zaurus port

SnowyThing · Post by **SnowyThing** » Mon Jul 22, 2002 8:25 am

Wickedcool, Artaxerxas. Maybe tomorrow you'll have the entire Exult engine running.

Mungo · Post by **Mungo** » Tue Jul 23, 2002 2:19 am

Artaxerxes, great work. Have you tried the Digital Music and SFX packs? I assume the libSDL-mixer ipk listed above works OK?

Post by **artaxerxes** » Tue Jul 23, 2002 3:39 am

To tell you the truth, I have not compiled in any music at all. I could try to compile in the sound stuff but then IIRC, I'll have to also prepare timidity and stuff like that.

Anyone of the developer could enlighten me as to what programs does exult depend on to play music?

Thx

Artaxerxes

Post by **Dominus** » Tue Jul 23, 2002 4:38 am

Mungo is the best to ask for that. He did the move to sdl_mixer and therefor should be the best informed of us

Post by **artaxerxes** » Tue Jul 23, 2002 5:49 am

Humm.. I just gave a try to leave in timidity during ./configure. It _does_ compile but if I change the sound option from off to on, I get a crash.
Fatal signal: Bus Error (SDL parachute deployed)

Of course, I do _not_ have any timidity stuff in and I'd like to point I did _not_ enable midi... waht you guys call in the sound panel as being "music". It was off.

I turned on the "audio" and the "sfx".

Artaxerxes

Mungo · Post by **Mungo** » Tue Jul 23, 2002 6:22 am

Don't compile in Timidity, I doubt it would work, if it did it uses a lot of CPU and I guess it may not even work on the Zaurus due to its relatively slow CPU. Also don't compile in midi.

You may have to configure the exult.cfg manually to switch on the digital music, details in the CVS documentation. You'd also need to put the sound pack and music pack into the exult data directory to get any sound at all. First try the sound effects before looking at the music.

If sdl/sdl_mixer has been ported properly to the Zaurus I can't see any reason why it wouldn't work.

Post by **nadir** » Tue Jul 23, 2002 6:55 am

Actually I believe any kind of digital music is overkill for the Zaurus as the Oggs and the MIDI patches are quite large.
The best bet would be to use one of those FM synths (scummvm uses one) as they use less CPU and no disk space

Post by **artaxerxes** » Wed Jul 24, 2002 7:41 am

I've got a digital camera at hand finally! I asked another co-worker who was less busy...

Any specific picture you would like to see?

Make a list and make it quick, offer is valid only today!

Artaxerxes

Karlos · Post by **Karlos** » Wed Jul 24, 2002 8:34 am

How about the Guardian intro? That would be cool to see on a handheld device.

-Karl

Post by **artaxerxes** » Wed Jul 24, 2002 8:35 am

Nice idea Karl, except that I can't play the intro yet. Some sort of sound issue.

Artaxerxes

Post by **artaxerxes** » Wed Jul 24, 2002 8:41 am

My mistake! It seems I can play the SI intro now! Yahoooo!
Also, I did not install the blackgate, so I can't make a shot of the guardian.

Another point, the latest package of exult on the zaurus is:

http://artaxerxes_2.tripod.com/exult_0.3_arm.ipk

Changelog:
* the direction keys are properly mapped so that hitting the left button will make you go down (remember the screen is rotated)
* no need of terminal anymore. Just tap the ankh amulet in the Games section to play Exultima.

Artaxerxes

Post by **wjp** » Wed Jul 24, 2002 12:00 pm

New Screenshots!

Enjoy

XxVenomxX · Post by **XxVenomxX** » Wed Jul 24, 2002 1:28 pm

Who's the goofball at the end?
hehe

Man, those screenshots are great. Can't say it enough, excellent work!

Karlos · Post by **Karlos** » Thu Jul 25, 2002 5:40 am

No fair, I want to get a Zaurus after seeing those shots. I have an Agenda VR-3 now, so I think it would be difficult to convince my wife that I need *another* Linux PDA.

