DS port?

NOTICE: This forum is archived as read only.
Please use the Github Discussions at https://github.com/exult/exult/discussions
Forum rules
NOTICE: This forum is archived as read only.
Please use the Github Discussions at https://github.com/exult/exult/discussions
Locked
Naoki

DS port?

Post by Naoki »

Hello, everyone. I've been using Exult faithfully and lovingly since 2000 and remember RC98 or something like that very fondly.

Thank you for the great releases over the years. I know that many people are porting it to many different systems and that the DS may not be the best system for something like that considering the resolution, but I would think with the wealth of buttons, stylus and dual screens, something brilliant coud be conjured up.

If there is anything like this that can be made to dance, please write it here.

Cheers
Skutarth
Posts: 71
Joined: Thu May 14, 2020 1:34 pm

Re: DS port?

Post by Skutarth »

The resolution is a bit of a problem, but more of a problem is that you'd have to rewrite a LOT of rendering code for it to work well at all. The DS, like the GBA, has hardware graphics registers, whereas I believe Exult run software (please correct me if I'm wrong). Therefore, the entire rendering engine would need to be rewritten. Also, you'd have to deal with optimizing the x86 code to run on an ARM processor. Though that has been done with the N770 rather recently, the DS doesn't have the same processing power to work with.
The specifications just look too bleak to simply port it. It would probably require a complete rewrite.
But as long as you're using a legal development kit, you're free to start a project with the source code to port it to the DS. It's possible; it would just be difficult.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_DS
Locked