GP2X Python/pygame Question


shawnh

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Nov 16, 2005
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I saw Python in the WIP section of the wiki. I have a little knowledge of the language and a few tutorial books laying around too, so does that mean even I could be developing small apps and things as soon as I get my GP2X? Python is a high level language so it will always be slow as hell on this hardware though, right? And what of Pygame? If these two work well enough it opens a whole new world to newbie devs. I mean, even I could write a simple game in Python/Pygame. Whats the verdict?
 
I saw Python in the WIP section of the wiki. I have a little knowledge of the language and a few tutorial books laying around too, so does that mean even I could be developing small apps and things as soon as I get my GP2X? Python is a high level

If there would be working port of Python with SDL then yes.

language so it will always be slow as hell on this hardware though, right? And what of

Not necessarily.

Point of using Python is for game logic, events scripting and the like. Certainly not for a game engine except the prototyping perhaps. So Python written game doesn't have to be slow especially using hardware accelerated SDL (it might eventually show for the GP2x).

Pygame? If these two work well enough it opens a whole new world to newbie devs. I mean, even I could write a simple game in Python/Pygame. Whats the verdict?

Pygame works very well and this is just matter of porting it to the GP2x. Even better such aplication (made in Python/Pygame) would work instantly on any platform supporting Py/PyG. Of course assuming it'd have a reasonable need of resource so it could fit in the GP2x.
 
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I am currently waiting for my gp2x to get to me (tomorrow, yay!) so I haven't even begun to poke around or even port some of my own stuff to it, so take my comments on speed with a pinch of salt.

I really wouldn't bank on pygame being a smart choice for making complete games on the gp2x. (Unless 1-2 fps isn't a problem)

On my PIII machine at work, python/pygame's limiting, and pretty-much unavoidable step is the blitting function, which is expensive. I am thinking about re-writing some of the core pygame functionality directly into SDL & C++, for the added speed and ease of porting from pygame to C++, (but I think someone has beaten me to this). Pygame is a really good prototyping base though, as it lets you iron out the problem areas of a game before commiting it to a lower level language in which key problems may not be so obvious. (Ignoring low-level implementation differences, anyway)

Devs, or anyone with access to a gp2x: Is a game, running in python, accessing SDL through python bindings, going to run fast enough to be playable?
 
Then I retract my statement! ;)

Oh, and good luck porting python/pygame and the thousand other libraries you have signed on for, theoddbot, you'll need it!
 
I already have a working (running) version of python, and the pygame stuff compiles with minimal tweaking, and there's no reason why it won't work. Just have to extract my gp2x from UPS ;)
 
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