#164291 - simonjhall - Sun Oct 26, 2008 6:32 pm
Been outa the scene for a while...lots of work...living in the real world, etc.
What new stuff has been happening in the DS scene? Is there still the enthusiasm for the platform that there was back a couple of years ago?
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#164294 - silent_code - Sun Oct 26, 2008 11:35 pm
WELCOME BACK, MAN! :^D
AlienDS is nice. :^)
But, I don't think you have missed anything... did he (and me?) ;^)
_________________
July 5th 08: "Volumetric Shadow Demo" 1.6.0 (final) source released
June 5th 08: "Zombie NDS" WIP released!
It's all on my page, just click WWW below.
#164296 - elwing - Mon Oct 27, 2008 8:24 am
lot of small release, but nothing too important I think, except the news on the DSi...
#164298 - simonjhall - Mon Oct 27, 2008 8:58 am
Intense. Is there a proper ad-hoc library yet? If so, it may be time to come out of hibernation!
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#164299 - elwing - Mon Oct 27, 2008 10:13 am
I can't imagine how great the DSi would be for your quake2 if the additional full speed ram would allow you to bypass slot2 ram... it already run quite great, but there is notorious slowdown on some ocasion, mostly related to exram i guess...
#164306 - simonjhall - Mon Oct 27, 2008 6:04 pm
Is there extra RAM in this new thing then? I've not yet looked at the specs for the thing...I've heard about the cameras, but I didn't know there was more memory in it.
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#164307 - kusma - Mon Oct 27, 2008 6:40 pm
| simonjhall wrote: |
| Is there extra RAM in this new thing then? I've not yet looked at the specs for the thing...I've heard about the cameras, but I didn't know there was more memory in it. |
The DSi can run Opera without a RAM expansion (there's no SLOT-2 on the DSi anyway). I'm not sure if this is due to more built-in RAM or Opera being optimized, but I suspect the first.
#164308 - nanou - Mon Oct 27, 2008 8:01 pm
| kusma wrote: |
| simonjhall wrote: | | Is there extra RAM in this new thing then? I've not yet looked at the specs for the thing...I've heard about the cameras, but I didn't know there was more memory in it. |
The DSi can run Opera without a RAM expansion (there's no SLOT-2 on the DSi anyway). I'm not sure if this is due to more built-in RAM or Opera being optimized, but I suspect the first. |
According to the Opera people it's a bit of both, but they've confirmed that there is some extra RAM during an interview. I don't have a link handy though.
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- nanou
#164310 - simonjhall - Mon Oct 27, 2008 10:39 pm
Ooh...bet the memory's not that fast though. I mean, the main stuff is slow enough and there's no way that they'd make the secondary stuff faster! Don't anticipate buying a DSi though. Would be good to see Q3A on it though ;-)
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#164311 - elhobbs - Tue Oct 28, 2008 12:08 am
| simonjhall wrote: |
| Ooh...bet the memory's not that fast though. I mean, the main stuff is slow enough and there's no way that they'd make the secondary stuff faster! Don't anticipate buying a DSi though. Would be good to see Q3A on it though ;-) |
wasn't q2 pushing the cpu and polycount? I think q3 is is in the 1 million polygons per second neighborhood so it may be a little bit of a stretch, though I agree it would be good to see. have any specs been released on the dsi cpu - is it the same as the ds?
#164312 - nanou - Tue Oct 28, 2008 2:52 am
| simonjhall wrote: |
| Ooh...bet the memory's not that fast though. I mean, the main stuff is slow enough and there's no way that they'd make the secondary stuff faster! |
I think you're right. Opera has said that the browser is improved and that it has more efficient ram usage. It suggests to me that the browser's improvement comes from relying on the slow ram a lot less.
| elhobbs wrote: |
| have any specs been released on the dsi cpu - is it the same as the ds? |
That's been the subject of a lot of speculation. It seems like there must be some additional processing power in some capacity, but nothing specific has been stated by anyone in a position to know--to the best of my knowledge anyway.
