New at homebrew need pro coders advice

[gamecubesuxs]

Hey guys, Ive been doing more and more research into the coding for the ps2 and just want to get some advice from you pro coders out there in the scene, I want to start a DOSBOX emulator port for the PS2. Ive read that it is very possible and would like to give it a shot, I wanted to try to do just a DOOM port but changed my mind. You all know that Ive spent more time on the hardware portion of the PS2 thus my mods/repairs but now I also would like to join the homebrew scene. So any input from you guys would help me out. Ive installed Cygwin and the ps2dev toolchain on my windows xp based computer but wanted to know if its easier using a Linux OS to do this? For some reason my PC's HD won't partition (it gives me something like 502 error) and I cannot use Linux other than a livecd version. Im slowly rooting through the various tutorials from ps2dev right now trying to understand this better.

[gamecubesuxs]

I'll post here as soon as I get results

[ubergeek42]

you can always use vmware to get a linux environment in windows, i used to do this, but recently switched to MS Visual Studio + cygwin(which i now like better).

[gamecubesuxs]

Thanks I'll check that out ubergeek, Im going to have time coming up so i'll keep evryone posted, all suggestions and advice are welcomed

[sinkillerj]

A quick sugestion would be to add a mode to map the controler direction buttons to the arrow keys

[gamecubesuxs]

Ok had a HD failure on my PC but im up and running again. I got Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 up and running, I was wondering, is the ps2 programming language is that C++ or something else, Im just starting this stuff and wish to further help the ps2dev scene please don't go overkill on the noob jokes

[dlanor]

Ok had a HD failure on my PC but im up and running again. I got Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 up and running, I was wondering, is the ps2 programming language is that C++ or something else, Im just starting this stuff and wish to further help the ps2dev scene please don't go overkill on the noob jokes

The normal programming tools for PS2 homebrew software are PS2-adapted GCC tools running either on Linux or on Windows+Cygwin (I use the latter myself). The languages supported by these tools include C, C++, and assembly.

Best regards: dlanor

[gamecubesuxs]

So using C++ on visual studio would work?

[dlanor]

So using C++ on visual studio would work?

No.

Visual Studio doesn't compile the source to code that will execute on a PS2.
For that you need a compiler which has been adapted for PS2 support.

As far as I know only three such development packages exist:

1: The official PS2 developer kits by Sony, which are not available to the general public.

2: The PS2 Linux kit by Sony, which is available to the general public, but useless for homebrew purposes, as programs developed with it require the RTE disc to run. (And sharing that disc with others is illegal.)

3: The normal PS2 homebrew development tools that I mentioned earlier, consisting of a GCC tool collection running under Linux or Windows+Cygwin. There are also extensive support libs available for these tools, the most important being known as PS2SDK.

The home site of the homebrew tools and libs is "ps2dev.org", so that is the place where you can find all necessary downloads.

Edit:
I just noticed from an earlier post that you already are aware of the ps2dev tools, but apparently you haven't yet realized that they are the ONLY real alternative for homebrew PS2 development.

Best regards: dlanor

[E P]

So using C++ on visual studio would work?

I use Visual C++ 6.0 to some extent. It's the version before Microsoft decided to bloat it to death in later versions of Visual Studio. I use VC++ for its GUI and custom tools. It builds uLaunchELF using a ps2dev toolchain and can then run it via inLink with a custom toolbar button. However, as dlanor said Visual C++ is not going to build PS2 applications out of the box. Most will say use a good UNIX based editor and build it by hand, which I usually do anyway.