Rockbox games

[tyrone101]

Hi i if have been examining and using the rockbox firmware for a while and have just recently decided to join the forums,doing so i have these questions

Since most of the gbc games lag with rockboy.i usually put the 'max frameskip'on six wich works with about 10% of games but all the other ones lag ,why doesnt someone increase the max frame skip to about 20 maybe even more wich will allow most gbc games to work

and why wont the rockbox team put more game plugins in there dailybuilds ,only a small amount of games are acually fun and chip8 and zxbox arent really worth playing so why not put more games..........

P.S.I HAVE A SANSA E250

 

[Llorean]

1) Frameskip won't magically solve all your problems. At max frameskip, that's about the best you can get. The processor is too slow to do much better than that.

2) Because the people who want games don't write games. Rockbox is primarily focused on audio features, but it's open source. Feel free to pitch in and write more "fun" games.

[Strife89]

#1: A frameskip above 7 or so (in my humble opinion) makes most games unplayable anyways. Skipping 20 frames is crazy - that's around 1.3 frames per second. Put your frameskip on 1 or 2 and deal with it. Or play an RPG, such as Lufia 3, or Pokémon, where you won't notice lag as much.

#2: As I was heavily reminded recently, a LOT of work is needed to create games for any new platform - be it from the ground up, or even just a port. If you ask me, you should be thankful that games are even there (since the Sansa OF has none).

EDIT: Wow, Llorean! You're just 10 away from 10,000 posts!

[AutOfCaeiountrol]

i'm running rockbox on my 30G ipod video now... and it is depressing that even with the 6 frameskip, its jus BARELY short of a very smooth gameplaying experience...

now call me dumb... but i ran ipodlinux on my 1G nano about a year ago and it could play color gameboy games at 100% speed... so maybe a really smart programmer should go look at their coding or something...

i guess my point is that processor speed (on the video ipods atleast) should definitely not be a problem, since its obviously superior to the nano

[Llorean]

No, actually it's identical to the Nano in processor speed, and the Nano has a MUCH smaller screen to draw (about 1/3 the number of pixels) so obviously the Nano has a lot less work to do, with the same speed processor. Please, do proper research before saying things are "obviously" a certain way.

[trougnouf]

I installed iPodlinux on my iPod 80g just for the game boy games (I put them directly in the boot loader, so they don't even have to load the iPodlinux interface) and I can play pokemon at approximately (just the way I see it) 150-200% speed without any frame-skip. I finished the game in a few hours and could barely control him on the bike because he was going way too fast. I could also run a few GBA games (very buggy), so I don't think the iPod 5g processor/resolution is a problem. However, I prefer Rockbox for everything else (stable!, simple, neat looking, full of features, ..).
I just updated my iPod to the last version (after installing rockbox on my girlfriend's iPod) and you did an amazing job! the new default skin looks better than everything I tried before, the installation takes a few seconds and no headache with the "rbutilq" installer (windows and linux), and it also add all the features I couldn't get before (doom working, audio menus/folders, automatic fonts and skins when the server will be back).
Thank you!
(please excuse my French English)

[Llorean]

I didn't say the processor or resolution was the problem. I simply said that the Nano has less work to do with the same speed processor, and that frameskip is not the solution (suggesting that the screen is not the real problem).

What needs to be done is heavy assembly optimizing of the emulation core. iBoy has some of this work done, and someone who's actually interested in this could do the work of porting their optimizations into the Rockbox codebase.

[Strife89]

I wish I knew what Little John Palm was coded in; they could probably help a lot with this.

[tyrone101]

Are there any easy tutorials for writing games i would love to try but usually tutorials are to complicated since i have no experiance

[cool_walking_]

There's this:
http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/HowtoWritePlugins

You need to know how to program, but you *might* be able to pick it up as you go along...

There's 3 ½ metric buttloads of beginners' programming tutorials out there - here's one.  Then once you've done that tutorial, this is pretty good to get started with graphics.

[tyrone101]

how will you no wich games will lag and wich games wont ?does it depend on the file size or just the type of game?

[Llorean]

Please use proper English, like "know" where you used "no."

The more complex the game (colors, more moving things) the more likely it is to be slow. You can't really tell until you try it.

[Strife89]

There's this:
http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/HowtoWritePlugins

You need to know how to program, but you *might* be able to pick it up as you go along...

There's 3 ½ metric buttloads of beginners' programming tutorials out there - here's one.  Then once you've done that tutorial, this is pretty good to get started with graphics.

I appreciate these links! I'm already working on "porting" my TI-84 game. (For now, the game will be text only.)

I'll start a Flyspray post when I have enough to make it a game, but I may still need help with Rockbox-specific aspects (button maps, menus, etc.).

Until then, kudos!

[tyrone101]

strife 89 your Games sound interesting can't wait

and sorry for my spelling. english isn't my dominant language but ill try my best

[Strife89]

For the record, my game will (hopefully) be (as I said already) a turn based combat game. Players of games like the Final Fantasy, Lufia, or Pokemon series will feel at home with this one.

The idea to code it on my TI-84 came from a story that I began working on in 2005. While technically complete, it needed a major rewrite; I'm working on it now in the form of a script (it's 41 pages done, handwritten). When it's done, I'll either try to implement it in the game (just for Rockbox! ) or simply submit it to someone who can code better (it'll be a long time before I can do advanced commands, or graphics) and wants to use it for a Rockbox game.

Speaking of coding, I need three quick answers:

1) What is the syntax for specifying a random integer from a range of numbers? (For instance, say I want a random number to be generated that is no lower than 1 nor any greater than 6.)
2) How do I tell the program to go to a specific line?
3) How should I end the program? (For example, I coded a few lines of text for credits, then I want the program to close.)