Release Pingus Release


And a theory emerges.


I've never had problems. Never ever ever. The setup of the two people who provide pndout's show that they're both using a FAT filesystem. I run ext2 on my cards. And from the look of it, that's what makes all the difference, as their pndout's show that they fail when writing to the savefiles.


I just did a test on a fresh, newly formatted card, and I can confirm these exact results. Fails on FAT, bundles of fun on ext2.


I have no fix at the moment, and I won't recommend people switching to ext2 as that's a bit of a hassle for most people. I'll have to dig around the Pingus source a bit and see exactly what checks it's doing to fail, but at least I'm pretty sure what the problem is. I'll add a disclaimer to the repo description, too.
 
Mr Rob, thanks for the solution.


Now to try it - what is the best way to format an SD card as ext2 ( I am a linux newbie)


Is it on the pandora itself or on a Windows/Linux pc?


What commands do you need to run,


Is there anything else to do other than format an SD card as Ext2 then copy the pnd to it?


Any help would be appreciated
 
Mr Rob, thanks for the solution.


Now to try it - what is the best way to format an SD card as ext2 ( I am a linux newbie)


Is it on the pandora itself or on a Windows/Linux pc?


What commands do you need to run,


Is there anything else to do other than format an SD card as Ext2 then copy the pnd to it?


Any help would be appreciated

Hello Grezm:


To be honest, I'd say just wait a bit. I've found exactly where it fails in the source code, I should be able to modify that to it doesn't crash on vfat filesystems. I just need a couple days to test it a bit, so if you'll wait a couple days, you should get Pingus-y goodness on a vfat filesystem. You shouldn't have to have an ext filesystem to make it work, that's a bit ridiculous.


But, if you really really want to give it a go, you could use Gparted found in the repo (http://repo.openpandora.org/?page=detail&app=gparted-gparted). Remember, reformatting your card will completely delete everything on it, so either back it up or use a spare card.
 
Bug resolved: Story mode and single level mode now both work fine (on a FAT volume).


Feature wish: A mouse cursor which fits better into the game look&feel than the standard OS mouse cursor.
 
Bug resolved: Story mode and single level mode now both work fine (on a FAT volume).
Huzzah. Thank you for confirming.

Feature wish: A mouse cursor which fits better into the game look&feel than the standard OS mouse cursor.

There is an SDL Cursor option available under preferences, though if you're not careful, it'll result in the cursor offset bug found in many touchscreen applications (ie, touchscreen taps occur somewhere other than where you tapped). Solvable, but I'd have to muck around the code a bit more, and was focusing on other things.


Maybe when I update the PXML.xml to be 'not beta' I'll fix that, too.


Any other problems?
 
There is an SDL Cursor option available under preferences, though if you're not careful, it'll result in the cursor offset bug found in many touchscreen applications (ie, touchscreen taps occur somewhere other than where you tapped). Solvable, but I'd have to muck around the code a bit more, and was focusing on other things.

Thanks for pointing this out! I enabled the SDL cursor and it worked fine. After a few minutes I already encountered the cursor offset bug. From my observations I think that the bug happens more likely if you move on the outer areas of your screen.


It can be resolved by temporarily using the nub, navigate to the settings, disable the SDL cursor, and enable it again. Then the offset is gone again.

Maybe when I update the PXML.xml to be 'not beta' I'll fix that, too.

Nice promise!

Any other problems?
Encountered no bug so far.


One usability thought: Would be nice to offer a left-hander setting. (I am fine as a right hander, but the left handers surely would appreciate)


For right-handed people: Left/right/up/down for scrolling, pen in the right hand for touching the screen


For left-handed people: A/B/Y/X for scrolling, pen in the left hand for touching the screen
 
One usability thought: Would be nice to offer a left-hander setting. (I am fine as a right hander, but the left handers surely would appreciate)


For right-handed people: Left/right/up/down for scrolling, pen in the right hand for touching the screen


For left-handed people: A/B/Y/X for scrolling, pen in the left hand for touching the screen

Fascinating, I never thought of that. I'll have to chew on that for a while.


Is there a simple SDL level thing that allows you to change keymapping (or examples of SDL applications that do a simple remapping)? Obviously reaching into the source wouldn't be the most elegant thing to do....
 
Well I am a usability expert, but my programming skills are low to median at best, and non-existing concerning SDL.


I hope someone else can give you info on that.
 
Well I am a usability expert, but my programming skills are low to median at best, and non-existing concerning SDL.


I hope someone else can give you info on that.
Some Googling will turn up results for me, I'm sure.


Usability expert you say? I was thinking of doing a couple more tweaks to the PokerTH interface, I may run them by you before pushing out another PND if you're interested.... PokerTH is a classic example of tradeoffs. I know I break good, proper UI design as I have the 'All in' button way to close to the 'Check' button, but spacing those out more runs into other issues. I make no promise of huge changes, but I'd be interested in your thoughts on some pieces.


I also remember reading a UI design case study where the cabin light switch in a fighter jet was identical in design (and physically close to) to the eject switch. Fumbling to turn the lights on in the cabin, and whoops, eject.
 
If there is no option to reconfigure controls ingame, you might have no other choice as going into the sourcecode, as the SDL_K is hardcoded.


As for the mousecursorfix, try djwillis one. It lets you keep the cursorimage. Another question would be, if you need a cursor at all for this game, if you play with touchscreen.
 
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If there is no option to reconfigure controls ingame, you might have no other choice as going into the sourcecode, as the SDL_K is hardcoded.


As for the mousecursorfix, try djwillis one. It lets you keep the cursorimage. Another question would be, if you need a cursor at all for this game, if you play with touchscreen.

Yeah, I'm assuming it's the same mouse cursor fix that I did for the SuperTux Level editor. My memory eludes me, but something about having the actual pointer invisible and drawing the SDL one on top. I just need to open that up and see what I did originally.


Valid point about needing the cursor at all, interesting idea.
 
Mr.Rob: Feel free to send me a PM for prereleases, and I'll give you my feedback, provided that I have enough free time. Bye!
 
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