Add a draw sprint feature for reducing flicker

README.md

@@ -34,11 +34,33 @@ Emulation speed
 ---------------
 Instructions are run 500 times a second
 
+Draw sprint
+-----------
+To reduce sprite flicker, sipsi-8 can run upto two ticks' worth of cycles
+after a draw call. This is since chip-8 often does drawing in pairs, where
+the first in the pair erases the old sprite and the next one draws it back.
+If they happen on different frames, this results in very back flickering.
+
+To avoid an issue of pairing one sprite's draw to other's erase, a sprint
+is invalidated if it hits a jump, call, or a return.
+
+Games improved by draw sprint:
+* Brix and its descendants
+* UFO
+
+Games unaffected by draw sprint:
+* Pong and Pong2 (Draws are too far from each other)
+* Tetris (Does jumps inbetween)
+* Blitz (Does jumps inbetween. If invalidation upon jump is disabled, ends
+  up pairing wrong draw calls)
+
 Issues
 ------
-* Player sprites tend to flicker. (See e.g. BRIX) Why? Also, this seems to
-  happen in the haxe-chip-8-emulator too, and lowering the FPS doesn't seem
-  to help, which suggests something fishy with the programs
+* Keyboard can't be changed
+* FPS can't be changed
+* Interpreter speed can't be changed
+* Window size can't be changed
+* No error handing on opening a file
 
 Requirements
 ------------

sipsi-8.py

@@ -79,9 +79,14 @@ def step():
 	global delay_timer, sound_timer
 	global keys_pressed, waiting_for_keypress, keypress_arrived
 
+	# Keep track of whether we did a draw or a jump, for the draw
+	# sprint feature
+	did_draw = False
+	did_jump = False
+
 	# Don't execute any code in a waitstate, as it'd only end up
 	# busylooping
-	if waiting_for_keypress and not keypress_arrived: return
+	if waiting_for_keypress and not keypress_arrived: return did_draw, did_jump
 
 	high_byte = ram[ip]
 	ip = (ip + 1) & 0xfff
@@ -100,6 +105,7 @@ def step():
 	# 00EE ret
 	elif high_byte == 0x00 and low_byte == 0xEE:
 		ip = stack.pop()
+		did_jump = True
 
 	# 0nnn call_machine
 	elif high_byte >> 4 == 0:
@@ -109,11 +115,13 @@ def step():
 	# 1nnn jmp nnn
 	elif high_byte >> 4 == 1:
 		ip = ((high_byte & 0xf) << 8) | low_byte
+		did_jump = True
 
 	# 2nnn call nnn
 	elif high_byte >> 4 == 2:
 		stack.append(ip)
 		ip = ((high_byte & 0xf) << 8) | low_byte
+		did_jump = True
 
 	# 3xnn skipeq vx, nn
 	elif high_byte >> 4 == 3:
@@ -216,6 +224,7 @@ def step():
 	elif high_byte >> 4 == 0xB:
 		ip = ((high_byte & 0xf) << 8) | low_byte
 		ip = (ip + data_registers[0]) & 0xfff
+		did_jump = True
 
 	# Cxnn maskedrandom vx, nn
 	elif high_byte >> 4 == 0xC:
@@ -242,6 +251,8 @@ def step():
 		# have yet to find any games that break with it, I'm just
 		# skipping pixels that fall outside the screen.
 
+		did_draw = True
+
 		x_start = data_registers[high_byte & 0xf]
 		y_start = data_registers[low_byte >> 4]
 
@@ -362,6 +373,8 @@ def step():
 	else:
 		print('%03x: Unrecognized!' % (ip-2))
 
+	return did_draw, did_jump
+
 def tick_timers():
 	global delay_timer, sound_timer
 
@@ -391,9 +404,37 @@ def advance_interpreter(dt):
 	tick_timers()
 	
 	while cpu_cycles_to_go >= 1:
-		step()
+		did_draw, _ = step()
 		cpu_cycles_to_go -= 1
 
+		# If we did a draw, run upto two ticks' cycles to reach
+		# the next draw. Chip-8 draws are often paired, an erase
+		# and a draw. If we don't hit both in the same frame, it
+		# will cause flicker.
+		# Since this will put the number of cycles to go below zero
+		# if we run out of our own cycles, on average we will run
+		# the right number of cycles per tick
+		# Also, to avoid pairing draw half of one pair and erase
+		# half of another, the sprint is invalidated by a jump, a
+		# call or a ret
+		if did_draw:
+			#sprint_run_out = True#debg
+			for cycle in range(2*cpu_clock // 60):
+				did_draw, did_jump = step()
+				cpu_cycles_to_go -= 1
+
+				# Exit as soon as we hit the other draw
+				if did_draw:
+					#sprint_run_out = False#debg
+					#print('Sprint succeeded! %i' % cycle)#debg
+					break
+
+				if did_jump:
+					#sprint_run_out = False#debg
+					#print('Sprint failed! (jump) %i' % cycle)#debg
+					break
+			#if sprint_run_out: print('Sprint failed! (ran out)')#debg
+
 	if frames_to_go >= 1:
 		# Only draw the latest frame. This means FPS >60 won't work
 		# but why would you ever want to run chip-8 faster than