Command Modifier
Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2016 8:30 pm
Alright, so some of the most time consuming gripes I've seen and heard of in Famitracker involve having to repeat a process several times, whether it's to copy-paste a frame or wave column, or to retry an effect's timing to get it just right. I think a handy way of handling that could be to add another command to modulate an effect so it happens exactly the number of times you want it to. For example, the BXX command will loop the song, but by using it to loop back, nothing whatsoever that comes after BXX can be used. if you were to add another column like the volume column after each effects column, or add another effect entirely, to operate on the effect in the row and have it repeat only a set number of times, you could establish a first/second/etc. ending ability. that'd cut back on a lot of copy-paste. This could also be done for commands like 4XX to only oscillate for a set number of rows before levelling out, or 1XX or 2XX to stop the pitch modulation on a specific beat, rather than the unspecific art of guessing and playing around with where 100 or 200 would be. there are probably some other places you could use it, but I'm pretty sure you get the idea. If the note column is the noun, and the effects column is the verb, then the new function or column would be a quantitative adverb. Coding-wise, this should be as simple as allowing to set the outside index of a nested for loop where the inner part of the loop would be the initial effect. Hardware-wise, on the other hand, I have no idea. it would probably drop performance a little bit, but that's all I can think of unless the Famicom hardware can't support it. which is also possible.