Angband 3.0.6 for PSP v0.1

[Gendal]

I am such a dumb ass. I was in the middle of debugging the Home/Sleep problem when I started getting really, really annoyed at the load times. On my DS port it's instantaneous, so why the PSP was so much slower was blowing my mind. I spent HOURS debugging various points, but I couldn't figure it out. Then I finally realized you didn't undef ALLOW_TEMPLATES in config.h. I must have skipped over that ifdef code block a million times because I just assumed it was undefined.

I am impressed you had template rebuilding working in the first place, but it's really not necessary on the PSP i don't think, especially considering it goes from taking 30+ seconds to load to taking one or two seconds.

Next I need to figure out the HOME and SLEEP commands, but it's slow going with the lack of documentation and my total PSP newb status.

Well done on the whole port effort btw. You have really done an excellent job from an integration to the original source code point of view, so good it makes me want to delete my DS port in progress out of shame =)

[abszero]

Then I finally realized you didn't undef ALLOW_TEMPLATES in config.h. I must have skipped over that ifdef code block a million times because I just assumed it was undefined.

I am impressed you had template rebuilding working in the first place, but it's really not necessary on the PSP i don't think, especially considering it goes from taking 30+ seconds to load to taking one or two seconds.

Hah, I didn't even know what that was for :P It's that way in the official source package too I guess. If it works, it's by accident .

I tried undefing it in the v0.2 I'm just about to release but that caused the game to crash instead. I'll play around with it tomorrow to see if I can get the same results but it's way past my bed time at the moment. If you want, we could try and coordinate some on it. PM me if you're interested.

Next I need to figure out the HOME and SLEEP commands, but it's slow going with the lack of documentation and my total PSP newb status.

I made a little progress on the HOME front (*groan*), and so that seems to be working, but at the cost of some speed when the character is running because making the threads play nicely together required putting the game thread to sleep from time to time. Haven't figured out anything about standby mode yet since I don't even know what the PSP does when it enters standby or resumes.

Well done on the whole port effort btw. You have really done an excellent job from an integration to the original source code point of view, so good it makes me want to delete my DS port in progress out of shame =)

Heh, if you say so. I'm sure my old CS teachers would berate me if they could see me putting all the functions in one file (as seems to be Angband protocol) and then having almost no comments (that one's my fault)...

-abszero

[Gendal]

Will send a PM

[wraggster]

Thanks for the update, im also glad i could help

[silver]

Great port!

A few suggestions for improvements:

1. Will future versions use a bit more of the PSP's horizontal resolution? (meaning, reduce the amount of empty black space at the bottom of the screen)

2. I'm not sure a performance hit for use of the home button is worth it. I always exit my games with ctrl-x to save and quit.

3. Any chance of some balancing modifications? The early levels are too easy in general, but certian creatures (like the giant lice) are extremely cheap, to the point of having to immediately abandon a level after finding one. I know this is also true about the original game, but it shouldn't be too hard to fix.

4. I think that the control button should be moved onto the keyboard, so that the button may be used for a more commonly used key


Also, I ran across a crash bug in version 0.1 after dying. I'm not sure what caused it (idling?), but the system turned itself off in the end-game menu..

[Gendal]

Great port!

A few suggestions for improvements:

1. Will future versions use a bit more of the PSP's horizontal resolution? (meaning, reduce the amount of empty black space at the bottom of the screen)

This is a one line fix which I already tested BUT it requires more work with the on screen keyboard, otherwise you end up with little black holes where it used to be.

2. I'm not sure a performance hit for use of the home button is worth it. I always exit my games with ctrl-x to save and quit.


3. Any chance of some balancing modifications? The early levels are too easy in general, but certian creatures (like the giant lice) are extremely cheap, to the point of having to immediately abandon a level after finding one. I know this is also true about the original game, but it shouldn't be too hard to fix.

