Nintendo DS port (Alpha 6)

dominik81 · **Posted:** Thu Dec 13, 2007 2:45 pm

More info about the Nintendo DS port, including a rough roadmap can be found in the OpenTTD Wiki.

The current version of OpenTTD DS is Alpha 6.

Changelog for Alpha 6:

based on r12452 (internal rev1926)
the NDS port now has a different toolbar, more suitable for the small screen
for better access with the touchscreen the toolbars have been moved to the bottom screen
a fully customizable on-screen keyboard has been added (click on a text field to open it)
a newsticker display on the lower screen has been added
some windows have been adapted for the NDS screen (more will follow in future releases):
- intro menu
- game creation menu
- minimap
- build vehicle window
when building depots and stations only one preview image is shown which you can rotate by clicking on it
information regarding accepted cargo when building a station is displayed as icons now
switching screens (left shoulder button L) now only switches the windows
many windows (e.g. confirmation dialogs) are now centered on the bottom screen
the amount of free ram (in kb) is displayed in the middle of the status bar. This is only a temporary change to help with tracking down a memory leak
additionally you can view some memory information by pressing the B button
always use new global pathfinder (NPF). the original TTD pathfinder crashes due to too many recursions
fixed loading screen glitch

Known bugs:

random crashes when the game runs out of memory
graphical glitches (mostly during scrolling) because the nds blitter needs to be rewritten
minimap glitches
trying to create maps bigger than 256x128 crashes
the screen resolution is too small making it impossible to click some windows

Please report any bugs that are not mentioned in this list.

Current screenshots:

A note to anyone looking at the source code: I didn't clean it up this time.

And lots of things regarding GUI are hacked into it until I have time to redo it properly.

belugas · **Posted:** Thu Dec 13, 2007 2:57 pm

Welcome back dominik81

It sure does look like a very interesting project.

Wolf01 · **Posted:** Thu Dec 13, 2007 6:08 pm

O M G O_O

you are the MAN
are you planning to return an active OTTD developer?

can you enable swapping or use the cards memory? i use the SuperCard Lite, which have, if i'm not wrong, 32MB of ram
about the interface, why not use the top screen?

Bilbo · **Posted:** Thu Dec 13, 2007 6:43 pm

Nice!
Well, now many controls are changed to be compatible even with low (= ~320x200) resolutions, so I am not sure whether is is good to make a complete fork-off.
Optimal way would be to put all the memory-hungry things to be sized according to some constant (like it is with MAX_SCREEN_WIDTH = 2048 now) and for some memory-limited devices you'll just produce version with these constants appropriately lowered. So perhaps put in few patches to similarly "constantize" these thing, so people attempting to port to another device, but similarly memory limited would have easier start.

Although some function (like screenshot) could be probably left out due to limited capabilities of the device.

Aydan · **Posted:** Thu Dec 13, 2007 7:04 pm

conditional compiling any one?
You have to compile it for the ARM processor anyway so you could "just" put everything you don't need or change for the DS into compile time conditionals. I know it's not that easy but you wouldn't need to fork off.

AntBUK · **Posted:** Thu Dec 13, 2007 8:38 pm

Dual screen implementation needed I think.

The bottom screen could hold all the interface (and a switch screens button obviously) which would free up some room on the top screen and give a better view of what was going off. Switch screens whenever we need to interact with the "world" using whatever tools we have selected at the time.

You thought about adding an option to use a RAM expansion like the one that comes with the Opera browser?

Rubidium · **Joined:** Thu Feb 09, 2006 7:15 pm **Posts:** 3705

First of all, getting this far is already a great job, but... I do not think that creating a fork will be benificial for either version of OpenTTD.

In my opinion there can be enough room in OpenTTD to make a compile time configuration option for low memory/small binary size. Also making the current windows useable at very low resolutions is something that I've been working on every now and then in OpenTTD myself to 'aid' people who want to port it to a small device, such as a Nintendo DS or a Windows Mobile or a Symbian. However, the primary reason for not doing the branch is that it becomes easier for other porters to use 'just' standard trunk with 'low memory' mode for their small devices instead of a (maybe) outdated version of the DS port. It will furthermore make keeping the DS port synced with main OpenTTD version much simpler as all kinds of API changes will be done for you by the people who are performing the changes. On the other hand it means that every once in a while someone has to compile a DS binary and test whether it still uses few enough memory.

Another thing that I have seen is that a lot of branches/forks get into big trouble syncing when they changes are scattered around and small.

Ploes · **Posted:** Tue Dec 18, 2007 6:59 pm

Zelda and Thrilvill both have points in the game where you need to switch the content's of the top and bottom screens since you catch touch the top screen.

<Enter the quick jobby I did in paint to explain this better than I can with words>

I'd love to see this port become playable.

Keep up the wonderful work.

Slye_Fox · **Posted:** Tue Dec 18, 2007 7:11 pm

the DS version of The Settlers (which is actuly The Settlers II: Venni Venci Vendi) uses the right sholder button to swtch between screens.

bobulator · **Posted:** Tue Dec 18, 2007 9:33 pm

Maybe, instead of using the standard icons it could be a good idea to use smaller icons (~20px) to save space on the screen.
Also, the menus could be re-laid in order to save space.

Bilbo · **Posted:** Tue Dec 18, 2007 10:04 pm

Standard icons are 22x22 px large, so smaller icons than 20x20 would be needed, perhaps something like 12x12 px ...

bobulator · **Posted:** Wed Dec 19, 2007 2:42 pm

I tried making a test icon (this one is the save-game button) in GIMP at 16x16 resolution.
Is this OK?

Slye_Fox · **Posted:** Wed Dec 19, 2007 2:56 pm

What about this one?

bobulator · **Posted:** Wed Dec 19, 2007 3:57 pm

Yeah, niiice.

Way better than my one!

I tried resizing the titlebar.
This one is at 16px

Slye_Fox · **Posted:** Wed Dec 19, 2007 4:00 pm

That's what i'm doing,
but after the resize, i'm redrawing them to remove the blur

Here's what i've got so far.

Attachment:

DSButtons.png [ 1.49 KiB | Viewed 55844 times ]

mrMann · **Posted:** Wed Dec 19, 2007 4:21 pm

I would seriously like this, however I have no access to a copyable ROM for it.

Slye_Fox · **Posted:** Wed Dec 19, 2007 6:14 pm

More buttons

Attachment:

DSButtons.png [ 3.4 KiB | Viewed 55754 times ]

All Finished

Attachment:

File comment: All Done

DSButtons.png [ 8.64 KiB | Viewed 55584 times ]

athanasios · **Joined:** Thu Jun 23, 2005 12:09 am **Posts:** 3138

Well, the guy's face is good for toyland!
:lol:

Gonozal_VIII · **Joined:** Mon Dec 03, 2007 3:06 pm **Posts:** 165

Fixed the poor guy's eyes...
edit: i thought some lines in the industry roof and in the zoom buttons were too blurry...

Slye_Fox · **Posted:** Thu Dec 20, 2007 1:53 am

That looks much better

<edit>
Yeah, the magnifying glases look better with out the glass efect from the bigger versions.

And the darker roof fits better too

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Nintendo DS port (Alpha 6)

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