GFX/audio questions

[Remdul]

Hi,

I have some interest in finishing and porting one of my spare time hobby project for this platform. (FYI, it is a simple 3d WWII 3rd person action game, mainly inspired by the Medal Of Honor series.)
I'm not to familiar with Pandora (in fact I only read about it on /. the other day) but this is the first time I've come across an open 'homebrew' device with appealing hardware specs. My questions:

About graphic hardware/GL ES:
1) Is any specific amount of memory reserved as VRAM?
2) Is this VRAM shared, that is, do textures get moved around a lot (from RAM to VRAM) when they are bound/accessed in the same way this typically happens on regular PC platforms (i.e. is this a significant performance consideration to take in account?)
3) How much memory is typically available for any given application, assuming typical OS memory usage and perhaps some minor user-apps?

About audio:
I haven't been able to find much about sound hardware/software.
4) What kind of audio API is available? I suppose there's ALSA? If so, any chance OpenAL-Soft (http://kcat.strangesoft.net/openal.html) can be used on this platform? (I highly recommend this be included in a SDK!)
5) What kind of output? Stereo I presume?

On a side note (and I may be running a bit wild here): 6) is there going to be some sort of central website/store/whatever where developers can exchange/publish & sell their software? I think there's a lot of potential for independent game developers if the hardware lives up to the expectations. Or am I thinking to big?

Thanks.

 

[bakawhite]

check the hardware board. search the forum. then come back here. these questions and more have already been asked. now you're gonna get your topic moved when the mods see you.

 

[Remdul]

Sorry, but I searched before I posted and did not find sufficiently clear answers to my questions.

 

[Chip]

The Pandora has 128MB DDR SDRAM which is shared between system and VRAM. You can allocate the memory however you see fit. The amount of memory available depends on which OS / UI / whatever else the user has running, but the default OS / UI / window manager setup is very minimal. I don't have a dev board to check, but I'd be surprised if it's using more than 10MB. You can drop out of the window manager and work with the framebuffer directly if you need those few extra MB. If that's not enough, swap memory is always an option.

I do not have specific information on the sound hardware. The first video with working sound output was only posted a week ago, so the sound drivers may still be under construction.

At the very least, there is a file archive for Pandora software here. More accurately, there will be one once ED finishes moving it to the new server. There has been some work on a more advanced APT-like installer, but I do not know if it will be ready for launch. If not, expect it shortly thereafter.

 

[MartinStatic]

Shweet...nice post there, Chip.
Really is a wonder machine. The virtual memory capability mentioned was pretty cool too.

 

[Remdul]

Sounds good. I think that answers most of my questions for now (or at gives a better idea what to expect). I'll wait and see what more info pops up over time.

Thanks!

 

[PAH]

There are 3 kinds of people in this world;
Those who can count, and those who can't.

Actually there are 10 kinds of people in the world... those who understand binary, and those who don't.