ZX Evo panel¶

The ZX Evo panel in its own window, on TSConf

Tabs - the pages of the panel; which there are depends on the machine.
Layers hidden - shown while a TSConf layer is kept out of the picture.
Show in its own window - moves the panel into the ZX Evolution window; in this picture the button is pressed in, as the panel is in the window.
Show - the six layer switches of TSConf.
Register list - the registers in groups, each with what it means.

The pictures show the panel in its own window, with Uwol: Quest for Money (The Mojon Twins, TSConf version by Blade and Shiru) on its first level, and layer S2 switched off.

The ZX Evo panel shows what the video and memory hardware of a ZX Evolution is set to. It is there only on the ZX Evolution (TSConf) and ZX Evolution (BaseConf) machines, on a tab beside Breakpoints. Its tab shows the NedoPC logo, and its title bar says ZX Evo.

Machine	Tabs
ZX Evolution (TSConf)	Registers, Sprites, Tiles, Palette, DMA
ZX Evolution (BaseConf)	Ports, Palette

In the lists of registers a value that changed since the last step is in the Changed color, as in the CPU panel.

Right-click a list of registers, or its header, and choose In words or Field names. In words says in the last column, Means, what a value sets. Field names names the bit fields instead, the way the TSConf and BaseConf documents name them, for example VM=ZX RRES=256x192, and the column is called Fields. The choice applies to every list of the panel and is remembered for the next time.

The Registers tab¶

The Registers tab lists the TSConf registers, the ones a program sets through the ports that end in AF. They are in five groups: Video, Tiles and sprites, Memory, System and DMA.

Column	What it shows
Port	the port the register is written through, such as `00AF`
Register	the name of the register, such as VConfig
Value	the value, in hex
Means	what the value sets

Some registers, such as VConfig, VPage, PalSel and GXOffs, take a new value only at the start of the next line. While a new value waits, Value shows the value in use and the value that comes next, as in 00 > 01, and Means describes the value that comes next.

FMAddr in the Memory group gives where the three parts of the FMAPS window start: CRAM, SFILE and the registers. The dump marks the same bytes: see The FMAPS window on TSConf.

The DMA group is the same as at the top of the DMA tab: see The DMA tab.

Hiding layers¶

TSConf builds its picture from six layers. The switches in the Show row at the top of the Registers tab hide each layer and show it again:

Switch	Layer
S0	the sprites under tile layer 0
T0	tile layer 0
S1	the sprites between the tile layers
T1	tile layer 1
S2	the sprites over both tile layers
Bitmap	the bitmap screen

Use them to find which layer draws something on the screen, or to see what a layer covers.

A switch changes only what you see. The program runs exactly as before, with the same timing and the same memory, whether a layer is hidden or not.

While the machine runs, the change shows from the next line on. While the machine is stopped in the Debugger, the main window draws the frame again at once with the layers as they are now set, as far as the machine had drawn it.

To draw the frame again, the machine runs it once more from a snapshot taken at its start. When that cannot be done, a note under the switches says why: Shown from the next frame: followed by the reason, such as the tape or a disk command is running or an RZX is playing or recording. The layers then change when the machine runs again. These snapshots are taken only after the Debugger or the ZX Evolution window has been open on TSConf once, so at the first stop there may be none yet: the reason is then no snapshot of the frame before.

While any layer is hidden, Layers hidden shows at the top of the panel, on every tab. The layers stay hidden after you close the Debugger, until you tick them again.

The Sprites tab¶

The Sprites tab

The Sprites tab lists the 85 sprites of TSConf, a row each.

Column	What it shows
#	the number of the sprite, 0 to 84
Layer	the layer it is on: S0, S1 or S2; `-` after the third layer has ended
X, Y	where it is, in dots
Size	its width and height in dots, such as `16x16`
Tile	the number of its tile in the sprite graphics
Pal	the palette row its colors come from, 0 to 15
Flags	`ACT` active; `XF`, `YF` flipped across or down; `LEAP` the next sprite is on the next layer

A sprite that is not drawn, because it is not active or comes after the third layer, is grayed. Active only, ticked by default, leaves the sprites that are not active out of the list.

Click a sprite to see it under the list, in the colors it has now and as large as the room allows. The dots that are transparent show a checker. Beside the sprite are its size and place, the row and column of its tile in the sprite graphics page, and the colors of its palette row. Drag the line between the list and the sprite to change how much room each gets.

The Tiles tab¶

The Tiles tab

The Tiles tab draws a tile map or a page of tile graphics, 512 x 512 dots: 64 x 64 tiles of 8 x 8 dots. Choose what it draws in the list at the top left:

Map, layer 0 and Map, layer 1 - the tile map of a tile layer, drawn with its tiles and colors. A box in the Header color outlines the part of the map the picture shows. Where that part runs past an edge of the map it goes on at the other edge, so the box can be in two or four pieces.
Graphics - a page of tile graphics with all its 4096 tiles in order. Page is the RAM page it starts at, in hex; its arrows step by 8, the length of a graphics page. Palette is the palette row the tiles are drawn with, 0 to 15. Both are grayed out while a map is shown.

