still work. :)
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TI-84PCSE version of Axe
That calls people like calc84..........
As long as it goes faster than his normal project pace :P
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Oh he went there ... !