sblevin
07-02-2005, 06:34 AM
Hi everyone - just a log here to let you see how I'm comming along with one of my retro game engine ports.
Currently I'm working on: http://www.doomsdayhq.com/
This is a wonderful thing indeed.
So far I have:
TiMidity PBI
Made a PBI for TiMidity (not uploaded yet) that is now ...at last ...100% (I think) TiMidity++ and the ancient TiMidity-0.2i compatible. This is BIG step forward, as now there is a midi player engine that supports Creative Sound Fonts and Gravis UltraSound patches. You don't need midi chip access on your soundcard to use this as it's 100% software rendered. This is the command line version atm as I have yet to decide what, if any frontend should be used. KMIDI is good for it (not the crap KMid) but I can't find a FreeBSD version of it yet - I may go with the ugly GTK and MoTiff versions.
DENG PBI
This installs the latest Doomsday engine, and I have modified the install to also include the shareware versions of Doom1, Herectic and Hexen. Doom2 had no shareware version.
I've put binary package files for SDL that install using pkg_add (no ports or internet access required) into the PBI itself, to add the sound and graphics accelleration and network/internet play modules, and to ensure their full and working feature sets (can't just copy things this important - you just can't - unless I work out how to actually do it that is : )
Enhancement PBIs
I am currently auditing/comparing the add ons for all three games. I am having a LARGE amount of grief and NO SLEEP with this as the original developement has taken place on Windows boxes. This means that I am working my way through over 500 files and discovering their case sensetivity needs, and renaming them as I go. I've done very well so far - Dosen't Hexen look nice when you add 87 MB of high resolution texture data to it : )
The Doom1 3D model replacement pack is the worst - I haven't touched it yet - it is basically a zip file, with path data, containing scores of smaller zip files, also with multiple paths. Unfortunately the path data is in the wrong case as well - but that should only take a few hours once I get the full, expected CORRECT path-case data. I'll get a .PK3 builder and wad file opener happening.
These games look SO much better with hi res. textures, 3D models, and all the GL Special effects, up to 1600X1200 resolution, jumping and mouselook (up and down as well!) and 16 bit and greater colour. It's like a new experience and showed me just how little later games actually added to the "gameplay" of a 1st person shooter.
Sound and midi music (using TiMidity) via SDL_mixer is working spot on as well!
Problems so far?
The games crash (the Doomsday engine actually) and freeze on exit, so have to be run in a window so you can Alt+Tab out to the console they launch from, so you can kill the console and thus the game. I thought this was MY problem, as I had recompiled the Linux sources to run fully BSD native (no compat libs required). However, I tried the pkg_add version and it does the same : ( I've contacted the FreeBSD Package maintainer and asked for help.
I haven't tested TCP/IP multiplayer games yet, but I anticipate no problems as the networking modules appear to load correctly.
To Do?
I want to make a wizard for installing the full versions of the games if you get/buy/have/find them. This includes Plutonia, TNT, Final, Ultimate Doom as well as Doom2. They are not that hard to "find" - you can even look in a shop!
Why am I doing this?
This is a start - a small one. I'll finish the work on my PBI's for the Mame emulator and frontend uploaded soon. Then I'll do some of the others like snes up.
Once confident, the work on Unreal, UT, the Quakes and Doom3 will start. They should actually be easier from what I've researched so far, but PC-BSD isn't about adding a pork/package. There are user convinience considerations that make simply bundling up a PKG and sticking an icon on it over-ride.
A GREAT example of this is creating add-on packs for an existing install, and asking a non terminal session person to "simply" start doing anything is a current no-go in *NIX land. "SIMPLY mount the CD, then SIMPLY, extract, via a DOS emulator the windows only packed/extractable resource files, then SIMPLY, as root, cp these files to blahblahblah, then SIMPLY chmod, SIMPLY sym link, SIMPLY SIMPLY SIMPLY. Forget it : )
I'm SIMPLY getting these things covered as I go.
