Want to write games on Linux? I do! Here's how to hit the ground running.
This post is a (non-exhaustive) overview of the tools available on Linux, just to show that it is possible to use Linux at every step of the game development process. It's the first blog post of what will be a multi-part series on getting going with indie video game development on Linux.
Linux Gaming: The Golden Age
Once upon a time, the words "Linux" and "games" rarely went together. Linux came in dead last as a viable gaming platform. Of course, over the last few years this has completely changed.
The same story could be told for game development on Linux -- while there have always been a litany of free software graphics engines, the modern indie dev scene tends to shy away from this more "DIY" approach and go for the "batteries-included" game engines. Well, the good news is these, too, are making their Linux debut, and so us Linux nerds now have a glut of options available for making games.
All software I suggest here is free software, and almost all should be available in your repo (e.g. Ubuntu Software Center) for free. I'll go over all the options, and the reasoning for the choices I made.
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Top engine choices for Linux game dev
Non-free: Unreal Engine 4, Unity 3D
Free game engines: Godot, Atomic Game Engine, Torque1
Free 3D graphics engines: Ogre 3D, Irrlicht, libGDX, three.js2
Free 2D graphics engines: LÖVE, Cocos 2D, pixi.js2
1: Has non-free tools
2: For browser-based games
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There are already tons of articles comparing the two most popular game engines available, both of which have native linux versions, so I won't waste your time with that. Instead, I'll quickly go over the reasons I didn't go with either, but instead went with the Godot Engine.
Versus this proprietary competition, the most obvious advantage is licensing: Godot costs nothing, and I own 100% whatever I make with it, no legalese-thinking required. Similarly, no vendor lock-in. I don't want my game-making business dependent on a corporation that can legally pull the rug out from under me, either through new licensing restrictions, closing off their editor from my platform, or just making controversial decisions and cutting off support for old features that I depend on. I may seem too severe, but I for one have been burned too many times to go down that route again.
Licensing aside, I also simply prefer its approach to scene structure, terse scripting language, light-weight distributable (30MB for the entire thing!), extensible C++ source code (so I will never encounter a brick-wall that can't be broken), and, well, free software ethos: as community-driven software, it keeps the "indie" in "indie game dev"!
2D Graphics: Inkscape, GIMP, Krita
Linux has everything you need for 2D graphics for game development. These tools are useful for building everything from UI elements, painting assets in 2D games, or creating textures for 3D games.
Inkscape is my favorite vector editor. That basically means you deal with "lines and shapes" as opposed to pixels. If you are creating scalable, clean, sharp images based on shapes, this is the way to go.
GIMP is a raster image editor, great for manipulating photographs or tweaking textures. If you haven't used it in a while, you should: It's recently caught up with proper built-in layer folders, a PS-like single window interface, and improved text tool.
Krita is a popular and powerful tool for digital artwork.
3D Graphics: Blender
Under Linux, there is really one way to go for 3D graphics, and fortunately it's a great way: Blender. Although dauntingly complex, it's one of the most popular 3D creation suites available, and integrates excellently with engines like Godot. Personally, I'm a noob at 3D modeling ("UV mapping, y u no work"), but I do know that Blender is pretty dang powerful in the right hands, being used for everything from 3D-animated movies, to level editing. The canonical use of Blender is for creating and texturing 3D models to be imported into your game engine.
If for whatever reason Blender isn't your thing (and you're willing to fork over quadruple digits of cash, yikes), the old industry standard of Maya also has a native Linux version, as does Modo.
Sound effects: Audacity
Despite its out-dated interface, Audacity remains a solid option for recording and editing little sound effects. This has built-in OGG and WAV support, and so it plays very nicely with Godot.
Music: Ardour, LMMS, KXStudio
If you haven't looked into this in a while, you might be surprised at how far Linux audio has gotten. If you are intending to write your own music for your game, you can do quite well with Linux.
If you want to throw together some catchy video game tunes or retro sound-effects, LMMS has you covered, with dozens of built in instruments (including retro synthesizers) and pre-packaged samples. It has a shallow learning curve, so you'll definitely be able to create, well, "something" right away.
