Code segmentation guide: Difference between revisions
Added a note about which SDK will be used by the documentation
m (Minor grammar fixing) |
(Added a note about which SDK will be used by the documentation) |
||
| (3 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
[[File:So_your_code_segment_is_over_1MB.png]]
You've been working hard on your Homebrew title, slowly adding in more content, when suddenly you realize that the game's having weird hanging issues related to any new assets that you've just added to your ROM. What gives?
== Why does the Code segment size matter? ==
Line 7:
When the console boots, the [[Initial Program Load]] which is contained in every ROM '''copies the first megabyte (1,048,576 bytes) of code to RAM and executes it'''. This means that if you've been linking your assets directly into your code segment, you can very quickly go past this 1MB limit.
Code by itself usually has a very small memory footprint (
== Where to go from here? ==
These pages are aimed at providing users who are new to embedded systems programming to work around this limitation. It is expected that you have '''a strong understanding of C'''.
Before you do anything, have a brief look over the code of the [https://github.com/n64brew/N64-Codesplit-Tutorial/tree/main/original original sample], as this is our "bad" starting ROM which we will improve upon. As soon as you've done that, look through the following pages (preferably in order):
* [[Splitting assets from code]]▼
Once you have read through those two pages, it is also recommended you look into techniques to split your code. It is preferable that you write your game to support at least one of these methods '''before''' you start adding too much to it, as it might become more challenging to modify such an intricate part of your engine after the fact:▼
* [[Filesystems]]
* [[Data Compression]]
▲
* [[Overlays]]
| |||