Mmm...Now it gets interesting! Now that the cache routine is working properly, I can finally visualise it and see how much is used, and how it behaves... It's showing that its actually got a little room to spare - which is great as it means I can always steal some if I need to - however, that little function below that makes the cache work takes around 50+ cycles per sprite per game cycle for normal usage. That is when its not at the end or whatever... Thats 10 scanlines at least! Everygame cycle! (when all sprites are active)
so once again... its down to a balancing act - do we use the cache and perhaps get a couple of K back...or do we ditch it and gain 10 scanlines? Of course theres also an additional penalty of having to rotate the player ship everynow and then if we dont use the cache properly, and it could come at anytime, where as the cache is reasonably predictable.
It's never easy.....I suspect the cache will stay as 10 scanlines is less than rotating 1 sprite, and if I dont overload the screen with NEW sprites, I can be sure that it wont rotate + the full 10 scanlines at anyone time. I'll have a think....perhaps theres an even quicker way of doing this....
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