I'm gonna get an Nspire; a monochrome Nspire with Clickpad. It's monochrome, so it can emulate the 84+, and it comes with the 84+ keyboard as well. Here's where you should dump all of your favorite monochrome Nspire tools, etc. If Ndless is compatible, I'd be all for that, since I'd likely just be getting it just for programming purposes. Since my Nspire will be able to emulate the 84+ as well, drop some of your favorite monochrome Z80 stuff on me too (except stuff that uses undocumented opcodes, like MirageOS. I'll use Doors instead :P ). Just make sure you seperate the Nspire from the 84+ stuff.
Just use the same games and tools as on the 83+//84+ ;D
THere is a difference in speed tho, but the display of the nSphire is much more eye-friendly when using hte 84+ keyboard ;)
for pure nsphire tools and games I sadly have no idea... never used that keyboard :trollface:
The B&W Nspire has a terrible screen : i would rather use my TI-89 over that !
As far raw speed goes, it's faster than the CX due to the faster memory.
However, most ndless games will convert from RGB565 to 4BPP so the speed benefit might not be obvious unless you overclock it with nover.
Also, make sure to stick with OS 3.1 as later OSes are useless for the B&W model and eats all the few memory available.
If I were you I would just get an 84+SE, there is not point in the monochrome nspires at all, especially if you already have a CX.
It does have a faster memory bus (double the clock speed), however the CPU clocks are locked to 150MHz so there's a tradeoff in terms of performance. We've benchmarked it a bunch and in the end CPU overclocking gives you a much bigger performance boost, the memory bus is not a bottleneck.
Quote from: gameblabla on January 20, 2017, 09:10:41 AM
The B&W Nspire has a terrible screen : i would rather use my TI-89 over that !
I dont have a 89 so I cant comment on that. But only comparing the 84+ to the nsphire84+, the nsphire display is much better for your eyes as it got sharper lines and is bigger too. ^^
but speed of some games might be off (iirc Phoenix was actually slower on the nsphire...?)
Quote from: Streetwalrus on January 20, 2017, 09:26:35 AM
If I were you I would just get an 84+SE, there is not point in the monochrome nspires at all, especially if you already have a CX.
It does have a faster memory bus (double the clock speed), however the CPU clocks are locked to 150MHz so there's a tradeoff in terms of performance. We've benchmarked it a bunch and in the end CPU overclocking gives you a much bigger performance boost, the memory bus is not a bottleneck.
I only have the CSE, and I found a deal, 70$ for the monochrome calc with the 84+ keyboard; basically $35 per OS/technology.
Quote from: gameblabla on January 20, 2017, 09:10:41 AM
The B&W Nspire has a terrible screen : i would rather use my TI-89 over that !
As far raw speed goes, it's faster than the CX due to the faster memory.
However, most ndless games will convert from RGB565 to 4BPP so the speed benefit might not be obvious unless you overclock it with nover.
Also, make sure to stick with OS 3.1 as later OSes are useless for the B&W model and eats all the few memory available.
So, basically any ndless game not solely dependant on color will be playable on monochrome models? And I've heard that OS 3.6 was better. Anyone care to explain the differences between the two, and why one of them is better?
Quote from: 123outerme on January 20, 2017, 05:43:00 PM
So, basically any ndless game not solely dependant on color will be playable on monochrome models?
Yeah. In particular , any SDL games and most n2DLib games should be compatible with the B&W models.
Some are not compatible however, such as my Image Viewer as B&W owners are rare.
(i only got one complaint for PocketSNES about this and PocketSNES should work on B&W models)
QuoteAnd I've heard that OS 3.6 was better. Anyone care to explain the differences between the two, and why one of them is better?
The only good thing about OS 3.6 is that it fixes a bug with malloc leaking memory.
I think however that can be fixed on OS 3.1 by using a more recent boot1 with the upcoming ControlX. (i think, i'm not sure)
OS 3.6 plays LUA games faster too.
For everything else though, stay away because OS 3.6 takes more memory than OS 3.1 and it is the first that can't be stripped down.
Since the B&W model only has 16Mb of memory, you will be able to play less games. (Quake might not work on it)
I thought the monochrome calcs had 32MB of flash?
Thanks for the responses.
Quote from: gameblabla on January 20, 2017, 05:52:49 PM
Quote from: 123outerme on January 20, 2017, 05:43:00 PM
So, basically any ndless game not solely dependant on color will be playable on monochrome models?
Yeah. In particular , any SDL games and most n2DLib games should be compatible with the B&W models.
Some are not compatible however, such as my Image Viewer as B&W owners are rare.
(i only got one complaint for PocketSNES about this and PocketSNES should work on B&W models)
Okay, thanks. I'm looking forward to finding some games :P
Quote from: gameblabla on January 20, 2017, 05:52:49 PM
QuoteAnd I've heard that OS 3.6 was better. Anyone care to explain the differences between the two, and why one of them is better?
The only good thing about OS 3.6 is that it fixes a bug with malloc leaking memory.
I think however that can be fixed on OS 3.1 by using a more recent boot1 with the upcoming ControlX. (i think, i'm not sure)
OS 3.6 plays LUA games faster too.
For everything else though, stay away because OS 3.6 takes more memory than OS 3.1 and it is the first that can't be stripped down.
Since the B&W model only has 16Mb of memory, you will be able to play less games. (Quake might not work on it)
So instead of downloading 3.6, I can download OS 3.1, replace the boot1 with ControlX (which I'm not sure but you said isn't released yet?) and have the same fix for less memory? Sounds good to me, if so. Also since Ndless can still hack 3.6, are you sure that I can't downgrade once I've installed Ndless?
