A quarter-tank warning that says it once, and a gauge that keeps saying it

Two halves of the same number. The warning is the moment it happened and
the colour is how things stand: it fires on the way down through a
quarter of a tank and then holds its peace, and the gauge stays red until
a base fills the lander up, which also allows the warning again.

Once, because a lander is at its most careful in the last few seconds
before it touches, and something repeating in its ear through that is not
a warning, it is a distraction.

Checked where the fuel actually moves rather than once a frame - the tank
only changes in takeFuel and payFuel, so there is nowhere else it can
cross a threshold.

Channel two, with the crash on three. Separate channels rather than one
reused, because a crash while the warning is still sounding should not cut
it off, and on a machine with four voices there is no reason to be clever.

Half and a tenth are the obvious next thresholds and are deliberately not
here: one is enough to find out whether being told at all is welcome.

---- And the crash sound is the one that was designed for it ----

Crash.json, which carries voice_gate itself, so the program's own trigger
write is gone - it would have masked a deliberate choice rather than
backing one up. The note moved from 24 to 60 by ear, and the comment
saying it was low went with it.

---- A check that could not tell a beep from a nag ----

Counting bursts of sound cannot: without the latch the warning fires
every tick the tank drops, far faster than the sound decays, so the beeps
run into each other and a burst counter sees one long burst either way.
It measures the LENGTH now - 26,944 samples against 490,348 - which is
the difference between six tenths of a second and ten seconds of it.
This commit is contained in:
Anachronaut
2026-09-04 16:45:26 -04:00
parent de765267c5
commit 6fe898b5fc
16 changed files with 225 additions and 31 deletions
+84 -18
View File
@@ -80,7 +80,8 @@ start:
CALL putLander
CALL putGauge
CALL putOrbital
CALL putBoom ; The instrument, once, the way the tiles are.
CALL putBoom ; The instruments, once, the way the tiles are.
CALL putAlarm
INIA 0x01
OUTA 0x02 ; Key mode.
@@ -602,6 +603,25 @@ putGauge:
; Redrawn whole every frame. Thirty five cells is seventy bytes out of one port with the
; address named once, which is cheaper than working out which of them changed.
showFuel:
; ---- Green above a quarter, red below it ----
;
; The same number the alarm goes off at, so the sound and the picture agree. The sound is
; said once and this stays said, which is the division of labour: one of them is the moment
; it happened and the other is how things stand.
SETD.1 Fuel
LDA.1
INIB 0d64
CCF
SUB
BNC showFuelGreen
INIA 0x01
BRI showFuelColoured
showFuelGreen:
INIA 0x02
showFuelColoured:
SETD.1 GaugeColour
STA.1
RSTA
SETD.1 Fuel
LDB.1
@@ -629,8 +649,9 @@ gaugeCell:
STA.1
INIA 0xC8
OUTA 0xE9 ; The solid block, which is the ground's tile.
INIA 0x02
OUTA 0xE9 ; Scheme two, so the bar is not the colour of the moon.
SETD.1 GaugeColour
LDA.1
OUTA 0xE9 ; Green, or red once a quarter is all that is left.
BRI gaugeNext
gaugeEmpty:
OUTA 0xE9
@@ -1140,6 +1161,7 @@ takeFuel:
BRA takeFuelNone
DECA
STA.1
CALL watchFuel ; Checked where the tank actually moves, not once a frame.
INIA 0x01
RSTB
CCF
@@ -2682,20 +2704,6 @@ putBoom:
OUTA 0x41 ; Channel three. Every parameter write below lands on it.
SETD.0 BoomPatch
CALL playPatch
; ---- Struck, not held ----
;
; A gated voice lasts as long as something keeps hold of it, and the gate coming up is what
; starts its release - which is what a keyboard is. A crash is not a keyboard. It is struck
; once and then plays its own length, and nothing should have to remember to end it.
;
; Said here rather than left to the patch because it is the PROGRAM that knows this is a
; one-shot: the patch decides what the bang sounds like, and this decides that it is a bang.
; A patch designed in soundThing carries a gate of its own, and this overrides it on purpose.
INIA 0x51
OUTA 0x42
INIA 0x01 ; Triggered.
OUTA 0x43
RET
; ---- A whole patch, out of a table ----
@@ -2725,10 +2733,56 @@ playPatchOne:
boom:
INIA 0x03
OUTA 0x41
INIA 0d24 ; Low: the filter is doing the work and this is only the body.
INIA 0d60 ; Middle C. The noise is not really pitched, but the filter is
; tuned off the note and this is where it was found by ear.
OUTA 0x44 ; Writing the note is what starts it.
RET
; ---- A quarter of a tank, said once ----
;
; ONCE, and that is the whole design of it. A lander is at its most careful in the last few
; seconds before it touches, and something repeating in its ear through that is not a warning,
; it is a distraction - so this fires on the way DOWN through a quarter and then holds its
; peace. Filling up at a base allows it again.
;
; A quarter is 64 of 255. Half and a tenth are the obvious next two and are not here yet: one
; threshold is enough to find out whether being told at all is welcome.
watchFuel:
SETD.0 AlarmSaid
LDA.0
BNA watchFuelDone ; Already said. Saying it again is what this exists to avoid.
SETD.0 Fuel
LDA.0
INIB 0d64
CCF
SUB
BNC watchFuelDone ; No borrow: a quarter or more, so there is nothing to say.
INIA 0x01
SETD.0 AlarmSaid
STA.0
CALL alarm
watchFuelDone:
RET
; ---- The alarm, on channel two ----
;
; Effects count down from the top: the bang has three and this has two. They are separate
; channels rather than one reused, because a crash while the warning is still sounding should
; not cut it off - and on a machine with four voices there is no reason to be clever about it.
putAlarm:
INIA 0x02
OUTA 0x41
SETD.0 AlarmPatch
CALL playPatch
RET
alarm:
INIA 0x02
OUTA 0x41
INIA 0d72 ; An octave over middle C, which is where a warning lives.
OUTA 0x44
RET
; ---- A key, or a button ----
;
; Somebody flying on a controller should not have to reach for the keyboard to say "yes, I
@@ -3309,6 +3363,11 @@ arriveNowhere:
; worth of adding is what says it went past, which is the same flag a sixteen bit sum uses to
; run one half into the other.
payFuel:
; Filled up, so the warning is allowed to come again. Eighty units always clears a quarter
; tank, so this needs no test of its own.
RSTA
SETD.0 AlarmSaid
STA.0
SETD.0 Fuel
LDA.0
INIB 0d80
@@ -3613,6 +3672,11 @@ FallAt:
; more arithmetic for a number nobody reads to the unit.
Fuel:
0xFF
GaugeColour:
0x00
; Whether the quarter tank warning has been given since the last time it was filled.
AlarmSaid:
0x00
GaugeLeft:
0x00
GaugeAt:
@@ -4093,3 +4157,5 @@ LanderArtAt:
#Include math.asm
#Include boom.asm
#Include alarm.asm