Step 7: The Program
I found the programming to be pretty fun. You can try to write it on your own, but of course I will go ahead and upload my program. You can view my program here without download. You can see this program demoed in the video on the first page.
The program has an array that stores the location of the ball and paddles as bytes. Each row of bytes is easily displayed because there are 8 bits in a byte and 8 LEDs per row. The library for the LED driver ICs has a function to display rows of LEDs as binary bytes, so this makes things really easy. The "pong simulator" function I wrote will bit shift the ball around the screen correctly, carry the ball over to a new matrix when needed, and deflect the ball off of the edge of the screen when needed. The ball randomly starts off at a row near the middle of the screen, at a random position and direction.
The analog values from the controllers gets mapped to a value to control where the paddles are located on the screen.
The hardest thing for me was getting the correct reaction when the ball meets the paddle. I wrote a few pages in a notebook coming up with the different scenarios and what I call "special bits" where the ball would need a different bounce off the paddle than normal. This might include bouncing off the wall or carrying over to another matrix. Some stuff I came up with I later found to be wrong or found that my other code would actually take care of it for me. There might still be a bug or two that I have to work out, but for right now I am pretty satisfied with its performance.
There are a few different modes I programmed in. There are two 2 player modes. The difference between them is the paddle width. There is one where the paddle is 3 LEDs wide, and another where the paddle is 2 LEDs wide (this one is obviously harder to play). The game keeps track of score and the first person to 5 points wins. The last mode is a practice, 1 player mode. The player can play against a "wall" of LEDs to practice. The modes are selected at the beginning of the program, when the game is turned on or restarted, by using one of the paddles. You have 3 seconds from after turning the game on or restarting it to choose what mode to play and then the game will begin. A display bar will show you what mode you are currently selecting during the 3 seconds.
Program explanation video:
How the ball bounces off the paddle:
The program has an array that stores the location of the ball and paddles as bytes. Each row of bytes is easily displayed because there are 8 bits in a byte and 8 LEDs per row. The library for the LED driver ICs has a function to display rows of LEDs as binary bytes, so this makes things really easy. The "pong simulator" function I wrote will bit shift the ball around the screen correctly, carry the ball over to a new matrix when needed, and deflect the ball off of the edge of the screen when needed. The ball randomly starts off at a row near the middle of the screen, at a random position and direction.
The analog values from the controllers gets mapped to a value to control where the paddles are located on the screen.
The hardest thing for me was getting the correct reaction when the ball meets the paddle. I wrote a few pages in a notebook coming up with the different scenarios and what I call "special bits" where the ball would need a different bounce off the paddle than normal. This might include bouncing off the wall or carrying over to another matrix. Some stuff I came up with I later found to be wrong or found that my other code would actually take care of it for me. There might still be a bug or two that I have to work out, but for right now I am pretty satisfied with its performance.
There are a few different modes I programmed in. There are two 2 player modes. The difference between them is the paddle width. There is one where the paddle is 3 LEDs wide, and another where the paddle is 2 LEDs wide (this one is obviously harder to play). The game keeps track of score and the first person to 5 points wins. The last mode is a practice, 1 player mode. The player can play against a "wall" of LEDs to practice. The modes are selected at the beginning of the program, when the game is turned on or restarted, by using one of the paddles. You have 3 seconds from after turning the game on or restarting it to choose what mode to play and then the game will begin. A display bar will show you what mode you are currently selecting during the 3 seconds.
Program explanation video:
How the ball bounces off the paddle:
pong_6_8_11.zip5 KB
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