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Elite on the BBC Micro and NES

Drawing lines: LOIN (Part 1 of 7)

[Acorn Electron version]

Name: LOIN (Part 1 of 7) [Show more] Type: Subroutine Category: Drawing lines Summary: Draw a line: Calculate the line gradient in the form of deltas Deep dive: Bresenham's line algorithm
Context: See this subroutine in context in the source code Variations: See code variations for this subroutine in the different versions References: This subroutine is called as follows: * BLINE calls LOIN * LASLI calls LOIN * TTX66 calls LOIN * WPLS2 calls LOIN * HLOIN calls via LL30 * LL9 (Part 12 of 12) calls via LL30 * TT15 calls via LL30

This routine draws a line from (X1, Y1) to (X2, Y2). It has multiple stages. This stage calculates the line deltas.
Arguments: X1 The screen x-coordinate of the start of the line Y1 The screen y-coordinate of the start of the line X2 The screen x-coordinate of the end of the line Y2 The screen y-coordinate of the end of the line
Returns: Y Y is preserved
Other entry points: LL30 LL30 is a synonym for LOIN and draws a line from (X1, Y1) to (X2, Y2)
.LL30 SKIP 0 \ LL30 is a synonym for LOIN \ \ In the cassette and disc versions of Elite, LL30 and \ LOIN are synonyms for the same routine, presumably \ because the two developers each had their own line \ routines to start with, and then chose one of them for \ the final game .LOIN STY YSAV \ Store Y into YSAV, so we can preserve it across the \ call to this subroutine LDA #128 \ Set S = 128, which is the starting point for the STA S \ slope error (representing half a pixel) STA SC \ Set SC = 128 for use in the pixel calculations below ASL A \ Set SWAP = 0, as %10000000 << 1 = 0 STA SWAP LDA X2 \ Set A = X2 - X1 SBC X1 \ = delta_x \ \ This subtraction works as the ASL A above sets the C \ flag BCS LI1 \ If X2 > X1 then A is already positive and we can skip \ the next three instructions EOR #%11111111 \ Negate the result in A by flipping all the bits and ADC #1 \ adding 1, i.e. using two's complement to make it \ positive .LI1 STA P \ Store A in P, so P = |X2 - X1|, or |delta_x| SEC \ Set the C flag, ready for the subtraction below LDA Y2 \ Set A = Y2 - Y1 SBC Y1 \ = delta_y \ \ This subtraction works as we either set the C flag \ above, or we skipped that SEC instruction with a BCS BCS LI2 \ If Y2 > Y1 then A is already positive and we can skip \ the next two instructions EOR #%11111111 \ Negate the result in A by flipping all the bits and ADC #1 \ adding 1, i.e. using two's complement to make it \ positive .LI2 STA Q \ Store A in Q, so Q = |Y2 - Y1|, or |delta_y| CMP P \ If Q < P, jump to STPX to step along the x-axis, as BCC STPX \ the line is closer to being horizontal than vertical JMP STPY \ Otherwise Q >= P so jump to STPY to step along the \ y-axis, as the line is closer to being vertical than \ horizontal