Introduction

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Day 1
Environment Setup

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Nintendo DS Development Tutorial :: Day 3 :: BGs Tiled

Okay, so you now basically know how to do text output and get user input from the pad.  Let's move on to something that's also simple, yet quite powerful - displaying an image on the screen(s).

// Includes
#include <PA9.h>       // Include for PA_Lib

// Graphics Includes
// gfx2gba -fsrc -m -pBackground.pal -t8 Background.bmp
#include "gfx/Background.map.c"
#include "gfx/Background.raw.c"
#include "gfx/Background.pal.c"

// Function: main()
int main(int argc, char ** argv)
{
    PA_Init();    // Initializes PA_Lib
    PA_InitVBL(); // Initializes a standard VBL

    //PA_LoadSplash();  // PA_Lib splash screen

    PA_LoadPal(PAL_BG0, Background_Palette);
    PA_LoadPal(PAL_BG1, Background_Palette);

    PA_LoadSimpleBg(1, 3, Background_Tiles, 
                    Background_Map, BG_256X256, 0, 1);
    PA_LoadSimpleBg(0, 3, Background_Tiles, 
                    Background_Map, BG_256X256, 0, 1);

    // Infinite loop to keep the program running
    while (1)
    {
        PA_WaitForVBL();
    }

    return 0;
} // End of main()
            

Code Explanation

gfx2gba -fsrc -m -pBackground.pal -t8 Background.bmp
gfx2gba is a simple program that converts a bitmap image into code that can be displayed on the screen.  I won't go into too much detail on gfx2gba.  I'll just show you how I am converting my bitmap backgrounds (and later sprites) into the proper format.  Be sure to check out the gfx2gba readme.txt and you can look for newer versions (currently 0.13) here.  If you want more info on gfx2gba, check out my HAM Tutorials starting here.

In this case, I am outputting to a source format file (.cpp), creating a map of 8x8 pixel tiles, saving the palette as Background.pal, and the input image is Background.bmp.

For more information on tile-based graphics, check out these sites:
http://www.nonoche.com/imaging/en/
Tile Based Games FAQ
http://www.gamedev.net/reference/list.asp?categoryid=44

PA_LoadPal(PAL_BG0, Background_Palette);
Loads a 256 color palette (which I created from the original bitmap using gfx2gba).

PA_LoadSimpleBg(1, 3, Background_Tiles, Background_Map, BG_256X256, 1, 1);
Very easy way to load a background image to the screen.  
    Parameters:
        screen, 0 = bottom, 1 = top
        background, 0-3, 0 goes on top of 1 which goes on top of 2... (more on this later)
        tiles, you'll notice this is defined in source\gfx\Background.raw.c
        map, reference to the map, in this case it's in source\gfx\Background.map.c
        size, in this case I created a 256x256 pixel bitmap, can be 256x512, 512x256, or 512x512
        wraparound, does the BG wrap around? (not important in this case)
        color_mode, 0 = 16 color mode, 1 = 256 color mode

Well, that's about it for today.  Another easy example, I wonder when it's going to get difficult?

Download

Day3_BGs Tiled.zip

Screenshot

Last Updated: 10/31/2005