Ardour is a "pro-tier" DAW and sequencer. It has both built in MIDI and raster sound support, hosts VSTi and other instruments, and sports non-destructive NLE, basically everything you'd expect. If you want to record and mix a track, or delve a little deeper into music production, it's worth checking out.
It's worth mentioning that a few popular proprietary DAW's have native Linux support also, such as BitWig studio.
For Linux audio, I highly recommend getting this software (and a lot more goodies) via the KXStudio repos. These guys are awesome, they've put together a bigger and more recent selection of audio software than most standard repos. I also recommend that you consider the approach of having a dedicated partition just for music production. If you want to get set up with this, check out my other article: getting started with music production on Linux.
Everything else
Version Control: It cannot be stressed enough... use version control! This keeps you from losing work to mistakes, and makes collaboration much, much easier. While Git (esp. with LFS for game assets), might be the most popular, some prefer Mercurial.
Text editor: Sometimes you'll need to dig into source code or scene files without the use of the IDE. There are a crazy number of high-quality text-editors for Linux, so even pre-installed options (e.g., gedit) are vastly superior to Mac/Windows counter-parts. Personally, I use vim for all my coding and text editing. It has a very steep learning curve, so if you are interested, be prepared to sink a lot of time into it!
Video editor: For editing your trailer, OpenShot is a solid choice
Enter the penguin army
Perhaps for the first time, top-notch tools for authoring everything from game code to graphics to sound on Linux are here! Although I'm new to full-time game development, I have been working on game and audio projects (both on Linux and Windows) for 15+ years now, and today the offerings have never been better.
Do you write games on Linux, or are considering it? Do you prefer other tools? I'd love to hear in the comments!
SOURCE # http://michaelb.org
Related
1. PDAmill has released Wild Gears, a Micro Machines clone
Famous game developer company PDAmill has just released Wild Gears, a pretty decent top-down racing game certainly worth a try. The features include:
• Gorgeous Cartoon Art
• Four different cars
• Intuitive controls that make full use of Windows Mobile touch screen
• 15 awesome tracks to race on
• Rockin' Soundtrack with over 20 minutes of music
• Four different Cups to compete in!
• Records Menu keeps track of all your best track and lap times
• Auto-save
Your first question will surely be (if you’re into gaming, that is): How does it compare to K-Rally, the King of all top-down racing games on all mobile platforms, including Windows Mobile (see review HERE)? Well, it has both cons and pros.
Compared to K-Rally...
It’s worth pointing out that the PDAMill folks pay special attention to their titles’ flawless running on low-end Pocket PC’s plagued with the infamous touchscreen bug I’ve elaborated on, for example, HERE. I’ve thoroughly tested the game on my non-overclocked HTC Wizard and found it extremely well done and the graphics not stuttering at all even with the stylus resting on the screen. This certainly wasn’t the case with K-Rally. On the other hand, I’ve found the game slightly slower on my VGA Dell Axim x51v than on my (even low-end!) QVGA devices. In this regard, K-Rally might (still) be a better choice.
Pros:
- runs definitely better on low-end Pocket PC’s with touchscreen CPU usage issues
- the control scheme may turn out be better for many (see below)
Equal:
- in-game music (both games have very cool music; PDAMill’s musician is Jaybot, after all, which guarantees high-quality, non-repeating music. And we all know how nice the “scener”, “retro” music in K-Rally really is.)
- no multiplayer in either titles. iDreams still haven’t implemented this in their title (too bad) and PDAMill surely won’t. Let me cite Jaybot from PDAMill: “You know my opinion on multiplayer support on windows mobile devices already: nobody uses it It's a nice extra feature to have, but we've never been able to justify it since Snails.”
Cons:
- (no MS Smartphone version: bad news for touchscreen-less Smartphone users)
- slightly slower on some? all? VGA devices - in this regard, K-Rally is better optimized
- no weapons, which really restricts the strategies you can use. In the initial design documents, the PDAMill folks did have lots of different things planned, of course (including battle mode, stunt mode, etc). They, however, simply didn't have time to fit it all into this release. So definitely in an update, sequel, whatever. Let's hope for the best
- Landscape mode only – bad news for users with devices with landscape polarization issues like the Dell Axim x50v / x51v. In K-Rally, you could switch between the two modes (that is, you could just stay with Portrait if your eyes are sensitive to the polarization issues)
There isn’t much point in comparing it to Gangsta Race and Dreamway (old Micro Machines clones) - this title is FAR better, particularly music-wise (just like K-Rally).
