Removing images/sprites from RAM?

[KeiDash]

Hi again,

I'm working around 2 weeks with JoEngine and I think that is a good framework to develop games for SS, I Like it and I think that it's so easy to use.

I've just been using BennuGD port for Dreamcast and I leave it for all problems with the audio and the Ram memory management.

When I began with JoEngine, I decide first do some test divided in output text, audio test, gamepad test, image/sprite test and save/load state test, so I try  to merge all in the same project divided in screens, something very simple.

Each screen has its owns image background, vars, functionalities, messages, etc.

I did the output text screen with and background image, some text like date, autor, description, etc.

I'm doing the 3th screen that represents the display of sprite/images with animations, sprites, backgrounds etc.

Well, In this point I'm begin having problems with the game.

The first thing that I detect was that some text were not show and the game stops in the first screen (It worked properly before I made the 3th screen). This happened when I load one more sprite in the game and I assign this to a jo_img var. I tried free the memory and remove from memory all images that I don't use but I don't know really how to do it.

I think that it's possible that I'm loading all images and sprite in the wrong way or something that I'm doing with this images not is correct, for example:

As I say, each screen has its own background image. I'm doing this with this piece of code added in the core with jo_core_add_callback

Code: [Select]

void SetBackgroundByScreen()
{
    jo_img imgBackground;
    imgBackground.width = 320;
    imgBackground.height = 240;

    switch (currentScreen)
    {
        case SCREEN_MAIN:
            if(!enableBackground) { break; }

            enableBackground = true;
            imgBackground.data = (unsigned short *)BG1;

            jo_clear_background(JO_COLOR_Black);
            jo_set_background_sprite(&imgBackground, 0, 0);
            jo_free_img(&imgBackground);

            break;
        case SCREEN_OUTP:
            
            if(!enableBackground) { break; }

            enableBackground = true;
            imgBackground.data = (unsigned short *)BG2;

            jo_clear_background(JO_COLOR_Black);
            jo_set_background_sprite(&imgBackground, 0, 0);
            jo_free_img(&imgBackground);

            break;
        case SCREEN_SPRI:
        
            /* TODO*/

        default:
            enableBackground = false;
            imgBackground.data = JO_NULL;
            
            break;
    }

}

void jo_main(void)
{
   jo_core_init(JO_COLOR_Black);
   jo_core_add_callback(SetBackgroundByScreen);
   jo_core_run();
}

And in the screen 3, I'm loading some sprites (five in particular) with this piece of code:

Code: [Select]

void s_LoadSprites()
{
    static int sprLoaded = 0;
    
   /*
         load only once time
         sprLoading1st it's a global var
   */

    if(sprLoaded == 1) 
    { 
       return; 
    }

    sprLoading1st.width = 48;
    sprLoading1st.height = 48;

    /*sprite 1*/
    sprLoading1st.data = (unsigned short *)sprLoading1;
    idSprLoading1st = jo_sprite_add(&sprLoading1st);
    sprLoading1st.data = JO_NULL;

    /*sprite 2*/
    sprLoading1st.data = (unsigned short *)sprLoading2;
    jo_sprite_add(&sprLoading1st);
    sprLoading1st.data = JO_NULL;
    
    /*sprite 3*/
    sprLoading1st.data = (unsigned short *)sprLoading2;
    jo_sprite_add(&sprLoading1st);
    sprLoading1st.data = JO_NULL;

    /*sprite 4*/
    sprLoading1st.data = (unsigned short *)sprLoading4;
    jo_sprite_add(&sprLoading1st);
    sprLoading1st.data = JO_NULL;
    
    animSprLoading1st = jo_create_sprite_anim(idSprLoading1st, 4, 2);
    jo_start_sprite_anim_loop(animSprLoading1st);

    /*sprite 5*/
    sprLoading1st.width = 24;
    sprLoading1st.height = 40;

    sprLoading1st.data = (unsigned short *)sprKen01;
    sprLoading1st.data = JO_NULL;

    sprLoaded = 1;
}

I must point out that the images are hardcore loaded. I was create it with the JoMapEngine and ported to C and included in the code.

At this point the game doesn't run. I have to remove several image/sprite loads for the game to work.

So please, I need help! What I'm doing wrong? How can I remove images and sprites and liberate it from ram? This is the real problem?

Regards,

[KeiDash]

Researching the case, I'm not solved yet but I found the piece of code that making the game crashes.

I have 3 background images of 320x240 pixels hardcoded (converted to C with JoMapEditor)

If I use 2 of them, the game works fine but if I load more of 2 of them, the games crashes, Regardless of whether you used it or not or the life cycle of the code reaches the loading point.


I have 2 methods, jo_main() and testbg(). In jo_main() I'm doing this:

Code: [Select]

void jo_main(void)
{
    jo_core_init(JO_COLOR_Black);

    currentScreen = 0;

    jo_core_run();
    
}

And in the method testbg I'm doing this:

Code: [Select]

void testbg()
{
    static unsigned int myscreen = 0;
    static int counter = 0;

    jo_img bg1;
    jo_img bg2;
    jo_img bg3;

    if(displayed == 0)
    {
        displayed = 1;

        bg1.width = 320;
        bg1.height = 240;
        bg1.data = (unsigned short *)BG1;

        bg2.width = 320;
        bg2.height = 240;
        bg2.data = (unsigned short *)BG2;

        bg3.width = 320;
        bg3.height = 240;
        bg3.data = (unsigned short *)BG3;
    }
}

If you look at the code, I'm not calling the method testbg() on jo_main(). In spite of this, if I write the 3th image code, the game crashes

Code: [Select]

        bg3.width = 320;
        bg3.height = 240;
        bg3.data = (unsigned short *)BG3;

But if I coment it, the game works fine.

Code: [Select]

        /*bg3.width = 320;*/
        /*bg3.height = 240;*/
        /*bg3.data = (unsigned short *)BG3;*/

And I repeat, I'm not calling to the testbg method.

The image arrays (BG1, BG2 and BG3) it's on one file called bgMain.h (#include "bgMain.h"), that contanis the 3 images exported with JoMagEditor to C. (PNG file to C)

I thought that the problem was the BG3 array maybe, so I made another different and I replace it but still happening the same.

So please, someone know what I'm doing wrong?

Maybe the problem is the size of exported images indepent of they was loaded?

Thanks