[Scummvm-devel] ScummVM PS2 : news

[sunmax at libero.it]

Hey-la ScummVM friends,

nice to see so many ideas and involvement in the last few days!

here come some PS2 news:

 - We will likely have a PS2 backend + binary package
   by Feb 28th, I will miss the code freeze though
   (gotta be cause it's 35 C outside ;-)

   I will try to run so many games/tests as possible
   before call it a release, in doubt it will wait
   for 0.13.1, but that would be my very last option.
 
 - As usual what's dragging the release back are issues
   with files on different media (MC, USB, HD, remote),
   the solution was kinda hacked in 0.11.0 and 0.12.0
   that's why I never committed it to HEAD. Since we
   had a major redesign of ScummVM files handling,
   I was aiming to cleanly rewrite the PS2 part too.
   If this should not timely fit before Feb 28th, we
   always have the old hack [which is reported to work
   on all media] ;-)

 - There are couple of other factors that makes sometime
   of the PS2 backend a Cinderella port:

   - older tools set : eg. compiler, which ICEs and needs
     workaround

   - bogus drivers : eg. IRX, that force us to compensate
     their quirks inside ScummVM

   - multiplicity of media : games on PS2 can be started
     from CD/DVD, USB, HD, remote. On a PC it does not
     make much difference cause all of those resources
     are well abstracted behind the OS, but on the PS2
     are quite different creatures with a lesser level
     of abstraction.

   - multiplicity of exploits : ie. of tricks available
     to let you run homebrew apps omn PlayStation2

   If we just take the last 2 factors into consideration,
   every time I make some changes to a subsystem shared
   between the different media (mostly file handling),
   we need to re-test on -all- of them per each game
   (or at least engine).

   Now, since different exploits come with some drivers
   preloaded, we not only have to test on different media,
   but "each media" X "each exploit" X "game", cause the
   media might (and does) behave differently depending on
   what the exploit has already loaded before we start
   ScummVM.

   So you now have a clearer idea of the permutations ;-)

   My plan, and something I have been working a few weeks
   last year, was to have a no-exploit setup which would
   be our official setup, everything else still checked
   of course but proportionally to popularity of the
   exploits, time available, etc.

   It all boiled down to a compromise solution where you
   can run homebrew apps (and so ScummVM) on a non-modded PS2,
   -but- you will need to save a special file on the MC, in
   a way that you can only do that on an exploited PS2...
   As I said, it's a compromise (and needs quite some polishing
   too), but it's the closer I could get to an ideal scenario.

   Said that, I like challenges, so I am delighted to
   be working on PS2 ScummVM!

Let me go back to it now ;-)

Ciao,
 -max