Quote from: Streetwalrus on January 20, 2017, 06:00:02 PM
I thought the monochrome calcs had 32MB of flash?
No, according to Wikipedia (yeah, I know, it's Wikipedia), it only has 16 MB.
Also two more questions:
1. I get an 84+ emulator (basically) with this Nspire, so how does it save .8xps? Is it just in flash, like every other file I download, or is it hidden?
2. Is there no RAM on the Nspire, only Flash? The way you guys talk about the memory makes it seem so. The Wikipedia page (yes, I know) said it had 20 MB of User memory, but only 16 under Memory Register. Does this mean it uses/reserves 4 MB for the OS?
You can downgrade all versions on the classic models.
Quote from: 123outerme on January 20, 2017, 06:06:17 PM
So instead of downloading 3.6, I can download OS 3.1, replace the boot1 with ControlX (which I'm not sure but you said isn't released yet?) and have the same fix for less memory? Sounds good to me, if so. Also since Ndless can still hack 3.6, are you sure that I can't downgrade once I've installed Ndless?
Yup, in theory as malloc is found on boot1 if i'm not mistaken. Critor has released a test build of on tiplanet but not as stable yet.
Current version (4.3.5) doesn't work with OS 3.x.
B&W models have 16MB of RAM and 32MB of storage.
Latest OS is 3.9 so you can downgrade and upgrade at any time.
Quote from: gameblabla on January 20, 2017, 06:42:44 PM
Quote from: 123outerme on January 20, 2017, 06:06:17 PM
So instead of downloading 3.6, I can download OS 3.1, replace the boot1 with ControlX (which I'm not sure but you said isn't released yet?) and have the same fix for less memory? Sounds good to me, if so. Also since Ndless can still hack 3.6, are you sure that I can't downgrade once I've installed Ndless?
Yup, in theory as malloc is found on boot1 if i'm not mistaken. Critor has released a test build of on tiplanet but not as stable yet.
Current version (4.3.5) doesn't work with OS 3.x.
B&W models have 16MB of RAM and 32MB of storage.
Latest OS is 3.9 so you can downgrade and upgrade at any time.
Ok, thanks! I think I'll use 3.6 until the fix you described is available.
Quote from: Streetwalrus on January 20, 2017, 06:12:53 PM
You can downgrade all versions on the classic models.
Thanks Street, good to know.
Quote from: gameblabla on January 20, 2017, 06:42:44 PM
B&W models have 16MB of RAM and 32MB of storage.
Latest OS is 3.9 so you can downgrade and upgrade at any time.
I know for absolute certain that they have 32MB of RAM.
Quote from: Streetwalrus on January 20, 2017, 06:54:26 PM
Quote from: gameblabla on January 20, 2017, 06:42:44 PM
B&W models have 16MB of RAM and 32MB of storage.
Latest OS is 3.9 so you can downgrade and upgrade at any time.
I know for absolute certain that they have 32MB of RAM.
Oh, ok, thanks. Like I said, Wikipedia is Wikipedia, so I wasn't expecting it to be that accurate. Thanks for the confirmation!
QuoteSo instead of downloading 3.6, I can download OS 3.1, replace the boot1 with ControlX (which I'm not sure but you said isn't released yet?) and have the same fix for less memory?
ControlX is an nBoot payload and thus only runs on CX HW < W.
Quote from: Vogtinator on January 22, 2017, 12:17:33 AM
QuoteSo instead of downloading 3.6, I can download OS 3.1, replace the boot1 with ControlX (which I'm not sure but you said isn't released yet?) and have the same fix for less memory?
ControlX is an nBoot payload and thus only runs on CX HW < W.
Ah, ok (if I'm understanding you correctly, it's delivered by nBoot, so it only runs on color Nspires?). In that case, I'll probably just use OS 3.6 until I figure out if I can just use the boot1 of 3.6, and the other files of 3.1.
Fwiw, 3.6+ features awful USB transfer speeds, so if you're developing for ndless you will want 3.1. If you stick to Lua, you can use the simulator so it's not as much of a problem.
I know the emulator has come a long way, but there are times when it does something different from the real hardware so beware.
Quote from: Streetwalrus on January 22, 2017, 10:02:02 AM
Fwiw, 3.6+ features awful USB transfer speeds, so if you're developing for ndless you will want 3.1. If you stick to Lua, you can use the simulator so it's not as much of need a problem.
I know the emulator has come a long way, but there are times when it does something different from the real hardware so beware.
Hmm, I'll have to give that a thought. I want to develop for ndless eventually, but until I learn C or ASM, I'm gonna be programming in Lua. Thanks for the heads up!
Dragonsglid and Sorcery of Uvutu in Lua would be cool :3=
Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on January 22, 2017, 05:28:09 PM
Dragonsglid and Sorcery of Uvutu in Lua would be cool :3=
Yeah, I was planning on remaking Sorcery for the 84+ (since I'm gonna get the 84+ keypad with my Nspire) and the Nspire once I got acquainted with gamemaking on both systems. It would really expand the userbase then, I feel. In Lua, I could probably even add items to the battle menu like I originally planned, although I won't, to keep them just as ports.
Sorry for the double-post, however this is a major update (I guess) since I'd like these questions to be answered.
These are all questions about Nspire Lua, and ones that I couldn't (definitively) answer when looking around.
1. Is there a way I can draw something to the screen again using a custom function like so:
function digits (a)
return 1 + math.floor(math.log10(a))
end
function textDisp(string, x, y) //-- This custom function here
function on.paint(gc)
gc:drawString(string, x, y)
end
return string
end
textDisp("hello world!", 320, 240)
textDisp(digits(100), 0, 20)
and not have it wipe the screen?
2. Also, is there a way to update the graphics context without calling on.paint?