PSP vs Pyra

[8bitDev]

Hi guys,i already addressed few issues on this topic but lets start from the beginning.
Comparing these two system specs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Portable#Technical_specifications
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DragonBox_Pyra

We can see that Pyra have far more hardware power.
Now take a look at PSP level quality game

Now reason why i am comparing Pyra to PSP is because PSP is hacked to native level,which means that we can develop games for PSP without any problem,toolkit is released on github.
Now if PSP emu-s like PPSSPP or similar,can provide better quality and runtime for games rather than some standard scripting or programming language,should we create homebrew games then???

Now i am asking this because there is no specific dev environment that Pyra team is pushing at the moment,many people talk about SDL improvement runtime,but still what is real choice that we can get.
Now this is not just Pyra related,i was thinking on making games in Love2D since they have their community porting IDE and framework to every platform that is possible to get ports on,but its not just about community,is also about how well build actual environment is.So far PSP environment is most advanced/optimized that we got !

Offcourse i can not make something like game above at the moment,but i can probably make something like this
or some RPG at least.

Anyway let me know what you think and what is the right choice?!?

Regards

 

[edgex004]

Well, the downside to an open device like the Pyra is that there isn't a single cohesive development environment or engine that everyone will use.

However, the upside (and this is a huge upside for me) is that developers can pick and chose the tools they would like to use, and there are many options available.

If people want something similar to Unity, I would tell them to check out Godot.

If people want something similar to pspsdk, I'd tell them to grab ptitSeb's CodeBlocks PND or to look into the cross-compilation toolchains.

If someone wants to try scripting their own 2D engine and utilize basically any editor/IDE and asset creation tools they desire, I'd recommend trying LÖVE.

EDIT: Oh, and no I don't agree with compiling PSP binaries and then running them in an emulator. I definitely plan to emulate a few PSP games, but I intend to have the majority of my software running natively to save on battery and not use as many resources.

 

[8bitDev]

Well, the downside to an open device like the Pyra is that there isn't a single cohesive development environment or engine that everyone will use.

However, the upside (and this is a huge upside for me) is that developers can pick and chose the tools they would like to use, and there are many options available.

If people want something similar to Unity, I would tell them to check out Godot.

If people want something similar to pspsdk, I'd tell them to grab ptitSeb's CodeBlocks PND or to look into the cross-compilation toolchains.

If someone wants to try scripting their own 2D engine and utilize basically any editor/IDE and asset creation tools they desire, I'd recommend trying LÖVE.

EDIT: Oh, and no I don't agree with compiling PSP binaries and then running them in an emulator. I definitely plan to emulate a few PSP games, but I intend to have the majority of my software running natively to save on battery and not use as many resources.

So far i used Stencyl game engine and i am most likely moving to LOVE,or SDL maybe,but still all that left is to wait to get one of these Pyra-s and see actual performance.

Now i am porting those games that i made with Stencyl and sadly arm is not possibility(except for android offcourse) and because of this i am moving to actual coding even if engine is opensource its hard to have control over that kind of software.

It may happen that economy dictates future of my game development,but who knows!!!

Regards

 

[TrashyMG]

but still all that left is to wait to get one of these Pyra-s and see actual performance.

Well to give you an idea of the horsepower I did a video a while ago on the OMAP5 EVM devboard to show that off.

 

[DaMummy]

Also, Frogatto is available for the Pandora, let alone Pyra

 

[lukey]

Well the Unreal Engine is OpenSource so that could also be ported to the Pyra. And Ptitseb already Ported Doom3 (Id tech 4 Engine) to the Pandora: https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/ptitsebs-beta-lair.77439/ . Also there's Irrlicht, ioQuake3/openarena and Ogre3d. So there are plenty of Engines to choose from, just grab one of these and Develop your Game like you would develop it for an (Linux) PC. In the end they all use (like Löve) libsdl1/2 (which is sort of DirectX for linux).

 

[TrashyMG]

And the Pandora actually has a PSP emulator...

Well the Unreal Engine is OpenSource so that could also be ported to the Pyra.

well It may happen, maybe with a lot of modifications... I tried it on the devboard, but from what I gathered it requires a 64-bit processor. maybe the android version or something could be used.

 

[edgex004]

Also, I can't see a reason why your Stencyl games cannot be ported to the Pandora and the Pyra.

Stencyl 3.0 utilizes Haxe and OpenFL, so the only thing that should be necessary to get Stencyl projects onto the Pandora is to get OpenFL support.

Here is a link to someone who supposedly got NME running on their Pandora (predecessor to OpenFL).

If you like working in Stencyl, I'd recommend:

1. Using the CodeBlocks PND to try and get OpenFL running on the Pandora.
2. Perhaps add a request to the port request thread asking for someone to help work on a port.

After that, you should be able to export Stencyl Projects to Pandora/Pyra.

EDIT: Nevermind. It is not that OpenFL needs to be ported, it seems to be more that the Pandora toolchain needs to be added to Haxe/NME/OpenFL in order for the Pandora/Pyra to be made into a target. Still should be doable, you just may need an interested party to help get it done.

