Irrlicht on the PS3?

JP · Post by JP » Tue Feb 20, 2007 9:36 am

I'm starting work on converting one of my Irrlicht games to the PS3...

Initially i thought i'd just have to convert the code into PSGL (a version of OpenGL ES) and get rid of Irrlicht altogether. But before i start on that probably mammoth and infuriating task i should probably ask if anyone thinks that there would be a simpler way of doing it.

Would irrlicht have a chance of running on the PS3? From what i've seen i think that's fairly unlikely. I saw a game on the PS3 which used ODE and Fmod but i suppose those libraries work a bit differently to graphics libraries maybe...

Anyhoo, any helpful thoughts on this would be great!

Luke · Post by **Luke** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 10:04 am

I'd think most of the core features of irrlicht would work, but you'd have to change irrlicht's openGL driver class to use that OpenGL ES thing your talking about, but I wouldn't think that would be much of a change.

By the way, doesn't linux run on ps3? cannot you use that?

IPv6 · Post by **IPv6** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 10:06 am

Offtopic: don`t know anything about PS3, sorry...
But Wow! What is the game you are intending to convert? Did you do this just for youself or there is a way to do "legal" games for new playstation?
Just curious

JP · Post by JP » Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:14 am

I've been told by someone else that it's not possible to use Irrlicht on the PS3 without converting the engine i think

Yeah linux can be installed on the PS3 but i want to make the game work like... as standard, not via linux or anything, if you see what i mean. It's to go on one of the PS3 demo discs, if i can get it working

It's my Battleheart game that i'm trying to convert (see a link in the list of latest games for february on irrlicht's front page).

Luben · Post by **Luben** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:53 am

Hi

Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_microprocessor . It is the processor that the PS3 uses. A simple port of irrlicht would be a terrible waste of the SPE's processing power.

omaremad · Post by **omaremad** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 4:05 pm

I thought the RSX is only acessible via the offcial devkits (ie linux cant acesses the gpu unless you have a dev liscence)

hybrid · Post by **hybrid** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 4:42 pm

You can access the Cell processor, but not the GPU via the linux part as it is running in a virtualized environment.

nullterm · Post by **nullterm** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 12:27 pm

Don't worry about having to harness the Cells. One step at a time, and getting Irrlicht running on PS3 would be quite an accomplishment. Even without using Cells. Once you have it running, then figure out ways to use the Cell processors.

abraham · Post by **abraham** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 5:56 am

i thought sio tested his reflection demo on ps3?

sio2 · Post by **sio2** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 7:54 am

abraham wrote:i thought sio tested his reflection demo on ps3?

Pixel Shader 3.

hybrid · Post by **hybrid** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 9:53 am

That's a good one

I expect to have someone working on a fix-point implementation of the software renderers soon. This will help porting to embedded and mobile systems. Getting Irrlicht running on the PS3 Linux should be no problem, just the perfomance might be poor. I don't know anything about the graphics internals of PS3, but since you have to become a commercial developer with high license fees to be paid I don't think that there will be official support for this platform.

Spintz · Post by **Spintz** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 12:18 pm

Plus, it's cheaper to buy a computer than it is a PS3. This whole craze was started when consoles were powerful and cost less thatn $300. Now, you can get decent computers that are cheaper than the consoles.

Luben · Post by **Luben** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 1:47 pm

Spintz wrote:Plus, it's cheaper to buy a computer than it is a PS3. This whole craze was started when consoles were powerful and cost less thatn $300. Now, you can get decent computers that are cheaper than the consoles.

So you'r saying the cell processor is _not_ powerful?

Spintz · Post by **Spintz** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 2:47 pm

Luben wrote:So you'r saying the cell processor is _not_ powerful?

Nope, never said that, don't actually know anything about Cell Processors to be honest. However, I would think it's more important for a 3D Engine to worry about the GPU than the CPU. And what GPU is in the PS3 and can you get one that is as good or better for less than the $600 cost of a PS3?