March 04: If your interested in more details of running
PS2 Linux, John Littler has written an article for O'Reilly on the
subject ... Here
As well as that, Sarah Ewen has written a coding guide.
Sony's
PlayStation 2 will run Linux for fun or for learning.
Here we talk to
Sony's Sarah Ewen about the setup and what you
can do with
it.
playstation2-linux.com
www.linuxplay.com
Mstation:
When I first heard of Linux for PlayStation 2 I thought it was just a
clever hack but it looks like
you've made it into something a bit more
usable than that. Who are
your target users?
Sarah:
Yes, the Linux kit specifically
includes hardware that Sony always intended
to create as an expansion
for the PlayStation 2, so that the Linux
distribution we can offer is
pretty much fully functional and complete.
The target users fall
into two groups. The first group are Linux
enthusiasts, who played a
large part in encouraging Sony to produce the kit
(they began a
petition in Japan), who find it fun and interesting to run
Linux on
their PlayStation 2.
The second group of users are those interested
in learning to develop for
the PlayStation 2; there is a lot to learn
about the hardware in order to
do this, and all of this information
is provided with the kit. Disc 1 of
the DVD set includes pdf versions
of the hardware manuals which we give to
professional PlayStation 2
developers - literally hundreds of pages of
information about the
Emotion Engine, Vector Units and Graphics
Synthesiser. Consequently
the kit provides a great chance for individuals
to get their foot in
the door of the games industry, where familiarity with
the
PlayStation 2 is a great asset, but also provides a very affordable
way
for developers of all interests to experiment with a totally
different
architecture from that of the PC.
So we have both
Linux enthusiasts and graphics programmers / PS2 developers
in our
community.
The
kit includes a hard disk, a network adaptor, VGA monitor cable,
keyboard and mouse, and a disk and manual set. How do you get dialup
internet with that setup?
Out of
the box, you don't - however there are pretty affordable USB
modems
available on the market that are supported by Linux. Otherwise
internet
access is available either by via LAN, or through an
ethernet cable or ADSL
modem. The network adaptor which SCEA (SCE
America) released included a
modem as well as an ethernet connection,
and we have made a driver for this
available for download from our
website playstation2-linux.com; however in
Europe, the modem will not
be included, so the USB modem will be the only
option for those without a PC. I suspect that the majority of Linux
kit
owners
will also own a PC, however, which makes this less of an
issue.
I noticed that, for installation, you need a
sync-on-green monitor (but
not afterwards). How can someone tell if
they have one of those around?
The best way to check is to look at our database
at
www.playstation2-linux.
com/sog.php
We have hundreds
of monitors listed there now, contributed by users of the
kit. It's
also worth checking your monitor manual, although we've found
that
not all manufacturers bother to even list sync on green
compatibility,
which is a little frustrating. There are certainly a
good spread of sync on
green compatible monitors available; I'd say
at least 50% of those on the
market, though that is a guess on my
part.
I notice that the kernel is loaded from a memory
card. Does this speed up
boot time?
No; the kernel is stored on memory card because
it'ts an easily
transferable, fairly non-volatile medium. Access
times to the memory cards
are actually quite slow; however once the
kernel is loaded into memory
once, it doesn't matter. The
convenience of using the memory card for boot
files is that it
becomes possible to configure one memory card to boot
using PAL video
for using with a TV, and another with VGA for using with a
monitor,
without changing any configuration files; simply boot with
the
desired memcard in. Of course it also means that you can have as
many
different kernels compiled as you like; if you fill up one
memory card, you
can easily start using another (though this is
hardly necessary! one is
more than enough)
Going
to the attractions for budding games programmers ...
Is there a
development environment people can get from Sony?
The
Linux kit provides the development environment:
- The hardware
manuals (as pdfs)
- The compiler (gcc 2.95.2)
- Libraries to
access the PS2 specific hardware such as the memory cards,
joypads,
and the Vector Unit processors (check out /usr/doc/PlayStation2
after
a full install)
- Some example code (though not reams of it - but you
have all the projects
on our website too!)
Additionally, you
can download a cross compiler for use on a PC to speed
up
development, and we have included a utility called vcl on the DVD
discs,
which is an optimiser for assembly code for the Vector Unit
processors.
The only alternative until now has been the
development hardware
professional game developers lease from us under
license, with accompanying
NDAs.
What
sort of platforms do games developers normally work on?
Windows is very popular among the professional
PlayStation 2 developers;
there are a number of commercial compilers
and development environments
that have been developed for the
PlayStation 2 under Windows, such as
Metrowerks' Code Warrior.
However, a development tool chain has always been
available for Linux
too, so it'ts perfectly possible just to use KDevelop or
something
similar, and gcc.
If someone
is interested in games development and specifically
PlayStation, where should they start (assuming they have some
programming skills)?
It's
fair to say that there is a fairly steep initial learning curve
when
familiarising oneself with PlayStation 2 development; however we
are
beginning to publish tutorials and sample code on our community
website.
I'd recommend reading the developer forum on our website,
working through
the existing documentation under the "Guide"
package of the "Compiled for
your convenience" project at
playstation2-linux.
com/projects/cfyc
This
should be enough information to get a budding developer
with
programming experience spinning triangles on the screen; the
next step is
simply to pick a project on our site that interests you,
or create on, and
start experimenting yourself. The irc channel on
freenode.net and
discussion forums on our website provide good
resources for people looking
for help and advice.
Are
there generally separate paths for those who think up and visualise
the games, and those who actually do the coding?
That's a very general question about game
development! I'd say that the
majority of people who code games
base their development on ideas of their
own; however these can have
been inspired by anything. Certainly most
successful titles have
dedicated artists and dedicated developers, and they
have to find a
way to work together. Very few titles now hail from the solo
bedroom
coder who fulfils all roles of game development teams - game
design
and complexity has grown to a point where that is very
challenging to do
now.
Thanks a lot Sarah.
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