Something Out To Be Try On Yur Gp2X! :) - 2 Winners To Come...

[f-cycles]

Hello GP2X community,

Here is a new gp2x release (a fast demo made for @party/foulab)
http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=56345

In the package there is a win32 and gp2x version.

Don't expect too much out of it... but, I would like people to try on their TV (NTSC and PAL users).
Also, by running it, you may discover something hidden in it! - watch out on the serial port for a hint.

The first PAL and NTSC user who post a screen shot of our production showing the easter egg on his TV... will get a postcard with a message that will tell a news before it get posted on the web.


Good luck to everyones..

LIMIT DATE: December 31, 2010

F-Cycles / Quebarium

 

[Farox]

A quick run of it...
I can only see a Purple screen with a black vertical line on the left ( sorry no TV cable, so don't know how works on TV ) and a nice music.
At the end of the music it quit correctly .

Tested on F200 Open2x DR7 firm .

 

[Intruder]

A quick run of it...
I can only see a Purple screen with a black vertical line on the left ( sorry no TV cable, so don't know how works on TV ) and a nice music.
At the end of the music it quit correctly .

Tested on F200 Open2x DR7 firm .

Hmmm this is odd...

I am running it on my F100 running 2.1.1 firmware and don't get this behavior.

Btw did you copy all the files in the same folder? I know you said you are able to hear the music and it quit properly. Wonder if its could be cause the ressource.dat missing (which is the files containing the graphics). Normally the 3 files are the .gpe, .it and .dat.

But this could also be related that you're using the not standard firmware, as we use our own custom library that do some pretty low-level stuff.

 

[Parkydr]

Runs for me, I tried tv-out, but saw nothing different.

 

[f-cycles]

Runs for me, I tried tv-out, but saw nothing different.

check 'serial port' for a hint - post a picture of it and you will be 1 of the 2 winner!

 

[Intruder]

Runs for me, I tried tv-out, but saw nothing different.

Running on PAL or NTSC TV btw?

Ahhh but they are something different... if you know what to do... like f-cycles mentioned they are some hint if you run the demo and check the serial output...

Wonder who will be able to figure out via the TV-out what easter egg we have hidden in there ;-).

 

[Farox]

I think it's firmware related becouse i have all the files in a dir.
I have :
a dir .....triplecheese/
inside....
TripleCheese_Quebarium.gpe
TripleCheese_Quebarium.png
main.it
resource.dat

;-)

 

[f-cycles]

I think it's firmware related becouse i have all the files in a dir.

Yes, I think it's probably firmware related. From what understand you got a purple screen on the LCD with a vertical black line. I know I reconfigure video registers even on the LCD... in order to display all pixels, while the default firmware on F100 and F200 has a bug on the last 7 pixels of the screen.

Our little production use also YUV+RGB+Cursor layer. The fade is produce by the RGB hardware transparency on startup. I could have done everything on RGB, but the purpose is also to debug some stuff, so in our next production we could have something better!

 

[Parkydr]

I got the hint by running it in telnet via USB net. Unfortunately, my TV does not have that facility.

 

[f-cycles]

A quick run of it...
I can only see a Purple screen with a black vertical line on the left ( sorry no TV cable, so don't know how works on TV ) and a nice music.
At the end of the music it quit correctly .

Tested on F200 Open2x DR7 firm .

I just try the F100 Open2x DR7 firm. I get 2 bugs running it directly: sprites (RGB layer) doesn't display and my tiny menu (cursor layer) is moving on X-axis in reverse direction. But, if I try to run it in compatible mode.. all bugs disappear.

Farox: have you try running it in compatible mode?

 

[f-cycles]

I got the hint by running it in telnet via USB net. Unfortunately, my TV does not have that facility.

:blink: humm.. I guess no one has done anything with that feature before..

 

[senquack]

A quick run of it...
I can only see a Purple screen with a black vertical line on the left ( sorry no TV cable, so don't know how works on TV ) and a nice music.
At the end of the music it quit correctly .

Tested on F200 Open2x DR7 firm .

I just try the F100 Open2x DR7 firm. I get 2 bugs running it directly: sprites (RGB layer) doesn't display and my tiny menu (cursor layer) is moving on X-axis in reverse direction. But, if I try to run it in compatible mode.. all bugs disappear.

Farox: have you try running it in compatible mode?

