I've ported Beats of Rage to Pocket PC .. will need testers soon :) - Page 3

TalynOne · 05-27-05, 01:45 PM

Sounds awesome, reading your blog now, I just skimmed it before. Very interesting read. Thanks for all your hard work!

05-27-05, 02:14 PM

OKay, these are *terrible* screenshot pics from my phone .. bright bright office with sun pouring in meant reflections from every angle, so I went for close up. But maybe it'll tide you over a few hours ;)

http://www.codejedi.com/bor/screenshots/borce005.jpg

http://www.codejedi.com/bor/screenshots/borce004.jpg

jeff

05-27-05, 02:15 PM

Anyone know a screenshot tool for PoPC that works with GAPI (direct framebuffer)? I can include one in the engine easily enough (wrote one for Palm OS I could just crib), but theres a pile of screenshot tools so some of them should work :P

jeff

aNiMeMaN14 · 05-27-05, 02:18 PM

Hey skeezix, quick question. Any chance of you using on-screen buttons (i.e. not hardware mapped, but rather, using the screen)? That way, if we play in landscape mode, it won't be difficult trying to figure out what buttons to use as an attack button.

and i'm also more than willing to help out. i have an i-mate Jam.

05-27-05, 02:36 PM

I fully intend on using on-screen buttons, since Pocket PC controls almost always are terrible for gaming, and do on the X50v of which I have. (ie: Only the Tapwave Zodiac has good controls, in the PDA space :/)

(Hope a few of you guys are around on the weekend for testing; I think I found the one piece of info I needed so it should be going ASAP. I'm rusty with my win32 raw coding :)

Portrait mode can work okay, but then you have a very stretched game, or a very small one, so I've removed that mode of op for now :)

My current goal is for landscape, controls on the left. The game needs two fires (fire, jump, for example) plus 'special move'. On the Zodiac I used hard controls plus screen-tap for special, and on regular Palm OS I just assumed portrait and screen-tap for special.. but I'd like to do better here since Pocket PC's in landscape are sexy..

So the current thought is (in landscape):

D-pad/etc on the left, tap thumb on bottom right to fire, tab thumb on top right for jump, and tap in the middle (with left or right thumbs?) to do special?

What do you think?

jeff

TalynOne · 05-27-05, 02:37 PM

Originally Posted by skeezix

Anyone know a screenshot tool for PoPC that works with GAPI (direct framebuffer)? I can include one in the engine easily enough (wrote one for Palm OS I could just crib), but theres a pile of screenshot tools so some of them should work :P

jeff

Hi jeff,

Edit:

This one looks like the best bet:
http://www.newmad.se/software.asp

-----------------------------

Here are some other choices:

http://www.pocketmatrix.com/forums/v...api+screenshot

AND:

http://www.pocketgear.com/software_detail.asp?id=15284
(Trial version works for up to 20 screenshots)

05-27-05, 02:58 PM

I'll try the one mentioned in the PocketMatrix post; free and runs on the device. Anythign that requires a connection to a PC is no good of course, and for a screenshot tool I won't bother to pay at this tage, since I can write my own in a few hours :P Thanks for sorting it out for me.. time is ever tight, and I'm not as on-top of Pocket PC as I'd like, so it is helpful.

jeff

05-27-05, 04:13 PM

skeezix even though we are enthuastic to try and play, take your time as you will probably make fewer mistakes and thus a more stable program. And if we drive you nuts now, we would end up loosing the potential future PPC apps and games ^_^

05-27-05, 04:16 PM

pah, I like to release early and often -- get it out, see what peopel think; doesn't matter to me if you hate it or love it.. all feedback is welcome. First release is first alpha, there'll be more updates. (I've been doing PDA/mobile development for a decade now)

jeff

thebidibule · 05-27-05, 05:43 PM

I love you :love:
I'm waiting this PPC release with enthousiasm ! Can't wait !

05-27-05, 05:55 PM

Maybe tonight :)

I should almost start a new thread when it does go out, as this one is already long and essentially empty :)

jeff

Lomius · 05-27-05, 10:27 PM

Im not using it anyways. Lemme know! :approve:

05-27-05, 11:10 PM

OKay folks, I've added a *really* early alpha to my site for download, just so you can screw around. Perhaps your experiences will help out, or at least be encouraging :)

Get it here:
http://www.codejedi.com/bor/binaries/borce001alpha.zip

Heres the README included; note the path and filenames have to be exact and are case sensitive. I'll fix that up soon of course, but wanted to let you play :)

Beats of Rage / ce
------------------

Game engine by Team Senile
Ported to Pocket PC by Codejedi (http://www.codejedi.com)

ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA
ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA

This is a _really_ early alpha, so don't expect it to be playable
though hopefully it will be for some people :)

ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA
ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA

Some things to try..

1) Lots of battery!
2) Try setting your device to run at high performance

How to Install..

** Use a card writer; much faster than ActiveSync :)

1) Copy BORce2.exe to anywhere you like for now (though likely SD or CF
is best)

2) Copy a BOR PAK file to the card; I'm afraid this version requires the
PAK file to be in /SD Card/Programs/ -- I'll make it scan CF and SD and
RAM later.

3) Sadly, it also must be very specifically named and is case sensitive
right now. You can rename MODs to this title as it doesn't care which
one, but it has to have this name and location:
/SD Card/Programs/vbor_cast.pak

4) You can use any BOR mod you like, such as 50MB one or the one I've
included.. the 3MB "Castlevania BOR MOD".

How to operate..

** This will change as I evolve it. ie: To use tapping on the screen to
fire and do "Special moves" and jump and such, but for now its all buttons.

1) 5-way center-button is usually "start" and "pause", but its up to your
device's preference

2) Jump and Fire are supported on the buttons for now, though I will
add screen taps to do them as well

3) Sometimes it gets out of sync with whats going or, or the buttons
are delayed.. this is due to thread priorities and such as mentioned
below. I'm still playing with it to get a good balance.

Things I'm working on..

1) "Thread priorities" -- The Windows OS is prioritizing threads and
balancing what it thinks should be running.. this is causing slowdowns
at random times in the engine display or runtime or the like, so bear with
me. Let me know how it runs on your device, and let me know what your
device is.. over a few alphas hopefully we can find the right level of
OS tuning to make it run well.

2) Adding some "Loading" screens, since that first 30s delay is pretty
annoying and makes you wonder if shes crashed :)

3) A PAK picker; since you can install dozens of PAK mods for the game,
you need a way to pick them so you can avoid renaming all the time :)

4) A way to quit without pinhole-resetting (doh!)

5) Audio..

Shadownova · 05-27-05, 11:37 PM

I have an rx3715 (yes i know this is a dell board) but i tried it anyway. Is this a program that will only work with the dell axims because i did everything the instructions said and all that happened is that in the top left corner appered the word Start appears but without the windows logo.

TalynOne · 05-28-05, 01:00 AM

Hey skeezix! Awesome work so far.

First let me say, it worked!

You're right that it's not really playable yet as it seems to only register my button presses sometimes.

I followed your instructions and used your sample pak file. The only thing I did differently than your instructions was leave the processor on auto instead of max performance.

I'm using an Axim X50V with Rom version A03 and Picard's GAPI tweak. I had Spb Pocket Plus, Spb Weather and the latest beta Wisbar running in the background.