Controls
The car (as opposed to most other racing games, where the D-pad can also be used) can ONLY be controlled via the touchscreen. There is a compass on the bottom of the screen, which lets you set both the speed and the direction of the car. That is, the touchscreen controls are WAY different from all the Pocket PC alternatives. In K-Rally, for example, the stylus’ distance from your car sets the speed of the car and the car always accelerates in the direction of it. This is entirely different in Wild Gears. If you’ve been a K-Rally player, the new control scheme takes a few minutes to get used to, but after awhile it grows on you and you may actually prefer it to the full screen controls (especially on tight turns, and... when intentionally ramming another car out of the way). In addition, the PDAMill folks want to get everyone used to the on-screen analog stick idea, as it's something they foresee being very, very useful in future titles (for example in a 3D platformer, along the lines of Mario64).
Of course, this approach has (other) major advantages too; most importantly, no cars will ever be hidden under the stylus (some people have complained about this with K-Rally).
Verdict
All in all, go give the trial version a go – it’s certainly worth a try. It’s available HERE.
2. Resco Table Soccer, which is a very nice game particularly on high-resolution VGA devices, is free (!!!) until 03/12. Get it HERE - it’s REALLY worth it!
3. DoomGLES, the only 3D hardware accelerated and, what is more, free (!!!) Doom port for Pocket PC, has been updated to support the GoForce 5500 hardware chip in some models like the O2 XDA Flame and the new i-mate Ultimate 6150 / 8150 (see review of the latter HERE).
So far, very few (only two: Call of Duty 2 and GeoRallyEX), otherwise, Intel 2700G-enabled 3D titles have had support for GoForce 5500 (see THIS compatibility list). Now, you, at last, have an excellent Doom clone as well. Hope Kokak also manages to make his recently-released HereticGLES. Also see THIS PG thread if interested. Finally, please don’t forget to donate some money to Kokak if you would like to see future development – I’ve just done so.
UPDATE (03/09/2008): I've forgotten to directly compare the graphics of Wild Gears and K-Rally. In this regard, K-Rally is way better with its excellent light and particle effects, pseudo-3D environment (for example, trees) and scrolling. (Thanks to my blog reader Natestera for pointing this out!)
Thanks for the info and links.
Hardware
There’s a really interesting article comparing the built-in camera of the four most widely discussed new Windows Mobile phones: HTC Touch Diamond, HTC Touch Pro, Samsung Omnia, Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1. There is also a dedicated PPCT thread HERE, with some of my comments.
Games
(game announcement heads-up source: PocketGamer.org)
1. Xassar's Quest is a new RPG from ClimbWalls. I’ve played it a bit. Unfortunately, the developers’ being a newcomer definitely shows: it’s quite bug-ridden. It’s really slow on my VGA HTC Universal while it offers no high-resolution VGA support. It isn’t faster on my HTC Wizard either. Also, it very often shows just a white screen to the gamer, which, fortunately, goes away after a screen tap. I could only make it faster by disabling both the sound engine and the “high graphics”. The latter, fortunately, only resulted in a much uglier “fog of war” effect and had no effect on the character / enemy / object sprites. After this, I wasn’t able to re-enable sounds / music to see whether it’s the sound engine that really slows the game down.
On the other hand, it has nice, stereo music; might be worth a try if you’re into top-view RPG’s. Otherwise, forget it and wait for a heavily bugfixed, optimized version – currently, it’s just too slow. There’re several other RPG’s for Windows Mobile offering much better playability. Or, if you have a (preferably high-res) Palm or a sufficiently powerful VGA Pocket PC, go for EDGE (on Pocket PC’s, with the Palm emulator StyleTao), the probably best RPG ever released for PDA platforms.
