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Yoshi-K
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New and eager to learn!

Post by Yoshi-K » February 19th, 2019, 3:12 pm

How yall doin? Im Yoshi, Im a low skilled programmer who makes visual novels. The PS1 as with many, is a very special console in my heart and the first console that really expanded my imagination.

My goals and why Im here is to basically bash my head against my keyboard until I figure out how to cobble together a visual novel for the PS1. I figure wanting to make a game thats nothing but text and 2D images should be something that doable given a year or two.

I have some experience when it comes to programming is a variant of python but absolutely no experience in C. As well to add I honestly have no real full idea how the actually hardware works or how the software works in conjunction. Needless to say I have a lot to learn.

Ive ordered a couple of books about learning how to program in C, have downloaded PSY-Q and begun looking through many of the PlayStation developer reference docs. Trying to sort of wrap my head around how developing for a system works. Having to think about things like memory limitation is something Im very not useful.

Once I set up vm Ill be tackling the Hello World tutorial and then looking through all the other source code examples here to further trying to understand C.

So I apologize in advance if I possibly ask some really STUPID questions, I just wanna learn if able. And hopefully I can learn a lot!
Anyone have any advice?

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gwald
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Post by gwald » February 19th, 2019, 10:40 pm

Welcome..
You should be fine with just libGS (Graphic System libraries) you wont need anything deeper.
LibGS has great 2D features and its pretty quick and easy to use.
Which is what the net yaroze uses and I think is a good learning starting point.
You'll probably struggle with the toolchain and the library more then the C language, but stick with it and you can do it!
I wrote a bit about my yaroze programming here.. if you like to read text lol

Good luck!

rama3
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Post by rama3 » February 20th, 2019, 1:43 am

Learning some C, eh? :)
You did the right thing and went with books. This is probably the best way still to cover the important details.
Since you already have some experience with another language, it should be trivial up to the pointers chapter.
You should do that chapter as if it was a graded course. Puzzle yourself on the correct syntax.

Also thoroughly do the data types chapter. It's important to choose the right data types for the job, since for one, the PSX has limited resources, and for another, C makes it easy to do bad (or useful!) things here.

Enjoy learning :)

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Yoshi-K
What is PSXDEV?
What is PSXDEV?
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Joined: Feb 18, 2019
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PlayStation Model: SCPH-7501
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Post by Yoshi-K » February 20th, 2019, 10:40 am

gwald wrote: February 19th, 2019, 10:40 pm -Message-
Sounds great! Im glad everything is so nicely packed together so I dont have to be grabbing files from all over. And thanks man Ill totally read through it all. I hope to get a Yaroze at one point in my life, just hopefully for a decent price haha, some of those ebay sellers are nuts. I also agree I think the hardest thing for me to grasp is gonna be the tool change, I gotta learn a lotta new lingo to start figuring it all out haha. Again I appreciate the reading material for sure Ill be going through it soon.
rama3 wrote: February 20th, 2019, 1:43 am -Message-
I wasnt sure what to honestly buy so I figured buying C for Dummies vol 1 and 2 would be able to provide some useful information. And focus hard on the pointers and data types chapter, got it!

Good to know! And yeah the limited resources is something I sort of am looking forward to figuring out since its never been an obstacle for me before in development. Thank ya for the advice.

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NITROYUASH
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Post by NITROYUASH » February 20th, 2019, 2:26 pm

Net Yaroze is very limited and expensive. Try to setup and install Psy-Q and compile some code. Then just run PS-EXE (.EXE) file with any working emulator. I prefer PCSXR, but you can use EPSXE or NO$PSX (god bless VRAM viewer!)

Good luck :>

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gwald
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Post by gwald » February 20th, 2019, 7:41 pm

yeah, not sure I would recommend the Net Yaroze route, I was recommending to stick to libGS.
Saying that Net Yaroze has the auto/siocons stuff which makes it pretty easy to send exe/data to a real playstation or build a single psx.exe (https://github.com/gwald/Yarexe), which is very fast to build.. I found building an iso not as fast and more complex.

Either way, I recommend getting/building this cable: http://www.psxdev.net/forum/viewtopic.p ... 1&start=40
At some poing you'll need to test on hardware, It can be used with siocons (yaroze) or psxserial.


There's also PSXSDK lib (http://www.psxdev.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=40) with GCC (http://www.psxdev.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=75&t=1641) AND debugger (http://www.psxdev.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=75&t=1657)

I'd recommend trying all of them.. each have their good/bad points, your project is pretty small and only 2D, I'd recommand PSXSDK (libGS like), I get the feeling LameGuy64's SDK isn't going to be libGS like ;)

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Yoshi-K
What is PSXDEV?
What is PSXDEV?
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Post by Yoshi-K » February 21st, 2019, 12:53 pm

Whoops, sorry I meant really as part of a collection mainly, not that Im waiting to develop in order to get one but I certainly thing it would be helpful in the future if I choose to dedicate myself and cash for it.

As for testing on hardware that is a super important thing to me Id say one of my most important criteria, Ive already got a couple of modded PS1 so I had already figured I was going to be making ISO's and burning to disk to test things out. But Ill for sure set the links in my research guideline!

And will do, Ill for sure look at all of em in time in case I ever want to make something down the road that might work better with a different SDK so itll be nice to know my options early

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TriMesh
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Post by TriMesh » February 27th, 2019, 3:02 pm

NITROYUASH wrote: February 20th, 2019, 2:26 pm Net Yaroze is very limited and expensive. Try to setup and install Psy-Q and compile some code. Then just run PS-EXE (.EXE) file with any working emulator. I prefer PCSXR, but you can use EPSXE or NO$PSX (god bless VRAM viewer!)

Good luck :>
I think the Yaroze is helpful for getting a quick start - as you say, the collectors have driven the original Yaroze up to absurd prices, but you don't need any of the original hardware to use the toolchain.

The original boot disc and access card can be replaced with the hacked boot disc burnt to a CD-R and booted on a modded console, and the serial cable can be constructed using a RS-232 to 3.3V converter and a link cable.

Using the Explorer / Caetla route gives you more control over the system, but it's also a bit more of a hassle to set up.

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