[Scummvm-devel] ScummVM 0.10.0 tagged with tools

Mon Jun 18 00:02:56 CEST 2007

Hi!
As I see it there are four main issues, some which are easy to resolve, some 
which is abit trickier.

- Scummvm is getting bigger. Getting all those engines into one single build 
for pda type devices, are putting memory, and even linking at large. For 
example for the 0.9.1 release build exe was around 3 mb, the build I tried 
to day with all engines required, ended up at around 4mb. When this binariy 
was loaded, the amount of memory left to the actual game, was around 1-2 mb 
less than before. This is easy to handle by doing different builds for 
different engines (or group then together). For symbian svn builds, we have 
been doing separate builds for each engine to let users have the possibility 
to use smaller engines.

- Compiler support. Actually ScummVM builds almost ok with the 2.95.3 
compiler I'm using. There are two issues, one with a large comment in 
compresedsaves.cpp (how now that can be a problem I can't see), and in 
plugins.cpp where the #define statement for each plugin sometime causes 
problems (seems like my compiler has a problem with one define not beeing 
included and then it goes bonkers.) Also when compiled I see that I'm 
getting some hangup at times.

- The alignment issue. I made a small app which patched the 0.10.0 sources 
just to be able to do some on device testing to see if I could make a 
working build for the older devices.

Yes I can could make the build but when I started testing the builds, they 
where just to unstable to make a release out of them. Now the thing about 
unstableness is not just a thing about alignments, but also some of the 
complexity of the code that has grown, for example the game detection. Also 
I suspect that the code is not 100% correctly compiled to run properly,but 
this is really hard to deduce. As I noticed on UIQ3, using -O4 flag, was 
generating code not running properly, whilst -O2 worked fine (UIQ3 and S60v3 
is using GCC 3.4.3 compared to the older 2.95.3)

So today I tested GOB1 and AGI games on my N-gage, both games started fine, 
but the initial loading was long and trying to start an non-existing (non 
supported game) took also long time. But once in game it run quite nice, 
eventhough it had its moments of crashing at times. (And this is after 
having 4mb free after starting scummvm, and a processor running at 103 Mhz)

What is my conclusion of this:
Memory requirements for ScummVM has risen. Both from EXE size and data size 
required, and any PDA should have at least 15 mb free to run happily (which 
includes all S60v3 and UIQ3 devices, but almost none of the older devices).

Processingpower requirements has also risen abit, mostly in the area of the 
launching UI. Today I would recommend at least a 200 MHZ ARM processor for 
happy gaming.

So ScummVM runs happily on the latest revisions of devices, and thats is the 
current goal, mobile phones are getting old quite fast, and thus support for 
older SDK is not really up to date which makes it alittle bit impossible 
when...

ScummVM is evolving, and so am I, trying to get as many engines running as 
smoothly as possible, newer devices (E90 and P1i) will see FT and even COMI, 
Sword 1 and 2 running smoothly, when processing power and resolutions are 
getting higher.All this without putting to many constraints on the engine 
and common developers. Instead I'm trying to adopt, using the right 
compiler, with the right settings.

None of this work would be possible without all the hardwork of everyone 
supporting ScummVM, regardless of its all the developers, or the users which 
actually gives you the right feedback (yes there are those. ;-) )

So all I am hoping for, is the continuation of improvment and progress. And 
this is something that I'm certain of will be there, in one way or another.

Kudos to everyone.

best regards
Lars Persson

>From: Max Horn <max at quendi.de>
>To: ScummVM devel <scummvm-devel at lists.sourceforge.net>
>Subject: Re: [Scummvm-devel] ScummVM 0.10.0 tagged with tools
>Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2007 23:19:52 +0200
>
>
>Am 17.06.2007 um 22:18 schrieb Lars Persson:
>
> > Hi!
> > Yes please leave the old ones from 0.9.1.
> >
> > I have been struggeling really hard to work out a solution where I
> > could
> > build these versions, but since quite some requirements(as supported
> > compilers for example) for ScummVM has changed, its quite hard to
> > get a
> > really stable platform using the old GCC 2.95.3.
>
>Out of curiosity, what are the main problems / blockers for those?
>
>It would be really helpful if porters told us specifically. Ideally
>we'd collect this kind of info on a wiki page. Once we know which
>porters suffer from which problems caused by the rest of the ScummVM
>code base, we can review them and decide whether it's worth working
>on the problem, resp. possible to solve it.
>
>For example, I hear rumors that some ports are troubled by our
>reliance on #pragma pack. Well, we could always opt to get rid of
>that. It'll be some work, but it's far from impossible (not even
>particular hard, just annoying). If I knew it would help some ports
>alot, I'd do it. The same holds for other problems -- as long as
>people keep silent about their problems, they will have to deal with
>them alone. Speak up, and you might be helped by the rest of the
>team ;).
>
>OK, maybe this sounded negative. So let me please stress one thing: I
>am deeply pleased and impressed by the hard work all our porters are
>doing. There are not many games/apps out there which work on such a
>wide varied range of devices, and it's only possible because so many
>people put hard work into this. Kudos to all of you!
>
>
>Cheers,
>Max
>
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------
>This SF.net email is sponsored by DB2 Express
>Download DB2 Express C - the FREE version of DB2 express and take
>control of your XML. No limits. Just data. Click to get it now.
>http://sourceforge.net/powerbar/db2/
>_______________________________________________
>Scummvm-devel mailing list
>Scummvm-devel at lists.sourceforge.net
>https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/scummvm-devel

_________________________________________________________________
Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today it's FREE! 
http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/