[Fearless Leader]

Very well then, I'll bring this issue back in another few years. Hopefully, by that point phones, will be advanced enough to be freespace.

As I promised, I have returned years later to bother the community once again.

This idea has been kicked around, and mostly just kicked in general. And although I have fallen short of my ultimate goal of learning C++ and porting freespace to a mobile device, I have learned of this awesome Linux based phone OS

Could I install freespace on a phone running Ubuntu? I dual boot ubuntu, I have a laptop that runs ubuntu, and I've previously used sun solaris for work. so I have some experience at installing games in linux platforms. But I dont want to risk bricking a phone trying to install Ubuntu before asking around about this.

[Kolgena]

Why would you want to? You'd need a bluetooth keyboard and (optional) mouse just to get inputs working.

If the ubuntu phone has a desktop mode that can run he linux builds of FSO, then it could probably "work" (can't see how it could possibly run it well), but if it only takes apps, probably no.

[Phantom Hoover]

unless there's been some major hardware/driver development since the last time this idea was thoroughly shredded it's still impossible to implement it on mobile graphics hardware without basically rewriting FSO's renderer, regardless of whatever hapless device ubuntu's decided to target

[Kolgena]

Forcing software rendering might work, since modern phones tend to have reasonably good CPU's. I'd be looking to get at least 4 fps on most phones today.

I'm still very confused why the idea was brought up again. You're basically proposing the equivalent of "I want to develop a plumbing system for the city using plastic buckets".

[Fearless Leader]

Why would you want to? You'd need a bluetooth keyboard and (optional) mouse just to get inputs working.

If the ubuntu phone has a desktop mode that can run he linux builds of FSO, then it could probably "work" (can't see how it could possibly run it well), but if it only takes apps, probably no.

It's designed to plug into an external monitor + mouse & keyboard and work as a desktop.

The reason I want this? Most mobile games sucks really bad. The most popular game for mobile devices is angry birds, I played something exactly like angry birds for free almost 10 years ago. I would love to see a really good game, like FSO, on something that fits in my pocket.

Forcing software rendering might work, since modern phones tend to have reasonably good CPU's. I'd be looking to get at least 4 fps on most phones today.

I'm still very confused why the idea was brought up again. You're basically proposing the equivalent of "I want to develop a plumbing system for the city using plastic buckets".

I've made textures before, for some other games, I was thinking about maybe making some really low quality textures, like sub villain textures. All effects set to minimum.  Maybe somebody could develop some super low poly models?

[Goober5000]

Why would you want to? You'd need a bluetooth keyboard and (optional) mouse just to get inputs working.

On the contrary, you could control it with accelerometers and voice input.  All you'd have to do is hold the phone in both hands, lean in different directions, and go "neeeeeEEEEEEEOOOOOOORRRRRROoooooommmm.........pthththththththt hthththt....chkchkchkchkckchkchkchkchkhkhk....BACHCHCH!!!"

[Fearless Leader]

Why would you want to? You'd need a bluetooth keyboard and (optional) mouse just to get inputs working.

On the contrary, you could control it with accelerometers and voice input.  All you'd have to do is hold the phone in both hands, lean in different directions, and go "neeeeeEEEEEEEOOOOOOORRRRRROoooooommmm.........pthththththththt hthththt....chkchkchkchkckchkchkchkchkhkhk....BACHCHCH!!!"

O_O I've attracted Goober5000
I just want to say, I'm a big fan of your work.

That would be  really interesting if you could bind voice commands to specific keys.

[Goober5000]

Thanks for the kind words.

You can actually already control FreeSpace to a certain extent on Windows using the Microsoft speech library.  But it's limited to straightforward commands like "attack my target".  Controlling FreeSpace by using space sound effects is somewhat of a ways off.

[MetalDestroyer]

The reason I want this? Most mobile games sucks really bad. The most popular game for mobile devices is angry birds, I played something exactly like angry birds for free almost 10 years ago. I would love to see a really good game, like FSO, on something that fits in my pocket.

