My first contribution


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Houston, we have a problem.


For some reason the game seg faults 90% of the time while trying to start if I set it's config directory to any folder under /mnt/utmp/homeworld


This is a problem, because normally the config directory is on the NAND (~/.homeworld)


Anyone got any pointer as to how to fix this?
Point your config to a subdirectory inside the PND. Whenever a PND file is mounted, a union is created with the PND mounted as read-only filesystem below an override directory (the appdata folder of the PND). Any file inside the PND that gets modified is written to the appdata folder instead. Don't mess around with the union mountpoint directly (i.e. /mnt/utmp).

Thanks, I think it's working now... just testing. But it wasn't this, homeworld just really doesn't seem to like the settings path being set to anything - it just crashes. Probably a bug in homeworld somewhere, but it doesn't matter as I got it working by changing the HOME env variable in the start script.


However, my SD is corrupt now, probably from forced resets when things crash - FAT32 isn't very resilient. So I'm about to reformat and put my stuff back on (lucky I make backups), do a few tests of the pnd, and then I think homeworld is good to go!
 
Will the actual data files required for playing the game be included or do we need to source them somewhere ourselves?

You need to provide the files


devstats.dat (not certain you need this one)


Homeworld.big


HW_Music.wxd


HW_Comp.vce


Update.big


from the homeworld install and put them in the pandora/appdata/homeworld directory on your SD card. You can't get these files from the CD directly, you actually need to install the game and copy them from the program files directory. What's more, after installing the game you need to update it to version 1.05 with the homeworld 1.05 update patch (I believe available here http://www.relicnews.com) before the files will work on the pandora version of homeworld. To do all this you generally need a windows machine, but I don't use/have windows and was able to do it using wineskin winery in mac os, and plain old wine in linux.

Oh and do USB mice currently work on the Pandora version? (from what I remember about reading about Homeworld back in the day, as I never played nor owned it, that it was pretty much all controlled by mouse alone?)

I guess so, but I don't know because the USB port on my pandora doesn't work, and I don't want to send it away for repair (RMA) until the queue has died down a bit.


The controls on the pandora are quite good though:


right stick for zooming in and out


left stick for moving the mouse pointer


left/right shoulder for left/right mouse click (and in homeworld left mouse click is select/command and right is rotate)


You can also zoom in/out by holding left & right shoulders at the same time and using the left stick.


Before playing I'd advise going through the tutorial to remind yourself of the controls - things like hold alt and then click to focus on things. The actual keys themselves are redefinable in the homeworld options menu.


I'm just waiting for my stuff to copy back onto the pandora, and then I'll test, and if all's well upload, the PND.


Then I'm going to make another youtube vid... I've borrowed a slightly better camera and found a way to balance it while I'm playing, so it should be a bit more clear what's actually happening!
 
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Okay, everything is almost working, except when running the PND I get no sound.


I've tried setting SDL_AUDIODRIVER=alsa and "alsa"... when I run the executable directly it works... any idea what is causing this?


EDIT: fixed - it needed .asoundrc from the home directory to work - wasn't finding it since I've changed $HOME
 
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Fantastic, many many thanks..


This game is easily in my top ten of all time, haven't played for years & am very interested to see how it looks and plays on the Pandora.


I do hope projects like this will inspire others to convert/port over some other old PC classics.. now where is my Homeworld disc?
 
Just a little feedback here..


It's working mostly great (and looks/sounds lovely.. ah memories) i would personally find it easier with the left/right mouse on opposite shoulders.. but hey, i have had two complete freezes whilst running through the training (and i had to reboot to fix) haven't tried the campaign yet (wanted to relearn the controls) the radio chatter is a little distorted, but this may be just a volume thing & the text boxes/menu's are a little too small (for me) but i guess that can't really be fixed.. a little perseverance here will probably pay dividends (i'm talking about myself)


Amazing work, & thanks once again.
 
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Just a little feedback here..


It's working mostly great (and looks/sounds lovely.. ah memories) i would personally find it easier with the left/right mouse on opposite shoulders.. but hey, i have had two complete freezes whilst running through the training (and i had to reboot to fix) haven't tried the campaign yet (wanted to relearn the controls) the radio chatter is a little distorted, but this may be just a volume thing & the text boxes/menu's are a little too small (for me) but i guess that can't really be fixed.. a little perseverance here will probably pay dividends (i'm talking about myself)


Amazing work, & thanks once again.

I haven't tried the training, but it also froze on my desktop so maybe this is an issue with the open source version (homeworldsdl)... I've played through the first mission and it's rock solid in terms of stability.


I could give more options for controls... I've also been thinking about a way to make it possible to swap the nubs. I'll probably work on this when I finish modifying the source code to commit it back upstream.


The menus sizes I don't think I can change easily... I can look into it but I'm not sure it's possible.


For now I need to get on with some real work... this has sucked up too much time recently!


Thanks for the feedback!
 
i have had two complete freezes whilst running through the training (and i had to reboot to fix) haven't tried the campaign yet (wanted to relearn the controls)

I haven't tried the training, but it also froze on my desktop so maybe this is an issue with the open source version (homeworldsdl)... I've played through the first mission and it's rock solid in terms of stability.

Okay, I just played through the tutorial and had no problems. I'm playing at 600Mhz OPP3 BTW. So maybe you have corrupted files or SD card? That did happen to me once.


What's your /tmp/pndrun_homeworld.out file say after the crash?
 
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Oooh, loving this - thanks!


Feedback:


The mouse control is almost impossible to use here. I prefer my mouse on the right nub, you've hardcoded it to the left nub (why not leave that up to the user? Inherit the SDL message queue perhaps? If that's possible, that is) and the mouse pointer skips all over the place, making it very difficult to use, for example, the build dialogs or even to click on the "next" button in the training.


It crashed halfway through the training, only way out was pandora+power.


Attempting to alter the sound configuration resulted in a black screen and didn't return to the game - again, pandora+power reboot to get back to XFCE.


Other than that... Nice attempt, looking forward to more improvements!


D.
 
This is odd, as it's rock solid on mine. Please post your pndrun outputs.


Have you both run the 1.05 patch before copying the files over? If you don't you will definitely have issues.
 
If you rename this file to "homeworld.sh" and drop it into your appdata directory, you should find your nubs are swapped.


In a later version I will check which nub you are using as mouse and set the other to scroll.

OMFG!! Homeworld! Whoooa..... I played this sooo much.


do I need extra datafiles, or that .pnd will be complete package?

See the 2nd post on this page
 

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See the 2nd post on this page

oh, right, thanks. I didn't notice, sorry :)


I don't see it in the repo. is it uploaded? I think I can wait when it's uploaded, I was about to go to sleep anyway ;)

No worries


It's not in the repo yet, but there's a link a few posts up (megaupload). The repo doesn't like my pxml and I'm too lazy to change it right now
 
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This is odd, as it's rock solid on mine. Please post your pndrun outputs.


Have you both run the 1.05 patch before copying the files over? If you don't you will definitely have issues.

Yep, definitely 1.05. I'll see if there's anything in the pndrun output, but as I hard-rebooted the pandora, it might not be very enlightening.


Hmm, no pnd out files of any description after a reboot - does HF5 remove them at boot time?


D.
 
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