Mips port difficulties

[CARPEDIEM]

Hey dan, im stuck with PocketQuake. I thought i only had to modify the 2 funcions you said but there seems to be more work to be done.<br><br>The thing is that PocketQuake hangs right after "Starting quake".<br>I don't know where the problem might be, i just know that it doesn't get to load the .gz because if i remove it i get no warning about not finding it.<br><br>I don't know what happens, but when you start it at first you can hear your screen taps, and then a while after you can't.<br>Now, if i remove the bitblting line that draws the menu, i can always here the screentaps but it still seems to reamain inside an infinite loop.<br><br>Do you have any clue where the problem might be?<br>It still hangs even after removing the functions that im supposed to change. And debugging is crazy on such a big program, besides it's terribly slow.<br>

[Dan East]

Make sure you have at least 8 MB program RAM free. If that still doesn't work, keep increasing it up to at least 10 MB. Debugging is really the only option in a project like this. Ethernet debugging works extremely well (at least 5 times faster than USB), however USB is acceptable and usable.<br><br>Dan East<br>

[Dan East]

Also, if you are not debugging, then try using a release build instead of a debug build. What is the exact device you're trying this on?<br><br>Dan East

[CARPEDIEM]

Im trying it on a MIPS release build.<br><br>The Emulator debug build seems to work just fine, the only thing is that it tells me it can't find the wad file and quits. Something that the MIPS build doesn't tell me even when there's no pak0 on the device. It just crashes before loading the wad file i think.<br><br>Jacco said he'd help me out but im not sure how are we going to get past this point since we have no clue what the problem is.<br><br>by the way, is there another developer trying to port it to mips?<br><br>Dan, do you at all use GXBeginDraw() somewhere else other than in Vid_update() ?<br><br><br>

[Dan East]

I mean what type of device, Casio E-115, E-500, etc. <br>I think you're going to have to debug on the device. Besides the sluggish response you shouldn't have any problems debugging. Set a breakpoint in host.c at the start of the Host_Init function. From there all the various subsystems are initialized. If you don't even get to that point then it fails initializing the stack (6.5 MB is allocated via malloc). You could try inserting message boxes to track how far along you get in the code, but I still think debugging would be easier!<br>Yes, that's the only place GXBeginDraw is called. And yep, you're the only person I know of working on a MIPS build.<br>To get the emulator to work find the location of your Pocket PC SDK installation and copy the pak0.pak.gz into the emulator storage space in quake\ID1\. Here's what my path looks like:<br>D:\Windows CE Tools\wce300\MS Pocket PC\emulation\palm300\quake\ID1<br><br>Dan East

[CARPEDIEM]

Hey buddy, i've done what you told me. It gets to the begining of host_init(). But if i want to run it up to the end of host_init(). i set a breakpoint in:<br>Sys_Printf ("========Quake Initialized========= \n"); <br><br>i get this message from the debugger:<br><br>First chance exeption in pocketquake: (some address): Access Violation.<br><br>And then it takes me to some function called:<br><br>pack_t *COM_LoadPackFile (char *packfile)<br><br>I have 16 megabytes of program memory so... <br>Any ideas?

[Dan East]

Okay, now were getting somewhere! It should take you to the exact line that failed (sometimes it indicates the line after). Tell me what line that is. You can hover your mouse over the various variables and it will tell you their values. Let me know those too for that line.<br><br>Dan East

[Dan East]

BTW, hold off on modifying VID_Update. I've rewritten it to allow fullscreen landscape, so while I was at it I wrote it to work on all <br>devices supporting GAPI (except devices less than 8 bpp). If you can find the bug causing the MIPS version to crash then I think everything will be set.<br><br>Dan East

[CARPEDIEM]

Wow now we are talking!<br>i found the problematic function, it's called:<br>COM_Init (parms->basedir);<br><br>and it's found on Host_Init();<br><br>I don't have a clue of what it does, but i hope it has something to do with networking and stuff. Because i commented it out and now i get the famous "i can't find the wad file" messagebox.<br>Anyway... i don't yet know where to place the .gz on my pocket pc so as soon as i figure it out i'll let you know.<br>But Hey!, it's not crashing anymore!<br>

[CARPEDIEM]

Nope, looks like COM_init is a relevant function since I always get "Couln't load gfx.wad", and i have the .gz on my root directory on /quake/ID1<br><br>Looks like it's gonna take a little more work.<br>

[Dan East]

Download and decompress pak0.pak.gz.zip once so it is pak0.pak.gz (~8.3 MB). Copy that onto your device:<br>/quake/id/pak0.pak.gz<br>Make sure it is in the root, not in My Documents.<br>Filesystem initialization occurs in COM_Init (it has nothing to do with the networking), so it is critical for game play (it will never find the pak file unless that is called). It should indicate the exact line that fails, and we could go from there.<br><br>Dan East

[CARPEDIEM]

Ok, im tracking it down right now.<br>Anyway, if you have ICQ we can figure it out faster. Mi UIN is 3612259<br>

[CARPEDIEM]

Ok, the problem tree that i have built so far is this:<br><br>Host_Init();<br>COM_init();<br>COM_InitFilesystem ();<br><br>for (i=0; i<allSearchDirsCount; i++) <br>      if (COM_AddGameDirectory (va("%s/"GAMENAME, allSearchDirs[i]) )) break;<br><br>Looks like there's trouble finding the wad file.<br><br>Im gonna get something to eat and then get back to work.<br>

[Dan East]

I can't ICQ with the proxy I'm using here at home (AnalogX). When eVC shows you the access violation there will be a little yellow arrow on the left side of the line in which the violation occured. I need to know that line. Thanks.<br><br>Dan East<br>Last modification: Dan East - 02/22/01 at 15:56:59

[CARPEDIEM]

Well, i already told you where it points. It points to:<br>pack_t *COM_LoadPackFile (char *packfile) <br>{<br><br>Just points to that line. Not to any actual code or instruction.<br>