LÖVE

Hello, I think löve looks like a really nice game-engine and wonder if you think it's possible to port it to the Pandora.

Pandora is a Linuxbased handheld gaming device + more (like wifi, qwerty-keyboard etc. like an UMPC). I would like to make games for Pandora and since I'm not very good at programming, but would like to learn more, I think it would be easier with a game-engine, and löve seem to be a good one.

Pandora has an arm processor and supports openGL es 2.0 and 1.1, SDL will not be a problem, but maybe the openGL parts in Löve would have to be ported to openGL ES.

The pre release development units is allready reserved and shipped, but maybe someone willing to port it could get a pandora from the first batch produced, if someone is intrested in that, ask at openpandorasales (at) gmail (dot) com.

I was wondering if I should post a thread like this around here or not...

...guess you beat me to it

I may take a look at trying to get it to run on the Pandora if I ever get around to it...gotta figure out what the main differences between GL and GL ES are first

amnesiasoft wrote: I may take a look at trying to get it to run on the Pandora if I ever get around to it...gotta figure out what the main differences between GL and GL ES are first

Nice!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenGL_ES:

In creating OpenGL ES 1.0, much functionality has been stripped from the original OpenGL API and a little bit added. Two of the more significant differences between OpenGL ES and OpenGL are the removal of the glBegin–glEnd calling semantics for primitive rendering (in favor of vertex arrays) and the introduction of fixed-point data types for vertex coordinates and attributes to better support the computational abilities of embedded processors, which often lack an FPU. Many other areas of functionality have been removed in version 1.0 to produce a lightweight interface: for example, quad and polygon primitive rendering, texgen, line and polygon stipple, polygon mode, antialiased polygon rendering (with alpha border fragments, not multisample), ARB_Image class pixel operation functionality, bitmaps, 3D texture, drawing to the frontbuffer, accumulation buffer, copy pixels, evaluators, selection, feedback, display lists, push and pop state attributes, two-sided lighting, and user defined clip planes.

So in other words, nothing that should be particularly important to Löve. Not to mention that's only ES 1.0, I'd certainly expect more features in ES 2.0, but again, I don't think it matters. Well, and the removal of some of those features is actually a pretty good thing...

If you continue to read:
"OpenGL ES 2.0, publicly released in March 2007[1], eliminates most of the fixed-function rendering pipeline in favor of a programmable one. Almost all rendering features of the transform and lighting pipelines, such as the specification of materials and light parameters formerly specified by the fixed-function API, are replaced by shaders written by the graphics programmer. As a result, OpenGL ES 2.0 is not backwards compatible with OpenGL ES 1.1."

So OpenGl ES 2.0 differs quite alot from 1.1 as I understand it. I don't know what that means in terms of how hard it would be to port to however. It would be better with a 2.0 port I believe as that will be the main 3D library for pandora, but IIRC 1.1 should also be supported.

I don't know which should be easier to use but I suspect that löve don't use much of the more advanced OpenGL features to make it really hard to port to ES.

Heh, I was thinking about this. The problem here for me is the lack of a Pandora and the lack of proper documentation about it. Last time I checked out I wasn't able to find much developer information (cross-compilers and stuff).

Does this help?
http://pandorawiki.org/Development_Tools

Well, that's as far as I got too, a bunch of links is not what I call proper documentation :lol:

Since - well, not sure anymore thou but - there was a talk about having a dedicated DirectX interface for windows version, it might make a sense to check out clutter project for non windows projects ? It would provide opengl and gles rendering thru single api with bunch of other goodies =)

http://www.clutter-project.org/