Xgp Xgpmini Spec


DaveC posted on Mar 20 2006 at 05:17 PM said:
vaustein posted on Mar 20 2006 at 11:57 AM said:
Not to sound anti-capitalist, but based only on the comments in this thread,
the XGPmini could put GPH out of business.

Will loyalty to the GPH team prevent
the community here from embracing XGPmini (sidestepping DaveC's legitimate
issue with proprietary batteries) ? There's a long thread about GPH's codebase
not being fully available; failing to "embrace the dev community".
Lately, the comments about GPH have a "don't count on them" theme. Is the
"honeymoon" over?

It may not put them out of business but it will certainly hurt sales and fragment he community. You will have devs that love squinting at small screens for some reason

I had my theory...

DaveC posted on Mar 20 2006 at 05:17 PM said:
that will abandon the GP2X and go to the mini. You will have others that want analog sticks and 16:9 screens because "it is new" and move to that. What ever

So they can move to anything else. The XGP doesn't have a monopoly on things like handhelds. They even might decide to drop the programming altogether and go to live with Eskimos too. ;)

DaveC posted on Mar 20 2006 at 05:17 PM said:
the reason these are certainly bad news if you like the GP2X form factor for emulators. Devs typically only develop for the system they like. If they like the one that you don't you are shit out of luck. Since it seems like eveyone is going mental over the XGP and mini for some odd reason, it isn't looking to good for the GP2X side of things.

I have to disagree. Most of current GP2x's software are using just one cpu and sometimes blitter. The XGP's chipset is looking to be the VRender3D from the same company what has done the MMSP2. They have many similarities and most of apps are just plain C/SDL (or another lib) so for developer it will be just changing the build target and that is.

I'm not talking here about the "hardcore" stuff like abusing the hardware or some crazy effects.

Look again - many of GP2x's software relases are ports from other machines. Even the excellent Outcast... I don't thing that GP2x's situation will be worse with XGP around.

There will be of course rush at the beginning of XGP but things will calm down and return to normal.
 
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Radek posted on Mar 20 2006 at 03:48 PM said:
So they can move to anything else. The XGP doesn't have a monopoly on things like handhelds. They even might decide to drop the programming altogether and go to live with Eskimos too. ;)

I have to disagree. Most of current GP2x's software are using just one cpu and sometimes blitter. The XGP's chipset is looking to be the VRender3D from the same company what has done the MMSP2. They have many similarities and most of apps are just plain C/SDL (or another lib) so for developer it will be just changing the build target and that is.

I'm not talking here about the "hardcore" stuff like abusing the hardware or some crazy effects.

Look again - many of GP2x's software relases are ports from other machines. Even the excellent Outcast... I don't thing that GP2x's situation will be worse with XGP around.

There will be of course rush at the beginning of XGP but things will calm down and return to normal.

The XGP may not have a monopoly but it will still entice some devs away from the GP2X. Yes they can go live with the eskimos, but it is more likely they will still program, and do it for one of the new systems.

The GP32 and the GP2X have similar CPUs too and developement for the GP32 has basically come to an end. There was no returning to normal for that. Once developement shifts to the XGP it will more likely than not stay there just like the current developement went from GP32 to GP2X and stayed. For those that like playing either on tiny screens, or playing emus on stretched and blurr filtered 16:9 screens with an analog stick (I have played emus on an analog on the zodiac and it sucked) I guess you are in luck. Everyone else will suffer.
 
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As a developer, both platforms are interesting if they support and encourage homebrew stuff. It appears as if it should not be difficult to write software that supports all 3 of these platforms (gp2x, xgp, mini) without too much extra work -- except for code that uses the second gp2x processor or the 3d stuff on the xgp). To me they are roughly equivalent gadgets which just increases the fun.

If the xgp doesn't encourage homebrew it will crash and burn terribly since I can't see any reason that anybody would get one instead of a PSP.

Still, this is all a LONG way away so unless they are offering early hardware sales to developers there isn't much point in thinking about it for the next six months.
 
If these 2 new consoles are gonna be homebrew-able, I suppose it would be cool, but I suppose one fear I would have is that the current coding-scene gets really fragmented... It would be kinda cool if the two were cross-codable, so that whatever console you choose, you'd be able to run the same stuff on either... but my guess is that will never happen.
And despite what all you guys say, the GP2X will most definitely get left in the lurch - just look what happened to the GP32!
 
