My Dreamcast Port, Where Next?


T

TheGoodDoktor

Still Fresh
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Hi

As I've mentioned before I've been working on porting an old Dreamcast game to the Pandora.
What I have now is a working playable version of the game using OpenGL ES 1.1 for graphics, OpenAL for audio & SDL for reading the controls & basic housekeeping. At the moment I'm using the ImgTech OpenGL ES 1.1 emulator tools in XP to run the ES version.
The problem is that I don't really know where to go next. I could keep plugging away at it in its current state and make it more refined. I'd rather get it to a closer state that will work on Pandora, I haven't seen any example code for Pandora anywhere for me to base my make files etc on and I don't know what state development is on it, for example is it possible to build and run OpenGL ES programs for it?
I was thinking of signing up on Craig's thread for development Pandoras but I don't know if its ready for me to port my game over to it yet.
I might be better off waiting till the platform becomes more mature, I'm not sure. I don't the state of things at the moment.
I'm sure some of you are going to say 'why don't you port it to OpenGL ES 2.0' There are 3 reasons why I haven't done this: 1) The game doesn't need anything that ES 1.1 doesn't have. 2) My MacBook's graphics chip isn't good enougth to run the SDK. 3) From what I've read the OMAP & SGX supports ES 1.1 as well as 2.0 so there doesn't seem much point at the moment (maybe a future enhancement!)

Cheers,
TheGoodDoktor
 
TheGoodDoktor said:
I'd rather get it to a closer state that will work on Pandora, I haven't seen any example code for Pandora anywhere for me to base my make files etc on and I don't know what state development is on it, for example is it possible to build and run OpenGL ES programs for it?
Click to expand...
Does it run on x86 that way? If so, you should be really close (Wouldn't mind seeing it...) I'm not sure what the status was on the ImgTec drivers and I was going to ask here shortly now that I've got a rev2 board at my disposal. I'll at least PM you on what the word is...

QUOTE

I was thinking of signing up on Craig's thread for development Pandoras but I don't know if its ready for me to port my game over to it yet.



If you're up and running on Linux-x86 with ES, etc. you are close enough to rate asking for one and joining in on the fun with the rest of the devboard holders. Between yourself, myself, and the fencepost, a DC title of the right type rates as well as some LGP and other titles and you should be able to get access to the NDA-only version if the FOSS friendly one isn't ready yet. If it were me, I'd ask.
 
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It's a Dreamcast game done by you? I'm curious, could you give us a bit more details? How old it is? :)
 
timofonic said:
It's a Dreamcast game done by you? I'm curious, could you give us a bit more details? How old it is? :)
Click to expand...
Go dredging back through the threads a bit... He's got access to one of the top rated by Metacritic DC titles- all he'll say at this time since the source access and publication rights access are complete different beasties in many cases on console and PC game titles. I believe he's got source access, but hasn't gotten concrete publication rights signoff yet.
 
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mali said:
Sorry to disturb, but that's not, what Craig said. Driver development isn't dependent on ImgTech having a Pandora dev-board.
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Heh... What Craig said was that they'd asked for one of the boards in the past so they knew about us.

Driver support isn't dependent on a board being in their hands. It's dependent on ImgTec making a final cut on the drivers that can be made available to the public. Right now you'd have to sign away your first and second born in blood through an NDA just to get drivers. They're doing it that way for several reasons. I'm about to do the signing here shortly once I get my firmware tasks out of the way- if they don't have the drivers in a publicly available form by then. :D
 
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mali said:
MDave said:
By what craig said today in the general discussion forum section, they (ImgTec) have yet to receive a pandora devkit to work on the driver.


Sorry to disturb, but that's not, what Craig said. Driver development isn't dependent on ImgTech having a Pandora dev-board.


Ah I see, it's how I interpreted it for why they want a dev board. Either way, we quite possibly still have to wait until the 3D / 2D hardware acceleration is available to use when we get our pandora's?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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icurafu said:
Anyone with a bit of "skillz" can deduce the name of the game. ^^
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I'm sure they can! No one has yet though.
I'm really waiting now for a the SGX drivers to be available for the Pandora as I have the game running on ES using the ImgTec emulator. There's no way the game will run without them.
Enquiries are underway about the rights, the chances are that we will be able to release it but under a different name.
 
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TheGoodDoktor said:
I'm sure they can! No one has yet though.
Click to expand...
Heh... I'm too busy trying to get notaz' work into the build process for making our own Angstrom branch to be playing guessing games. It'll be available to us soon enough if the rights are given.

QUOTE

I'm really waiting now for a the SGX drivers to be available for the Pandora as I have the game running on ES using the ImgTec emulator. There's no way the game will run without them.



Apparently the GPL driver shim is available now from the Beagle and Maemo source sets (Thanks to Nokia...while some of their management may not "get it", the whole seems to...)- I'll be looking into this this evening when I get back where I can start my work on the Angstrom stuff again. If it's usable by us as an Angstrom bitbake friendly patch or can be merged into our branch of the kernel tree, we're close to having the support in hand, I suspect.

QUOTE

Enquiries are underway about the rights, the chances are that we will be able to release it but under a different name.



Figured we wouldn't see the name being the same- it'd be...unusual...to see a publisher or studio actually allow that to happen without them getting their cut of things.
 
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icurafu said:
If I knew you wouldn't mind, I would publicly guess.

It's not so hard with a bit of deduction and google stalking.
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/me nodnods... I just don't have the bandwidth to do the little bit of google stalking... ;)
 
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Oh we can't guess out loud? I searched for the good doctor and dreamcast and something came up, but it certainly doesn't seem right.
 
icurafu said:
Anyone with a bit of "skillz" can deduce the name of the game. ^^
Click to expand...
Kudos icurafu, kudos. Fur a minute there I was a little put off that I couldn't get what you were implying.
 
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Phawx said:
Oh we can't guess out loud? I searched for the good doctor and dreamcast and something came up, but it certainly doesn't seem right.
Click to expand...
Try a bit harder. It took all of two to three minutes to figure out the specific Google query to find our esteemed colleague that would genuinely have access to a top Dreamcast title and the pull to get rights to at least a remix on at least Pandora.

You lot dropping all the hints should be ashamed of yourselves... But I concur with you- it's very likely to be that game...and I can't wait to see it live again. ;) Moreover, I suspect if he DOES get the rights it's going to be one of those showcase titles for the Pandora.
 
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Svartalf said:
Phawx said:
Oh we can't guess out loud? I searched for the good doctor and dreamcast and something came up, but it certainly doesn't seem right.
Click to expand...
Try a bit harder. It took all of two to three minutes to figure out the specific Google query to find our esteemed colleague that would genuinely have access to a top Dreamcast title and the pull to get rights to at least a remix on at least Pandora.

You lot dropping all the hints should be ashamed of yourselves... But I concur with you- it's very likely to be that game...and I can't wait to see it live again. ;) Moreover, I suspect if he DOES get the rights it's going to be one of those showcase titles for the Pandora.


This Google stalking thing worries me, I'll have to be careful what I say if my identity can't be protected by the anonymity of the boards!
Out of interest, where did I slip up?
Oh and I don't think it's what you're hinting.
Click to expand...
 
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@TheGoodDoktor
"Oh and I don't think it's what you're hinting."
Interesting. Does a Dreamcast version of a certain popular twin stick shooter exist then (not released until part of PGR2 to my knowledge, but maybe the coding on it started earlier)?
 
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