T0G, T1G and SG switch to Graphics and set Page to the page that T0GPage, T1GPage or SGPage points at.

A checker shows where nothing is drawn: a dot of color 0, which is transparent, and on a map a cell with tile 0 on a layer that does not draw tile 0.

Move the mouse over the picture to see the cell or the tile under it in the column on the right. For a map:

Row	What it shows
TMPage	the page the tile maps are in
Cell	the cell, across and down, 0 to 63
Address	where the cell’s entry is: page and offset, in hex
Entry	the entry, in hex
Tile	the tile it holds
Row, Column	where that tile is in the graphics page
Colors	the 16 colors the cell is drawn with, such as `10..1F`
Flip	`XF`, `YF`, or `-` when the tile is not flipped
Hole	yes when the cell is not drawn and the layer under it shows through

For a graphics page the column shows the Page, the Tile with its Row and Column, the Address of the tile’s first line, and the Line step: the bytes from one line of a tile to the next, in hex.

The Palette tab¶

On TSConf the Palette tab shows the 256 colors of the palette memory, 16 to a row. The rows are named by their first color, 00 to F0, and the columns 0 to F. On BaseConf it shows the 16 palette cells in one row.

The columns B, T0, T1 and S on the right of the TSConf grid mark the rows that the bitmap, tile layer 0, tile layer 1 and the sprites take their colors from now. The color of the border is framed with a dashed line.

Move the mouse over a color to see it in the column beside the grid. Click a color to keep it there while the mouse is elsewhere; it is framed in white and black.

Row	What it shows
Index	the number of the color, in hex
CRAM	on TSConf, its address in the palette memory
Word	on TSConf, the word that holds it, in hex
#FF	on BaseConf, the byte written for this cell through port FF
R, G, B	the red, green and blue levels
VDAC_MODE	on TSConf, the top bit of the word
RGB	the color as it is shown, in hex
Used by	the layers whose row it is in, and border for the border color

On TSConf the levels go from 0 to 31. As the note under the grid says, with VDAC_MODE 0 a level is at full brightness from 24 on.

The DMA tab¶

The DMA tab shows the DMA of TSConf, which copies memory and fills it without the CPU. At the top are its registers:

Register	What it shows
DMASAddr, DMADAddr	the source and the destination: page and offset, in hex
DMALen	the length of a burst, in words
DMANum	the number of bursts
DMACtrl	the kind of transfer, such as `RAM > RAM` or `RAM > CRAM`, and its options
DMAStatus	running or idle
Source now, Dest now, Done	while a transfer runs, how far it has got

The address registers get their new values only when a transfer ends, so while one runs, Source now and Dest now show where it is and Done which burst and word it is at.

Under them, Started this frame and the last lists each transfer the program started in the frame the machine is in and in the frame before:

Column	What it shows
Frame	this or last
Line:dot	where the beam was when it started
Transfer	the kind of transfer
From, To	the source and the destination: page and offset, in hex
Size	words per burst x bursts, such as `256 x 4`
Took	how long it took, in T-states and in lines; running while it is not done; cut short when the program started the next transfer before it ended

Use it to see when a program moves its graphics during the frame, and how long it takes.

The Ports tab¶

On BaseConf the Ports tab shows the ports that set the memory and the screen, in four groups:

Ports - 7FFD, EFF7, 77 and BF, each with what it sets.
Windows - the four 16K windows of the CPU’s memory, #0000 to #C000, with the RAM or ROM page in each.
Pager - the eight pager registers, two for each window, written through ports 0FF7, 4FF7, 8FF7 and CFF7. One of each pair is used while the ROM signal is off (ROM=0), the other while it is on (ROM=1); a * marks the ones in use now.
System - the DOS and NMI state, the CPU clock, the trap address, the border color, the virtual drives and ports 2F, 4F, 6F and 8F.

The ZX Evolution window¶

The button at the top right of the panel, Show in its own window, moves the panel into a window of its own, ZX Evolution. In the window the button is pressed in; click it again, or close the window, to put the panel back in the Debugger. While the panel is out, its tab in the Debugger says so, with a Bring it back button. Unlike the Screen and Sound Chips windows, this one has no command in the Tools menu.

The window works without the Debugger: it follows the machine while the machine runs, once a frame (in fast mode, once in ten frames), and its layer switches work as in the panel. The window keeps its place and size, and a window that was open when you quit opens again at the next start. On a machine that is not a ZX Evolution it shows Nothing to show on this machine.