DaveC posted on Mar 20 2006 at 06:03 PM said:
Radek posted on Mar 20 2006 at 03:48 PM said:
So they can move to anything else. The XGP doesn't have a monopoly on things like handhelds. They even might decide to drop the programming altogether and go to live with Eskimos too. ;)

I have to disagree. Most of current GP2x's software are using just one cpu and sometimes blitter. The XGP's chipset is looking to be the VRender3D from the same company what has done the MMSP2. They have many similarities and most of apps are just plain C/SDL (or another lib) so for developer it will be just changing the build target and that is.

I'm not talking here about the "hardcore" stuff like abusing the hardware or some crazy effects.

Look again - many of GP2x's software relases are ports from other machines. Even the excellent Outcast... I don't thing that GP2x's situation will be worse with XGP around.

There will be of course rush at the beginning of XGP but things will calm down and return to normal.

The XGP may not have a monopoly but it will still entice some devs away from the GP2X. Yes they can go live with the eskimos, but it is more likely they will still program, and do it for one of the new systems.

The GP32 and the GP2X have similar CPUs too and developement for the GP32 has basically come to an end. There was no returning to normal for that. Once developement shifts to the XGP it will more likely than not stay there just like the current developement went from GP32 to GP2X and stayed. For those that like

But GP2x is superrior to the GP32! There is no point arguing it where XGPes aren't so much better overall (except for the 3D graphics). They might be even worse for some things (emulators?) because they are lacking second cpu. At one point GP2x's second core will get figured how to use it efficiently. So far most of software we have now is just using one cpu and blitter (and it is still uncommon). Most of programs are just compiled C binaries so porting isn't hard.

The GP32 isn't getting much of support today because it has been maximized already. Newer software demands more memory (for an example) and how it will fit into GP32's 8MB of ram?

Then we have the Smartmedia cards issue with GP32 - they only 128MB and harder and harder to get. No wonder why interest in the GP32 is dimishing.

XGP will not make GP2x obsolete any way the GP2x made the GP32.

DJprocyon posted on Mar 20 2006 at 06:51 PM said:
If these 2 new consoles are gonna be homebrew-able, I suppose it would be cool, but I suppose one fear I would have is that the current coding-scene gets really fragmented... It would be kinda cool if the two were cross-codable, so that whatever console you choose, you'd be able to run the same stuff on either... but my guess is that will never happen.
And despite what all you guys say, the GP2X will most definitely get left in the lurch - just look what happened to the GP32!

Again - the GP32 is much inferior machine to the GP2x (it has much less ram for an example). The XGP aren't that superior except for 3D graphics. I'd argue they might be even weaker at some things and all of these machines have very similar specs. There is no reason to be excited about XGP technically because there isn't nothing to.

If XGP would have 256MB of ram and 500MHz Arm then yes - it could be the same as with the GP32. But XGP hasn't such good specs so stop making comparison to the GP32.
 
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DJprocyon posted on Mar 20 2006 at 04:51 PM said:
If these 2 new consoles are gonna be homebrew-able, I suppose it would be cool, but I suppose one fear I would have is that the current coding-scene gets really fragmented...  It would be kinda cool if the two were cross-codable, so that whatever console you choose, you'd be able to run the same stuff on either... but my guess is that will never happen.
And despite what all you guys say, the GP2X will most definitely get left in the lurch - just look what happened to the GP32!


Yeah that is the problem. And what is the GP2X going to be left in the lurch for? A tiny screen? Why does everyone want a tiny screen? It will be abandoned for the XGP? What does the XGP have that is worth abandoning the GP2X for? You mean we actually WANT to stretch emulators to a 16:9 wacked out ratio and blurr everything out with filters to hide stretching artifacts? Then play the resulting blurry mess with a sloppy analog? I don't see what the big attraction is even if it is a little faster. Why do people want something WORSE so much? Shiny new plastic and everyone goes nuts :rolleyes: It just makes absolutely NO sense to me at all. I don't get it.
 
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DaveC posted on Mar 20 2006 at 05:07 PM said:
Yeah that is the problem. And what is the GP2X going to be left in the lurch for? A tiny screen? Why does everyone want a tiny screen? It will be abandoned for the XGP? What does the XGP have that is worth abandoning the GP2X for? You mean we actually WANT to stretch emulators to a 16:9 wacked out ratio and blurr everything out with filters to hide stretching artifacts? Then play the resulting blurry mess with a sloppy analog? I don't see what the big attraction is even if it is a little faster. Why do people want something WORSE so much? Shiny new plastic and everyone goes nuts :rolleyes: It just makes absolutely NO sense to me at all. I don't get it.

You're probably getting ahead of yourself a bit here, no one's said they're abandoning anything. If porting to it was a simple as a recompile, they'd happily coexist.
 