2. There’s a new adventure game, Igor, from a new Windows Mobile gaming publisher company, Summer Goth Studios. I’ve played the demo through (it took me about 10 minutes – yes, the demo is VERY short). I’ve requested a review copy; the developers promised it, along with a lot of enhancements, would be sent to me in about a week. I’ll keep you posted as soon as I manage to play it though. At a first glance, it seems to be better than some of the anti-adventure games like Lost in the Pyramid. As the demo was really short, making it impossible to get a real picture of the quality and abundance of the in-game sounds (the demo was pretty bad in this respect), music (if any – I haven’t encountered any) and whether the storyline is (any) good, I can’t say more about the title.
3. It was some three months ago that GameZoneProject has released Towers Trap for multiple smart phone platforms (both Windows Mobile platforms, Symbian and desktop Windows), a real-time strategy game. A new, 1.1 version with a sound bugfix has recently been released.
It’s looks a bit like PocketMoreGames’ Tower Defence and is highly recommended, the most recommended game of the bunch. Make sure you give it a try. Note that it makes use of the high resolution of VGA screens, which is pretty much welcome in games like this. Unfortunately, the tutorial message boxes don’t display the end of several messages; fortunately, you can still do some guesswork, which means you can easily absorb the tutorial. This isn’t a problem on QVGA devices, where, in addition, the game is MUCH faster than on VGA ones.
4. ConcreteSoft has come out with another camera-controlled (remember their 3D Lawn Darts?) game, PBA Bowling, for both Windows Mobile platforms and, in addition, the BlackBerry. As I am not a big fan of bowling titles, I don’t really want to review it. I’m not a big fan of camera-based control either. However, as some other people have had much more success with the 3D Lawn Darts’s camera control than me, I think with some patience you’ll learn how to control the swung / force.
5. Rowanvale Software's Danger Dan is a platformer game. It’s certainly worth checking out if you like light, entertaining puzzle / platformers - you most probably will like it. It also has a great tracked scene music.
Hacks, projects
Some people have been trying to make the add-on applications coming with the HTC Diamond work on other devices. So far, without success. The dedicated threads are as follows:
- the Diamond YouTube player. I, as the author of the YouTube Bible, am especially interested in this project. So far, very few people have managed to make it work. See THIS for more info.
- the new (v. 3.3.5) JBlend MIDlet Manager coming with the Diamond is stated to render Opera Mini with large fonts on VGA devices, which is a must on (W)VGA phones with a physically small screen. See THIS.
There is also a thread on hacking the RMVB decoder from the Samsung i780 HERE. I haven’t managed to make it run on my HP iPAQ 210; hope you have more luck.
The XDA-Devs ROM hackers have managed to release a decent WM 6.1 ROM for the HTC Oxygen (s310). I haven’t tested it before making absolutely sure the ROM upgrade won’t kill my call recording capabilities – currently, the main reason for my sticking with the s310 as my main phone. Feel free to provide any feedback on this issue.
My projects
I’ll attend a three-day lecture series of Osman Nuri Ucan (Istanbul Unversity) on "New approaches in turbo codes and their applications" in a week. I’ll report on it in my (hopefully) really soon-to-be-published Digital TV Bible, which will heavily discuss turbo and other kinds of coding. (Only for die-hard Electric Engineers - that is, not for the faint-hearted!)
I’ve also written a full Multiplatform Modem Bible for three smart phone operating systems. A preview version is available HERE. I plan to publish it as soon as I get feedback from the Joiku folks (and cleaning up the style / the English a bit). If you really want to check it out even in its half-baked state, feel free to do it / comment on the factual contents (but not the structure / English – they will still be fixed) - hopefully in 16-20 hours.
A quick update: Towers Trap is 6,47 € instead of 9,95 € (that is, about 10 US$) until 07/13/2008 at http://www.mobile2day.com/en/product_1018501_details.html
Well worth the price, I'd say.
1. (WinMo, desktop Windows): The creators of Shadow of Legend, a really promising multiplayer (!!) MMORPG I’ve several times reported on, have announced (see http://www.shadowoflegend.com/web/News.aspx?ID=452 ) the forthcoming, vastly enhanced 2.5D version of their game.