 

[8bitDev]

Also, Frogatto is available for the Pandora, let alone Pyra

I do not own pandora so i did not check the repositories.Once i do own Pyra i will download the game,thats for sure,but point was if something like that is playable,my future games will be playable too!!!
[doublepost=1471632013,1471631693][/doublepost]

Well to give you an idea of the horsepower I did a video a while ago on the OMAP5 EVM devboard to show that off.

Thanks for the info.Still its device powerful enough to withstand demanding tasks.Now i don't have intention on running wine,it would be nice if you tested some native games,but still good enough to grasp what hardware can sustain.

I do like what Pyra has to offer and that is why i think its product worth of having around,also since most of us are devs here we can get most of thing running without any problems.

Regards

 

[TrashyMG]

Thanks for the info.Still its device powerful enough to withstand demanding tasks.Now i don't have intention on running wine,it would be nice if you tested some native games,but still good enough to grasp what hardware can sustain.

Actually Starcraft, openTyrian in that video were running Native ARM. Diablo II at the time was running via X86 emulation and WINE as Notaz didn't have that ported to ARM yet.

 

[8bitDev]

Also, I can't see a reason why your Stencyl games cannot be ported to the Pandora and the Pyra.

Stencyl 3.0 utilizes Haxe and OpenFL, so the only thing that should be necessary to get Stencyl projects onto the Pandora is to get OpenFL support.

Here is a link to someone who supposedly got NME running on their Pandora (predecessor to OpenFL).

If you like working in Stencyl, I'd recommend:

1. Using the CodeBlocks PND to try and get OpenFL running on the Pandora.
2. Perhaps add a request to the port request thread asking for someone to help work on a port.

After that, you should be able to export Stencyl Projects to Pandora/Pyra.

EDIT: Nevermind. It is not that OpenFL needs to be ported, it seems to be more that the Pandora toolchain needs to be added to Haxe/NME/OpenFL in order for the Pandora/Pyra to be made into a target. Still should be doable, you just may need an interested party to help get it done.

Well if you would run exagear with wine you could play x86 win version of my game ,but still if openFL get ported,i will definitely try to make my games to run on Pyra.
Trick is that Stencyl engine being opensource it still require paid licence in order to compile projects on it for distribution besides flash player.
Now main problem is that their devs do not have specific boards on forum for GNU/linux support so we were kind of left behind,but still there is a way to get GNU/linux compiled game without purchasing the engine licence so if there is ever word of getting openFL ported to Pyra,i will probably be around!

Regards

 

[edgex004]

Well, feel free to give us a link to the workaround. Perhaps it is useful in compiling for Pandora/Pyra as well.

 

[tigerroast]

Anyway let me know what you think and what is the right choice?!?

If OpenMW and/or GemRB are in your wheelhouse, then please change your name from "8bitDev" to "Legendary."

 

[ZXDunny]

I think that the problem is not the lack of a decent development environment, nor the lack of any horsepower within the confines of the OS or aforesaid development environment, it's more to do with the resources available for homebrew developers than anything else.

Studios that produce games for the PSP typically have help from their publisher (and in most cases Sony themselves for promotional reasons) in departments of QA, artwork and team management. They can produce much higher quality content than any homebrew author working alone in his bedroom - and most teams of homebrew developers (not all, certainly, but most) tend to concentrate on other things such as emulation with only the occasional game.

Every now and then, a homebrew game comes along that's stunning, granted, but the majority are rather poor compared to most commercial products - where the majority are usually just poor "me too" efforts that badly attempt to recreate those excellent games; anything with "Tux" in the title immediately springs to mind. This isn't because the developers are shit and can't code or don't have a decent development environment to work in, it's more to do with the aforesaid lack of resources, and that usually one developer wears many hats where he should only really wear one. "It's an open-source mario game! Anyone can contribute!" and either nobody does, or there's no management in there and you end up with a barely playable mish-mash of styles and techniques that doesn't hang together well at all.

So we get much better PSP games than pretty much anything natively written for Linux.

 

[Exophase]

Now take a look at PSP level quality game

That's not a good demonstration of what a PSP can do. It's running on an emulator that's rendering it at 4x4 PSP's resolution and maybe other enhancements. Here's what the game looks like on an actual PSP:


It's pretty hugely different.

 

[pmprog]

If you'd compared PSP homebrew (and not commercial games) to the Pandora/Pyra, you'd probably see less of a difference. As ZXDunny said, it's mainly down to resources. Homebrewers just don't have the same as commercial entities.

 

[canseco]

Comparing free/open source games with big budget commercial releases doesn't seems very fair to me. It's just a matter of time for clones to make it better than the original (Openttd, OpenXcom, etc),

Just take a look at FlightGear simulator history. It only took them 15 years to make it right.

http://wiki.flightgear.org/FlightGear_History

Not all the open projects have this kind of human resources, but the same could be said about indie developers.

 

[Klumpen]

"PSP vs. Pyra" sounds like "Toaster vs. Oven".
I'd never compare those.

 

[rygD]

 

[Klumpen]

I mostly use one of those at home since I prefer buns to toast, it has the perfect size for a casserole, a cake or a pizza and wastes way less energy than the big one that wouldn't be used for bigger stuff anyway.
Like a Pyra really, you can do anything with it you'd do with a big one but with less power and less space needed.

A microwave oven would be the GPD Win equivalent then, I guess. It somewhat works for most things but has no style and the results taste like mud.