[Scummvm-devel] What libraries to include in ScummVM on embeded devices?

[Johannes Schickel]

On 04/10/2011 02:21 PM, Klaus Reimer wrote:
> Hello,
>
> me again still working on the WebOS port. ScummVM supports lots of
> third-party libraries but I wonder if it is a good idea to use all this
> stuff. I think support for Ogg, MP3, FLAC and MPEG2 is mandatory for a
> nice gaming experience. But what about the other libraries:
>

Actually libmpeg2 isn't used anymore at all, we disable it by default 
(you have to forcefully enable it), so I personally think it doesn't 
make much sense to use it for release builds.

> Alsa: WebOS devices use Alsa. ScummVM plays sound even without enabling
> alsa support. Don't know if ScummVM then uses OSS or plays sound through
> SDL. Is there any benefit enabling alsa support?
>

The ALSA support is only for ALSA MIDI. We use SDL to play digital 
audio, which will probably use ALSA in turn.

> PNG: I've seen that Sword 2.5 needs this but this engine isn't included
> by default anyway. Is there any other benefit enabling PNG support?
>
>

No there is currently no benefit from libpng apart that it is required 
for sword25.

> OpenGL ES: WebOS supports this and scummvm can dynamically link to the
> existing OpenGL libraries. But for what is it used? How can I test if it
> is working? Enabled OpenGL support doesn't even show up in the About screen.
>

OpenGL support should only show up in the graphics mode settings. Anyway 
the backend is still WIP and it should not be enabled in official releases.

> And what about these (No idea for what they are used):
>
> libtheoradec

Currently only used for sword25, it should be safe to disable it in 
releases.

> zlib

This is used for compressed savefiles, it should probably be enabled so 
users can copy saves from their desktop PC over to their WebOS device.

> seq midi
>

This is used for sequencer MIDI support. Guess it can be disabled 
without any drawbacks.

> Timidity

I think this one is just a client for a Timidity demon running, so it 
can probably be disabled.

> libfluidsynth
>

This is a software synthesizer with sound font support, in case the 
WebOS devices can handle it processing power wise, it might be nice to 
enable it, in case users want to use MIDI with a custom sound font.

// Johannes