Haven't tested the new version yet concerning speed but as far as 3 goes you can edit the files under the Angband\lib\edit folder and since Abszero has the templates working you can make all the changes you want. Just go into the monster.txt and remove the MULTIPLY tag in the F: field and rerun angband. You can go crazy rebalancing however you want.

4. I think that the control button should be moved onto the keyboard, so that the button may be used for a more commonly used key


Also, I ran across a crash bug in version 0.1 after dying. I'm not sure what caused it (idling?), but the system turned itself off in the end-game menu..

Don't know how you would really handle ctrl on the current OSK with out a shift button. It's not like a touchpad keyboard, representing different states like shift and ctrl would be rather wierd with out a modifier button

As far as the crash, the whole exit game/thread/sleep is still being worked on I know.

Edit: I just checked out v 0.2 and I dont see any slowdown while running, and that's with all the funky lighting and coloring options turned on. Did you actually see a section that's slow (minus the initial load time) or where you just worried about it potentially slowing down?

[abszero]

1. Will future versions use a bit more of the PSP's horizontal resolution? (meaning, reduce the amount of empty black space at the bottom of the screen)

I would like to but I read in some official Angband FAQ that it was a bad idea to change the screensize because there are many places in the source that are hardcoded to use the default size and that'd it'd be impossible to find and fix them all. We can experiment with it though. We don't need to change the width at least since the PSP screen is already the right width - I think changing the height has far less potential for introducing bugs. If it works like Gendal says, it shouldn't be hard to prevent the keyboard from erasing the map.

Edit: I just checked out v 0.2 and I dont see any slowdown while running, and that's with all the funky lighting and coloring options turned on. Did you actually see a section that's slow (minus the initial load time) or where you just worried about it potentially slowing down?

No, it is slower, but it's not particularly bad I don't think. It's just that running through a long corridor went from instantaneous to a very fast animation. You'd still be able to cross the entire map in like 2 seconds so I don't think it's too big of a deal. I had shared your thought, silver, that it doesn't matter too much if the HOME button works since unless you're cheating, there's no reason to exit that way, but I think the changes that helped the HOME button work will be required to make suspending the game via the power button work too.

-abszero

[Gendal]

I was just coming back to post that it is indeed slower, for some reason my first make didn't copy over the new EBOOT and I didn't realize it at first. It's definately not major though, actually I sort of prefer it, because I can watch my little guy zoom around at warp speed, vs the old method which was indistinquishable from teleportation.

Never seen a FAQ entry that says anything like that, I imagine it was for a very old version? All of the newer ones support crazy (and dynamic) resolutions. I frequently run at fullscreen on a 1920x1200 lcd along with some supporting terminals on the second monitor.

In main-psp.c just change line 942 from:
term_init(t, 80, 24, 256);
to:
term_init(t, 80, 33, 256);

and it works, as long as you ignore the keyboard and I believe macro too leaving black holes in your map. It will do 34 rows of course, but you use the 34th for your battery meter now =)

[abszero]

Sounds good. We can try it out anyways and see if we get any bugs as a result.

I had thought about reserving a line for the battery meter and other messages (eg, the macro editing instructions) but I guess we could just move that to the bottom left corner since the status panel on the left will still only be using 24 lines of 34.

On the topic of standby/resume, I'm sorta under the assumption that we need to suspend threads before the standby and then awaken them on resuming. Not sure if that's correct but it sounds like there may be some sort of support in the code already for starting and stopping the Angband game loop. If you look at the comment for TERM_XTRA_ALIVE in Term_xtra_psp, it seems to suggest there's something there that could be modified to do what we need.

-abszero

[Kamilion]

Bug report:

Using the command ~ (Display Knowlegde), all items crash PSP hard except for view hall of fame then hitting circle (escape) -- pressing any other key will crash.

I lost 2 hours, a cap of light +2, and some nice enchantments to this bug ;_;
Hint: Save your game before messing with options

Edit: Oh, and is it possible to hack the game to always display lists of items instead of having to press * every time?