Pandora Questions And Answers

[Pleng]

One of the GBAX team told me that the next batch would most likely be larger than this one.

Since it looks as if they have already sold over 3000, that would seem like a good move!

I read that 6000 were sold the evening of October 2nd US time (Thursday). I wonder how many more they sold before the cutoff today on Sunday afternoon GMT.


Where on earth did you hear that?

According to Craig and co, there were 3,800 sold in total by the cut-off time.

 

[mali]

One of the GBAX team told me that the next batch would most likely be larger than this one.

Since it looks as if they have already sold over 3000, that would seem like a good move!

I read that 6000 were sold the evening of October 2nd US time (Thursday). I wonder how many more they sold before the cutoff today on Sunday afternoon GMT.


Where on earth did you hear that?

According to Craig and co, there were 3,800 sold in total by the cut-off time.

Look at the date It was posted when everyone was speculating and nobody knew anything about the facts.

Edit:
QUOTE
1. The TV-Out mode must be implemented into each application individually like any other screen mode. Does it put a significant additional strain on CPU, GPU or RAM? For example, if you run an application which really challenges the hardware like a Videoplayer or an N64 Emu will it be difficult to implement TV-Out mode in this app.?

2. My national gp store does not ship S-Video cables for Pandora to the EU because the cable does not comply with the CE-Norm. Will the US shop ship it to the EU? Are there any other online stores like Lik-Sang which will sell it to me?


1. I don't know for sure, but I think it's a hardware feature to switch between internal and external. If the internal tft is off, the performance shouldn't be affected. If it is in dual monitor mode, it may affect performance.
2. I don't understand the question. Are you in the EU? Then you could just order the cable from gp2x.de.

 

[MiniSinisterMinister]

QUOTE
2. I don't understand the question. Are you in the EU? Then you could just order the cable from gp2x.de.



I would like to order it from gp2x.de because that is my national store and it is selling the cable for a really cheap price, but it says there in big, bold letters in German: "Attention: as the cable does not comply with the CE-Norm we are not able to ship it to customers WITHIN the EU. If you live within the EU, please DO NOT ORDER IT! If you live outside the EU, you will be able to order it."

I am wondering how I am supposed to get it. Maybe the US shop will sell it to me. The customs offices rarely check small, low-value parcels.

 

[Patrick R Ludvigsen]

Could an open-source Windows application using Direct3D be recompiled for ARM, then could Wine be used to run that so as to translate the Direct3D calls to OpenGL ES?

(Wine would have to be given ES support first if I'm understanding correctly)

 

[Eniko]

Could an open-source Windows application using Direct3D be recompiled for ARM, then could Wine be used to run that so as to translate the Direct3D calls to OpenGL ES?

(Wine would have to be given ES support first if I'm understanding correctly)

Wine Is Not an Emulator. It's all in the name, Wine doesn't work on non x86 architecture.

You could however port the open-source Windows application to Linux on ARM and make it use OpenGL ES instead of Direct3D, and it'd run a ton better for that matter.

EDIT: You could have found this answer in the FAQ.

 

[Patrick R Ludvigsen]

Could an open-source Windows application using Direct3D be recompiled for ARM, then could Wine be used to run that so as to translate the Direct3D calls to OpenGL ES?

(Wine would have to be given ES support first if I'm understanding correctly)

Wine Is Not an Emulator. It's all in the name, Wine doesn't work on non x86 architecture.

You could however port the open-source Windows application to Linux on ARM and make it use OpenGL ES instead of Direct3D, and it'd run a ton better for that matter.

EDIT: You could have found this answer in the FAQ.

I was asking if a Windows app which is open-source could be cross-compiled to ARM and THEN use Wine to change the Direct3D calls to OpenGL.

 

[PhillipJ]

I was asking if a Windows app which is open-source could be cross-compiled to ARM and THEN use Wine to change the Direct3D calls to OpenGL.

You'd need to cross-compile Wine too which would kinda defeat the purpose of Wine. I suppose it might be possible to create an openGL ES wrapper for D3D based on Wine's openGL wrapper but surely you'd be better off doing a proper port and getting rid of the D3D calls completly.

 

[Patrick R Ludvigsen]

You'd need to cross-compile Wine too which would kinda defeat the purpose of Wine. I suppose it might be possible to create an openGL ES wrapper for D3D based on Wine's openGL wrapper but surely you'd be better off doing a proper port and getting rid of the D3D calls completly.

Ok, that would make it easier to do quick (albeit somewhat inefficient) ports of D3D apps though I imagine. Thanks.

 

[viridior]

It worth mentioning that WINE does not have a complete D3D to OPENGL layer after years of development, and I think it is worth arguing that even if they did it would be out of date quickly. While the idea of making a OPENGL ES layer for D3D sounds nice it is very problematic and would be a much larger project then you would think. For the pandora, you might be able to get something in the order of a D3D 3.x layer and be able to emulate some older DOS games.

