nQuake Testers needed

[rwill]

Hi !

I am currently trying to update nQuake so that it runs on newer NSpire OSes like 4.4. I noticed that some people are still downloading it from ticalc.org but its a lost cause because the version there likely only works for 3.1 and 3.6.

So anyway I put up some beta quality build here:

Code: Select all

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Hf4wsX5kJKqLnmyFItP76s4VqDUXrd8c

And put up the code on github here in case you want to build yourself or just want take a look how I changed things:

Code: Select all

https://github.com/rwillenbacher/nquake

So it would be nice if someone can test this on his/her Nspire and report back with success/failure/bricked calc/house on fire and the OS and ndless version.

Thanks

[SlyVTT]

Hi rwill

just to confirm that the TI Planet version runs Ok right out of the box on CX II-T CAS with Ndless 5.2.0 (nspire firmware 5.2.0.771).

just got the usual warning for compatibility mode from Ndless at start.

Game runs just fine, just some visual glitches, no crash (at least during my game session).

Glitches mainly consist in white pixel appearing on the screen (not always at the same position but with a repetitive pattern (on the same line, horizontally spaced each other of ~75pixels). Nothing critical.

Hope it helps.

BR

Sly

[Adriweb]

In any case, it should be better to build it with the very latest toolchain/SDK (speaking of which, it got an update yesterday)
What I had noticed with the latest release was that the display ok but with 4 groups of white frozen pixels mid-height on 1st launch - further launches are ok - no freeze on exit if correctly installed - freeze on exit if data files can't be found.

I will try the beta version

[rwill]

I am always scared of switching GCC versions because the more recent they are the more likely that some code shenanigans in the source will cause undefined behavior.

Unlucky me installed the ndless-sdk two days ago prior to Vogtinators update to the toolchain, so I installed it again. Executable size went from ~650k to ~590k at no performance change, which is nice. Switching from gcc 10.1 to 11.2 seems to not break things from a first quick check.

I was not aware that tiplanet has its own patched version of nQuake. I also found a version by gameblabla which he linked below one of his youtube videos. Would be nice if there is central place to get a fixed release and not everyone rolling their own. The tiplanet and gameblabla version both use the 16bit lcd mode. Is there a reason for that ? How is 8bit palette mode support working with more recent nSpire HW models ?

[SlyVTT]

Hello rwill,

to my knowledge 8bits mode works well for CX but not for CX-II hardware.
there is a quite old post here (sorry in French) from gameblabla / youri : https://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=24452
Honestly I don't know if it has been fixed by Vogtinator and Cie in most recent Ndless update.

I would then propose to switch between 8bits/16bits mode depending on hardware configuration, using the is_cx2() boolean of Ndless.

definitely CX-II is powerfull enough to have 16bits rendering.

Ciao

Sly

[critor]

I think I remember the nQuake version we're hosting was patched by Vogtinator for the Ndless CX II release.

[rwill]

I see.

Forget my beta build from the first post, I am going to change things around a bit.

*Edit*

Ok I pushed some changes to the github and updated the beta build nquake.prg.tns in the google drive folder. For normal CX it is now using the lcd interface and 8bit palette mode and for CX II it is using 16bpp direct framebuffer access.

[rwill]

So regarding the updated nquake.prg.tns in the Drive folder, I am pretty certain that it works ok on all non CX II models. Can someone with a CX II please try if it runs ok and do the following:

-> Start nQuake
-> Start a new game ( ESC to bring up menu, then Single Player -> New Game )
-> Open the console ('?!>' key)
-> Type "timedemo demo1" in the console and then ENTER. Once playback starts close the console with the '?!>' key.

And report back the seconds and FPS number it prints in the console once it is done with the demo playback ?

Thanks

(Parsimoniously me wants to avoid to buy a CX II)

[rwill]

So, I updated it on ticalc.org anyway....

https://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fileinfo/460/46044.html

[Adriweb]

Woops we got sidetracked I guess. I'm sure we will make a news about it though!
Nice job !