GP2X Dreaming Of Descent For The Gp2x


SunSpire

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One of my all time favourite pc games would have to be "Descent", in fact it's the game that made me want to buy my very first pc back when I was still a die-hard amiga user. And even today, years after it's original release, Descent offers some unique game experience like no other 3D title does up to date. Having that on the gp2x would so be the killer game, if I had any programming / porting skills, I'd have a go on porting it myself. But unfortunately, I'm as stupid as white bread (german saying :p ) when it comes to that so I'm eagerly hoping that some gp2x guru takes up on this and brings the deep mines of descent to the gp2x!!

To get my "temporary" mobile descent fix I put a fullscreen Descent ingame video onto the gp2x and watched it on the go and it was just too cool to be true, ... LOL I know I'm nuts :p

I am sure fellow descent fans can relate ;)

"SunSpire"

BTW: I did manage to get Descent running on the gp2x via dosbox, but only with 3 fps lol
 
I just had a quick search, and the source IS out there ...
 
Oh I know it is, it's been out for many years actually :)
(The source is stuck on my C:\ drive but I could not possibly do anything with it)

Somebody managed to get it running on a psp:

PSP Descent

which makes me sooo envious! ... And no, I'm NOT going to buy a psp :p

I'd rather donate some money to whoever ports it to OUR handheld lol

"SunSpire"
 
I think god_at_hell was taking a stab at porting it, though he hadn't gotten far. check out his "For guru" page...
 
I have just read that, thanks for the hint! Well getting to the parallax screen is a start I guess ;)
I'll see if I can contact him (he seems to be german like me, heh) I'd really like to talk with some dev's
about game porting and stuff just to get an idea how it works. And who knows, maybe I can motivate
some people to have a look at the source or god_at_hell's work to iron out the startup bug mentioned
and actually get into the game :)

We got Doom, Duke, and Quake ... Descent is just screaming for a port! LOL

"SunSpire"
 
Well, i got rid of all compiler errors and warnings ... but that's it. The program hangs at the same position as before. Like i wrote before, I'm no king at porting ... that means, i never portet anything *G*. I'll get a nice malloc == NULL while loading the files of the menu from the hog-file. If i set malloc manualy to a big value, i get a segfault. I think i'll look over it again, but not this week, 'cause a test in higher-math is knocking on my door and i want to be prepared (that's my plan ... it will be no reality *G*).

the whole error-message is:
Code:
MEM_OUT_OF_MEMORY: Malloc returned NULL
		Block 'Unknown' created in cfile.c, line 350.

Error: MEM_OUT_OF_MEMORY
Fatal signal: Floating Point Exception (SDL Parachute Deployed)

where line 350 of cfile.c states:
Code:
cfile = malloc ( sizeof(CFILE) );

Note, that i haven't done anything big with the code so far ... I just tried to do a quick port and failed :-/ .
 
Ok, i contacted the author of an advanced descent version for the PC (my attempt is based on this) and he retourned this:

If I finish my exams sucessfully I will buy a GP2X as an award for my results Smile
Additionally I have some other questions regarding a port to ARM CPUs. So it is very likely DXX will go to this platform.
BUT the first priority currently goes on to x86 (and compatible) CPUs.
This has several reasons:
- The "mass" uses this platform
- There are still some bugs that need to be wiped out
- Not much money to buy the hardware on that DXX will be ported (but y'know I will get an GP2X)

I hope you are not too dissapointed, but I will do my best to get DXX to ARM arch.

So ... a playable descent-version shouldn't be very far away :).
 
GOSH!! ... How did I miss this?? ... Guess I was waiting for an auto-response email from the boards saying "a reply has been posted" LOL
That is great news! Whoever gets it de(s)cent-ly ported (get it? lol) can expect a donation from me, yay :)

btw. Thank you for contacting the author!!

"SunSpire"
 
GOSH!! ... How did I miss this?? ... Guess I was waiting for an auto-response email from the boards saying "a reply has been posted" LOL
That is great news! Whoever gets it de(s)cent-ly ported (get it? lol) can expect a donation from me, yay :)

btw. Thank you for contacting the author!!

"SunSpire"

PS, Skeezix was going to be working on it too, I think he could do it with his skills.

I think any jumping off point should be D1X for linux, or D2X for linux Dos and Mac(qoute: "Descent for Pocket PC? Yes, it actually runs!") I realize we may not have the sound libs yet, but do we need them to get off the ground?

