Rockboy speed

[El_]

Now I realize this is a topic that resurfaces many times, but it seems as though most people with answers on this forum like to give short ones.  

Can't we simply speed up the gameboy emulation?  Now I know that this is another subject people hate, but the folks at ipodlinux's iboy can adjust playing speeds.

A speed patch would be great, but that's probably too much to hope for.  I think I'll settle for a lengthy explanation.

[ComposerDude]

El_: I'm going to just put this out there for you, so bear with me.

On my ipod nano, rockboy runs just fine at an exceptionally playable speed with sound on. With sound off, it just so happens to run a little faster than my gameboy (before it broke, and I threw it away). Granted, it doesn't sound quite like my gameboy, but you have to remember a couple of things when you're experienceing slow gameplay, my fellow traveller:

-It's a virtual computer running on top of another computer
-The games were written for that computer
-All rockbox targets have a relatively slow processor compared to a desktop

These are simple answers compared to giving you the detailed why and wherefore of how-it-all-works-and-thats-why-it-doesn't-work. I own an iriver H300, and rockboy does run slower than on my nano.

Right now, I just appreciate that such a plugin does exist. Because if the world was anymore normal than it already is, it wouldn't.

Here's to a good answer!
CoomposerDude

[Llorean]

To explain further: Yes we CAN do it. No we don't CARE about doing it. Rockbox isn't a Gameboy Emulator. Rockbox is an audio firmware, and there's a LOT of jobs to do to get it working well.

It's also a community project. Meaning EVERYONE is donating their spare time and nobody is getting paid. If someone submitted a patch that optimized Rockboy to speed it up, and did it in a non-broken way, I'm sure it'd get accepted. Instead, people simply say "You guys should do it" like you've done, and don't do any work for themselves, and don't listen to us when we say "We're working on other things because it's not a priority" and it never happens.

iPL perhaps attracts more gaming programmers, or because of its status as an operating system has less focus in certain areas. I couldn't say. But just because it happened there doesn't mean it'll happen here, because as you can see, none of you people who are actually interested in it are working on it.

It may take you some time if you don't know how, but no matter how long it takes you to learn what you need to know, and then do it, that's still less time than "It will never happen" which is the case if nobody interested in it ever starts the process.

[Chronon]

I think a lot of people still aren't used to the idea of free software.  It appears that a lot of people carry this vendor/customer relationship into it.  Instead, it seems to me that people should dissolve that boundary and jump right in if they feel like it.  It's not something for them to do for us.  It's something that any one of us can do if we have the interest and apply the effort.

[LambdaCalculus]

Well put, Chronon!  

[ComposerDude]

Alot of what Chronon says is rather well put.  

[Chronon]

Thanks for the kind words.  

[LambdaCalculus]

El_: I would like for you to please take the time to read these articles, so you can see what Rockbox is about, and why we say these things:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Software

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker

And if you can get a dead tree edition of this essay, please do so:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cathedral_and_the_Bazaar

And one last book:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month

[El_]

I never said anything more than my first post!  I understand that this is all done in spare time, it's free software, etc, I just wanted to know why it ran slowly, and if there was any way to make it run faster!  

I'll still take answers for the second question^!

And thanks for the quick feedback!

[LambdaCalculus]

You did ask for a lengthy explanation, so we gave you all the explanation we could.  

The best way to make Rockboy run faster would be to see if maybe someone would like to take a look at the source for it and see if maybe they can optimize it a bit to make it run better.

Just remember what ComposerDude pointed out earlier: Part of it is the target you're running on. If you've got a Gigabeat, then speed shouldn't be an issue. The iPods, on the other hand, are quite a bit slower than the Gigabeat, so performance will be hit.

But if you really want to see Rockboy crawl, check it out on the Archos devices...

[El_]

I'm using an iPod.  And I'd volunteer to optimize the thing, but I'd just be wasting everybody's time, I've got no knowledge of what to do or how to.

And nice sig, btw.

[LambdaCalculus]

I've got no knowledge of what to do or how to.

Go back up and read those articles I gave you, and start branching from there. Take them in. Learn from them. See through the eyes of the Masters.
Be one with the Masters.

Download the source for Rockbox, and study it. Get some books on C. Download and install Cygwin. Take it all in and grok it.

With time, young Jedi, it will all become clear...

[Chronon]

That is about where I am at.  I know the basics of programming, but have little specific familiarity with C.  I have a development environment set up and I can apply patches and compile.  With a series of incremental steps I can arrive at a point where I can actually contribute code to the project. . .

From The Cathedral and the Bazaar:

Users are wonderful things to have, and not just because they demonstrate that you're serving a need, that you've done something right. Properly cultivated, they can become co-developers.

But for now I am content with play testing and providing feedback on Rockbox's performance.

[El_]

I've got no knowledge of what to do or how to.

Go back up and read those articles I gave you, and start branching from there. Take them in. Learn from them. See through the eyes of the Masters.
Be one with the Masters.

Download the source for Rockbox, and study it. Get some books on C. Download and install Cygwin. Take it all in and grok it.

With time, young Jedi, it will all become clear...

Ehhh, maybe.