Rockbot 1.0 beta 2

[protomank]

Hey mates, Rockbot is back!
For those who do not kown, this is a game (and a engine with a desktop editor Qt based that runs on Linux, Windows and Pandora) inspirated by Megaman classic series. After a long time porting from ANSI-C to C++/STL, is is getting good enought for new releases and thus I was asked to port it again to PS2. You can get the binaries and more information at the project home page: Rockbot » sidescroller game engine

PS2 issues for now:

• sound dosen't work
• will not run from a burnt cdrom
• some keys are not working
• lag in some parts

Take in account that I did not made ANY adjustments for the PS2 yet, I simply compiled (thanks to ragnarok 2040 that answered me in ps2dev.org forums, sadly I lost my password there soon after thanking him), placed in the pendrive (I didn't even needed ps2link) and it run at first try - it simply blasted my mind, I did not excepted that

Please, give it a try and report any issues, improvements and such. The code is free (GPL), so any comments to improve it are welcome.
I do not know why sound isn't working, as I'm out of cdrom disks to burn with my current network settings, I'll have to take a look later during the week.

[diegsmoran]

wow this sounds cool, any chance beginner users could get it without compiling, also since you know how to compile a ps2 game, do you think one could be ported? I would love to play the old American Mcgee's Alice on ps2 again. It came out originally for Mac os 10.2, and it came out for windows as well. I've seen other games put on the ps2 like them, such as quake 3, unreal tournament, do you think it would be possible for you to do? Please, it's my favorte game! PM me

[protomank]

wow this sounds cool, any chance beginner users could get it without compiling, also since you know how to compile a ps2 game, do you think one could be ported? I would love to play the old American Mcgee's Alice on ps2 again. It came out originally for Mac os 10.2, and it came out for windows as well. I've seen other games put on the ps2 like them, such as quake 3, unreal tournament, do you think it would be possible for you to do? Please, it's my favorte game! PM me

Do you have the source code of the Alice game?
You can't simply put a Mac game disc on the PS2 and expect it to run... you need to change the code (in some cases, almost the entire code) to run on a different machine, the compile for it... no easy task.

[SP193]

Hey mates, Rockbot is back!
For those who do not kown, this is a game (and a engine with a desktop editor Qt based that runs on Linux, Windows and Pandora) inspirated by Megaman classic series. After a long time porting from ANSI-C to C++/STL, is is getting good enought for new releases and thus I was asked to port it again to PS2. You can get the binaries and more information at the project home page: Rockbot » sidescroller game engine

PS2 issues for now:

• sound dosen't work
• will not run from a burnt cdrom
• some keys are not working
• lag in some parts

Take in account that I did not made ANY adjustments for the PS2 yet, I simply compiled (thanks to ragnarok 2040 that answered me in ps2dev.org forums, sadly I lost my password there soon after thanking him), placed in the pendrive (I didn't even needed ps2link) and it run at first try - it simply blasted my mind, I did not excepted that

Please, give it a try and report any issues, improvements and such. The code is free (GPL), so any comments to improve it are welcome.
I do not know why sound isn't working, as I'm out of cdrom disks to burn with my current network settings, I'll have to take a look later during the week.

Wow. Thanks for the new release!

But I thought that you had made some earlier releases in the past, and they had working sound support? What happened?

[protomank]

Wow. Thanks for the new release!
But I thought that you had made some earlier releases in the past, and they had working sound support? What happened?

You are welcome
About the sound, the previous version of Rockbot (0.1) was written in ANSI-C and first tought to be just a little tech demo, not a full game with a generic engine to allow user to edit most parts of not only map, npcs and objects, but also some behaviors. Thus, after a while, the code become a nightmare to maintain (too much hacks, confusing) and also impossible to anyone besides me to code it.
So, the time had come when I had the choise to continue that way or rewrite it from ground, I picked the second option and used C++ instead, so the code is now very elegant and way easier to code with more internal and external features, but it took one and half year to reach the state the old code.

That said, for sound to work in PS2, I made two things: changed a bit of code in the SDK and added a code to change main app thread priority. The second thing I made again, but for some reason, sound didn't worked, maybe because I cleaned my SDK, so I have to build the old code version with it and check if sound works; and if not, then I have to check my backups of the SDK.
Another problem is that my ps2link isn't working; I get a reset and nothing more.

So, sound probally will return without much work, I just need time, that I won't spend on PS2 for a while, because there are some parts of the old code that still needs to be properly ported (I'm currently rewritting the IA part to become more module).

Very long answer, sorry

[doctorxyz]

Maybe you could improve the graphics and release soon the first open source HDTV1080P game of PS2 history... Just think about it ;-)
(I can ask for a friend of mine to design the art if you want)...

[protomank]

Heh, I really doubt the PS2 can handle 2D 1080P graphics.... I mean, he can, but the speed would probally drop to 1 FPS or lower, if using SDL

For a RPG like final fantasy, this would be enought, but for action games like Rcobkto/megaman, dropping lower than 30 fps makes the control of the game really bad, also, the ideia of this game is really meant to look retro. (But I would love to have graphics like Rayman origins by the other side, eheheheh)

[doctorxyz]

I see your point. Well, feel free for asking me (and SP193 too I believe) about HDTV1080P tweaks, in case of being interested on making this or any other new game running on this new PS2 vmode. An open source PS2 HDTV1080P RPG / adventure would be nice... ;-)

[SP193]

Heh, I really doubt the PS2 can handle 2D 1080P graphics.... I mean, he can, but the speed would probally drop to 1 FPS or lower, if using SDL

For a RPG like final fantasy, this would be enought, but for action games like Rcobkto/megaman, dropping lower than 30 fps makes the control of the game really bad, also, the ideia of this game is really meant to look retro. (But I would love to have graphics like Rayman origins by the other side, eheheheh)

I see your point. Well, feel free for asking me (and SP193 too I believe) about HDTV1080P tweaks, in case of being interested on making this or any other new game running on this new PS2 vmode. An open source PS2 HDTV1080P RPG / adventure would be nice... ;-)

The video mode that the PS2 uses does not directly affect performance. It's the VRAM requirement of the higher-resolution video modes that affect the performance of the GS, as a larger frame buffer (For higher resolutions) will mean less memory for your textures. You could swap in and out your textures, but that means that you will have to constantly DMA transfer your textures, which will mean poorer performance too.

Not to mention that the PS2 will never have a true 1080I/P mode. Like I mentioned before, the lack of VRAM prevents anyone from getting a true 1920x1080 screen - even with 16-bit colour. gsKit offers a 1080I mode by using a half-height frame buffer.

I reckon that the highest resolution one can get from the PS2 would be around 1280x720, with 16-bit colour and smaller textures. Higher colour depts will require a smaller frame buffer. Higher resolution textures will require a smaller frame buffer too.

It's up to the programmer to decide how the GS should operate and the design of the renderer.

[doctorxyz]

protomank,
Sorry about being off-topic.

SP193,
Thanks for the info.

all,
Anyway, maybe I'll create a specific thread for feeding this idea.