Posted by
timothy
on from the nope-just-happiness dept.
szcx writes: "Two days after the code release, Dan East has ported Quake II to the Pocket PC. With NeoMagic's 3D chipset for handhelds and XScale on the horizon, how long is it going to be until we're playing Quake III: Arena on the train into work?"
Well.. The actual problem with this thing is that the PocketPC (those that I have seen) only have four buttons + directional pad. It would probably be fairly cumbersome. Now, I am not doubting the fact that the PocketPC has enough power, just the controls. Maybe a control-augumentation module is in order for the PocketPC? Becuase as far as I can tell, playing Quake requires about the whole keyboard (how does one talk?).
Date posted: 12/23/01 at 03:30:12
I've got Quake II ported to the Pocket PC platform. It will be a couple days before release, because there are details yet to clean up (GAPI drawing and input controls). I've only tried it in the emulator, so I can't give you an indication of the speed. It runs 100% on my 300 mhz laptop in emulator, but that of course is no indication of what I'll see on the StrongARM. The main problem at this time is the shareware pak file is 48 MB. I don't know if I'll have gZip compression ready for the initial release or not. The way I implemented compression for Quake I is so freaking slow that at this point I'm considering something more advanced so the loading won't be so compromised. I only have 16 MB CF Cards, so I'm going to have to strip everything out of the pak I can to get it to install on my hardware.
Here's a screen shot. This is in the Pocket PC emulator, using a non-standard resolution of 240x180 (same as Pocket Quake I in portrait).
Dan East
Last modification: Dan East - 12/23/01 at 03:30:12
----
note: i am not dan east... another unrelated dan.
Not Useable (yet)
by
rikkards
·
· Score: 4, Informative
I noticed down in the comments after reading the link that he was saying that it was only running at around 3 FPS and that was on an emulator. He presently can't run it on the Pocket PC as the shareware file is about 48M
Re:Not Useable (yet)
by
RussGarrett
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
No, he said it was running well in an emulator, but only at about 3FPS at full quality on his iPaq, which he'd subsequently managed to get it running on.
I'd like to see how it goes on my 206Mhz StrongARM HP Jornada...
Only in emulation
by
metlin
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
I've only tried it in the emulator, so I can't give you an indication of the speed. It runs 100% on my 300 mhz laptop in emulator, but that of course is no indication of what I'll see on the StrongARM. The main problem at this time is the shareware pak file is 48 MB.
Like he says, I'm not sure if an emulator would give you a true indication of how it may actually work. Although the screenshot looks impressive, it may not work or look the same once the PAK files are stripped.
Also, he may need to make some compromise for a sufficiently faster gameplay. In my experience so far, emulators always perform a lot more faster than the real things.
Still, a great start. Way to go...
a novel novelty, but a novelty just the same...
by
MessiahXI
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
wow, now that it runs on PocketPC, all that remains is to find some shred of a reason to play it on PocketPC. I'm not trying to knock your work here, Dan. As a programming exercise, this is an amazing milestone. But seriously, I don't have to elaborate on why a 4 inch screen and wonky pda controls suck the life out of 3d action games. Besides, as many hours as I've tossed away playing games like Q2 online, the last thing I need to be doing is pretending it's fun to "play" it on a train on an iPaq. Harldy a real "Palm-killer", since the mainstream pda market will largely ignore this admirable science project.
Actually it is running on my iPaq now, in addition to the emulator. As stated I'm achieving an estimated 3 fps @ 206mhz , which will increase with strategic fixed-point conversions, and reduction in rendering quality (such as reducing the number of particles that can be used in effects).
The control scheme will of course be the same as what I used for Pocket Quake and Pocket Wolf3D. The stylus is used onscreen for mlook and weapon selection. The directional pad of the device controls movement and strafe. This is the typical configuration used by FPS players with their mouse / keyboard. Devices that use the D-Pad as the fire button (iPaq, many Pocket PC 2002 devices) give their owners an extra advantage, because they can fire without taking their hands off of the critical controls.
Admittedly, Quake 2 is a bit much for the hardware of the current generation of Pocket PCs . However, devices better suited for this type of software are just around the corner. Perhaps the availability of classic, mainstream, groundbreaking games such as Quake and Quake II for the Pocket PC platform will encourage OEMs to produce more capable hardware. All I ask is for a math coprocessor!:)
The timing of the source release just prior to Christmas is preventing me from working on this as much as I normally would, so keep on eye on the Pocket Matrix site for notification of the release, which should be before the end of the year.
Gameboy Advance
by
Master+Of+Ninja
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Ok, someone got Quake 2 to run on a pocket pc... But is it really worthwhile to do such a thing? I mean it might be a good programming challenge, but playing the game might not be so much fun. It would have been better to program a dedicated engine that would be optimised for PocketPC. YOu could make the engine so that it could use the four(?) buttons on a PPC unit, as well as having small runtimes and maps or whatever.
If you really wanted gaming on the move why not try the Gameboy Advance. It might not run quake (and it might cost a bit), but the games are tailored to the Gameboy, and the system is built just for games. I've heard that the game Ecks vs Sever is good, while there is still Doom for the GBA.
It's not just a cost savings but a space and (like you mentioned) power savings. It can significantly reduce complexity in the processor, and most embedded applications for PDAs. They don't need hard float for performance, action/FPS games are not a selling point for these products. Most PocketPC PDAs being made today are ARM based(some are MIPS)
I'm an embedded developer, I don't believe I've ever developed for an ARM device WITH an FPU, in fact.
Floating point alone won't necessarily expand the life of a PDA. For most people it's actually the physical construction of the PDA that determines it's life (if they actually intend to use it for it's scheduling/notetaking etc. purposes). PDAs are never designed around real gaming after all.
