Author Topic: [TESTERS NEEDED] Another World (Read 11993 times)

__builtin · « **on:** October 18, 2014, 09:22:16 PM »

A port of the game Another World to Rockbox is underway!

Read more about the original game here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_World_%28video_game%29

Please give any feedback or ideas/suggestions here.

__builtin · « **Reply #1 on:** October 26, 2014, 03:39:55 PM »

It works!
It currently has no scaling (so any screen that's smaller than 320x200 will have the screen contents clipped), barely working input, and is EXTREMELY COMPLEX to get working, but it works!

"All" that's left to do is:
- Add scaling
- Add greylib support
- Add sound
- Fix input

[Saint] · « **Reply #2 on:** October 26, 2014, 03:46:27 PM »

Great work, this doubles our exposure!

People will need to carry around two Rockboxed devices to play this.

One to run the game, and another to display renders of the game resources like the map and codex.

[Saint]

__builtin · « **Reply #3 on:** October 26, 2014, 04:04:03 PM »

Quote from: [Saint] on October 26, 2014, 03:46:27 PM

Great work, this doubles our exposure!

People will need to carry around two Rockboxed devices to play this.

One to run the game, and another to display renders of the game resources like the map and codex.

[Saint]

I don't understand.

[Saint] · « **Reply #4 on:** October 26, 2014, 05:14:19 PM »

I'll have to assume you've never actually played this game, then.
Odd.

Long story short, its practically impossible without the code wheel (though I know at least one person who has committed it to memory - that person is insane), the game map isn't required but can be handy. These are both resources that were included in the original game box (as in actual, tangible, physical objects not in digital form).

[Saint]

__builtin · « **Reply #5 on:** October 26, 2014, 05:36:04 PM »

Quote from: [Saint] on October 26, 2014, 05:14:19 PM

I'll have to assume you've never actually played this game, then.
Odd.

Long story short, its practically impossible without the code wheel (though I know at least one person who has committed it to memory - that person is insane), the game map isn't required but can be handy. These are both resources that were included in the original game box (as in actual, tangible, physical objects not in digital form).

[Saint]

There is a scanned version of the code wheel online: http://www.oldgames.sk/en/game/another-world/download/5281/
Also, it is possible to bypass the protection screen completely (but it won't work on the Rockbox port for some weird reason).

As for the game map, who needs that?

BenBrown · « **Reply #6 on:** October 28, 2014, 08:28:45 PM »

~~Don't be silly, someone already implemented op_condJmp in the vm.c to bypass the need for the code wheel.~~

I shouldn't drink and post

__builtin · « **Reply #7 on:** October 30, 2014, 01:31:34 PM »

Screenshot says all...

BenBrown · « **Reply #8 on:** October 31, 2014, 04:08:53 AM »

Ah dude, sweet

you rock!
But I can't get that far on the fuze+. It plays the intro and then goes to a black screen.
And my rightmost part of the screen is cut off, I messed with some screen rotation stuff last night, but didn't knock out anything solid.
I did convert it over to keymaps though, after reading the irc logs today. Losing PLA is no big deal anyway, besides you can't play without some button combinations.
I purged all the PLA changes from 1026 that got clobbered in there to.

__builtin · « **Reply #9 on:** November 01, 2014, 09:20:36 PM »

OK, that last patch set added some (useless) postprocessing effects, and a pause menu.
With that, here's my current bug list:

- Input is weird after using the pause menu
- The filters are weird and rather useless
- "Reset Game" crashes
- The game doesn't run on real hardware yet

Pretty big bug, the last one, but it'll get fixed

.

Some screenshots of the motion blur filter (not working 100% yet) combined with the antialias filter are attached.

__builtin · « **Reply #10 on:** November 01, 2014, 09:28:52 PM »

Here's two more "normal" ones:

__builtin · « **Reply #11 on:** November 09, 2014, 12:18:40 PM »

OK, the game now runs on hardware!