How well does Exult perform on the device? At least you don't have to use any scalars, which helps.

-Karl

Post by **artaxerxes** » Thu Jul 25, 2002 5:58 am

you've got that right. Since there is no scalers and since there is no sound yet, the performance is truely AWESOME. The fact it is a RISC processor might have some advantages too.

On my desktop, I play with higher resolution, scaler and music and it is about 25% slower than on the zaurus.. Speed is really, really not a pb at all.

On the other hand you might need to invest in a CF card or SD card since the data files are a good 20MB and I recommend setting up some swap space to avoid crashes.

I formatted my SD card to be a single swap partition of 32MB and I store the data files in the CF card (128 MB... tons of room). I put the exult binary and the flexes on the built-in RAM.

Artaxerxes

Post by **artaxerxes** » Thu Jul 25, 2002 5:59 am

Actually you could port exult to the Agenda VR-3.

Artaxerxes

Karlos · Post by **Karlos** » Thu Jul 25, 2002 6:06 am

Nah, it'd be crappy on the VR-3. It's a 16-color grayscale screen, and a 90 Mhz processor. Also, I the data files would not fit on the device.

I primarily bought the VR-3 so I could port NetHack to the device, and play NetHack on a handheld. It's served that purpose well.

-Karl

Post by **artaxerxes** » Thu Jul 25, 2002 6:08 am

sounds to me you _need_ an new PDA...

/me winks

Oh well, as we say in French sometimes:

"le sexe fort n'est pas celui qu'on croit."

Artaxerxes

SB-X · Post by **SB-X** » Thu Jul 25, 2002 1:58 pm

Is it standard to have the controls on the left side when the screen is rotated, as in your screenshots? Is this configurable through SDL?

Post by **artaxerxes** » Fri Jul 26, 2002 3:26 am

It's perfect if you are right-handed as I am. However, if you are left-handed it is a pain because you use your worse hand (the right) to move and thus it's tough.

Since Alexandre Courbot (the guy who compiled SDLcvs for zaurus) is left-handed, he has patched it so that you can put an env parameter to flip the screen. There is an overhead, however.

The param to export is:

export SDL_QT_INVERT_ROTATION=1

Artaxerxes

PepsiProgrammer · Post by **PepsiProgrammer** » Fri Jul 26, 2002 12:04 pm

tripod sucks, on dial up the file size of the
http://artaxerxes_2.tripod.com/exult_0.3_arm.ipk file seems to change randomly each time I download it I found this link http://exult.info/snapshots/2.0/exult-1.1.0cvs-0.3.ipk but when I install it, and try running exult from the console (there is no icon) all I get is "Bus Error" any help would be appreciated

Post by **artaxerxes** » Fri Jul 26, 2002 12:20 pm

change your .exult.cfg so that fullscreen is off (it should be by default).

Also, did you install the PROPER SDL packages?

http://www.gnurou.org/zaurus/feed/libSD ... -1_arm.ipk and http://www.gnurou.org/zaurus/feed/libSD ... -1_arm.ipk

Artaxerxes

Post by **artaxerxes** » Fri Jul 26, 2002 12:35 pm

also, the .exult.cfg is configured to use serpent isle data file.

If you want to play blackgate, you will have to modify the file.

Don't forget also to install your SI and BG data file into:
/mnt/cf/exult-data/si
and
/mnt/cf/exult-data/bg

Btw, which zaurus are you running it on? 5500 or 5000D?

As for the icon not showing up, it is weird as it does here and it is present in the ipk file. Are you sure you installed through the installer and not through the command line?