Hi, I did a lot of the work in Open2X especially on TV-out stuff. Open2X has a TV-out tweaker daemon that tries to allow many programs to work with TV-out that sometimes wouldn't. If your program is doing YUV layer stuff you will need to enable the option "Tweak YUV Layer" for your program's link. Only one other program actually does stuff with the YUV layer that I know of for sure and that was GNUBoy (I think there were other demo-type things, maybe GPU940 the 3D lib). I'll maybe try this demo later today if I have time

 

[senquack]

OK, I tried the demo and it does work using Open2X's compatibility layer, even in TV-out mode. I would like to know how you are blitting the background versus the sprites. I'm guessing you are blitting the menu by using the cursor layer.

It is surprising that it doesn't work under normal Open2X when not using TV-out mode. Are you using SDL at all?

Anyways nice to see another demo on the GP2X! What are you doing for XBOX?

 

[f-cycles]

OK, I tried the demo and it does work using Open2X's compatibility layer, even in TV-out mode. I would like to know how you are blitting the background versus the sprites. I'm guessing you are blitting the menu by using the cursor layer.

It is surprising that it doesn't work under normal Open2X when not using TV-out mode. Are you using SDL at all?

Anyways nice to see another demo on the GP2X! What are you doing for XBOX?

Hi Senor Quack,

In fact, in summer 2006 I got my first GP2X and in dec. 2006 I start working on the low level stuff lonely in the dark (except for some email I exchange with Rleyh regarding his minimal lib) until end of 2007. So, I am using SDL only for audio init. so that mikmod work. For the rest, I command directly the register in memory for the MP2520F and configure the CX25874 via I2C comm.

I am using the YUV layer for the background and the RGB layer for the sprites. The sprites are draw by the hardware blitter and the tiny menu + volume info are render on the cursor layer. The RGB layer is control to be display only between the two graphics by disabling all RGB regions except #4 and transparency on that region is use for shading from black to full opacity.

Regarding the LCD display, I suspect something I'm doing with some register which control the display & the memory output for the LCD. One thing which annoy me when I was looking to the LCD was the 7 pixels on the last line of the display located on the right of the screen which doesn't show up correctly. I first thought, it's maybe something related to my GP2X F100. But, after seeing that problem on 6 units.. I conclude it was universal. I come up with a fix, that in fact create an overscan exceeding the display. I suspect that with the F200 + Open2X DR7, some LCD register are configure in a way that mixed with my configuration create that purple display.

Btw.. (and by saying that, I will reveal the hint that get display on the serial port), I have TV close-caption output capability in this demo! =) If you have a TV that can display Close Caption and post a picture in this forum.. you win something!! (my first post for more details about it)


In fact, this production was made during a fast demo compo and my purpose was more to get something out and have people try it with their various configuration (TV, LCD, firmware, etc.). I plan to release a fixed version to replace the existing package... but also will be useful for a next release (as we hope to get a decent production for @party 2011 .

Regarding the Xbox360... hummm, I have done many game prototypes... but for now it's on halt. Like I use to say.. with approx 4 hour per week... things are progressing very slowly. Back in 2008, my goal on gp2x was to create a game for TV-Out, USB gamepad multiplayer and that will look like Ikaruga on Dreamcast (3D background + pre-render 3d sprites). I posted a link to a youtube video of a benchmark I did for that project... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQdX5G6XeZ0). I think you saw it already (I mean on youtube)...

Best regards,

 

[senquack]

You'll notice many games that used Paeryn's hardware-accelerated SDL also have those last few pixels in the bottom right that are always darker. Never investigated the reason, myself, but it has been a little annoying.


I'll definitely have to try the CC later today.. Definitely a first hehe

 

[Intruder]

@Senor Quack

We notice the problem when we were first using SDL (the standard SDK for the GP2X), at that time f-cycles has sent me a little 3d cube routine to try out and while running it we notice those pixels at the right corner that were getting animated when they shouldn't. At first f-cycles investigated his own routine thinking it was an overflow of his drawing routine, but it wasn't. So later on after several tests he find out it was an actual glitch in the way the firmware setup the screen, which he was able to resolve by setting his own screen setup routine (which involve in a lot of chicken sacrifice ;-p, as the docs is a bit sparse, and involve reverse engineering).

Let us know the result of the CC with a picture of course ;-).

