Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!scea!greg_labrec@interactive.sony.com
From: Scott Cartier <dsyaroze@concentric.net>
Newsgroups: scea.yaroze.programming.2d_graphics
Subject: Too many GsSortSprites?
Date: Sat, 02 Aug 1997 16:42:23 -0700
Organization: SCEA Net Yaroze News
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Hi all,

I'm having a locking up problem that I've been tearing my hair to
figure out.  I've had this problem for some time and have run out
of ideas for debugging.  It seems rather simple.

I have an array of sprites which represent my game objects.  Every
frame I loop through this array and use GsSortSprite to put them
on the screen.  Whenver this loop is greater than about 6 my
program locks up.  The only thing I could think of is that I'm
overloading the GPU with packets.  So I tried adding a DrawSync(0)
after each GsSortSprite call, but no luck.  Here's my basic flow:

  initialize_sprites();

  while(pad_state[PAD_SELECT] == 0) {
    move_sprites();

    for (i = 0; i < num_sprites; i++)
      GsSortSprite(&sprt_array[i], &WorldOT[activeBuff], 2);
 
    cnt = VSync(0);
    ResetGraph(1);    // hi-res mode
    GsSwapDispBuff();
 
    GsSortClear(0, 0, 0, &WorldOT[activeBuff]);

    GsDrawOt(&WorldOT[activeBuff]);
    activeBuff = GsGetActiveBuff();
    GsSetWorkBase((PACKET *)GpuPacketArea[activeBuff]);
    GsClearOt(0, 0, &WorldOT[activeBuff]);

    compute_new_sprite_pos();
  }

This is over simplified of course, but you get the idea.  Is there
anything obvious that I'm doing wrong?

Scott