Caanoo - The New Gph Console?


Peter R said:
The had more or less final Wiz systems for quite sometime before they released the console also. Mine only seems to differ from the retail models in the finishing on the plastic.

What, no sparklies?!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
quote said:
glezmen said:
whoooooaaaa, I won a Caanoo :eek:
Are you Seth? Congrats :) .

nope :)
Facbook Quiz

i'm curious about the analogue joy compared to the Wiz d-pad, which is far from perfect (playing for example Tekken is quite stressing, many times the console behaves like i pressed other buttons).
it must be interesting to play action games with the stick...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
It's nice that you won, but I'll stand by what I said; I really think that Caanoos should be given to devs instead :).
Maybe ED can organise something with GPH?
 
i'm a dev :D
ok, not too active, i only have two (unfinished but playable) games
and i'm planning a new user interface for WIZ/Caanoo, ad the analogue stick would be excellent for this stuff (zero time for my hobby projects :( but getting the Caanoo is a very good reason to continue development :D)
 
Actually I need to get in touch with Ruckage. I promised GPH I would ask him if he'd port some of his stellar games onto the Caanoo (just a bit of optimization) the GPH director said he might be able to work out a dev unit for him.
 
Just out of curiosity, what does "port to Caanoo" mean? Assuming that the games are on Wiz already. What would need to be optimized?
 
Exophase said:
Just out of curiosity, what does "port to Caanoo" mean? Assuming that the games are on Wiz already. What would need to be optimized?

my initial guess was add support for the analog stick
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Pickle said:
my initial guess was add support for the analog stick

By that I hope you mean "improve support for the analog stick", since it's supposed to be compatible with Wiz software (I still have doubts on screen related issues). I'm not directly familiar with the games in question, are these all ones that can benefit from analog, ie aren't just 8-way move the person/object around?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Exophase said:
Pickle said:
my initial guess was add support for the analog stick

By that I hope you mean "improve support for the analog stick", since it's supposed to be compatible with Wiz software (I still have doubts on screen related issues). I'm not directly familiar with the games in question, are these all ones that can benefit from analog, ie aren't just 8-way move the person/object around?

maybe i missed it but i havnt seen anything that has convinced me the new analog stick will just work with existing software (if you know here that was confirmed, point me to it)
all the ruckage games use fenix, so if fenix just works with the new stick (produces 4 or 8 directions events) then nothing should have to change in the games.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
When I mentioned optimizing, I meant that the colours will be different because of the different screen types. Also the resolution could be modified, so it fits the Caanoos new screen size rather than being scaled up. Little modifications really.
 
Nova said:
When I mentioned optimizing, I meant that the colours will be different because of the different screen types.
huh, i havnt heard of anyone adapting programs according to the screen type. Im a bit confused on this one.

Nova said:
Also the resolution could be modified, so it fits the Caanoos new screen size rather than being scaled up. Little modifications really.

what? caanoo has 320x240 still, just a larger screen size. No need to change a thing.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I'm pretty sure Tony Han has said full compatibility in an interview, but I can't give you an exact source right now :( (but I bet quote or Nova can) ED said "almost" 100% compatible,

Of course if they really did say it they could be pulling our leg a bit, or maybe they're not familiar with how a lot of Wiz software works. Or they could be pretending that all of the existing homebrew doesn't exist, and are just talking about commercial games and software they officially released. GPH might really think everyone is using SDL since they tried to tackle the screen issues in it. Mind, I'm not accusing them of any of these things, just saying what the situation could be.

Let's be exhaustive now...

These are the possibilities on control compatibility:
- No compatibility at all. All software will have to change.
- Compatibility at user space library level like SDL, so key events are emulated with analog. Software not using these libraries or statically linking to them will have to change.
- Compatibility in kernel, so /dev/gpio state is emulated to reflect Wiz dpad. Software not using the kernel interface will have to change.. I don't know if the libraries use it or not.
- Compatibility in hardware, so that some circuit (analog comparators for instance) is hooked up to the same GPIOs as on Wiz to make the dpad values show up.

These are the possibilities on screen compatibility:
- No compatibility for games using 240x320. Things using 320x240 hopefully still work. Some games/emulators use 320x240 and tear, others use 240x320 and don't.
- Compatibility at library level like above.. we've already seen this for Wiz; maybe also GPH will have learned to implement it so it's not extremely slow.. if not this is a problem (I wonder if this is what the optimization request is about...) Because of this a lot of games used 240x320 directly by not using SDL or using a hacked one. Those games wouldn't work here.
- Compatibility in hardware due to using a 240x320 LCD with a 320x240 mode. This will probably have the diagonal tearing issue in 320x240 mode like Wiz, unless they store an entire framebuffer on the LCD (very unlikely)
- Compatibility in hardware due to using a 320x240 LCD with a 240x320 mode. This would probably have diagonal tearing now in the mode games/emulators had to use to avoid tearing.. which uh, would be pretty sad and hilarious.

Having a 240x320 LCD with the same flawed 320x240 mode as Wiz is probably the least damaging option for them. But I think that this isn't what's going to happen because they're more likely to reuse the LCD they've been using on GP2X/Vocamaster. So I think we're going to see some issues here, definitely more than a small percentage of games...

Hopefully Nova gets his review unit soon and can tell us. Assuming he tests all the popular Wiz software.
 