 

[senquack]

@Senor Quack

We notice the problem when we were first using SDL (the standard SDK for the GP2X), at that time f-cycles has sent me a little 3d cube routine to try out and while running it we notice those pixels at the right corner that were getting animated when they shouldn't. At first f-cycles investigated his own routine thinking it was an overflow of his drawing routine, but it wasn't. So later on after several tests he find out it was an actual glitch in the way the firmware setup the screen, which he was able to resolve by setting his own screen setup routine (which involve in a lot of chicken sacrifice ;-p, as the docs is a bit sparse, and involve reverse engineering).

Let us know the result of the CC with a picture of course ;-).

Wow, so you figured out the source of the pixel problem.. Perhaps I could try to get a bugfix into the official Open2X SDL? I would give you credit, of course. Any interest on elaborating on the screen setup F-cycles? It's OK if you don't.

As for the CC, I did not get it to work. I am using a US market TV and tried changing it to CC2 instead of CC1 but nothing ever came up on the screen. I don't have another TV to try unfortunately.

 

[f-cycles]

Wow, so you figured out the source of the pixel problem.. Perhaps I could try to get a bugfix into the official Open2X SDL? I would give you credit, of course. Any interest on elaborating on the screen setup F-cycles? It's OK if you don't.

As for the CC, I did not get it to work. I am using a US market TV and tried changing it to CC2 instead of CC1 but nothing ever came up on the screen. I don't have another TV to try unfortunately.

Okay, here is the HINT given on Serial Port & more easy in stdout.txt on win32! :lol:

GP2X Low-Level Library v1.00 by F-Cycles/Quebarium.
Triple Cheese / Quebarium

Have you try this tiny demo with TV-Out + CloseCaption1?

You have to set your TV to CC1 (TV can have: Info, CC1 to CC4, TEXT1 to TEXT4) before launching the application. Then, you have to wait until approx. 40 seconds before the end to see it. You could try to run it twice in a row and see if anything get display?

On my TV, it work right away when CC1 is set. But... firmware implementation for Close-Caption vary among TV manufacturer.

yes, I think it will be interesting to get in touch with the screen setup. If you prefer, you could send me an email (my email is in the .diz file within the triplecheese package). I plan to have an update of that production with bug fixs.. but, I would like to make sure it work well with a newest version of open2x too.

 

[f-cycles]

Wow, so you figured out the source of the pixel problem.. Perhaps I could try to get a bugfix into the official Open2X SDL? I would give you credit, of course. Any interest on elaborating on the screen setup F-cycles? It's OK if you don't.

In fact, I found out that the 7 pixels at the end is in fact a replica of some pixels on the same line near the center (I use to know the coordinate after I did some test). I fix it increasing the active display area... by increasing DPC_Y_MAX from 239 to 240.

For TV-Output NTSC I leave it to 239. So far, I didn't saw the issue. And for TV-Output PAL I leave it to 288-1.

I setup many other register during the initialization but most of them are to switch back from TV to LCD.

There are other stuff which I would like to share regarding screen setup. I think it will be great if you could have a non-interlaced mode as this is the normal output for most vintage computer! =)

 

[senquack]

Wow, so you figured out the source of the pixel problem.. Perhaps I could try to get a bugfix into the official Open2X SDL? I would give you credit, of course. Any interest on elaborating on the screen setup F-cycles? It's OK if you don't.

In fact, I found out that the 7 pixels at the end is in fact a replica of some pixels on the same line near the center (I use to know the coordinate after I did some test). I fix it increasing the active display area... by increasing DPC_Y_MAX from 239 to 240.

For TV-Output NTSC I leave it to 239. So far, I didn't saw the issue. And for TV-Output PAL I leave it to 288-1.

I setup many other register during the initialization but most of them are to switch back from TV to LCD.

There are other stuff which I would like to share regarding screen setup. I think it will be great if you could have a non-interlaced mode as this is the normal output for most vintage computer! =)

Very interesting.. I remember finding DIGNSYS (GPH's hired software team) had accidentally swapped the constants X_MAX and Y_MAX in one spot in their source code, too. Let me know anything more to try. When you refer to a non-interlaced mode, are you talking about having the LCD be non-interlaced? I saw settings to that effect in the data book but I think I got nowhere trying them out.

Also: I tried your demo again and this time the closed-captioning did indeed work, complete with blinking text. How did you do it? Does the GP2X directly support CC text or did you hack it somehow?