A sprite's horizontal position (X value) can be at any pixel on the screen from 0 to 447. To be visible, however, an object must be within the boundaries of the playfield display window . In the examples in this chapter, a window with horizontal positions from pixel 64 to pixel 383 is used (that is, each line is 320 pixels long). Larger or smaller windows can be defined as required, but it is recommended that you read the "Playfield Hardware chapter" before attempting to do so. A larger area is actually scanned by the video beam but is not usually visible on the screen. If you specify an X value for a sprite that takes it outside the display window, then part or all of the sprite may not appear on the screen. This is sometimes desirable; such a sprite is said to be " clipped ." To make a sprite appear in its correct on-screen horizontal position in the display window, simply add its left offset to the desired X value. In the example given above, this would involve adding 64 to the X value. For example, to make the upper leftmost pixel of a sprite appear at a position 94 pixels from the left edge of the screen, you would perform this calculation: Desired X position + horizontal-offset of display window ~= 94 + 64 = 158 Thus, 158 becomes the X value, which will be written into the data structure . Counting Pixels. ---------------- The X position represents the location of the very first (leftmost) pixel in the full 16-bit wide sprite. This is always the case, even if the leftmost pixels are specified as transparent and do not appear on the screen. If the sprite shown in Figure 4-2 were located at an X value of 158, the actual image would begin on-screen four pixels later at 162. The first four pixels in this sprite are transparent and allow the background to show through. |-- 4 --| |pixels | _______________________________ |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|#|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_|_|o|#|o|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_|o|o|#|o|o|_|_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|#|#|#|_|#|#|#|_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_|o|o|#|o|o|_|_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_|_|o|#|o|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|#|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| | | |--------- 16 pixels -----------| Figure 4-2: Position of Sprites