If you want portable gaming try Gameboy Advance. It happens to be based on an ARM processor, coincidentally, but I don't know if it has an FPU.
Slashdot Mirror
Well.. The actual problem with this thing is that the PocketPC (those that I have seen) only have four buttons + directional pad. It would probably be fairly cumbersome. Now, I am not doubting the fact that the PocketPC has enough power, just the controls. Maybe a control-augumentation module is in order for the PocketPC? Becuase as far as I can tell, playing Quake requires about the whole keyboard (how does one talk?).
Everything is mainstream now.
Sweet. Now if it has a hotkey to instantly switch to my calendar so I don't get busted at work.... :-)
Have a Happy.
Dan East
PocketQuake Developer
Posts: 1742
Date posted: 12/23/01 at 03:30:12
I've got Quake II ported to the Pocket PC platform. It will be a couple days before release, because there are details yet to clean up (GAPI drawing and input controls). I've only tried it in the emulator, so I can't give you an indication of the speed. It runs 100% on my 300 mhz laptop in emulator, but that of course is no indication of what I'll see on the StrongARM. The main problem at this time is the shareware pak file is 48 MB. I don't know if I'll have gZip compression ready for the initial release or not. The way I implemented compression for Quake I is so freaking slow that at this point I'm considering something more advanced so the loading won't be so compromised. I only have 16 MB CF Cards, so I'm going to have to strip everything out of the pak I can to get it to install on my hardware.
Here's a screen shot. This is in the Pocket PC emulator, using a non-standard resolution of 240x180 (same as Pocket Quake I in portrait).
Dan East
Last modification: Dan East - 12/23/01 at 03:30:12
----
note: i am not dan east... another unrelated dan.
I noticed down in the comments after reading the link that he was saying that it was only running at around 3 FPS and that was on an emulator. He presently can't run it on the Pocket PC as the shareware file is about 48M
I've only tried it in the emulator, so I can't give you an indication of the speed. It runs 100% on my 300 mhz laptop in emulator, but that of course is no indication of what I'll see on the StrongARM. The main problem at this time is the shareware pak file is 48 MB.
Like he says, I'm not sure if an emulator would give you a true indication of how it may actually work. Although the screenshot looks impressive, it may not work or look the same once the PAK files are stripped.
Also, he may need to make some compromise for a sufficiently faster gameplay. In my experience so far, emulators always perform a lot more faster than the real things.
Still, a great start. Way to go...
wow, now that it runs on PocketPC, all that remains is to find some shred of a reason to play it on PocketPC. I'm not trying to knock your work here, Dan. As a programming exercise, this is an amazing milestone. But seriously, I don't have to elaborate on why a 4 inch screen and wonky pda controls suck the life out of 3d action games. Besides, as many hours as I've tossed away playing games like Q2 online, the last thing I need to be doing is pretending it's fun to "play" it on a train on an iPaq. Harldy a real "Palm-killer", since the mainstream pda market will largely ignore this admirable science project.
Actually it is running on my iPaq now, in addition to the emulator. As stated I'm achieving an estimated 3 fps @ 206mhz , which will increase with strategic fixed-point conversions, and reduction in rendering quality (such as reducing the number of particles that can be used in effects).
:)
The control scheme will of course be the same as what I used for Pocket Quake and Pocket Wolf3D. The stylus is used onscreen for mlook and weapon selection. The directional pad of the device controls movement and strafe. This is the typical configuration used by FPS players with their mouse / keyboard. Devices that use the D-Pad as the fire button (iPaq, many Pocket PC 2002 devices) give their owners an extra advantage, because they can fire without taking their hands off of the critical controls.
Admittedly, Quake 2 is a bit much for the hardware of the current generation of Pocket PCs . However, devices better suited for this type of software are just around the corner. Perhaps the availability of classic, mainstream, groundbreaking games such as Quake and Quake II for the Pocket PC platform will encourage OEMs to produce more capable hardware. All I ask is for a math coprocessor!
The timing of the source release just prior to Christmas is preventing me from working on this as much as I normally would, so keep on eye on the Pocket Matrix site for notification of the release, which should be before the end of the year.
Dan East
dex-plor.com
Better known as 318230.
Ok, someone got Quake 2 to run on a pocket pc... But is it really worthwhile to do such a thing? I mean it might be a good programming challenge, but playing the game might not be so much fun. It would have been better to program a dedicated engine that would be optimised for PocketPC. YOu could make the engine so that it could use the four(?) buttons on a PPC unit, as well as having small runtimes and maps or whatever.
If you really wanted gaming on the move why not try the Gameboy Advance. It might not run quake (and it might cost a bit), but the games are tailored to the Gameboy, and the system is built just for games. I've heard that the game Ecks vs Sever is good, while there is still Doom for the GBA.
It's not just a cost savings but a space and (like you mentioned) power savings. It can significantly reduce complexity in the processor, and most embedded applications for PDAs. They don't need hard float for performance, action/FPS games are not a selling point for these products. Most PocketPC PDAs being made today are ARM based(some are MIPS) I'm an embedded developer, I don't believe I've ever developed for an ARM device WITH an FPU, in fact.
Floating point alone won't necessarily expand the life of a PDA. For most people it's actually the physical construction of the PDA that determines it's life (if they actually intend to use it for it's scheduling/notetaking etc. purposes). PDAs are never designed around real gaming after all.
If you want portable gaming try Gameboy Advance. It happens to be based on an ARM processor, coincidentally, but I don't know if it has an FPU.
So we can expect a sequel to ttyquake?