My Dreamcast Port, Openal & 'hello Triangle'

[TheGoodDoktor]

Hi all

I posted a topic a few weeks back about porting an old Dreamcast game to the Pandora.
Since then my initial phase has gone well, I have a working playable version of the game which uses SDL for controls & startup, OpenGL for 3D graphics and OpenAL for audio. I have this running on PC & Mac.
I was wondering if there were plans to port OpenAL to the Pandora by any of the principle developers. I think it would be a good idea as I believe a lot of projects use it and after initially using SDL Mixer I found OpenAL far more suited to my purposes.
Based on feedback I received (thanks guys) I've made sure that my GL code is all glDrawArray & using vertex buffer objects with no glBegin or glEnd usage anywhere, hopefully this will make it easy to port to ES.
What I'm really looking for now is a 'Hello Triangle' example for the Pandora that I can use as a basis for the conversion. Are there any suitable examples available? I've looked around and all I've found have been hardware docs & links to coding tools.
I also wondered if there was any merit in doing a PC Linux port of what I have.
Unless there is something big I'm overlooking I think a Pandora port should be pretty smooth going.

Cheers,
TheGoodDoktor

 

[Zoxc]

http://www.imgtec.com/powervr/insider/sdk/...enGLES2xSGX.asp

This should get you started

 

[Svartalf]

I have this running on PC & Mac.
I was wondering if there were plans to port OpenAL to the Pandora by any of the principle developers. I think it would be a good idea as I believe a lot of projects use it and after initially using SDL Mixer I found OpenAL far more suited to my purposes.

At least part of my planned port projects use OpenAL and I've gotten a cross-compile of OpenAL-Soft working within my build-chain for x86 Linux targets. Once I get Bandits: Phoenix Rising finished (I've got sound "working" again, but it's not playing things right so I've got more cleanups to do on it than I'd thought...) I'll work on a package for people.

QUOTE

I also wondered if there was any merit in doing a PC Linux port of what I have.



Very definitely.

 

[Adventus]

Thanks Svartalf. I also need it for my port of GemRB.

 

[icurafu]

I can't remember if you were going tomake it ommercial or not.

If not, windows ans linux port would be great. If so, talk to distributors about getting the game on places like LPP for the linux version and maybe penny arcade's shop site for independent publishers.

Will you be retro fitting the graphics code? And will you be able to use the entire 256MB or RAM?

I'm very interested in this project ofcourse.

 

[Julius]

Just to link it:

http://www.playgreenhouse.com/

Sort of like Steam, but with multiplatform support, and aimed at indi developers.

 

[TheGoodDoktor]

I can't remember if you were going tomake it ommercial or not.

If not, windows ans linux port would be great. If so, talk to distributors about getting the game on places like LPP for the linux version and maybe penny arcade's shop site for independent publishers.

Will you be retro fitting the graphics code? And will you be able to use the entire 256MB or RAM?

I'm very interested in this project ofcourse.

It won't be commercial, this is a hobby project with no intention of making money. The idea of the Linux port was to get something as close as possible to native Pandora development.
At the moment I'm just aiming to get the game actually working on the Pandora, after that there might be the possibility of enhancements.

 

[icurafu]

you're a saint.

I'm looking forward to see an acclaimed dreamcast game on the Pandora.

 

[ldesnogu]

What I'm really looking for now is a 'Hello Triangle' example for the Pandora that I can use as a basis for the conversion.

http://www.webreference.com/programming/opengl_es/

And do yourself a favour, buy the book from which this is extracted

 

[Svartalf]

And do yourself a favour, buy the book from which this is extracted

I will have to concur. All the Addison Wesley books on OpenGL are very much worth the trouble.

[edit]
Since Laurent didn't provide a good lead that I can tell for said book: A link to Amazon for the title...

 

[TheGoodDoktor]

Thanks for the replies.
I was actually thinking of a 'Hello triangle' example for the Pandora itself rather than OpenGL ES. Basically something that builds to a pandora exe using the established build environment. If the dev tools aren't at this stage then fair enough. I'd just like to get an idea of the full dev picture.
Those links were very useful though and it appears I still have some GL ground to cover as my GL code is for the fixed function pipeline.
Has anyone managed to get the ES emulator working on an Intel GMA-945? There seem to be indications on the ImgTech website that this won't work. Also what kind of polygon performance does the emulator give?

Thanks in advance,
TheGoodDoktor.

 

[Zoxc]

The emulator simply wraps ES 2.0 to OpenGL 2.0 so the performance depends on your graphic card.

The OpenGL emulator won't work on Intel GMA 945. I'm wondering if you can get it working with Mesa 3D however...

 

[dentrado]

[...]
Those links were very useful though and it appears I still have some GL ground to cover as my GL code is for the fixed function pipeline.
[...]

then maybe it is easier to use ES 1.1 ?

 

[icurafu]

That's rightg. GMA 950 only supports OpenGL 1.4.

Maybe someone has an OpenGL card laying around. I'd be glaqd to donate a card to you if you couldn't get your hands on one. However, the one that I have is ATI, which the wrapper has issues with.

If you mentioned you were porting a top DC game for free in the general section and needed a few donations for a lowend geforce OpenGL 2.0 add-in card, I'm sure you would have no trouble.

(Then again, maybe you're a laptop user.)

 

[TheGoodDoktor]

That's rightg. GMA 950 only supports OpenGL 1.4.

Maybe someone has an OpenGL card laying around. I'd be glaqd to donate a card to you if you couldn't get your hands on one. However, the one that I have is ATI, which the wrapper has issues with.

If you mentioned you were porting a top DC game for free in the general section and needed a few donations for a lowend geforce OpenGL 2.0 add-in card, I'm sure you would have no trouble.

(Then again, maybe you're a laptop user.)

I'm developing this on my MacBook so I don't really have a choice when it comes to graphics card.
I've had a look at the ES 1.1 specs and my game doesn't need any more than this so I'm going to do an ES 1.1 version. I think this will be a good thing to have anyway as it might be possible to do an iPhone version (performance permitting) as well as a version for other devices. It also brings me closer to a ES2.0 version.
Donations are not necessary as ultimately I can get access to any equipment I need quite easily. Maybe later down the line when I've sorted out any legal issues I might need other devs to lend a hand as I have a very limited amount of time (2-3 hours a week) to work on this.

Cheers,
TheGoodDoktor

 

[darkblu]

latest gma950 xp drivers have gl2
http://downloadmirror.intel.com/16944/eng/...s_2k_xp_gfx.htm

additionally, gma950 has had gl2 support under osx for quite some time now, iirc. not that it helps you with the sgx emulator, but just FYI.

 

[Svartalf]

Maybe later down the line when I've sorted out any legal issues I might need other devs to lend a hand as I have a very limited amount of time (2-3 hours a week) to work on this.

Please let us all know if you need a hand on things. I'm all too familiar with the 2-3 hours a week (Nearly there myself because of several other projects...) and even a couple of shoves in the right direction are often very welcome.