Unfortunately, there will be NO Windows Mobile-specific version of the new game, unlike with the previous, 2G (isometric) version. It will only be released later, if at all: the developers state they will only look into releasing the WinMo version when WinMo hardware manufacturers do come up with much more gaming-friendly (mostly importantly, 3D hardware accelerated) devices – that is, not in the foreseeable future.
2. (WinMo, BlackBerry, (Symbian?)): Concrete Software ( http://www.concretesoftware.com/ ) have announced the forthcoming native (non-emulated!) ports of the titles of the great Microprose classics, Civilization (IV?), Pirates! and Railroad Tycoon.
The ports will, at first, be released for BlackBerry. (Which may also mean they’ll also be made available for Symbian and other platforms with strong Java MIDlet support – after all, BlackBerry apps are also Java-based.) The BlackBerry games list (http://www.concretesoftware.com/blackberry/index.shtml ) on the homepage of the developer already shows these four titles; Civilization (here, referred to as Civ IV: War of Two Cities – that is, not the first episode) is slated for Sep. 2., while no release date is provided for the other two titles. The listing of other platforms doesn’t list the new titles as yet.
While, at least on Windows Mobile, you definitely can play these titles under emulators (for example, Civilization does run under n0p’s DOSBox – see The definitive guide to running (MS-)DOS (80x86) programs under Windows Mobile at http://pocketpcmag.com/cms/blogs/3/the_definitive_guide_to_running_ms_dos_8_12 for more info), doing the same with native (or, at least, Java MIDlet-based) games is much better: much less CPU usage (resulting in much better battery life), advanced (midi / Adlib / Sound blaster) audio, customizable keys etc.
3. Make sure you check out Eric Pankoke’s My World Of Handhelds http://www.myworldofhandhelds.com . Among other things, it has decent a review of Xassar's Quest ( http://myworldofhandhelds.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=128&Itemid=33 ) and Igor ( http://myworldofhandhelds.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=122&Itemid=1 ) – two titles I couldn’t fully test upon writing a quick news items on them. Of particular interest is Xassar's Quest, an RPG, which definitely is worth paying attention to.
4. (Windows Mobile devices with accelerometer): There is a real abundance of games utilizing the accelerometer of the HTC Diamond and the HTC Touch Pro. See the list of these games at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=411419 . The thread started post is worth checking out now and then for new projects.
Still speaking of 3D hardware acceleration, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=415873 has a decent C#/.NET Compact Framework wrapper for OpenGLES. If you’re a .NET CF games programmer looking into 3D acceleration, check it out.
5. (Symbian): Several new, high-quality titles have been released for Nokia’s Next-Gen N-Gage platform. Some of the better titles include the adventure Dirk Dagger (official website: http://www.dirkdagger.com/ ; AAN post & discussion: http://www.allaboutngage.com/news/item/7858_Dirk_Dagger_now_available_on_N.php ) and, most importantly, Reset Generation (see related AAN story at http://www.allaboutngage.com/news/item/7789_Reset_Generation_The_first_Meg.php and http://www.allaboutngage.com/news/item/7774_Reset_Generation_out_now_on_N-.php ), a truly multiplayer, really nice game well worth trying. Note that it has a free Web version you can test in your desktop browser; it’s available at http://www.allaboutngage.com/games/item/Project_White_Rock.php . Also note that you can even put the game on your own website as is explained at http://www.allaboutngage.com/news/item/7781_How_to_put_the_full_version_of.php
Still speaking of the N-Gage platform, the also-new Dogz has received pretty bad press; see http://www.allaboutngage.com/news/item/7914_AAN_reviews_Dogz_for_N-Gage.php
6. (Symbian, Palm, WinMo): Infinite Dreams, the developer of some killer titles like K-Rally and SkyForce (Reloaded), have a blog on their own at http://idreamsblog.blogspot.com/ (also see http://www.allaboutngage.com/news/item/7742_Infinite_Dreams_Blog.php ). There aren’t many entries there; still, fans of the developer may still want to check the page out.