Also, a thought would be to keep going with some help for the GP32 version of Descentby DarkFader (scroll down to the middle), he got it going already. quote:"-O, debug, C, 60 MHz, no texturing -> 12fps" :D

The nicest thing about Descent is it didn't need a Floating Point Unit, it even ran on 386s and I have run it on 33mhz 486s until I fried the processor (I played DII for hours on end, the stupid Dell didn't have a real heatsink on it, doh), since the GP2X doesn't have a floating point unit it should be able to do it.

D2X on a Dell Pocket PC:

http://offload1.icculus.org/d2x/images/d2x...ketpc-demo1.jpg
http://www.icculus.org/d2x/images/d2x-pocketpc-demo2.jpg
http://offload1.icculus.org/d2x/images/d2x-pocketpc-menu.jpg

D2X quote: "Movies, Bigendian support, Shareware data file support, and Descent 1 data file support", I would use all of the available avenues to get it moving, keep in mind that we have X11 now, it might be usable to get us moving for rendering to the screen.

I hope I was able to enlighten you on some things you may not have known, Google is your friend :), I looked up this last year when I learned about the GP32 Descent and heard Skeezix mention his intention for a GP2X version.

@ Julius, I missed your Squeezix reference, his name is Skeezix though.
 
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god_at_hell posted on May 15 2006 at 09:01 PM said:
where line 350 of cfile.c states:
Code:
cfile = malloc ( sizeof(CFILE) );

Note, that i haven't done anything big with the code so far ... I just tried to do a quick port and failed :-/ .

What does sizeof(CFILE) return? Maybe malloc is bugging out because the requested size is too big or small.
 
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That's exciting news, Nubie - I had no idea so much work has been done. I hope Epicenter follows through with his idea of a flight simulator for the GP2X; Descent would be a great addition to the "freedom" aspect.
 
I have been posting this idea for awhile. Half of my gaming glory days, duke nukem 3D, is already on my SD, now for descent!

You said it bub, Descent is THE 3D 360 degree freedom game, I know of no other, it is a true cult-classic.

Interesting note, D2X (http://www.icculus.org/d2x/) seems to be using SDL to render, and uses GCC 2.95 and up.
Linux/Unix:
===========

Required tools:
* GCC 2.95 or higher
* SDL 1.2
* PhysicsFS
* NASM 0.98 (OPTIONAL but RECOMMENDED for x86)
* A thread safe X server.
* GNU make is probably required as well.

Is X11 a "thread safe X server"?

I think since he got it to compile and run on a PocketPC already it might be prudent to check his source code.

@god_at_hell or any devs: Since you know more about this than me maybe you could tell me how compatible with the current OS the D2X source is right now, I.E. what libs/services does this depend on that makes it difficult or impossible to use in its current form.
 
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I'm pretty sure the software (SDL) renderer behind D2X is pretty old; I think all current development is being done on the hardware renderer.
Fair, but it ran on 486 33mhz processors without hardware 3d, no need for it anyway because we haven't got any 3D hardware and we are only rendering to a 320x240 screen. It also ran on the PSX with a 33mhz processor, I am sure we can do much better, I hate ports like Descent Maximum that don't just provide the same media on a different platform, although interestingly enough even though it was weird it did have colored reflections of the laser bolts, which the PC version didn't (I may have that backwards, but I think that is right).

I meant as a way to see it running, obviously if we could make our own rendering system it would be sped up.

What do you think the PocketPC version was using for screen output? (I am actually curious, I don't know what they are using, does that Dell have 3D hardware, does it need the X windows interface?)

I mean that to start off we might save everyone time and headache if we see the code for the GP32 and PocketPC versions, and then see how the D2X project has addressed some issues.

Of course I could be talking out my butt and someone could just start in on the code for Descent and port the whole thing, but I think any good attempt should start by educating yourself on how others have solved similar problems.
 
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anyone contacted skeezix yet? :)
Not lately, here is a PM from him on May 6, 2006:
Hi, I was just curious too see how you were coming along with the Descent port.

I know you were working on it, I was just wondering how far you got.

Just a what's up, if it's on the far back burner or if you made a breakthrough, whatever.

Cheers,

Nubie

It goes slowly; . . . whipped up Columbo over the last few weeks. (. . . super insanely nutty busy . . .)

Descent will come though :)

jeff

I hope I cut enough out of it that it is no longer a "Personal" message, just the gist of his thought on Descent, I left in my PM only because it is my own words and it puts his comments into context.

Edit: I'm gonna PM him with a quick link to this thread and ask him what he thinks about it.
 
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