Where Is The Faq?

[aho]

• Where is the SDK?
• When will the SDK be released?
• Which toolchain should I use in the meantime?
• How complete is the current GLES lib?
• What happened to drawTex?
• What about FBOs?
• What about OES_compressed_paletted_texture?
• Will there be a better GLES lib?
• Is there any timer with a resolution of 1msec?
• Which compiler switches are good to use and why?
• Where is the IRC channel?
• Which languages can be used?
• Is there a wiki?
• Where can I upload/download Wiz applications?
• Consoles generally have standards for the positive/negative (or back/forward) buttons. Which button should match which action?
  (A=yes, X=no of course - too bad that GPH screwed that up)

etc.

 

[Sphinxter]

You forgot the air speed of an unladen swallow.

 

[BossRoss]

What do you mean? African or European Swallow?

 

[aho]

Yea... almost funny.

But seriously, I think it's very unusual that there is no FAQ in this forum. It's inefficient.

 

[Squidge]

If someones creates one, we'll sticky it. Can't say fairer than that.

 

[sam fisher]

Well go and make one on the Wiki then .

 

[aho]

Well go and make one on the Wiki then .

With wiki you mean... this one?

 

[hardyx]

I want to contribute to FAQ and answer to some of the questions.

- Where is the SDK?
- When will the SDK be released?
They are working in it. I think they release before Christmas.

- Which toolchain should I use in the meantime?
You can use the openwiz toolchain for Linux, or GP2X SDK modified.

- How complete is the current GLES lib?
It's supossed to implement the 3D hardware functions.
Wiz implements Opengl-es Lite 1.1.

- Is there any timer with a resolution of 1msec?
I don't know, but you must use the hardware registers.

- Which compiler switches are good to use and why?
Use the switches documented in GCC and specifics for ARM.
You can see the settings in other open source proyects for Wiz.

- Where is the IRC channel?
I think the forums are better than old IRC.

- Which languages can be used?
You can use Fenix or Bennu (interpreted languages oriented to games and easy to learn).
You can use glBasic too, commercial language available in many platforms.
You can use C/C++ with SDL library or libcastor (a bit difficult but more flexible).
You can use ARM asm if you want (for hard guys).

- Is there a wiki?
There is an little wiki and everybody can apport information.

- Where can I upload/download Wiz applications?
In many GPH community sites, and the Wiz archive.

- Consoles generally have standards for the positive/negative (or back/forward) buttons. Which button should match which action?
Wiz has the same buttons scheme like Gameboy or GBA, you can see firmware and games buttons.
I like the right button (B ) to select/yes and left button (A) to cancel/no.

 

[aho]

>I like the right button (B ) to select/yes and left button (A) to cancel/no.

But that's sorta odd. The A (left) button is the easiest to reach, because it's closest to the relaxed position of the right thumb. Therefore that one should be the primary button (the left one is also the primary button on the SNES pad). And X (down) should be the secondary button (again, same as SNES), because it can be pressed with the lower part of your thumb while you're resting on the primary button. The Y(up)/B(right) row can be reached/used in a similar fashion, but the position is less comfy... hence it's #3 and #4 respectively.

So, imo it's:

1. A (left)
2. X (down)
3. Y (up)
4. B (right)

In that order. It's strictly based on conventions and human anatomy.

E.g. in a jump'n'shoot (run'n'gun) A (left) would be the shoot button and X (down) would the jump button. This is analog to typical Gameboy, NES, SNES, etc button configurations.

Well, no matter what you do it's probably a good idea to tell the user about the conventions you've used (even more so if there is no standard). This article explains how it should be done:

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2085/crossplatform_user_interface_.php?page=2

---

@GLES

The header files appear to be sorta incomplete. I.e. there is no drawTex and paletted textures. I really wonder if we'll ever get that stuff. DrawTex in particular is very handy and very useful.

 

[rich_wicks]

If someones creates one, we'll sticky it. Can't say fairer than that.

I'll do the unfun work of making an FAQ for Linux, but I need to get my own toolchain working.

Anybody care to help?

 

[crow_riot]

• What happened to drawTex?

i'm currently doing some stuff with opengl es lite on the wiz and my recent findings about this are:

* a 'dumpbin' (old windows dev i am ) of libopengles_lite.so shows that all functions for glDrawTex are available (glDrawTexiOES,...). so i just grabbed some newer header files from opengl.org / khronos (dont recall,...) and currently i'm using them.

* calling eglGetProcAddress with one of the glDrawTex* function names returns a valid address.

* BUT (of course everyone knew this...) - it turns out that it doesn't work as it should OR i am missing something. i'm creating a simple texture, binding it, but in the end i just get a black rectangle drawn. that's more than nothing, but not what i really want . i did some extra test with the texture - and it's properly loaded and working with other geometry. bummer.

so that's my findings... if someone knows more about that issue, please let me know

greets.

 

[aho]

Yea, I also checked libopengles_lite.so and found the stuff over there. But I don't know why some custom header file was used instead of the official one from Khronos.

 

[crow_riot]

i assume that the 'nanoGL' lib pickle (?) was using just didn't use the newest headers. i can share mine (which i had to adopt a little) if anyone is interested. but be warned, i'm not using nanoGL - just plain opengl es stuff. so i dont know if that lib still compiles ...

 

[crow_riot]

... the scales just fell from my eyes.
it was really ME that was doing something wrong! now, some hours of sleep later it finally works. so good news - glDrawTex* is doing fine here with latest firmware!

my error was really trivial. i was using black as default color (glColor4f) which i just forgot! stupid me... changed to white and tadaa - textures shows up as expected. :blink:

 

[aho]

Ah... great!

 

[crow_riot]

yes, hopefully it's of use someday

one thing about extension checking - glGetString( GL_EXTENSIONS ) does NOT contain GL_OES_draw_texture - so the drivers behaviour is not compliant with the specifications.

 

[aho]

Heh. That's pretty weird. Why wouldn't you boast about something you support?