4.1 Low Resolution Graphics

Low Resolution

Low resolution is 40x28 characters and the default mode on start. To get in to low resolution mode, use the command;

• text - puts Oric in to low resolution text mode and resets the software sprite system (more on this later)

In this mode, dflat has a few commands to help with putting stuff on the low resolution screen;

• cursor off:<int> - simply this command enables the disables the system cursor which can be a distraction in games - 0 enables and non-zero disables
• plot x:<int>,y:<int>,s:<string> - this command puts a string on the screen at position x,y - not the same as print@ because special characters are not translated but plotted as-is. Also this is a bit faster than print@
• plot x:<int>,y:<int>,c:<char> - this variation of plot puts a single character on the screen with the value of c. Useful for single character updates (e.g. a game sprite) as it a little bit faster than plotting a single character string

That's all there is to putting stuff on the screen - basically it is the plot command, which works a lot like the Oric BASIC version.

But often it's useful to know what is at a particular location on the screen, and another Oric BASIC inspired function is useful here;

• c=scrn(x:<int>, y:<int>) - this function returns the character value at location x,y