After deciding how many colors you want and how many bitplanes are required to give you those colors, you tell the system how many bitplanes to use. You select the number of bitplanes by writing the number into the register bplcon0 (for bitplane control register 0) the relevant bits are bits 14, 13, and 12, named BPU2, BPU1, and BPU0 (for "Bitplanes Used"). Table 3-5 shows the values to write to these bits and how the system assigns bitplane numbers. Table 3-5: Setting the Number of Bitplanes Number of Name(s) of Value Bitplanes Bitplanes ----- --------- ---------- 000 None * 001 1 PLANE 1 010 2 PLANES 1 and 2 011 3 PLANES 1 - 3 100 4 PLANES 1 - 4 101 5 PLANES 1 - 5 110 6 PLANES 1 - 6 ** 111 Value not used. * Shows only a background color; no playfield is visible. ** Sixth bitplane is used only in dual-playfield mode and in hold-and-modify mode (described in the section called Advanced Topics. About the bplcon0 register. ---------------------------- The bits in the bplcon0 register cannot be set independently. to set any one bit, you must reload them all. The following example shows how to tell the system to use two low resolution bitplanes. MOVE.W #$2200,bplcon0+custom ; write to it Because register bplcon0 is used for setting other characteristics of the display and the bits are not independently settable, the example above also sets other parameters (all of these parameters are described later in the chapter). * hold-and-modify mode is turned off. * single-playfield mode is set. * composite video color is enabled. (not applicable in all models.) * genlock audio is disabled. * light pen is disabled. * interlaced mode is disabled. * external resynchronization is disabled. (genlock)