Did you try OnLive on your Android/Iphone or whatever device ? But, for a more appealing experience, you'll need to plug a gamepad.

[The E]

It's designed to plug into an external monitor + mouse & keyboard and work as a desktop.

At which point your supposedly mobile phone becomes indistinguishable from a Netbook or Tablet.

Sure, if this desktop mode is a full-up Ubuntu system that exposes all the hardware functionality FSO needs, you may be able to get it to run. But don't get your hopes up in getting it to run in phone mode; there are a LOT of things you would need to change in terms of the interface and controls. As the SCP, we currently do not have a big interest in expanding beyond the desktop, mostly because we don't have the people to do it, and because there doesn't seem to be much of a demand for us to do this.

In short, if you want this to happen, it is still upon you to make it happen.

[Deepstar]

I heard that there is a playable and adapted FSO version for open-source handhelds like openPandora, Dingoo and GP2xWiz, i think there should be some videos in web. This are the only mobile versions of FreeSpace i know about ^^.

[The E]

I heard that there is a playable and adapted FSO version for open-source handhelds like openPandora, Dingoo and GP2xWiz, i think there should be some videos in web. This are the only mobile versions of FreeSpace i know about ^^.

These devices are all using full, normal Linux distributions, and offer normal control interfaces similar to joysticks, mouse, keyboards. It is not at all surprising that FSO works there, but I would not describe this as a good "portable" experience.

[Wobble73]

Just download Galaxy on Fire 2 from the Play Store on an Android phone.

[Fearless Leader]

I'm not asking for somebody to do it for me, and if I go begging for help it will be on a Linux forum (Linux users get off on solving Linux problems)

So, obviously, the first step would be to get a compatible android that I am willing to risk bricking when I flash it. After that comes the hard part. It's going to be a few months before I am able to get something like that, but I thought I would come by and kick the idea around with people that know what they are talking about first.

[Grizzly]

First things first: FSO is designed to be played with a Joystick+Keyboard combination. How would you adapt such a system for a phone?

I personally would think that if you want to adapt a good PC game for the phone, you'd want to adapt a game which can, at the least, be played entirely with the mouse, like The Battle for Wesnoth (which, AFAIK, is actually already android capable) or Frozen Synapse, or any other (semi-) turn based strategy game, or an RPG. Heck, Baldur's Gate is out for Android and iOs.

[headdie]

Here is the thing as a community we are not against the idea, but you have to understand that this will not be a simple project.  in order to pull this off you are probably looking at a project which will take a small team working full time at a minimum of several months if not a year+ due to the number of subtle and many not so subtle alterations that will be required.  Not only that but there some questions that need fairly detailed answers before I believe you can make a credible start, such as:

How are you going to make the user interface work in regards to the wildly different inputs between PC and a mobile device?
How do you plan on generating the graphics on the screen?
How are you going to adapt the code to the differences in the technologies used to build a program for android and Full Linux/Unix?
What can/will sacrifice in terms of features to make this work?
How are you going to distribute the end product taking into account the licensing on the FS source code which i presume you plan to use as a base/referencing point?

[Mongoose]

And perhaps even before all that, why not just play the game on a desktop/laptop instead, while leaving tablets to games that are far more suited to that interface?

[SypheDMar]

Except there are flight combat sims and space combat sims on the tablets nowadays.

I'm also not against the idea of having a portable version. In fact, it would probably be cool and educational. The problem I see is that the gain is very small and the effort and cost to do so is very large.

It would be fine if you were gonna get a bunch of people who aren't interested in anything else to port the engine over and develop a consistent and good design to play with, but just don't expect HLP to do it for you. So if you really want it, you got to learn how to do it yourself.

[MatthTheGeek]

Except there are flight combat sims and space combat sims on the tablets nowadays.

Names or it didn't happen.

[Droid803]

Except there are flight combat sims and space combat sims on the tablets nowadays.

Great, then play those and be done with it.
Because those were designed with the control scheme of a portable device/interface in mind, presumably, and thus far more suited to the platform than the FSO engine is.