Alternative + Vertical L/R Scrolling

Submission Details

Name:	Alternative + Vertical L/R Scrolling
Author:	Burning Loaf
Added:	2023-12-31 09:02:47 PM
Tool:	Asar
Requires Free Space:	Yes
Bug Fix:	No
Featured:	No
Description:	This is a patch changes the behavior of L/R scrolling and horizontal camera scrolling so that you only have to tap the button instead of hold it, as well as other options such as only having to press L much like in Mario Advance 2 (which frees up the R button), and whether to pause while scrolling or not. It also adds the ability to scroll vertically when standing still and press L/R. (which uses some code by yoshifanatic, with given permission) Due to L/R scrolling being reprogrammed, disabling L/R scrolling is (barely) different, so an UberASM file 'lr_disable' has been included.
Tags:	camera controller lorom sa-1
Comments:	1 (jump to comments)

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Comments (1)

Maarfy 2023-12-31 09:08:05 PM Link

Changed a BNE to a BEQ + : JMP : + to accommodate an out-of-bounds branch under certain config settings. Nothing else was changed.

A very cool patch, especially for hacks with a greater emphasis on exploration. It's execution is a bit on the coarse side and it definitely takes some getting used to to actually use efficiently in-game, but it's well worth trying out in my opinion.

Maybe I'm just dense, but I didn't get a clear idea exactly how this patch would function just from the description. In case it seems vague to anyone else: Show/Hide

Option 1 allows the camera to be scrolled with L or R. If Up or Down are held on the D-pad when either L or R is pressed, the camera will pan up or down, respectively. When Up/Down is released, the camera will return to normal vertical scroll position. Otherwise, pressing L pans the screen left, and R pans the screen right. Horizontal scrolling occurs in "chunks" like in vanilla. The screen can be scrolled left or right and held there while the player moves around, per vanilla rules; up or down scrolling can only be done temporarily while stationary, and the vertical scroll will reset once the player begins moving.

Option 2 allows the camera to be scrolled with L only. Horizontal scrolling defers to Left/Right D-pad input first, or player direction if no D-pad input is provided. (In practice this only affects what happens when the player is ducking; in all other cases, pressing Left/Right will update player direction anyway.) All other scrolling behavior proceeds as in Option 1.

A few minor issues:

Note that, while the patch allows configuring vertical scroll speed when using L/R, it does not allow configuring the "natural" vertical camera scroll speeds, which are asymmetric. When scrolled vertically, the camera will return to normal noticeably faster from an upward scroll versus downward.
This patch can break down a little bit when riding moving platforms, especially fast ones. There are no configurable speed settings if !motion is set to 0; if this setting is chosen and the patch is set not to pause when scrolling, it's possible to swing the camera in time with the movement of a fast-moving platform to induce VRAM errors (visible garbage tiles or holes in the level that aren't real, caused by scrolling the camera too fast). This is a fairly specific setup and isn't easy to do consistently, so I don't consider it a deal-breaker.
If !input = 0, the camera will refuse to hold a vertical scroll when riding a moving platform if the camera isn't scrolled all the way left or right first. This allows the player to rapidly shake the camera up and down by tapping L.

Tested with Asar 1.81, Lunar Magic 3.40, SA-1 1.40, Snes9x 1.62.3, BSNES Accuracy 0.7.1, UberASM Tool 1.6.