Links for folks wanting to develop on Dreamcast

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Anthony817
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Links for folks wanting to develop on Dreamcast

Post#1 » Mon Dec 13, 2010 8:35 am

I originaly got this from over at DCEmulation forums, and thought some people here might find it usefull.

Quzar wrote:I might try to merge this with the quite outdated 'links for those ...' sticky at some point.

Many times I have looked around for information on a specific issue when DC programming. However, searching can be problematic and sometimes impossible (search for VMU). So here I'm trying to put together a sorted list of the best threads with information here. If you can think of others or topics I should look for more on, please post.

Here's the list so far:

Video
General Insanity (Genesis + PVR) - A HUGE and extremely information-packed thread. Discussion on a vast array of video issues (along with quite a few lookie-loos).
Screen render code speed up - An interesting example where a naive approach to a video renderer is taken and replaced with a much more optimized version.
Paletted Textures - A fantastic well written guide on the subject.
VQ Compression - Very detailed information about the very seldom used video feature.

Audio
Dreamcast's ARM CPU - Some nice low level description of the AICA

Maple
General:
Maple Test - Contains data gathered from many maple devices documenting features, versions, etc.

Rumble:
Trouble making the purupuru (Jump Pack) vibrate
PPPPUURRRRUU PURU! The original topic on reverse engineering the PuruPuru.

Microphone (S.I.P.):
KOS example using new maple system? An example program by BlueCrab on how to use the SIP.
Dreamcast Microphone Successfully Hacked BlueCrab's original topic on his driver

VMU Beep:
Beep Beep! The only topic on VMU beeping (although it is apparently also present in libronin as vmufs_beep)
VMU Screen:
BMP->VMU Screen Code? Some discussion and sample code to draw to the VMU Screen

VMU Saving:
Performing basic VMU file I/O operations? Basic example of saving zipped data to a vmu.
test a VMU file Reading the CRC from a VMU file
VMU Icons More saving examples, this time including eyecatches and icons.
Eye Catches and VMU Icons More discussion on the merits of save icons and eyecatches.

General KOS Features
Loading Media from memory An excellent explanation of the various filesystem mounts in KOS, the romdisk, /pc, /vmu, /ramdisk, etc.
Load a outside .BIN in KOS ? Some info on loading a new program from within a KOS program (make your own menu/bootloader) as well as a few bits on how some other bootloaders work.

Full examples
Minivader Source Release A little mame driver port I made. Simplest arcade hardware in existence. Extremely well documented and gives a pretty good overview on how to do basic I/O, video, and some other minor things.


If you want to develop a FPS for Dreamcast, using Half-Life is a good choice for Dreamcast, as PC mods can be ported to be stand alone games on the system. If you want to learn how to port PC mods or develop one from scratch for Dreamcast, you can find all the HLDC devs at the site below, and they are more than happy to help with any questions.
http://www.dcfan.net.ru/forum/f83/
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Impulse
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Re: Links for folks wanting to develop on Dreamcast

Post#2 » Mon Dec 13, 2010 6:03 pm

Great idea. This will be stickied.
-Impulse

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Anthony817
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Re: Links for folks wanting to develop on Dreamcast

Post#3 » Mon Dec 13, 2010 8:35 pm

Awesome thanks.
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BlueCrab
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Posts: 842

Re: Links for folks wanting to develop on Dreamcast

Post#4 » Tue Dec 14, 2010 12:46 am

Every time I see the posts of mine that are mentioned in there, I remember how long I've been working on Dreamcast stuff....

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Anthony817
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Re: Links for folks wanting to develop on Dreamcast

Post#5 » Tue Dec 14, 2010 12:57 am

I appreciate your work very much, as you are one of the greatest contributors to the DC scene, and I want to thank you personally from the botom of my heart for everything you have done. ;)

Do you have any projects you are currently working on, or want to work on in the future?
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BlueCrab
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Re: Links for folks wanting to develop on Dreamcast

Post#6 » Tue Dec 14, 2010 11:07 am

Anthony817 wrote:I appreciate your work very much, as you are one of the greatest contributors to the DC scene, and I want to thank you personally from the botom of my heart for everything you have done. ;)
Well, thanks for that. I certainly don't feel like I'm one of the greatest contributors to the community (I like to think of it more of a community than a "scene"). I simply stand on the shoulders of those who came before me (Dan Potter, Marcus Comstedt, etc.). In fact, my contributions are relatively minuscule compared to theirs.

