Coders wanted

[Kormann]

Hello everyone, I'm here because I'm trying to help Beats of Rage Community to grow.
This homebrew 2d beat'em up engine is already ported to almost every new gen console.

PS2 console has 2 versions, one uses PS2 Official SDK (illegal) and the other uses PS2DEV SDK. Both are outdated because actually there is an OpenBOR project that has many new features implemented and almost every mod today uses it.

Kirby2000 from OpenBOR community has already tried to convert OpenBOR to PS2 but his attempts were unsuccsessful.

Here is a quote from him

OpenBOR PS2 very easy to code, have already done it, twice.

BUT

PS2 SDK is illegal, only 1 version will work with OpenBOR (as far as we know) and its not the one on Emule, so until we can get hold of a copy we can't make it. I have made a copy before, compiled it, it loads and everything but crashes before the title screen.

PS2 Unofficial SDK is easy to get hold of but no-one here has the experience to use it, there is an unofficial version of BOR, again easy to convert to OpenBOR, but no one knows how to set up the PS2 SDK properly to compile it.

So to summarize, I will gladly write OpenBOR for the PS2 if someone has the tools to compile the code, it will prob take about 2 hours to write, thats all, but until someone with the resources comes forward, we are screwed.

Can someone help him on how to compile it properly with PS2DEV SDK???

Please give him some feedback

Here is 3 links about this subject (in ascending timeline order)
Thread #0 - 1 year ago
Thread #1 - End of year 2005
Thread #2 - May 2006

Thanks in Advance.
Regards,
Kormann

[EEUG]

...is source code for this project (preferably in .rar/.zip) available for download somewhere?...

Edit: ...well, I found it. It indeed uses official SDK stuff. From the quick look of it it's not that difficult to get it running without it. It just requires PS2 itself which is barely available for me (only a few hours after work and I'm spending it for SMS ). I can give some pointers however:
- "libps2dev" from PS2 Linux project can be used with minimal changes for GS related code (almost the same as in official SDK, but legal (I think at least so);
- console related stuff has to be written from scratch, but again, some kernel code from ps2linux project can be used (for scrolling and character output);
- for sound I have no idea yet (depends on which functionality is used - only PCM playback or some "advanced" things also);

I can help to write the code, but the progress will be really slow...

Edit2: ...thanks for the link, Pixel's port seems to be free of "Official SDK", so, I'll come back to it tomorrow (will try to compile at least)...

[Kormann]

I think these will help you

http://www.openbor.net/downloads.shtml => Has the sources for OpenBOR
http://ps2bor.psx-scene.com/downloads.htm => Source of original BOR for PS2. Ported by pixel.

Thanks for your reply EEUG

Edit #1:

I can help to write the code, but the progress will be really slow...

It is really not a problem.. If you can at least aconmplish the task someday it will be awsome.

Edit #2: Look what Kirby2000 posted recently.

For a start, I am using Pixels PS2 unofficial port.

The reason I could not get it to compile is that the versions of PS2SDK and GSKIT required were not those stated in the readme as far as I could tell. Of the versions available, the versions of PS2SDK available were too old and too new (requiring rewriting of the code to adapt it) respectively and the GSKIT stated in the readme (version 1 or 0.1) was too old so wouldn't compile.

The problem I have is that I am unfamiliar with PS2 developemnt, but I am very familiar with BOR development, so having to change the PS2 code parts to make it compile is difficult for me. However if the original version of Pixels BOR port were to compile properly, I would have no trouble updating it to OpenBOR and updating it.

The version with the official PS2 SDK compiled fine for me (SDK version 3.0) but failed to get past the loading screen. This was Neil Corletts port and even compiling his code with his makefile and settings under linux produced a file different to his. I contacted Neil and he suggested that I may have a different version of the PS2 SDK to him and this would be why it behaved differently even though the same code and compiling options were used.

[EEUG]

@Kormann: ...well, my first attempt to compile it failed, since Pixel's port is indeed uses rather old version of ps2sdk. So, it will take ages for me to get it working on PS2, since I'm not sure if the new version of gsKist etc. is backward compatible. I don't know if it makes any sence for me to continue with it (in this case further SMS development will be definitely stopped)...

[Kormann]

I don't know if it makes any sence for me to continue with it (in this case further SMS development will be definitely stopped)...

Damm.. thats a bad news =/
So you are saying that if you wanna help you would have to stop SMS development? Is there any chance (in the future) to help with this thing (don't care if the development of openbor to ps2 is slowly). Kirby2000 is going to be busy too in the next weeks because he has exams and he's just comming back after it.

all I need is help compiling Pixels port, then I can do the rest of the work myself. Is he on the PS2-Scene forums then? I might try and contact him, but I should prob warn him, I only know about coding BOR, I'm know very little about PS2 software development and libraries.

Eugene, If you don't have the time, don't worry then..
the only thing is that we have to stick with the old ps2bor or give up and use pc instead.


Thanks in advance for you attention and for trying to help.
Keep the good work as always...

Best regards,
Kormann

EDIT: I have a doubt.. would a PSP Openbor sourcecode help? Is PSP familiar with ps2dev sdk libraries? Because there is a version for PSP made by SamuraiX if I remember correctly.

[EEUG]

@Kormann:...well, let's turn it this way. In SMS I've made all the graphics and sound stuff independent from ps2sdk, so, changes in ps2sdk won't affect SMS at all. Would it be possible for "Kirby2000" first to create a document which will describe all platform dependent functions and their functionality, so, we'll make an attempt to put some order in that mess . That will be our starting point. My knowledge about bor is zero, so, it will save a lot of time...