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- nanou
#164314 - DensitY - Tue Oct 28, 2008 4:31 am
| elhobbs wrote: |
| simonjhall wrote: | | Ooh...bet the memory's not that fast though. I mean, the main stuff is slow enough and there's no way that they'd make the secondary stuff faster! Don't anticipate buying a DSi though. Would be good to see Q3A on it though ;-) |
wasn't q2 pushing the cpu and polycount? I think q3 is is in the 1 million polygons per second neighborhood so it may be a little bit of a stretch, though I agree it would be good to see. have any specs been released on the dsi cpu - is it the same as the ds? |
the avg q3 scene had 8,000-10,000 tris on it excluding models. 3rd party mods pushed it up towards 20,000 per scene. (by scene I mean visable at any given time).
#164338 - simonjhall - Wed Oct 29, 2008 12:29 am
I actually spent ten minutes this morning thinking up extravagant ways of making the game run on the machine before remembered (as elhobbs pointed out!) how much Q2 battered the machine! No more ports for me ;-)
Maybe I should go back to more high-powered consoles!
So anyway, has anyone else kinda given up DS homebrew and found more interesting hobbies in the real world to take up their time? I'm trying to get into (don't laugh) stand up comedy! Definately harder than programming.
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#164340 - kusma - Wed Oct 29, 2008 12:39 am
| simonjhall wrote: |
| I'm trying to get into (don't laugh) stand up comedy! |
But isn't that kinda the point? ;)
#164341 - DensitY - Wed Oct 29, 2008 1:28 am
| simonjhall wrote: |
So anyway, has anyone else kinda given up DS homebrew and found more interesting hobbies in the real world to take up their time? I'm trying to get into (don't laugh) stand up comedy! Definately harder than programming. |
I'm still fiddling around (haven't and most likely won't release anything, I like fiddling), couple of days ago I got beat up by GCC as I ported a C function of mine to Arm9 ASM and after profiling I found that gcc beat the living crap out of me by 20% :S *cries*
if I did stand up I'd be more a stand up target vs comedian, tasty tomatos
#164354 - simonjhall - Wed Oct 29, 2008 3:29 pm
| kusma wrote: |
| simonjhall wrote: | | I'm trying to get into (don't laugh) stand up comedy! |
But isn't that kinda the point? ;) |
:-D
| DensitY wrote: |
| I'm still fiddling around (haven't and most likely won't release anything, I like fiddling), couple of days ago I got beat up by GCC as I ported a C function of mine to Arm9 ASM and after profiling I found that gcc beat the living crap out of me by 20% :S *cries* |
Kusma's told me before not to write ARM assembler as the compiler is invariably better than you are! I've found it far more rewarding writing assembly for the more complex consoles as the compilers do a far worse job.
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#164360 - kusma - Wed Oct 29, 2008 5:08 pm
| simonjhall wrote: |
| Kusma's told me before not to write ARM assembler as the compiler is invariably better than you are! |
A human being can still beat the compiler, but usually by a relatively small margin, and usually only after spending hours on it. And at the same time the code becomes harder to debug and re-target. A friend of mine once said those wise words: "A compiler can generate better code in microseconds than you can do in hours", and that is so true. But of course... if your routine is really critical, and you really need those 10% extra... you could always give it a try.
#164366 - Kyoufu Kawa - Wed Oct 29, 2008 8:25 pm
That reminds me of something I read on Wikipedia: write the first build of your new language's compiler in that language, then hand-compile it. I'll stay out now.
#164372 - silent_code - Wed Oct 29, 2008 9:41 pm
The hobby turned to profession for me, so I have to step back from personal projects, but I don't give them up. :^)
_________________
July 5th 08: "Volumetric Shadow Demo" 1.6.0 (final) source released
June 5th 08: "Zombie NDS" WIP released!
It's all on my page, just click WWW below.
#164378 - simonjhall - Thu Oct 30, 2008 12:04 am
| kusma wrote: |
| "A compiler can generate better code in microseconds than you can do in hours" |
That's definately something I'll be preaching to the people I work with, I think :-)
I once spent weeks writing a piece of code for a game (that's not yet out...) that had a run-time of 7-8ns. It's such a stunningly short amount of time! If only the compiler could have written it for me, I wouldn't have lost so much sleep! I literally was bricking it for months on the run up to writing this thing, as I thought that there was no way I'd be able to do better than the compiler could do.
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