SGDK Streaming

Keep the art needed for the current picture valid while preparing the next one. Start with the game's renderer, cartridge layout, movement speed and frame budget. The Lab's scenery, page size and loading policy are examples; follow the project's art direction and requirements.

Separate the resources

Distinguish ROM storage, decompression RAM, VRAM tile patterns, tilemap entries, palette banks and queued transfers. Scrolling a tilemap does not automatically make its pattern data resident. Deduplicate shared art before introducing a cache; do not stream identical data separately just because two areas use it.

Reserve the hero, HUD and common effects separately from replaceable area art. Plan a VRAM range that avoids plane tables, fonts and any Sprite-engine arena. A shared ROM definition does not establish shared VRAM ownership.