Currently, only color targets with keymaps (currently all iPods, Fuze(+), e200, and Clip Zip) are supported. More keymaps will be added later.
Support for grayscale and monochrome targets is in the works!

TESTERS ARE NEEDED!

(If you want to test, but your target does not have keymaps, just leave a reply in this thread.)

See it in action here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRP5PSAOK2I

natanelho · « **Reply #12 on:** November 10, 2014, 01:58:53 PM »

i can test it :-) i have clip zip but idk how to run it... teach me and i will test it

__builtin · « **Reply #13 on:** November 10, 2014, 05:26:51 PM »

Quote from: natanelho on November 10, 2014, 01:58:53 PM

i can test it :-) i have clip zip but idk how to run it... teach me and i will test it

1. Set up a development environment: http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/DevelopmentGuide
2. Download the code off Gerrit: http://gerrit.rockbox.org/r/1012
- Run:

Code: [Select]

git fetch git://git.rockbox.org/rockbox refs/changes/12/1012/67 && git cherry-pick FETCH_HEAD3. Build and install
4. Obtain data files and place them under /.rockbox/xworld/
5. Enjoy!

BenBrown · « **Reply #14 on:** November 15, 2014, 04:09:24 AM »

I started on more keymaps, but then borked my OS. I then went distro hopping, but ultimately went back to ubuntu, but I lost some work. Okay, since its been hard to be on irc at the same time, here's my test results.

Target Fuze+:
Scaling "fast" + Rotation "CW" + Fastmode "off" = ~11 fps Feels a bit slow
Scaling "fast" + Rotation "CW" + Fastmode "on" = ~100 fps Way too fast
Scaling "good" + Rotation "CW" + Fastmode "off" = ~11 fps These settings are my preferred way to play, nice visuals, but feels a bit to slow
Scaling "good" + Rotation "CW" + Fastmode "on" = ~50 fps Way to fast

Target Sansa E200:
Scaling "fast" + Rotation "CW" + Fastmode "off" = ~8 fps Feels very slow
Scaling "fast" + Rotation "CW" + Fastmode "on" = ~25 fps These settings are my preferred way to play. Feels a bit to fast though
Scaling "good" + Rotation "CW" + Fastmode "off" = ~3
Scaling "good" + Rotation "CW" + Fastmode "on" = ~5

Bugs:
All Targets:
CCW is borked, looks like the wrong stride, can be seen on the sim.
Starting the plugin and choosing "quit" without starting a game and then starting the plugin again and choosing resume game causes a panic, this can be fixed by setting a bit to tells us if a game has been played first before saving, if not don't save

Suggestions:
1) I really hate the "quit" with the hidden extra save first then quit functionality, and even if it was changed to say "save and quit" I would much prefer just a "save" and "load" option with a "quit" that only quits. Even with only one slot. My beef being, when I'm past a difficult area, I'm forced to "quit" in order to save, and start up the plugin again and go set my settings again then resume my game. Also when I want to load a save and I have to "quit without save" so I don't over write the old one and start it again to load my save then its back to settings so I can set my preferred options again before playing. It's all very unnecessary and frustrating, I don't really see the appeal of it the way it is now. If it's ok with you, I'd like to rework it.
2) It would be nice to save our settings from "sys" and restore it when the game loads.
3) We need to set the lcd timeout to "off" so the screen stays awake, it is a cinematic experience after all, and then set it back when we exit.
4) Even on a fast player, the game play feels sluggish if the fast mode is not on, and then most times that's to fast, maybe we can adjust the "normal" speed to say 10% faster. About 15-20 fps seems more suited to a natural game play feel. I know players can do it, the "fast" mode is just to fast, if only it had a "medium speed" setting

5) The other video processing "motion blur" and "anti aliasing" could perhaps be enabled if you put them in the audio buffer to.

Well, that's all I got for now.