New To Forums...Where Do I Start?

[epicasian]

Hi,
I'm new to this forum and dreamcast dev and wondering where and how to start. I have access to Ubuntu Linux, Windows, and OS X.
Which OS is the best for DC Dev?

I know you guys probably get tons of n00b questions, sorry, and all help is appreciated,
EpicAsian

[StryfeDc]

Hi,
I'm new to this forum and dreamcast dev and wondering where and how to start. I have access to Ubuntu Linux, Windows, and OS X.
Which OS is the best for DC Dev?

I know you guys probably get tons of n00b questions, sorry, and all help is appreciated,
EpicAsian

If you do a forum search for "DC Dev ISO 4", you might find a thread with what you're looking for.

It installs Cygwin for use on Windows OSes, but if you know how to set the libraries up, you could run the stuff natively on a Linux.

[epicasian]

While the site was down (at least for me), I've installed that. Now my question is, where do I go from here? How do I go about learning KOS?

Thank you,
EpicAsian

[StryfeDc]

Now my question is, where do I go from here? How do I go about learning KOS?



A bit outdated, but you could start here:
http://gamedev.allusion.net/softprj/kos/

[epicasian]

I've looked at that site and didn't really see a getting started w/ programming w/ KOS on the DC, any links for that?

And thanks again,
EpicAsian

[BlueCrab]

Your best bet will be to read through the examples included with KOS. They go through many things that you might need to know. Other than that, the source and header files for KOS will be great tools as well.

Also, I suggest that you check out the forums at DCEmulation.org (http://dcemulation.org/phpBB/). There are more active Dreamcast developers that hang out there than here (due to many issues, including the fact that DCEmulation has been around longer).

[StryfeDc]

Also, I suggest that you check out the forums at DCEmulation.org (http://dcemulation.org/phpBB/).

Here are a couple links to the site that might help:

*http://dcemulation.org/?title=Development
*http://dcemulation.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=28240

[epicasian]

Thank you guys for all the help and clarification.
Do you recommend starting with SDL? I've read (I don't remember where) that SDL is really slow on the DC, is it?
And is KOS only for interacting with the DC's hardware?

Thanks Again,
EpicAsian

[BlueCrab]

Thank you guys for all the help and clarification.
Do you recommend starting with SDL? I've read (I don't remember where) that SDL is really slow on the DC, is it?
And is KOS only for interacting with the DC's hardware?

Thanks Again,
EpicAsianTake it from me (I've been doing Dreamcast stuff for a long time), that SDL on the DC is just a bad idea. If you really want to be doing Dreamcast development, then stick with KOS. I've used SDL in the past (heck, I'm partially responsible for the fact that its included with KOS at all), and I found fairly quickly that it is not suited for Dreamcast stuff at all.

SDL on the DC is both slow and a memory hog. It leaks memory for no particular reason, and it does things in a way that is not really the right way to do things on the Dreamcast.

While KOS-based development is indeed Dreamcast-only, there are a lot of different ways you can make your programs run elsewhere without too much work (for instance, you might look at using KallistiGL for your graphical parts so that the code should work fairly well with a normal PC with OpenGL).

[epicasian]

Are there any other cross platform (DC/PC) game development libraries?
Also, I don't have BBA, or LAN Adapter, so how can I test software on the DC? I still have the modem (Model A), and tried the PC-DC Server on XP and a virtual Windows ME installation, and both have failed. Also, I have a DC Emulator on my PC and that doesn't run the files right, so what do you recommend? Has the PC-DC server ever worked on Windows 7 or Vista?

Thank you, again,
EpicAsian

[BlueCrab]

The DC-PC Server wouldn't work with uploading code anyway. No tool has been released that can do that. You could try to get a hold of a Coder's Cable, although they seem to be almost as expensive as BBAs these days... Other than that, you're pretty much limited to using CD-Rs to test things (if you burn a disc with either DCHakker or Demomenu on it, you can use one multi-session CD-R to do lots of tests of your code (this is how I started out doing DC stuff, and did for about a year or so)).

As for cross-platform game development libraries for the DC and PC, there was one that was being worked on called Tiki that was being developed alongside KOS. Other than that, I've worked on a library called CrabClaw, but it is far from complete or usable for anything in the general case.

[epicasian]

You wouldn't have link for Tiki, would you? I can't seem to find it...

Thanks Again,
EpicAsian

[BlueCrab]

Tiki was maintained alongside the KOS source code tree. If you check KOS out from the subversion repository then you'll probably get Tiki as well.

Note, I've never used Tiki, so I really can't say how good/bad it is.

[epicasian]

i know this is an UBER n00bish question but, how do create a multi session disk? the ones i create on Win7 mess up DChakker...

Thanks again,
EpicAsian

[BlueCrab]

In all honesty, I don't actually use Windows, but back when I did, I used Nero 5 (yeah, that's how long ago its been).

[epicasian]

So you use Linux now? What program do you use?

Thanks Again,
EpicAsian

[BlueCrab]

Actually, I use Mac OS X.

I only very rarely burn any Dreamcast-related stuff these days, but when I do, I do it all from the command-line with cdrecord.