7. (WinMo): A free (!) Metal Slug-remake, Psycho Team’s Symbian Killer (see http://psygame.org/publ/2-1-0-4 ; direct download: http://psygame.org/download/SymbianKiller.CAB ) is definitely worth checking out if you like Metal Slug, one of the bets 2D platform games ever written. (See my Guide to Emulating NeoGeo and CPS: A must if you’re into quality and FREE arcade games! at http://pocketpcmag.com/cms/blogs/3/the_guide_to_emulating_neogeo_and_cps_a for more info on emulating the original titles.)
8. (WinMo): another platformer: Firetop Adventure. Allen Gall's review is at http://pocketpcmag.com/cms/blog/5248/the-week-in-games-firetop-adventure
I have started an ad free site/service that lists well designed and honest Android games. Every game that is listed on this site is either completely free with no advertising, has a one time up front cost or one time IAP to unlock the full content ad free.
For each game posted on the site I have a brief bullet point list. This list consists of information like the up front price or the price of a one time IAP that unlocks the full game or removes ads on an already full game. Also listed is the info on if the game has multiplayer, if so what kind of multiplayer (online, local wifi, pass and play). There is also a description of whether the game supports Google Play Services or whether the game supports immersive mode from Android 4.4. Gamepad support and if the game plays in landscape, portrait or both is also included in the description along with whether the Play store or Amazon offer a demo. All of these things I verify myself by playing the game. I also include the permissions of each game so everyone has an upfront idea of what the game has access to. So after the brief bulletpoints and permissions there will also be the devs description of the game from Google Play/Amazon Appstore.
There is a certain criteria I hold of all of the games I post.
- Upfront priced games with full content.
- There will not be any games listed that have pay walls or wait times.
- IAPs will only be allowed if they unlock the full game with a single purchase or removes ads in an already full versioned game.
- No ports of games that were heavily controller designed (SNK ports, Sega ports, Rockstar Games ports and DotEmu ports).
- Ports of touch based games from DS and PS Vita will be allowed as well as ports such as World of Goo or Chu Chu Rocket that happen to lend themselves quite nicely to touchscreen play. There is also a new trend of games being designed at the same time for consoles/pc as Android (such as Leisure Suit Larry or Shadowrun Returns), games designed like these (with touch controls in mind at the start of developing) will be included on the site as well.
- Games must be designed for Android and look correct on all of it's screen resolutions. That means no letter-boxing or low res graphics. This way bad iPhone ports that don't fit on our screens or games that don't bother to support HD devices like tablets will be weeded out.
- Games must look good. Some games out there have great gameplay but their graphics sometimes look like they were designed on Linux in the nineties. Games that fit this description will most likely not be listed as I am trying to encourage well designed pleasing to the eye kind of games. Of course the new trend of retro pixel art games are perfectly fine.
- Developer ethics also come into play. While Square Enix do not have IAPs their crazy online DRM schemes and complete lack of support (Chrono Trigger sound familiar) makes their games more than likely to not be listed. Gameloft, Glu and EA fit in this category pretty well too.
For me personally I feel it has been difficult at best if not almost impossible to navigate the Play Store to find truly well made games that aren't designed from the ground up to nickel and dime you. With most Android gaming review sites lacking any good list of games and most Android blogs publishing mainly articles about the newest Glu games (looking at you Android Central and Android Police) I feel a site like the one I have created will hopefully provide a much needed service for the Android gamer.
Basically this site lists games that look great on phones and tablets alike while also playing great on touchscreens all while ignoring the nickel and diming slum of Android gaming. So if any of this sounds good to you please check it out.
http://honestandroidgames.com
p.s. The site is still growing and new functions will be added. I am also open to ideas so if you guys have any please let me know.
I'll maintain this thread so long as there's interest. In order for an emulator to be listed here, it needs to meet the following criteria
-must be able to open the app with the OFFICIAL Nexus Player gamepad (NPGP)
-must be able to exit the app with the official NPGP
-Must be able to configure all in-app options, to include gamepad button assignments, with the NPGP.