 

[Eniko]

Could an open-source Windows application using Direct3D be recompiled for ARM, then could Wine be used to run that so as to translate the Direct3D calls to OpenGL ES?

(Wine would have to be given ES support first if I'm understanding correctly)

Wine Is Not an Emulator. It's all in the name, Wine doesn't work on non x86 architecture.

You could however port the open-source Windows application to Linux on ARM and make it use OpenGL ES instead of Direct3D, and it'd run a ton better for that matter.

EDIT: You could have found this answer in the FAQ.
I was asking if a Windows app which is open-source could be cross-compiled to ARM and THEN use Wine to change the Direct3D calls to OpenGL.
And I answered your question: Wine doesn't work on non x86 architecture. I don't see the problem here?

Longer answer: yes if (the D3D->OGL parts of) Wine got ported you could conceivably do this. This requires someone to first rip chunks of Wine out, then port them, so people don't need to change their Direct3D routines to OpenGL to port their apps. This has a very low benefit, even without considering how fallible Wine can be at this type of thing, because apps would have to have source available to be ported to ARM in the first place.

If source is available then 9 out of 10 times porting the graphics routines is going to work a few quadrillion (hyperbole for teh win) times better than using this D3D->OGLES layer that someone presumably ripped out of Wine and ported to ARM. If source is not available, the Wine port would do nothing. If you have the time yourself to create something like that, it's probably better spent porting the software properly, and I doubt anyone else is going to devote their personal time to this either. (though I could be wrong)

So in summary: yes in an ideal world where someone ported parts of Wine to the Pandora AND you ported software to ARM without changing the graphics routines AND bugs in the translation layer don't make the software a mess it could happen. But we don't live in an ideal world, so in a word the answer is simply "no".

Better?

 

[Squidge]

Is it really necessary to quote 5 different people to add a 3 line response?

Posts edited.

 

[Vince2501]

Okay, are emulators of the following possible?

Nintendo DS

Sony PSP

and Sega Dreamcast

The news of 256MB of RAM and 512MB of NAND being added on has me hopefull that Dreamcast emulation (once the source for NullDC becames available) is a go. Portable Ikaruga would be incredible.

 

[Joshwaan2k]

Okay, are emulators of the following possible?

Nintendo DS

Sony PSP

and Sega Dreamcast

The news of 256MB of RAM and 512MB of NAND being added on has me hopefull that Dreamcast emulation (once the source for NullDC becames available) is a go. Portable Ikaruga would be incredible.

All these questions have been answered a lot of times in other threads. Do a search mate

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showtopic=41897

Also your right more memory will proberly help DC emulation to some extent

 

[iblis]

andora1: hello umm perhaps this has already been awnserd but this does infact have internal memory correct? if so how much memory would this thing hold? :huh:

 

[Pseudonym]

512mb internal NAND Memory if I remember correctly. 2 sdhc slots and 1 highspeed USB 2.0 port, for external memory of couse

 

[Username]

andora1: hello umm perhaps this has already been awnserd but this does infact have internal memory correct? if so how much memory would this thing hold? :huh:

512MB NAND, but it's reserved for the OS and other built-in things.
Edit: Damn, you beat me to it.

 

[Tinnus]

andora1: hello umm perhaps this has already been awnserd but this does infact have internal memory correct? if so how much memory would this thing hold? :huh:

512MB NAND, but it's reserved for the OS and other built-in things.
Edit: Damn, you beat me to it.

Actually it's possible (especially now that we have 512Mb of it) that some of the NAND will be available for use, although the general idea is to keep stuff in your cards anyway. That spare space would be used for things like a home dir for programs that need/want to use it and to store a selection of programs that one might want to keep there for whatever reasons (say, something that formats cards or copies stuff from a card to the other and you don't want to have it installed in all cards, etc).

 

[iblis]

ahh i see. lovely, does it happen to come with a sd card with the package?
and a bit on the external memory via usb. as in like flash drive? usb hdd
or what?

 

[Zeno Arrow]

ahh i see. lovely, does it happen to come with a sd card with the package?

No, you buy Pandora and the SD cards seperately, though when the Pandora was available to pre-order for the first batch there were options to add SD cards to your order.

and a bit on the external memory via usb. as in like flash drive? usb hdd
or what?

You should be able to use both (USB flash drives and USB-connected HDDs).

 

[g5runner]

When I saw Ubuntu running on it, I wanted one. It would be an insane PDA. The power switch on my Palm TX is getting problematic. I would need a new PDA not far down the road. I have been looking at iPod touch, N810, or even used a Zaraus as a replacement. But after I saw that video of Pandora running Ubuntu. I am sold.

I am assuming that it will run openoffice, firefox, thunderbird and have some form of PIM software availble for it. If someone make a Palm emulator like the one they have with the N810, I would be the happiest guy around .

I know the Pandora is suppose to be a fun toy. But let's not miss all the serious things it could do.