0.2 tline() now makes it really easy to efficiently draw 3d textured floors

Thu, 16 Apr 2020 11:11:08 UTC

No more compromises and workarounds like Ben's article (https://medium.com/@Powersaurus/3d-floor-rendering-in-pico-8-a01f241db98d). The new tline() function simply lets us draw one row at a time instead of one pixel.

Abstraction Cost

Sun, 15 Mar 2020 06:28:57 UTC

So I find that organizing my code with data structures and functions adds a lot to the runtime cost in PICO-8.

For example, doing vector math with objects like {x=1,y=2}, and functions like

function vadd(v1,v2)
  return {x=v1.x+v2.x,y=v1.y+v2.y}
end

greatly increases the readability of my code, but at the cost of significant performance hit.

Coming from a C++ background, this really upsets me. Modern C++ compilers are extremely good at optimising, and it's often possible to write very expressive code with almost zero overhead. While in PICO-8, if I want my code to go fast, I have to write it in a rather repetitive and messy way.

I like how PICO-8 is deliberately restrictive, but is there a way to write clean code without hurting performance too much? What are your thoughts?

finalpatch [Lexaloffle Blog Feed]

0.2 tline() now makes it really easy to efficiently draw 3d textured floors

Abstraction Cost