-Must be installable from the Nexus Player (waivable if installable from Play Store on PC)
-Must have a leanback launcher shortcut
Basically, if the emulator requires root, ADB, third party peripherals (for use or configuration), sideloading, etc., it won't be on this list.
NES:
NES.emu ($3.99)
Open the Play Store on your Nexus Player, and scroll up to search. Type or speak "Nintendo" or "emulator" and this will be one of the options that comes up. Alternatively, you can purchased and push install from the web-based Play Store. Open installation and first run, you should go to the settings and configure the gamepad for in-game actions (specifically, to exit the app).
SNES:
Snes9x EX+ (FREE)
Same as above (same developer and menu system).
I'd advise using the SNES emu first (as it's free) to learn how his menu/control setup works, then move on to his other paid emulators. You can see his other emulators at this page here - https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Robert Broglia&hl=en
Alternatively, you can open the Play Store on the Nexus Player, scroll up to search, and type/speak "emulator." Pretty much all of those are his. As I purchase his other emulators I'll add them to the above list when confirmed. If others wants to try them and report back, I'll also update the list based on that. If you find other emulators that meet the above criteria, please share.
Won't they get removed from the store soon? Emulators are banned quickly on Google Play, aren't they?
Magnesus said:
Won't they get removed from the store soon? Emulators are banned quickly on Google Play, aren't they?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most emulators on Google Play have been there for years. Nesoid and the other emulators made by that developer were removed for a specific violation. Here's a good article on the subject.
http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/0...nded-are-emulators-soon-to-be-banned-content/
Also, I'm going to go out on limb here. It's normally bad form to distribute links of ROM distribution website (and I won't post it here unless a moderator explicitly tells me that it's ok). However, there's one website that is actually legal (and as such, don't expect to find the best games here). Basically, the ESA has set up a way of protecting the rights of gaming companies and their work, while also offering some ROMs to gamers. Read more on the ESA here:
http://www.theesa.com/ (NOTE: Not a ROM distribution site)
Due to this, one website is completely ESA compliant and has, at the request of Nintendo (and other parties) intentionally set up dead links that will usually be at or near the top of Google results. If you search for a specific ROM on a Nintendo platform, and you click on the link for this specific website, all you get is a link that says "This page has been removed due to copyrights." What few ROMs are available on this website are legally freely distributed. Have at it.
The only problem I have with console emulators has always been the controller lag. This has been true even on my gaming PCs. Playing Super Mario 3 for example, on my SNES (bought one just for this game - lol) it's smooth and does what I expect it to. On my PCs, ADT-1, etc., there's always a minor lag that's just enough to throw timing off.
Mame for the most part on the PC has worked very well for fighting games. Chankast with MvsC2 was damn smooth for me. I'd love to see Android get to this level of emulation.
Mi|enko said:
The only problem I have with console emulators has always been the controller lag. This has been true even on my gaming PCs. Playing Super Mario 3 for example, on my SNES (bought one just for this game - lol) it's smooth and does what I expect it to. On my PCs, ADT-1, etc., there's always a minor lag that's just enough to throw timing off.
Mame for the most part on the PC has worked very well for fighting games. Chankast with MvsC2 was damn smooth for me. I'd love to see Android get to this level of emulation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are two types of lag that you'll have to deal with here: system timing and input lag.
System timing - Each emulator developer takes their own approach to this. For the SNES, for example, SNES9X and ZSNES took two different approaches. ZSNES made the system timing more consistent, while SNES9X attempts to emulate the system timing of the SNES to a fault. As a result, playing a game on SNES9X will more closely mirror the actual SNES than ZSNES will. Basically, if you're playing a game that requires timing, you'll have to completely relearn your timing on ZSNES, whereas SNES9X will require less (if any) adjustment.
As for Sega 8/16-bit systems and the 32X, you should ONLY be using Kega Fusion on the desktop. This emulator is made by the same guy who has been hired by Sega numerous times to help them port their "Ages" collections to various platforms. He has inside knowledge of the hardware which is why his emulation is so spot on. There should be no noticeable difference in timing between an actual SMS/Genesis/SegaCD/32X and Kega Fusion. Unfortunately, the emulators available for Android aren't based on Fusion.
