Quick Question about the DC Coders Cable...

[epicasian]

I don't have serial port on my computer, so if I buy a serial to usb adapter, do you think that would work?

Thanks,
EpicAsian

[Falco Girgis]

Actually... I'm not sure. I would think that the adapter would have to have some sort of software to route the serial port calls to the USB port.

I know that DC-Tool serial has no functionality for that built in. So it would be the adapter's job to make sure that packets get sent where they should.

If that doesn't work for you, there's always the mighty 100mbit broadband adapter (highly recommended, but it's like $100 on ebay). There was also at some point in time (at least schematics for) a USB coder's cable. A dude at DCEmulation was making/selling them for I think $45.

ALSO, the scene just created a flash card reader for the Dreamcast. I don't know if these are in mass production yet, but once they are, I'm pretty sure it will become THE method for playing/testing homebrew on the Dreamcast.

If you're super serious about DC development, nothing can possibly beat the broadband adapter, though. I stream all of our ES assets to the Dreamcast over the network from my hard drive, so I don't even have to manage them separately from the PC version of ES.

[epicasian]

Last I've read about the SD Adapter for the DC was on DCEmu.co.uk, that there hasn't been any news in a while. I really do want one, I just hope they come out soon.

When I first wanted to start deving for the DC, I looked for the BBA on eBay, and was completely shocked it was that high of a price. But the DC is the greatest console IMO.

Has anyone heard any news about the SD Adapter?

Thanks,
EpicAsian

[Falco Girgis]

I haven't heard news about the SD adapter, either. I heard that they were sending off the schematics to get it ready for mass production.

I wish they would just publicly release the schematics, so I could try my hand at making my own (I didn't get a minor in electrical engineering for nothing!) I think that the SD card reader will be the future of the DC homebrew scene. I know a lot of other people who agree.

But TRUST me. Absolutely nothing beats the speed, ease, and convenience of the broadband adapter. I had two serial coder's cables from my older days of DC development, and the BBA was the best investment that I ever made.

[epicasian]

I'm probably going to wait a couple months for the SD adapter. If it doesn't come out in that amount of time, I will then probably buy the BBA.

I'm taking a Digital Electronics course next year at my high school. I hope we do some stuff with basic circuitry. I've always wanted to do something like that on my own. :D

~EpicAsian

EDIT:ps. is psp dev really as hard as it seems?

[Falco Girgis]

PSP dev requires a lot more hardware know-how than Dreamcast (or at least simple Dreamcast) development. The Dreamcast API is fucking amazing, and abstracts most of that stuff away from the programmer. The PSP on the other hand...

Your digital electronics class won't help you much with that kind of thing. What you're going to be covering are flip flops, logic gates, and state machines. While these are the foundation for all computers (and are by far the most interesting part of circuits), interfacing with hardware is usually analog circuitry (AC/DC voltages, resistors, capacitors, diodes, inductors, etc) and circuit analysis.

[epicasian]

Thanks Falco for all the help and clarification.

But I do have another question...
How did you learn C++?

I'm currently re-reading the parts I skipped over or didn't read thoroughly enough in my Sams Teach Yourself C++ in 21 days.
Do you have any book recommendations?

Again, thanks for all the help,
EpicAsian

[Falco Girgis]

I learned C++ from the exact same book: "Sam's Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days."

I became good or competent at C++ by applying what I learned from the book to Dreamcast game development. My first graphical (non console) C++ application was actually running on a Dreamcast. I learned to program for it before I learned to program multimedia for the PC.

[epicasian]

Hopefully, I will soon become as competent as you are in C++ and Game Development. :D

Thanks again for all the help,
~EpicAsian

[Ginto8]

Hopefully, I will soon become as competent as you are in C++ and Game Development. :D

Thanks again for all the help,
~EpicAsian

If by "soon", you mean 7+ years, then sure. Such things take a while to really get the hang of

[epicasian]

I'm definitely willing to take 7+ years of my life to create great games and applications.

~EpicAsian

[Trask]

Not sure if you saw this topic, but I think its a great topic for getting a DC dev environment running: http://elysianshadows.com/phpBB3/viewto ... f=6&t=4477.... when you're ready of course. :D It took everything in me not to start yet another project just by getting involved with that topic.

[epicasian]

I did see that topic. I've got the DCDevISO R4 on my Windows 7 Desktop. I just haven't found out how to draw sprites to the screen yet. I've looked at the examples in the C:\cygwin\usr\local\kos\kos\examples folder (don't quote me on that location, I'm on my laptop at my aunt's house :D and don't remember exactly which folder it was lol). I honestly can't wait to program for the DC. It is by far my favorite console, I have two lol.

~EpicAsian

ps. I saw the tutorial on DCEmulation on how to draw a pixel on the screen, but thats as far as I've gotten

[Falco Girgis]

I did see that topic. I've got the DCDevISO R4 on my Windows 7 Desktop. I just haven't found out how to draw sprites to the screen yet. I've looked at the examples in the C:\cygwin\usr\local\kos\kos\examples folder (don't quote me on that location, I'm on my laptop at my aunt's house :D and don't remember exactly which folder it was lol). I honestly can't wait to program for the DC. It is by far my favorite console, I have two lol.

~EpicAsian

ps. I saw the tutorial on DCEmulation on how to draw a pixel on the screen, but thats as far as I've gotten

Do NOT use that tutorial. That is for software rendering and WRITING DIRECTLY TO THE FRAMEBUFFER which is slower than all living fuck. If you want to do real game development, you should really use the PVR directly (or at very least do SDL).

[epicasian]

Okay, I didn't really learn anything from it, so, I'm ok lol

If you guys don't mind me asking, which KOS examples include rendering a sprite and the like?

And I've read and heard multiple times, SDL is a memory hog on the DC. I've looked into AllegroDC, but don't really know anything about that. I want to use KOS, because I know that's a working and stable library.

Thanks for the help guys,
~EpicAsian