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DaveC posted on Mar 20 2006 at 12:07 PM said:
Why do people want something WORSE so much? Shiny new plastic and everyone goes nuts :rolleyes: It just makes absolutely NO sense to me at all. I don't get it.

Must be too excitable, looking for the first excuse to jump to the next system that there will likely be a very lousy dev scene for. And if it's for how the machines look, well, take a gander at how the GP2x looks now and how the renders of it looked.. See much similarity? ;)
 
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DJprocyon posted on Mar 20 2006 at 11:51 AM said:
If these 2 new consoles are gonna be homebrew-able, I suppose it would be cool, but I suppose one fear I would have is that the current coding-scene gets really fragmented...
And despite what all you guys say, the GP2X will most definitely get left in the lurch - just look what happened to the GP32!
I don't think there's enough difference for developers to jump on those other platforms. Speaking as a developer, there's basically two reasons to start developing specificially for these new machines:

1) If those machines offer something new and interesting, like the ability to make an emulator work that the gp2x just can't quite handle, or some new technology that could make a new game be really cool. The only such thing on offer here is the 3d stuff for the xgp. That will possibly interest a few developers, but not too many. A different issue is whether it's worth spending time to make gp2x developments also work on these new machines. If that isn't too hard we'll see a lot of that, but it won't cause anybody to abandon the gp2x.

2) Machine popularity. If somehow these new machines are a lot more popular than the gp2x that's a powerful reason to change focus. It looks like about 600 people downloaded my game Vektar which is pretty cool, but if I thought that 6000 would download a version for a similar platform you bet that's interesting to me. It's way too soon to have any predictions about whether that's likely or not, as it depends on marketing and other business stuff.

I never owned a gp32 so I didn't abandon it for the gp2x, but if I understand history, that machine was around for many years before being abandoned, not just by developers but by its manufacturer. Everything gets abandoned eventually.
 
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aapje89 posted on Mar 20 2006 at 08:05 PM said:
I hope the xgp & mini will be crap.











So all the devs stay with the gp2x :)


They are crap, for emulation anyway...

Glad they split this up, much better now.
 
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First of all, it's great to see DaveC and Radek, probably the two most technically astute participants on the forums, involved in such a detailed discussion over a question I wrote. Not to start a circle-jerk, but I wanted to acknowledge this. Also, I knew about the small screen, but *analog controls* on the XGPmini was news to me.

The key advantage of the (theoretical) XGPmini is 3D support. We know what 3D hardware processor would be used. So, here's the tiebreaker question. The consensus is that 3D
PS1 games (e.g. Silent Hill) will always be <= 10fps on the GP2X even if the
second ARM is exploited - please correct me if I'm wrong. Does the XPGmini open the possibility of full-speed 3D PS1 emulation?

For the sake of discussion, I'm assuming that the XGPmini will support
free-beer homebrew. Also, only PS1 emulation is worth mentioning since
Squidge, et al. are closing the gap on SNES, and GBA shouldn't be far behind.
 
vaustein posted on Mar 21 2006 at 12:49 AM said:
First of all, it's great to see DaveC and Radek, probably the two most technically astute participants on the forums, involved in such a detailed discussion over a question I wrote. Not to start a circle-jerk, but I wanted to acknowledge this. Also, I knew about the small screen, but *analog controls* on the XGPmini was news to me

There are few other persons what are more technically adept. The one who is actually making his own machine in the FPGA form for an example.

For the "analog controls" on the XGP mini where is the info?!
(and how d-pad could be analog?)

If that's so then then GP has just made even bigger mistake than GPH with GP2x's stick...

The "big" XGP has an analog joystick.

vaustein posted on Mar 21 2006 at 12:49 AM said:
The key advantage of the (theoretical) XGPmini is 3D support. We know what 3D hardware processor would be used. So, here's the tiebreaker question. The consensus is that 3D
PS1 games (e.g. Silent Hill) will always be <= 10fps on the GP2X even if the
second ARM is exploited - please correct me if I'm wrong. Does the XPGmini open the possibility of full-speed 3D PS1 emulation?

It's hard to say without any profiling info of the 3D accelerator in the XGP. But yes - it will allow to improve perfomance of emulators of machines with 3D graphics like the PS1. To what extent that's unknow but I have no doubt that eventually the PS1 will be much better on the XGP than GP2x.

But it doesn't mean that it must be bad on the GP2x.
 
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When I'm going to win national lottery (and I plan to) I'll buy both of them and even a Psp. :lol:
For the moment I'll stick to my gp2X (I tried the Psp, but I prefer my "half-working" little beast).
Wait and see !
 
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