Artaxerxes

PepsiProgrammer · Post by **PepsiProgrammer** » Fri Jul 26, 2002 12:47 pm

Yes I installed the SDL packages, i used http://exult.info/snapshots/2.0/exult-1.1.0cvs-0.3.ipk to install with because I coudlent get the file fromt he tripod site to install when I finally did get the full file (I think) i got the error "ipkg reports something went wrong" or something like that, I am usin ga 5500. and I am installing through the command line, I think most of my problems would be solved if someone just mirrored the .ipk someplace else

Post by **wjp** » Fri Jul 26, 2002 1:09 pm

The .ipk on sourceforge should be fine. The one on tripod may be down due to it costing too much bandwidth

PepsiProgrammer · Post by **PepsiProgrammer** » Fri Jul 26, 2002 3:29 pm

the .ipk on sourceforge seems to be missing some files, the ~/.exult.cfg and icon files namely, but I cant seem to get it to run at all all I get is "bus error" when I try to run it from a console

Sslaxx · Post by **Sslaxx** » Sun Jul 28, 2002 4:46 am

When're you going to add Artaxerxes to the "About Us" page? His efforts do make him part of the Exult team, surely?

Post by **wjp** » Sun Jul 28, 2002 4:52 am

When Artaxerxes adds himself to that page

Post by **artaxerxes** » Mon Jul 29, 2002 4:20 am

message received, I'll do that soon!

also, PepsiProgrammer, keep in mind the installer makes other checks that the command line cannot do. I would recommend to always use the installer program.

Also, I've looked in the .ipk (it's just a .tar.gz file). The icon and the ~/.exult.cfg are there. Again, using the command line might be your pb.

Do you have lots of memory available? Have you installed many other programs? If you did, then either:
* buy an SD card and format it to be swap and activate it
* dd a empty file to your CF card (the one hosting the data files), format it to be swap and activate it
* uninstall programs and, using the console, kill some processes like addresbook or that kind of things to free up memory.

Let me know!

Artaxerxes

Ramiel Darksbane · Post by **Ramiel Darksbane** » Mon Jul 29, 2002 10:22 am

Do you guys plan to remap the directional pad orientation inorder to support the orientation of your display? This whole "left is up" and "right is down" is a little confusing..

Post by **artaxerxes** » Mon Jul 29, 2002 10:28 am

that's fixed since 0.3

The default keymapping is such that when you hit the "right" key on the keypad, the avatar will go south (since the screen os rotated).

It is very intuitive and in accord with common sense now.

Artaxerxes

PepsiProgrammer · Post by **PepsiProgrammer** » Tue Jul 30, 2002 3:56 pm

Ok ive finallly gotten it working, and here are a few tips, if your trying to fit the gamedata to BG in a 32 meg flash card, you can safely delete u7speech.spc and u7voice.flx since the sound isnt enabled anyway, probably some more files you can delete, music etc. but havemt messed with it yet

SnowyThing · Post by **SnowyThing** » Wed Jul 31, 2002 11:03 am

I always thought BG was about 19.5 Megs...

Post by **wjp** » Wed Jul 31, 2002 11:10 am

Yeah, that's about right. And if you only take the static/ dir, you're down to 17.7Mb

Nik · Post by **Nik** » Sat Aug 03, 2002 6:23 am

So what about the sound? Is it possible to play U7 with music/sfx/speech?

Post by **artaxerxes** » Tue Aug 06, 2002 5:02 am

so far, the sound is not yet supported. I am working on that though. The CVS HEAD branch of Exult contains code to use Ogg musics. Unfortunately, I don't think it's a good idea to use any default ogg players for Exult as there is no FPU in the zaurus. I heard of an integer-only ogg player but it's not Free.
We could also modify the code so we could use MP3s, since the zaurus plays those very well. Or develop our own non-float ogg player...

So that's for the music.

Regarding the sound effects, technically, it should be possible to use the digital packs. I have not tried but I'll have a look at it soon.

Stay tuned.

Artaxerxes

Abichai · Post by **Abichai** » Sun Aug 11, 2002 4:12 am

Hello to all!
I got exult working but I'm still stuck with the weird control behavior (right = top, etc...)
I just saw from a previous post that the 0.3 version is supposed to solve this, but I'm already using it, and still have the pb. Do I miss sthg? Is there any cfg file that needs to be edited?

