[rousseau]

Is anyone else interested in porting to the PSP, using the beta pspsdk (http://ps2dev.org/psp/Projects/PSPSDK)?

Steve

[WMCoolmon]

Very, very, unlikely to happen.

Not only does the PSP apparently need special compilers and use its own graphics engine, but it's doubtful that it could load the sheer amount of effects into memory that FS2 uses. (This is to say nothing of trying to create a viable control config using only 8 buttons or so.

It's of course theoretically possible, but you'd need a dedicated programmer familiar with the PSP. You'd be better off asking on a PSP dev forum; we can't spare the coders.

[rousseau]

I did say is anyone *else* interested  ... i'm already using the PSPSDK, and currently having a dig around the fs2 source.

However, there's obviously a lot of work to do to get it to happen - basic things to do (in rough priority order) are:

1) Get the source to just compile with the PSPSDK toolchain.
2) Add support for PSP style file IO, so the engine can load all the game resources from a memorystick
3) Add support for the PSP rendering engine (PSP GU alongside DirectX & OpenGL)
4) Convert all the UI elements to run on a tiny screen (a new media pack with smaller 2d graphics etc.)
5) Implement a simpler control interface to work OK with the limited controller buttons on the PSP
6) Add support for audio, movies, network multiplayer etc.
...

Steve

[CaptJosh]

Minor details get in your way though. Like the fact that the PSP does not and can never have enough controls to play this game correctly.

[rousseau]

Depends what you mean by "playing a game correctly".. true - it would be difficult to support all the UI features of the PC version, but on the other hand it should still be possible to make a fun dogfighting game using the FS2 engine with minimal controls - joystick direction, accelerate, target enemy, fire1/fire2.

To be honest, the biggest problem I can see is the lack of memory on the PSP - might struggle to load all the default models/textures, but it should still be possible to make smaller versions of these if necessary.

Steve

[Taristin]

All I'm going to say on this matter is: "Good luck with that"

[an0n]

Something akin to Star Trek: Invasion might work....

[BlackDove]

If you know how to code, might I suggest spending the skills on something valuable around here, realistic to boot.

[Cobra]

Um. No. The PSP can't handle the gfx, plus you need to convert the tables into useable data, etc. From how it looks to me, it's impossible.

[rousseau]

>>From how it looks to me, it's impossible

Well I've already done #1 and #3. Now just need some testing & the HUD work. It was pretty quick, as PSPSDK already contains OpenGL and Lua libraries etc. Just used the NO_SOUND defn for now - i'll tackle audio later.

>>If you know how to code, might I suggest spending the skills on something valuable around here

Sure.. If anyone is happy to help out with the PSP conversion I'd be happy to chip in with some work on the Windows side. Only thing on my list for the windows version is proper support of 3dstereo (http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showforum=40) displays (mostly this works fine tho there are some odd HUD effects).

Steve

[IPAndrews]

Please can i have an Atari 2600 conversion. 

[CaptJosh]

Actually, if you have the controller with the number pad on it, an Atari 2600 conversion (With seriously scaled down graphics) would actually be slightly more viable than this PSP conversion boondoggle this guy is trying.

[Solatar]

I'd play it on PS2...I wouldn't expect something huge, but a game with some simple dogfighting missions would be pretty cool (as long as I could make some missions of my own on PC and move them over).

I can't code or anything though...so I'm actually pretty useless. I'd be glad to try and help out where I can (testing possibly).

[Muriac]

I'm only in my first term of computer science, but my guess would be that it would take about as long to strip the existing FS2 source down to a PSP-manageable form as it would take to build a PSP version from scratch. The latter would probably run better and you'd be able to take advantage of features unique to the PSP. The only thing worth taking would be (drastically reduced) versions of the FS2 models and textures, which I don't think is technically legal.

[WMCoolmon]

Not at all. For the most part, to make stuff fit in memory you'd have to make the appropriate section of the code allocate memory dynamically, and downscale the media files appropriately. If you tried to recode from scratch you'd end up having to rewrite all sorts of stuff (AI code. WHEE!!!) and would quickly have compatibility with fs2_open broken as new features were added.

And supposedly copying music from a CD to your ipod is illegal too, but people still do that. The question is, do people feel like they're being harmed enough by it to prosecute someone for it?

[Cyker]

I'm sure it'd be possible - If you can write a almost-not-ugly 3D space shooter for PalmOS (The most evil horrible game dev environment on the planet), I'm sure you could do it for a PSP.

Obviously it wouldn't look anywhere near as good, but you'd not to it SCP-style anyway because the screen-rez is FAR too small to be worth implementing all the effects and high0res textures etc.

The control interface could be done - The analog stick for flight, R trigger for throttle. One button for fire, fire secondary, burners, chaff. L/R on d-pad to cycle weapon set, U to bring up comms and cycle through options, D to select.

Shield would be auto-balancing, energy management would have to be cut.
Multiple and external views would be cut. Pretty much all the other nifty ancillary controls would be cut.


Prediction:
It'd be a huge amount of work, and probably end up playing like Elite.

Bottom Line:
Make Rake in Grass port Jets'n'Gunz to the PSP instead. Because dear god the PSP needs a decent ****ing game. And I like Shoot'em'ups.

[Solatar]

You'd lose the tactical element of Freespace, so much of the main campaign would be harder (without being able to order around fighters, etc.). Custom designed missions that were pretty straightforward dogfights would be ideal I think.

[Bobboau]

if the guy wants to try don't discurage him, it'd be cool. and the contolre thing would be simple, I doubt most people commonly use more than 8 buttons at a time any way.

how similar to OGL/DX is the graphics API, is there any major feature that one suports that the other does not (one feature I'm partucularly interested in is the availability of (what is refered to in OGL as) display lists)

[IPAndrews]

display lists

You know, I was wondering if and when someone would mention that.

[WMCoolmon]

I was skeptical before I realized he was actually proposing doing it himself, but now that it sounds like progress is being made, I'm very curious to see how this turns out.

Hopefully I can rent/borrow a PSP to play this.