Hardware Limits
The ZX Spectrum Next’s capacity for tiles and sprite patterns, and what Block’Ed does with it.
Block’Ed sets no limit on the number of tiles or sprite patterns a document holds. A document can hold more than the Next loads at once; choosing which to load is left to the program that uses them.
Capacity
| Kind | Capacity on the Next |
|---|---|
| 4-bit tiles | 256, or 512 with NextReg $6B bit 1 set |
| 8-bit sprite patterns | 64, in 16K of pattern memory |
| 4-bit sprite patterns | 128, in 16K of pattern memory |
The Patterns line of the Import Image sheet counts what an import produces against these figures; see Importing Images.
A pattern count is in hardware units. A 16 × 16 tile is four 8 × 8 tiles, and a 32 × 32 sprite is four 16 × 16 patterns.
Banks
A 4-bit tile or sprite pattern displays through one of 16 banks of 16 palette entries, chosen by its palette offset. A 4-bit document holds each pattern’s bank; the tile and sprite exports write the patterns without them. See Exporting.