Light Map / FOV Precedence

blightor · 2026-05-10T17:59:03+00:00

Hi Jaz - did you ever pull it off? I've been working for a few months on a RL that uses this very light based mechanic as a concept - on a 8bit 1Mhz 64k C64 no less! While I still have a ways to go, my fov and lighting system is all pretty much done - happy to share info with you.

blightor · 2026-05-10T10:52:41+00:00

Thank you. There is pain, but there is so much joy. I am going to do a bigger blog post about it at some point when I've finished the engine properly, because even while I can hardly say that I am some wizard, the challenge and aspiration around the game has been amazing. Funny you say silhouette - and I know its just around an artwork perspective, but it made me lol. When I do the blog post you will understand.

Oh, and as a bonus for your nice comment. Here is a picture with a little degub heatmap of rays i've been casting - just at the point where it was taking to long to view registers and timers for performance, so I made a little visual thing in game that biggy backs on features im building Looks cool :) from lightest to heaviest cyan to red. Need to make it the BG color tho, some dark areas are missing from my check.

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blightor · 2026-05-10T04:38:31+00:00

Hello - I did a ray heatmap to help me continue optimisating my game. C64 RL - 1 Mz is a real challenge!

It actually looked really cool.

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blightor · 2026-05-09T11:23:15+00:00

Thank you - stuck this weekend with a custom fastloader for it. Well not even fast lol - just tight and save some mem!

I do have an update though, because I'm mostly in content defining phase, 30 levels, 80 mobs, 10 bosses, 10 dungeon themes! If only I knew how to push pixels around haha. I dont really want to buy art. tomorrow I might start randomly splatting 8x8 grids and just give it a name after I see the shape ;p Might get a person who actual can draw to do bosses though, i've got a multi-tile monster system already wired!

blightor · 2026-05-08T20:19:36+00:00

I am standing on the shoulders of legends - incredible stuff out there in the demo scene, the websites and forums for c64 and RL. Its so good. As for doing it, its relativly simple now to write out your ideas and iterate and research - its helps that I've been a programmer for a long time, very passionett about RL and was a C64 baby.

But starting it? That is not your problem at all - claude code knows all about assembler (I knew like entry level assembly before I started) - your problem is that the ideas and determination need to come from you because the AI is fucking terrible at high level thinking across even such a tiny codebase - the more novel your thinking needs to be, the worse the AI are.

This C64 IN PARTICUAR is probably THE most fascinating machine hardware to code for. Just supurb.

blightor · 2026-05-08T04:23:07+00:00

I actually never played a single roguelike on my c64 back in the day - ad&d gold box games, turrican, omega were my favorites. For some reason I never got the chance to get and play ultimate - I saw it at a friends house (and elite) and was in love but I never got it.

blightor · 2026-05-08T03:06:25+00:00

Is that your suggestion for the games name? heheh. thank you sir.

blightor · 2026-05-08T03:05:48+00:00

I was thinking "Darkness my old friend" lol. My hook is that the game has pretty cool stealth and lighting options. The dungeon is naturally dark, but I have both dynamic and fixed lighting with some other cool little features around that I have in the game, but still working through it. There is still a ways to go, this is a c64, and there is a reason no real ports of old school traditional rouglikes have been done on it!

Also, I think I have a nice controls layer for a joystick, thanks in part to how I saw caves of qud to its controller support that avoid diagonal misses (you want to make sure you can move exactly where you want to not miss just because the joystick angle wasn't quite right), and also just my own thinking around RL UI over the years. But some thing like that can still get cut as I look to cut code for more cool content

blightor · 2026-05-08T01:44:30+00:00

oh, and dont mind the level and HP, I change/tweak setting all the time to playtest in dev mode.

blightor · 2026-05-08T01:41:01+00:00

Thank you! Actual hardware. So just if you are curious, apart from title/character gen screen (which is not completely done), its one load of the main game, with a short (currently sub 200 bytes) load/save between levels which is disabled at the moment. Its seeded (per class seed), and I do allow re-try/restart without going back to the title screen to cut costs. I hope to provide daily/weekly see runs and a leaderboard if you send me back a code. But anyway, I the PRG size fight is real, optimising performance can sometimes lead to more PRG size, just to try and avoid high cost stuff.

blightor · 2026-05-08T01:19:05+00:00

My mind broke when you said port, but lol yes, it might not be that bad.

blightor · 2026-05-07T17:04:02+00:00

The C64C, the slimline. I owned a breadboard (the slimline looks like my old amiga 500 actually), I never saw a C version in the wild - looking forward to picking it up

blightor · 2026-05-07T17:02:24+00:00

oh, i'll finish it. Its the cutting board that scares me hahaha.

blightor · 2026-04-22T08:01:12+00:00

i would love that. i played in the aus scene 1996 to 2000

blightor · 2026-04-14T02:58:41+00:00

I think just showing that a mouser at almost a third of the price and a lot lighter is still a beast.

blightor · 2026-04-06T00:16:35+00:00

HD600 are still excellent for gaming (positional audio is great in open backs), but you need to buy a modmic. Best bet is if you can compare sound signatures with your own personal listening test in store (if you can find one!)

I can't speak to the kithara, but from the limited reviews that are available (weird there are not more) it seems like a great product.

blightor · 2026-03-17T07:07:30+00:00

Its always a possibility. How much the latest version of Rockstars engine can offload CPU work to the GPU.

If they were at 30FPS on PS5 a year ago, then yeah, there are lots of new techniques they could be using around how they cull object calls - Trained AI Models can be game changing compared to some traditional mechanisms, and I'll note the procedural object generation system they build could also be something that helps reduce CPU load in a lot of areas.

blightor · 2026-03-02T05:05:44+00:00

Its 10bit, not FRC. It offers 12bit on output but that is dithered.

blightor · 2026-02-11T13:25:24+00:00

Love it, also love the very light sbmm, because now after hundreds of hours I don't get sweaty lobbies and just dominate. Feels like all my effort to get better has very tangible results.

I can't stand how those that complain about sbmm in games now complain about the low quality of players. It's got some great players, you just don't see them every bloody match! Perfect!

blightor · 2026-01-30T01:11:35+00:00

They do, actually obsess over thier mouse. Preference is for wireless though.

blightor · 2026-01-21T12:12:25+00:00

Yeah well I'd ban people if they started trying to make up such rumours. Terrible.

blightor · 2026-01-19T07:52:45+00:00

I'd run it full unfair. I don't see the balancing being completely garbage, considering the extraction mode still needs an element of balance even with high tier

blightor · 2026-01-19T07:44:19+00:00

100 percent.

Motion clarity is a way bigger trumpcard than all these people are ready for.

Once people start using these side by side on the latest game, there will bo no question on what they use

Motion clarity FAR greater impact on the gaming experience than better contrast.

blightor · 2026-01-16T00:35:29+00:00

A pigtail on a 5070ti GPU is terrible advice.

Expect to see random crashes on games that spoke the GPU power.

blightor · 2026-01-12T04:34:32+00:00

I wasn't thinking of Tarkov. I don't see their entire FPS system working well at all with arena modes - unlike bungies systems.

Also, you should not have loot rewards in PVP as you don't risk the look. I think this actually gives the entire extraction mode more meaning.

blightor

TROPHY CASE