Anyway - enough of me - back to the re-casing fun!
Currently I'm working on: http://www.doomsdayhq.com/
This is a wonderful thing indeed.
So far I have:
TiMidity PBI
Made a PBI for TiMidity (not uploaded yet) that is now ...at last ...100% (I think) TiMidity++ and the ancient TiMidity-0.2i compatible. This is BIG step forward, as now there is a midi player engine that supports Creative Sound Fonts and Gravis UltraSound patches. You don't need midi chip access on your soundcard to use this as it's 100% software rendered. This is the command line version atm as I have yet to decide what, if any frontend should be used. KMIDI is good for it (not the crap KMid) but I can't find a FreeBSD version of it yet - I may go with the ugly GTK and MoTiff versions.
DENG PBI
This installs the latest Doomsday engine, and I have modified the install to also include the shareware versions of Doom1, Herectic and Hexen. Doom2 had no shareware version.
I've put binary package files for SDL that install using pkg_add (no ports or internet access required) into the PBI itself, to add the sound and graphics accelleration and network/internet play modules, and to ensure their full and working feature sets (can't just copy things this important - you just can't - unless I work out how to actually do it that is : )
Enhancement PBIs
I am currently auditing/comparing the add ons for all three games. I am having a LARGE amount of grief and NO SLEEP with this as the original developement has taken place on Windows boxes. This means that I am working my way through over 500 files and discovering their case sensetivity needs, and renaming them as I go. I've done very well so far - Dosen't Hexen look nice when you add 87 MB of high resolution texture data to it : )
The Doom1 3D model replacement pack is the worst - I haven't touched it yet - it is basically a zip file, with path data, containing scores of smaller zip files, also with multiple paths. Unfortunately the path data is in the wrong case as well - but that should only take a few hours once I get the full, expected CORRECT path-case data. I'll get a .PK3 builder and wad file opener happening.
These games look SO much better with hi res. textures, 3D models, and all the GL Special effects, up to 1600X1200 resolution, jumping and mouselook (up and down as well!) and 16 bit and greater colour. It's like a new experience and showed me just how little later games actually added to the "gameplay" of a 1st person shooter.
Sound and midi music (using TiMidity) via SDL_mixer is working spot on as well!
Problems so far?
The games crash (the Doomsday engine actually) and freeze on exit, so have to be run in a window so you can Alt+Tab out to the console they launch from, so you can kill the console and thus the game. I thought this was MY problem, as I had recompiled the Linux sources to run fully BSD native (no compat libs required). However, I tried the pkg_add version and it does the same : ( I've contacted the FreeBSD Package maintainer and asked for help.
I haven't tested TCP/IP multiplayer games yet, but I anticipate no problems as the networking modules appear to load correctly.
To Do?
I want to make a wizard for installing the full versions of the games if you get/buy/have/find them. This includes Plutonia, TNT, Final, Ultimate Doom as well as Doom2. They are not that hard to "find" - you can even look in a shop!
Why am I doing this?
This is a start - a small one. I'll finish the work on my PBI's for the Mame emulator and frontend uploaded soon. Then I'll do some of the others like snes up.
Once confident, the work on Unreal, UT, the Quakes and Doom3 will start. They should actually be easier from what I've researched so far, but PC-BSD isn't about adding a pork/package. There are user convinience considerations that make simply bundling up a PKG and sticking an icon on it over-ride.
A GREAT example of this is creating add-on packs for an existing install, and asking a non terminal session person to "simply" start doing anything is a current no-go in *NIX land. "SIMPLY mount the CD, then SIMPLY, extract, via a DOS emulator the windows only packed/extractable resource files, then SIMPLY, as root, cp these files to blahblahblah, then SIMPLY chmod, SIMPLY sym link, SIMPLY SIMPLY SIMPLY. Forget it : )
I'm SIMPLY getting these things covered as I go.
Anyway - enough of me - back to the re-casing fun!