I just got my review unit today.
Can't say much about compatibility yet (I doubt they have included anything like that except for a compiled OABI_Compat-Kernel), but with a chroot and a WIZ firmware, it should be possible :)
I'll try.

So far the unit isn't bad. Didn't try much yet and will do some videos.

The LCD has nice colors and seems better than the GP2X one. It's a 320x240, so no tearing.
One thing that's weird is that the frame covers a bit of the visible area of the LCD... so you don't see 320x240 but a slightly smaller area.
Doubt it'll hurt much, but it was weird seeing the MAME menu cut off :)

Boot time is really nice and fast, speakers are loud and sound good - though they sound way better if you turn the unit around (as said, they're on the back).
The software itself is nicely presented and polished. It sure is a device less for the hacker but more for the casual gamer who wants to also watch videos, etc.

The analogue control is good. For classic games, a DPad certainly is better, but the GP2X Stick also was way worse than the analogue controller.

So much for now, will do some videos and tests later.
 
Pickle said:
Nova said:
When I mentioned optimizing, I meant that the colours will be different because of the different screen types.
huh, i havnt heard of anyone adapting programs according to the screen type. Im a bit confused on this one.

I just figured the contrast and colours are all going to look different on a non OLED screen.


Exophase said:
I'm pretty sure Tony Han has said full compatibility in an interview, but I can't give you an exact source right now :( (but I bet quote or Nova can) ED said "almost" 100% compatible,

Of course if they really did say it they could be pulling our leg a bit, or maybe they're not familiar with how a lot of Wiz software works. Or they could be pretending that all of the existing homebrew doesn't exist, and are just talking about commercial games and software they officially released. GPH might really think everyone is using SDL since they tried to tackle the screen issues in it. Mind, I'm not accusing them of any of these things, just saying what the situation could be.

Let's be exhaustive now...

These are the possibilities on control compatibility:
- No compatibility at all. All software will have to change.
- Compatibility at user space library level like SDL, so key events are emulated with analog. Software not using these libraries or statically linking to them will have to change.
- Compatibility in kernel, so /dev/gpio state is emulated to reflect Wiz dpad. Software not using the kernel interface will have to change.. I don't know if the libraries use it or not.
- Compatibility in hardware, so that some circuit (analog comparators for instance) is hooked up to the same GPIOs as on Wiz to make the dpad values show up.

These are the possibilities on screen compatibility:
- No compatibility for games using 240x320. Things using 320x240 hopefully still work. Some games/emulators use 320x240 and tear, others use 240x320 and don't.
- Compatibility at library level like above.. we've already seen this for Wiz; maybe also GPH will have learned to implement it so it's not extremely slow.. if not this is a problem (I wonder if this is what the optimization request is about...) Because of this a lot of games used 240x320 directly by not using SDL or using a hacked one. Those games wouldn't work here.
- Compatibility in hardware due to using a 240x320 LCD with a 320x240 mode. This will probably have the diagonal tearing issue in 320x240 mode like Wiz, unless they store an entire framebuffer on the LCD (very unlikely)
- Compatibility in hardware due to using a 320x240 LCD with a 240x320 mode. This would probably have diagonal tearing now in the mode games/emulators had to use to avoid tearing.. which uh, would be pretty sad and hilarious.

Having a 240x320 LCD with the same flawed 320x240 mode as Wiz is probably the least damaging option for them. But I think that this isn't what's going to happen because they're more likely to reuse the LCD they've been using on GP2X/Vocamaster. So I think we're going to see some issues here, definitely more than a small percentage of games...

Hopefully Nova gets his review unit soon and can tell us. Assuming he tests all the popular Wiz software.

Yeah, I believe the words were 100% backwards compatible, with some Caanoo games playable on the Wiz.

And yes, if you guys give me a list of software to test, i'll download it all now in anticipation.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I wouldn't expect to actually be able to use that Wiz firmware ED, I doubt it's going to work with the display being totally different. You should try running actual Wiz software on the included kernel.

Missing some resolution is kind of unsettling... man I shudder to think how DaveC is going to respond to this. It'll be good to know precisely how much is covered..

Nova, could you please test at least these emulators (taken straight from the most downloaded list on OpenHandhelds)

Mame4all
PocketSNES
gpSP
Picodrive
gpfce
GnGeo
lemonboy
psx4all

And if you're feeling charitable Temper, which is way down the list because PC-Engine isn't that popular ;)
 
Nova said:
And yes, if you guys give me a list of software to test, i'll download it all now in anticipation.
Would be great if you could test my Tetris game: http://dl.openhandhelds.org/cgi-bin/wiz.cgi?0,0,0,0,25,407
It's using OpenGL and doesn't run so smooth on the Wiz. When you press the left shoulder button you can see the FPS.
I'm curious how much OpenGL ES performance has increased on the Caanoo.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Jan-Nik said:
Would be great if you could test my Tetris game: http://dl.openhandhe...?0,0,0,0,25,407
It's using OpenGL and doesn't run so smooth on the Wiz. When you press the left shoulder button you can see the FPS.
I'm curious how much OpenGL ES performance has increased on the Caanoo.

If OGL ES performance has improved on Caanoo it'd be purely due to software improvements. In which case I hope they backport the improvements to Wiz.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Back
Top