Hi from the UK, just wanted to say hello and thank you

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Xeauron
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Posts: 5
Joined: May 30, 2021
I am a: PSX Dev / Learner
PlayStation Model: SCPH 5502
Location: Manchester, UK

Hi from the UK, just wanted to say hello and thank you

Post by Xeauron » May 30th, 2021, 11:19 pm

Hi all,
Just wanted to poke my head above the parapet and say hello to all. Been lurking on this website for a while and have been using the resources on here to learn about PSX development.

I’m from Manchester in the UK.

I did originally come on here looking for a DTL-H2000 but saw a post where Shadow (quite rightly) stated “we don’t sell those to just anyone”. No idea if there are even any left, but regardless I’m enjoying learning and during lockdown I threw a load of money at getting some equipment.

I currently own:
Net Yaroze system (complete but without box) – PAL version with Code Warrior v2
Sony CRT TV (KV-21M3A – or very similar)

I know you can make a Yaroze out of a standard PlayStation and that’s pretty much my current DEV system now as I’m preserving the original hardware as it’s working 100%.

Other equipment I own:
• PSX SCPH 1002 PAL - working laser
• PSX SCPH 5502 PAL - working laser, currently removed – This is my current DEV system, using the Yaroze cable
• PSX SCPH 9002 x2 – Both with dead lasers / for spares or experiments
• PSIO – Used to stream the cracked Yaroze ISO to dev system via PC USB
• Xplorer cartridge with Caetla (inc 2 way parallel cable)
• Action Replay – with Unirom

I have a stick of RAM at the ready for an 8MB ram upgrade to the SCPH 5502 system but haven't got around to installing yet.

PCs:
AMD R9 5950x – 64GB RAM – RTX 3090
Pentium 4 3Ghz HT – 2GB RAM – GeForce 6800XT (mine from back in the day)
Pentium 166 – 32Mb RAM - Voodoo3 (again, mine from back in the day)

I was originally using the older computers for Dev, however I’ve moved onto the more powerful machine with VMs where needed.

Currently using VS Code paired with DOSBox to build and upload – works like a charm.
Using multiple Virtualbox VMs for any other tools where needed.
I’ll probably import and build with Code Warrior once I’m looking to optimise what I’ve built, need to weigh my options.

Goals:
Long story short I’m looking to make a twin stick shooter set in the future. Think Loaded meets chaos engine but in maybe a Bladerunner esque setting – not 100% decided yet.

I’m going to work it so that the art and sound style is that of the nineties as I’m quite font of big beat style music as seen in series like Wipeout.

Where I'm up to and tools used:
I’m currently working on a proof of concept using the Net Yaroze SDK and so far, it’s been going well.

I've been studying C programming and I’ve successfully got some code up and running now for:
• Sprites
• Music (MIDI with samples)
• SFX
• Custom font routine

Adobe Photoshop used for sprite creation - TIMutil to import to PSX
Adobe Audition / Audacity for SFX + VAB tool to import to PSX
Reason 11 Suite - Export MIDI and samples seperately + MidiEditor (freeware) then VAB tool to import to PSX

The aim is to use modern tools where possible, maybe create a compatibility layer where they currently don't work, mainly with the 3D aspect.

Next up is 3D which I’m finding is a bit of a frustration as either the tools are massively out of date and have none of the creature comforts of modern 3D tools, or the modern 3D tools no longer speak the same language as PSX (why would they!).

Actually, my biggest struggle to date is with a lack of debugger. I am making use of GDB, however it’s painful to use! I was holding out for PSIO debugger, however being a small team, they still have yet to make a dent in what must be a substantial part of the PSIO project, but the ISO stream and remote reset functions have been a god send.

Final thoughts:
I’ll be looking to make available what I’ve done and the methods I’ve used to get there. Maybe via video if not forum posts at least so others can see / hopefully learn something which will detail the toolchain I used ect.

I hadn’t planned on making a post but I think my account was recently culled (I’m not surprised ha) I imagine due to inactivity – so this is just to say hello, I am human :-) and thanks for everything you have provided as it’s helped immensely!!

I’m sure you’ve heard “Hey, I’m making x game” a million times before hence why I never bothered making this post, but I figure what the hell. It’s nice to meet you all and look forward to posting in future with hopefully some decent progress.

3D is currently the biggest speed bump in development but I’m making progress, just slowly at the moment as it’s not only a complicated subject but I’m targeting old unsupported hardware to boot!

A million questions I still need to find the answer to, but this would have been infinately more difficult if it weren't for this resource and contributers therein.

Thanks:
So to all I say hello and thank you!
If there's interest I can post up the Yaroze executable, but there's no much going on at the moment - just a menu screen with sprite backgrounds with custom font overlay and a generic music track as I'm getting the various aspects working before I start building in anger with a vision.

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Xeauron
Interested PSXDEV User
Interested PSXDEV User
Posts: 5
Joined: May 30, 2021
I am a: PSX Dev / Learner
PlayStation Model: SCPH 5502
Location: Manchester, UK

Post by Xeauron » June 30th, 2021, 2:25 am

Thanks both :)

danhans42
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Post by danhans42 » July 1st, 2021, 12:02 am

Hi and welcome :)

Fellow UK'er here - t'other side of the Pennines though.

Also worth noting.. if you are finding using the Yaroze setup/boot CD a bit slow - you can kinda work around it using UniROM.

You can UPX LIBPS.EXE down to ~90kb. With unirom you can run LIBPS and let it exit, and then send over your images/sound assets followed by the ecoff converted to an EXE and you are off.

Great post and look forward to seeing your progress. Dont forget, no such thing as a silly question.

Also, might be worth checking out the discord :)

User avatar
Xeauron
Interested PSXDEV User
Interested PSXDEV User
Posts: 5
Joined: May 30, 2021
I am a: PSX Dev / Learner
PlayStation Model: SCPH 5502
Location: Manchester, UK

Post by Xeauron » July 1st, 2021, 8:21 am

Hi mate, haha I almost got in touch with you about a cable at one point before I picked up the Yaroze - I figured I always wanted one and they're gorgeous machines, mines in pretty good nick as well.

And yeah, those pennines protect us from a lot of the bad weather haha!
Cheers for the pointers - much appreciated :)

I'm currently trying to wrap my head around how the hell I get a textured 3d model on the damn thing. As with every other subject on this system the documentation has holes in it which I imagine you were supposed to suppliment with Yaroze Website assistance. There are 3D modeling topics on that site that didn't survive the shutdown unfortunately as far as I can tell.

The only 3D program I've been able to get a DXF out of successfully is Lightwave Modeler 2020.0.3 - and that software costs a whopping £719.24 ($995) as of typing - so I'm investigating alternatives currently. Having said that the model I exported doesn't even have the texture associated with it either for some reason...
EDIT: Found DXF capabilities in Lightwave 7.0 - the sony plugins also work with this version, so that's good. /EDIT

Currently reading up on how to initialise the 3D viewpoint and light sources and how to feed the model into the libraries so it displays on the console.

So yeah, I've got hills to climb but I'll get there, and will definitely be asking questions when I've exhausted every other avenue. Just trying not to take up people's time if the information is already available. There's areas of the documentation I haven't covered properly yet so I've got enough info to keep me going for now but will definitely post up once I've got something running.

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