PocketQuake for iPaq 38xx Fixed!

[sramsby]

I'd just gotten finished fixing PocketSNES for my new iPaq 3835 and I figured the same GAPI fix might work for PocketQuake as well. By golly, it did! Just my way of saying "thank you" to Dan East and everybody who's put so much time into developing PocketQuake. Keep up the good work guys! Note, this build will work on the iPaq 38xx series ONLY. I haven't made it all nice and pda-autodetecting yet. I'll post the updated source and binary once I do, it shouldn't take long.<br><br>Get the file here: <br><br>Scott

[suchiaruzu]

Huzzah!!!<br>Now, if I only had a 38xx... ;-D<br>Seriously, great! Let me thank you in the name of PM!

[Matt Keys]

Qwik, great job and thanks for contributing. Perhaps Dan or someone else can also apply this to the wolf3d code upon its release.

[sramsby]

I posted a new version of PocketQuake for ARM on my web site [L]http://students.washington.edu/sramsby[/L] . This version will work on any ARM-based PocketPC, including the H38xx series. It is quite slower than on the 36xx right now, but I'm trying to see if I can improve that. Dan: please look and see if you can make it faster, pretty please! I'm working on the same problem in PocketSNES right now, I'll try and see if any discovery there can be applied here as well.<br><br>Oh, the modified source distribution is available from my web site as well.<br><br>Scott

[Dan East]

Hi Scott. Thanks for performing the needed modifications. I took a look at the source and can find nothing about the code that should cause it to run slower on the 38xx iPaqs than the earlier models. The runtime check you perform to determine if the device is a 38xx need be done only once at startup, storing the result in a global variable for future use. It is a relatively time consuming process, considering it involves string comparison. However, for ARM builds the screen buffer is not released every frame, so your code in VID_GetScreenBuf is really only called on startup or when PQ regains activation from another app.<br><br>I can only presume that the 38xx hardware is in some way slower than the earlier models. How are you aware that it is substantially slower on those devices? Do you have a PQ benchmark yet?<br><br>Thanks again for the modification. It will make it into the Pocket Wolf port, probably for tomorrow's 0.2 release.<br><br>Dan East

[sramsby]

I considered putting it into a global variable (like I did in PocketSNES) but since there are multiple source files where it needs to be checked I decided to just do the check where needed. Like you said it's only called once when started and once when ending so it shouldn't affect actual game performance. I'm getting about 8.3fps running "timedemo demo1" in PocketQuake on my 3835 with the default autoexec.cfg not overclocked. What kind of values are people ringing up on the 36xx's with the default settings?

[Doug]

I have heard of an issue with the 38** that does slow down the framerate of games... there is a fix out there (saw on another message board) where you have to write directly to the video chipset and not the api *or something like that* I'm not a programmer... link to the message board is below:<br>http://discussion.brighthand.com/showthread.php?threadid=35445<br><br>thanks for the great work guys!

[Dan East]

That is the modification Scott performed to the PQ source.<br><br>Dan East

[sramsby]

In PocketSNES I was able to optimize the video blitting a bit for the landscape mode because the cyPitch value for the new iPaq 38xx is 2. This way I can copy 32bit values (2 pixels) at a time at the same CPU cost as just 16bits (1 pixel). But I'm not sure how the blitting in PocketQuake works exactly, and it wouldn't really work that well to have it set up in landscape mode I don't think, although I could try it. Is the whole quake part of the screen blitted to the video buffer each frame or is the video buffer just constantly updated directly by the quake engine?<br><br>Oh, I haven't uploaded the new optimized PocketSNES in case you were wondering. Still have few things to tidy-up on it. It's good to be programming again. Learning new stuff is the best thing ever.<br><br>Scott

[Dan East]

I've done extensive profiling of Pocket Quake during my optimizations. Even with no blitting at all, the FPS is almost unchanged. That is because 99% of all the work occurs in the 3D rendering. Any optimization to the blitting would not result in a perceivable difference.<br><br>Dan East

[Moose or Chuck]

All optimizations are good optimizations, I say. Well, leave the less useful ones to last atleast... but still, perfection is good.

[EAS]

just curious if ye have a link update the one on page is eith down or wrong any help i just bought the 3835 and would love to install Quake!!<br>

[sramsby]

Get the binary and source at . It should be PocketQuake-XXXXX.zip. Then you need to get the pak0.pak.gz from the main PocketQuake web site . Make sure to follow the installation instructions on the PocketQuake web site. I'll be making my own REAL web page during Winter Break that will have more info.

[Paul]

thats

[Paul]

why the hell is the pq site so messed up? it redirects to a 'quake' folder which doesnt even exist... <br><br>i changed the index.html in the 'old' folder and it hasnt changed when i visit the site. which file do i change?!<br><br>i'm definitely going to do something this weekend.