Thanks guys

I cant wait till everything is polished up and you can all try it out, too.
Current BuildDo you have any idea when the next build will be ready to download?
I just uploaded a preview build of the current state if anyone wants to try it out.
DOWNLOAD PREVIEW BUILD: October 4, 2020Keep in mind that this is still pre-beta so there are lots of features missing.
To use it, Load your original Zelda.nes rom into it, choose/randomize a seed, and hit Generate. You can save the generated map out as a rom with the Save As button.
On the Full Map tab, you'll see a message that says "
Column Bytes Uses: XXXX of 1712 | Columns Used: XXX of 256". If you save a rom where either of those values is over their maximum (like, 280 of 256), it'll be a bad rom. Only save if both values are under their threshold.
Also on the Full Map tab, if you change the scale, you have to generate the map again to see it at that scale.
ProgressI designed and built an algorithm for the Dense Forest Biome.



For fun, here's a few overworld shots when I set every Biome to the Dense Forest. I think it looks pretty neat



Also, I built some Decor screens. Basically these are screens with some aesthetics built into the middle to serve as mental landmarks and vary up the environment a bit.
Here are some examples:



Other than these, most of my progress lately has been code-related. General refactoring, taking care of bugs, re-organizing some architecture. Fine tuning the algorithms of Biomes. The invisible stuff.
He's an updated Progress chart:
A Major ConcernDuring the last update, I mentioned how I found more space for screen data, but still had a limitation of 256 columns.
I still have a few Biomes to design, and already I'm over-budget by an average of 20 or so columns.
I don't know what to do about this.
One idea is to take off the Trim. Trim is when you set the edges of rock and water features to edge tiles. Maybe a visual example would help.
No Trim:

Yes Trim:

It's a huge difference, with the main difference being that one looks like trash. I hate it.
But, it does save 50 to 100 columns on average.
So after I design the remaining biomes, I'm going to have to take some serious audits and figure out where all the overhead tends to come from.
I did build a Column viewer, which looks like this:

The white number is the Column ID, and the Yellow number represents how many times that column was used in the whole map. Ideally there shouldn't be too many 1's, and the average should be around 8 uses per column.
If I cant figure this out and stay under budget, I only have a few options:
1. Don't include Trim
2. Figure out some ASM hack or something that'll remove the 256 limit (which is way more advanced than I'm capable of)
3. Let this rot in my "Unfinished Projects" folder and go do something else.
🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️