Collision detection on chip8 emulator

Question

I made a chip8 emulator, but ran into some problems with detecting collision when drawing. Chip8 draws onto the screen by XOR'ing individual pixels onto the screen, and setting a flag if a pixel is turned off. My code is as follows:

_DXYN: function(X, Y, N) {
    console.log("_DXYN");

    for (var i = 0; i < N; i++) {
        for (var j = 0; j < 8; j++) {
            var bitBefore = graphics[(i + cpu.registers.V[Y]) * 64 + j + cpu.registers.V[X]];
            var bitAfter = bitBefore ^ cpu.getBits(memory[cpu.registers.I + i])[j];
            graphics[(i + cpu.registers.V[Y]) * 64 + j + cpu.registers.V[X]] = bitAfter;

            if ((bitBefore != bitAfter) && bitBefore == 1)
                cpu.registers.V[0xF] = 0x1;
            else
                cpu.registers.V[0xF] = 0x0;
        }
    }
}

graphics is a 1-dimensional array of ints, each corresponding to a pixel on the screen. A pixel is on if its corresponding integer in the array is a 1, and off it it is a 0. The cpu object contains all the methods, including this one, as well as the registers. X is the opcode parameter for the register which contains the x coordinate of the sprite to draw, and Y is the opcode parameter for the register with the y coordinate. The I register is the location in memory to read from. The cpu.getBits function is as follows:

getBits: function(opcode) {
    var bits = [];
    for (var i = 0; i < 8; i++) {
        bits.push((opcode >> i) & 1)
    }
    return bits.reverse();
}

The complete code can be found on github here: https://github.com/ichub/Chip8 Look in chip8cpu.js for the implementation.

Collisions didn't work. I downloaded a breakout rom, and played it, and there was no reaction to collisions. Everything else played fine, but nothing collided. — Ivan Chub, May 15 '13 at 00:22

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered May 15 '13 at 03:03

I found this website : http://www.multigesture.net/articles/how-to-write-an-emulator-chip-8-interpreter which explains in detail how to write a Chip-8 interpreter. From that and the Wikipedia aticle on CHIP-8 I think that your routine should be the following:

_DXYN: function(X, Y, N) {
    console.log("_DXYN");

    cpu.registers.V[0xF] = 0x0;
    for (var i = 0; i < N; i++) { // rows of the sprite
        for (var j = 0; j < 8; j++) {
            var bitBefore = graphics[(i + cpu.registers.V[Y]) * 64 + j + 
                            cpu.registers.V[X]];
            var bitAfter = bitBefore ^ cpu.getBits(memory[cpu.registers.I + i])[j];
            graphics[(i + cpu.registers.V[Y]) * 64 + j + cpu.registers.V[X]] = bitAfter;

            if ((bitBefore != bitAfter) && bitBefore == 1)
                cpu.registers.V[0xF] = 0x1;
        }
    }
}

In your routine you are VF is cleared at each pixel if there is no collision so its value depends solely on the last pixel drawn. You should clear VF before starting to draw, and set it only when there is a collision.

Collision detection on chip8 emulator

1 Answers1