----- Original Message ----- From: Pipeline
Sorry, I couldn't resist porting enigma to maemo, and although
have little linux experience (actually only prior unix experience),
i was able to get it running on my device (and subsequently
packaging for other maemo users) thanks to clean codebase.
Trickiest (for me) was compiling xerces. To give due credit,
I have always linked to the enigma project page, my sources
have been made available for download since they became
viable/playable installs, and i distribute appropriate
gnu license notices. I had thought about posting news of
port to the forum but those posts seemed mostly about game
content itself (and i wasnt familiar with devlists).
Let me know if theres anything you would want me to do
now to be more compliant.
Well, there is no problem with porting it, and from the above you have
definately done everything legally required. However, it is nice to
notify us, so we can add a link from the Enigma homepage, or even merge
the port back into the main repository. Now, there would have been
nothing wrong with posting this to the forum, as one or more of the
developers would have seen it, and it may have been of general interest
to the users, making it appropriate forum content. The ideal place to
post would have been this list, but as you were not aware of it, It
would have been hard for you to post here.
The maemo.org software directory previously linked suffers
from availablity issues due to poor caching, so the page
might have failed to load at that instant but it is
actually there at http://maemo.org/downloads/product/OS2008/enigma/.
It merely redirects to a download page i made at :
http://wardenclyffetower.com/MaemoFiles/enigma/enigma.htm.
The screenshot is windowed merely for ease in making the screenshot
itself...
the status is visible in fullscreen which is how i use and recommend
playing it.
The port was was well worth it, and my reward is being able to
(personally) run it on my tablet device
(anywhere/anytime/solidstate/with arm cpu efficiency
'read 1 watt enigma').
Indeed.
Maemo platform is growing exponentially so when i first
released very few people probably even noticed.
But maemo userbase is growing in popularity and more
persons are becoming familiar with enigma through this
port (estimate proabably 500 maemo users will play enigma
on this device generation). As such i will stand up and
say thanks for all the fish! Although i am learning more
and more and this is first development list i've ever joined,
i am primarily a c# developer and have only been coding
linux (entirely for tablet) for about... 3 months.
So Till, if your interested you are more than welcome to
take over the port if I begin to slow you down as I'm
sure you probably have more experience integrating
into upstream projects.
Well, with that userbase it does indeed sound like we will
want to merge in the port, so that it remains up to date.
Do you have any sort of CVS or SVN repository containing the latest
development? (As a C# programmer, i would not be surprised if you
did not, as version control systems are less common on Windows
than they should be)
Enigma works fairly well on maemo devices
(Nokia N800, N810 Internet Tablets) however those
devices have 400MHZ arm cpu which sometimes get
bogged down in high animation environments.
I'd estimate 80% of the levels play well on maemo
devices so due to hardware/speed limitations its not a 100% port.
My modificiations primarily consist of eliminating some world
collision animations, elimination of mouse movements over...
say 40units to avoid jumpiness from touchpad stylus lift/reset...
basically disabling functionality... things i did not expect
would be particularly useful to contribute back. I did try
an 800x480 resolution mode (native) using the (32x32?) tileset
which 640x480 uses, however that is the extent of my pursuit
of widescreen since I realize levels were designed for this
aspect ratio and most depend on it. Main advantage of
widescreen (currently) is in extending they surface
area of screen in which stylus input is accepted.
Hmm.. Many of those changes do indeed sound specific to the port,
which indicate they will need to be conditionally compiled,
so indeed, except as part of merging the port into the codebase,
they do sound like things not useful to contribute back.
I also am interested in seeing how well enigma runs
with such a tilt mechanism as Till is working on...
there are actually slowdowns which occur when using
the touchscreen that i believe to be driver issue
with touchscreen and/or touchscreen behavior in general.
These manifest in minor freezing of display updates
(hitches) occasionally however most of the time its
rather smooth. This might also be that the touchscreen
might be re-registering MOUSE1 sdl inputs throughout
the stylus drag (which i believe i ignore) but still
fills the input queue. I think any input device
especially a tilt mechanism would bypass that
slowdown and make even more levels playable without
slowdowns. I would think a (addon?) 'Tilt' pack
with the best tilt-friendly levels would be in
order for something like that.
The levels already contain a feild indicating the prefered control style.
One of the options is equivlent to tilt control. While the current version
does not have an interface for filtering levels based on that feild,
it is definately a possibility for a future version.
So thanks again Enigma Devs (especially Ronald Lamprecht)
for the game... truly - First Class -
Don't forget Daniel Heck (The original author, although no longer the
primary developer).
And sorry for not finding a way of notifying you about
port in case you were interested. That might have been
useful if not nothing other than having context to Till's
tilt mechanism inquiries. I'm glad to bring enigma to one
more platform, although i expect future hardware revisions
would require little more than ./configure make install
dpkg due to speed increases.
Indeed, altough the mouse movement patch would probably still apply
in new revisions. I suspect it may even apply genererally, as
other computers have similar interfaces (touch screens for example).
Amazing to see versatility of linux wherein a single (worldwide)
managed codebase could support such a broad range of devices.
Indeed. This is probably one of the best features of the GNU/Linux system.
Portability has always been a major concern in the development,
resulting in tools
like the autoconf/automake tools, and generally highly portable code.