Here are the SDL and exult ver I'm using:
exult-1.1.0cvs-0.3.ipk
SDL: libSDL_1.2-0.4_arm.ipk

Post by **artaxerxes** » Mon Aug 12, 2002 3:45 am

the latest version of exult should incorporate the proper mapping.

What may be possible though is that Alexandre's SDL package now have the automatic rotate keypad function when the screen is rotated. Since exult for zaurus maps the keys in a rotated manner, the SDL and keymapping annulate each other and you thus have no fix being done -> weird mapping.

I'll see if that's the case. I'll then produce another package with proper keymappings. I will also probably add other keymapping for other things missing (since the alt keys does not exist).

Artaxerxes

Abichai · Post by **Abichai** » Mon Aug 12, 2002 6:24 am

This may indeed be the case. But I thought that if both the SDL layer and exult rotate the keymap, I would end up with a too much rotated mapping, not a null-rotated.
from "up-key is right direction" to "up-key is up direction" thanks to SDL, and then with further rotating we would have "up-key is left direction" which is kind of different from what we had in the first place.
Am I wrong?

Abichai

Post by **artaxerxes** » Tue Aug 13, 2002 6:01 am

I don't know.. I'll look at it.

In the meantime I've tried to compile sound in and tested it in the zaurus. I get a SDL parachute deployed.

I'm investigating the cause.

Artaxerxes

Post by **artaxerxes** » Tue Aug 13, 2002 7:46 am

I've checked the package and the default mapping is such that hitting the "down" key of the keypad does indeed makes you go south.

I guess the SDL package already rotates the keypad then. I'll contact the author, check with him if that's the case and if it is, I'll modify the keymapping asap.

thx for the heads up.

Artaxerxes

Post by **artaxerxes** » Tue Aug 13, 2002 9:38 am

ok, the zaurus SDL package author replied and confirmed that he rotates the keypad now when the screen is rotated.

I'll gonna d/l his SDL package and create a new exult one asap.

Support for sound and music WILL have to wait... some unresolved issues.

Artaxerxes

Abichai · Post by **Abichai** » Wed Aug 14, 2002 3:56 am

Well, thanks for taking the time to solve this rotating problem Artaxerxes!
No I just can't wait to be able to play, just watching the screen and building headaches figuring out how to move to the proper direction was just not a way to live!

Abichai

Post by **artaxerxes** » Wed Aug 14, 2002 7:27 am

the sound problem is because of MixQuerySpec.

Artaxerxes

Post by **artaxerxes** » Wed Aug 14, 2002 7:50 am

unfortunately, the SDL packages from Alexandre Courbot aren't available anymore (looks like a DNS pb). I've contacted him regarding the pb.

Anyways, I can't test his new packages so I can't make an updated version yet.

I'm going to ask whether he could send over a copy of SDL / SDL_mixer personally so I can give a try.

In the meantime, please be patient.

Artaxerxes

Abichai · Post by **Abichai** » Thu Aug 15, 2002 2:30 am

No pb! I've been waiting to play U7 again for years, so I can wait a few days/weeks more!

Post by **artaxerxes** » Thu Aug 15, 2002 8:52 am

just for your information, the Zaurus supports music now !!!

It's plain horribly choppy when you walk but still, some progress

already, a test is prepared to run without debug to help solve the choppinness.

It sounds like an adlib right now

Artaxerxes

Post by **artaxerxes** » Thu Aug 15, 2002 9:34 am

YAHOOO!!!

The music is now perfect! No choppiness, nothing!

AWESOME!

just the sound effect to put in and we're go!

Artaxerxes

Post by **artaxerxes** » Thu Aug 15, 2002 10:11 am

and now the sfx are in too!

So now it's official,

Zaurus supports sound and music

Artaxerxes

XxVenomxX · Post by **XxVenomxX** » Thu Aug 15, 2002 10:46 am

Wow, quick work. Congrats!