Input lag - All monitors/HDTVs have a degree of input lag. If you're gaming at 60fps, you want input lag to be <16.67ms, or 1 frame. This ensure that your button response is never more than 1 frame off. NOTE: This has NOTHING to do with pixel response time advertised by LCD manufacturers. Do NOT confuse these two specs. Here's a database of PC monitors and their associated input lag - http://www.displaylag.com/display-database/
HDTVs have an inherently high input lag due to all of the processing that they attempt to do. If you're going to game on these HDTVs, you want to disable as much as possible by using any built-in game mode that the HDTV has. For example, I use a Samsung L46A650. I bought this HDTV in 2008 because, at the time, it had the best input lag control. To date, no HDTV has bested it, so I'm keeping it until it dies. If I use HDMI input 2, set the source to 1080p (possible with Xbox 360, not with PS3), and set it at PC mode, it acts as a PC monitor. Input lag is <16.67 ms in this mode. For other inputs, enabling game mode has an input lag of 16.67ms to 33.33ms (1-2 frames). VGA (Dreamcast) is <16.67ms. If you dare use standard or movie mode, input lag is 3-4 frames. And if you have component hookups (like my PS2) and forget to enable game mode, it's a horrid 4-6 frames worth of delay. Here's an AVS thread on it - http://www.avsforum.com/forum/166-l...-results-your-lcd-display-here-reference.html
Bottom line is that you can greatly reduce the timing issues that you're having by ensuring that you're using the optimal emulator, and properly configuring your display.
^Thanks for all the detail man! I'm using a Samsung TV as well and had been using game mode for my ADT-1 input. Switching it from Game to PC, I saw a significant improvement in the input lag; however, I do see occasional screen hiccups (just a quick flash while navigating). The SNES games (Mario 3 in this case, for comparative purposes) plays almost flawless and as smooth as my SNES. Not perfect, but a helluva lot better than in game mode. It's comparable to my PC at this point, from the quick 10 minutes of testing I did.
Mi|enko said:
^Thanks for all the detail man! I'm using a Samsung TV as well and had been using game mode for my ADT-1 input. Switching it from Game to PC, I saw a significant improvement in the input lag; however, I do see occasional screen hiccups (just a quick flash while navigating). The SNES games (Mario 3 in this case, for comparative purposes) plays almost flawless and as smooth as my SNES. Not perfect, but a helluva lot better than in game mode. It's comparable to my PC at this point, from the quick 10 minutes of testing I did.
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I'm glad that you found it useful. I want to clarify something from my prior post that I was misleading on.
There are essentially 3 classes of "modern" emulators for the SNES, and there are many that fall in around or between these classes. For this example, I'm going to refer to Higan (formerly BSNES), SNES9X, and ZSNES.
Emulation is tricky. The more accurate you attempt to be, the higher the system specs that you need. Due to this, Higan stands alone as the most accurate emulator. It won't do any graphics filters. It won't speed up games. If a game had a scene with horrendous slowdown on a physical SNES, it will have the same horrendous slowdown on this emulator in the same spot. If you want to perfectly emulate an SNES, don't care about modernizing the graphics, and have the specs to run it (quad-core 3ghz+ Intel Core series CPU), then go for Higan. Note: There's no equivalent for Android, nor could there be at this point.
At the opposite end of the spectrum is ZNES (and there are far worse emulators, but I'm picking on them). Like all emulators not named Higan, this program takes shortcuts to mimic functionality. More shortcuts means better speed and lower system requirements, but also more compatibility issues. Try playing Earthworm Jim 2 and you won't hear most of the sound effects.
SNES9X is a compromise. It is far more accurate than ZSNES and therefore has higher system requirements. It takes more of a 95/5 approach. It won't have the accuracy as Higan, but it also won't have the slowdown found in Starefox to the degree that a real SNES or Higan would. It also allows you to enhance the graphics with filters and such. It's also ported to damn near every platform (including the Android TV app mentioned in the OP). It won't be exactly like playing on an actual SNES, but it will be closer than most emulators while offering enhancements, and consistency across multiple platforms.
I have installed these emulators and these are superb.