OpenGL without X Windows

[jide]

i don't think the embedded linux is the solution.
i don't think too, that not using the swap is a good solution. however, you could remake your linux kernel to manage r/w on the drive at the fly, instead of using the swap before. But you'll be confronted to a fragmentation of your partitions.

you could put 32Mo of swap
and 224 for your /

try to avoid installing the whole packages, try to limit. XWindow is one of the best solutions as far it's small (don't attempt to use KDE or Gnome or enlightenment). it's fast, too.
i think it's possible.

by the way, if you've 256Mo of ram, you could (it's a dangerous way if you don't know really) use the /dev/ram file as another partition. you will loose all whenever you reboot your system, but it can be a solution if your system need more disk space for compilation...

good luck

[bozzao]

The application I am making is sort of game for, I don´t know the name in english but is that places where there are a lot of machines with games and pinballs. My game is sort of a Mortal Kombat and I wanna put it in a place like that. The sollution I made was using linux as the OS and openGL. Do you guys know that kind of machine is that they use for those games? Is it a regular pc?

Thanks

[satan]

if you mean arcade machines then it's not a regular pc (or better i never heard of any)
mostly it's special hardware and a special os, too
i think you can compare them more to a game console than to an regular pc since they are optimized for their special usage (esp. graphics which are normally far beyond anything a pc can do and depending on the game special input devices, etc)

and if your game is a mortal combat clone you should better use all the nice little features of a geforce4 ti (or comparable) to have a chance against the highly optimized beasts standing next to your linux arcade

(btw i would be really interested in screenshots)


[This message has been edited by satan (edited 05-27-2002).]

[amendol]

actually, an embedded linux distro is just what you are looking for!

An arcade system is really an embedded system. And if you are going to make more than one, and keep the cost down. Than the only solution is to spend a little time getting an embedded distro (or roll your own) to work with the libs that you need.

[jide]

you don't need an embedded system for your arcade until you don't want to use an existed 'console arcade' and as far you don't want to make a real arcade for now.

I don't really know what's inside them, but it looks like big console, certainly some are more powerful than XBox.

if you use regular PC components, i think you'll avoid some incompatibilities. An arcade box is big enough to stand all these componants: a 17" monitor, a tower with motherboard... the only problem would certainly be the 'moneyer'.

In this case, you could use 2 hard drives (i know you only got one): it will permit to store your OS on one and the game on the other.

I think it's the most efficient solution for you.

I hope it will help. don't avoid to reply if you're not right with me !

[bozzao]

Using a real pc doesn´t mean a big solution (in size :0) there are some motherboards for aaeon (www.aaeon.com) and they are realy small. They have a network board, pci, usb, everthing actualy. In some models (like the one I am using) you cam use a flash memory card instead of a regular HD (the acces is much faster and you will not have any problens of damaging it). And the coust is not that expensive (of couse a proprietary system that is made in great quantitie is much cheaper but that is just for big companys :0).

About my hd size I have a 256 now, but if I cant put everthing on it a can put a 512, no problem.

I think that using a embedded linux could help me using less memory, and maybe less processor. Again I will use OpenGL. So I need a compatible solution. Does embedded systens compatible with OpenGL and X windows? Because if it is I see no reason for not using it.

Another problem I faced is the filesystem. I was using Ext2 but the arcade machines are usualy shutdown just turnning everthing out, wich could cause me problem if any files in the system got corrupted. So, now I am using ReiserFS. It seams to be much trustable and harder to corrupt.

Well, I know this is not about openGL but I think it is very interresting for all of us :0)

[amendol]

X windows will work with an embedded distro. The only difference with the embedded distro from the standard ones, is the focus on making things small + boot quick + maybe some realtime issues.

There are a several journaling filesystems out there now that can withstand a powerdown. I'm using sgi's xfs. It's nice. There are others though: ext3, jfs(IBM), reiser(SP?).

maybe more.

[bozzao]

Thanks, I will look at those.

I realy think that a embedded distro is a good solution. I can´t see any bad points at it. Does anyone can?

[jide]

no bad point, but just a remark:

you're not obliged to unmount a ext2 partition i order to have everything correctly saved. There is an option when you recompile your kernel. it's above the last pages when you use make xconfig.

[jide]

... and you could jump to the opengl for embeded systems forum, just here. maybe you'll have anwers.