Do you have any projects you are currently working on, or want to work on in the future?
Well, I'm still maintainer of KallistiOS, and every once in a while I actually get a chance to work on it. Of course, my main project is still Sylverant PSO Server at the moment. I still have other projects that I should be working on, but never can seem to find the time to do. Also, I have ideas of new projects or revamps of old ones, but I'd rather not discuss any of them before they'd come to fruition (helps to keep me motivated on them to not talk about them). ;)

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Captain Dreamcast
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Re: Links for folks wanting to develop on Dreamcast

Post#7 » Wed Dec 15, 2010 1:56 pm

Anthony817 wrote:
Quzar wrote:VMU Screen:
BMP->VMU Screen Code? Some discussion and sample code to draw to the VMU Screen

VMU Saving:
Performing basic VMU file I/O operations? Basic example of saving zipped data to a vmu.
test a VMU file Reading the CRC from a VMU file
VMU Icons More saving examples, this time including eyecatches and icons.
Eye Catches and VMU Icons More discussion on the merits of save icons and eyecatches.



YES! Thanks Anthony, this post finally helped me to understand how I can write things to the VMU's LCD and even make it beep!
Purified awesome. :D

BlueCrab wrote:I simply stand on the shoulders of those who came before me (Dan Potter, Marcus Comstedt, etc.). In fact, my contributions are relatively minuscule compared to theirs.

Well, looking at the facts, you're currently the head (and only) maintainer of the DC's most popular homebrew OS as well as one of the best PSO servers. How much more contributive can it get? Just imagine what would happen if you were to suddenly leave the scene (yes, it's a scene. "Communities" are for old people; >20 or older.) now! No more KallistiOS, no more Sylverant, the SCENE would instantly lose 90% of its awesomeness. :lol:

Long Story short:
You're cool.
Keep at it.
Don't make yourself smaller than you are. :mrgreen:
For Great Justice!

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BlueCrab
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Posts: 842

Re: Links for folks wanting to develop on Dreamcast

Post#8 » Wed Dec 15, 2010 2:43 pm

Captain Dreamcast wrote:
BlueCrab wrote:I simply stand on the shoulders of those who came before me (Dan Potter, Marcus Comstedt, etc.). In fact, my contributions are relatively minuscule compared to theirs.

Well, looking at the facts, you're currently the head (and only) maintainer of the DC's most popular homebrew OS as well as one of the best PSO servers. How much more contributive can it get? Just imagine what would happen if you were to suddenly leave the scene (yes, it's a scene. "Communities" are for old people; >20 or older.) now! No more KallistiOS, no more Sylverant, the SCENE would instantly lose 90% of its awesomeness. :lol:

Long Story short:
You're cool.
Keep at it.
Don't make yourself smaller than you are. :mrgreen:
Sure the world would be without Sylverant, but that's not to say that someone else wouldn't have started a similar project (or continued on from Fuzziqer's server, or Sodaboy's (as I initially did with Sylverant)). As for KallistiOS, there are other people who maintain it. I'm just in charge so to speak. If it weren't me, it would be someone else -- there's no way it'd disappear now.

As I said, I stand on the shoulders of the greatest contributors to the Dreamcast community (and I'm over 20, so I'll call it that all I want, thank you very much :lol: ). If it weren't for them, well, the whole thing wouldn't exist. I don't feel that I'm making myself smaller than I really am. ;)

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Anthony817
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Posts: 4009

Re: Links for folks wanting to develop on Dreamcast

Post#9 » Wed Dec 15, 2010 7:47 pm

Glad this could help somebody out. I saw that nothing as in depth as this was posted here, so thought it would be a great idea to post it for others to see. I think the others that originaly wrote it diserve all the credit though.
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r34per
Anarki
Posts: 96

Re: Links for folks wanting to develop on Dreamcast

Post#10 » Sun Dec 19, 2010 10:59 pm

i gots a question. theoretically, could i make a game for pc and then port it to dreamcast(i realize thats easier sed than done)? kinda made me wonder considering how easy it is to port games to dreamcast and also how its not the easiest thing to make games for dreamcast. srry if its a stupid question but this has rly been bugging me.
wait and bleed

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