PS3 Dev-Kit and Irrlicht

Raziel_n2gc · Post by **Raziel_n2gc** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 7:15 pm

Hi,

after spending some time with very basic irrlicht features, I'm still very unexperienced, I'm allready catching the stars.
So this is just a hypothetical question, don't believe I'm megalomaniacal enough to plan such things.

So here is the question:

How to develop on PS3 - using irrlicht?
I have no clue how things are done for PS3 at all and since JP seems to be a developer for PS3, he or someone else may help me out of my lack of knowledge.

What is the dev kit? How is it used to create a game and what is needed e.g. irrlicht or other engines?
What about physics and what is it all about the SPUs?

Thank you so much for sharing your knowkedge with others.

dlangdev · Post by **dlangdev** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 7:24 pm

Try Yellowdog Linux on the PS3. That's probably the cheapest route you can take to have something running on the PS3 without paying for the rights, though.

See:

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_i ... tory=12374

lostclimategames · Post by **lostclimategames** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 8:08 pm

SPU, if its what i think it is, its just a sound processing unit to take pressure off of its abundant cpu resource

rogerborg · Post by **rogerborg** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 11:38 pm

AFAIK, JP is stuck working on PS2, which is kind of like targeting 486. Well, 486 DX2.

Halifax · Post by **Halifax** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 12:50 am

lostclimategames wrote:SPU, if its what i think it is, its just a sound processing unit to take pressure off of its abundant cpu resource

Nope, SPU stands for Synergistic Processing Unit which is contained in a Synergistic Processing Element. There is also a Memory Flow Controller inside a SPE.

rogerborg wrote:AFAIK, JP is stuck working on PS2, which is kind of like targeting 486. Well, 486 DX2.

Yup, his PS3 development kit blew up.

At any rate, yes, Linux is the way to go if you are looking to go the free way. You have access to the CELL processor just like how all the professionals use it, but you do not have access to the RSX, which basically means no OpenGL|ES for you. Now there are some workarounds for this which have been shown, so that people can access the RSX, but I wouldn't recommend that unless you would like to void your warranty.

Basically the PS3 development kit is free to use on Linux. You get access to the SPU intrinsics, the DMA intrinsics, the libraries, and all that good stuff.

To create a game that all depends on your needs. If you are using Linux, then you must use the Irrlicht software renderers. But if you have the devkit, then you will need to port Irrlicht to use OpenGL|ES, which is currently already being developed though.

As for physics, you can just use Bullet which is already SPU optimized by SCEA, and has code used by companies such as Insomniac Games.

By the way, I recommend you visit the IBM information center, and pick yourself up some documents on programming the CELL processor. That really is a good start for any indie developer.

JP · Post by JP » Thu Jun 12, 2008 9:11 am

My PS3 devkit is alive and well again (apparently) but i just can't connect it to the network because the IT support people here are a useless bunch of monkeys and don't seem to understand simple English phrases....

But i'm not doing any PS stuff at the moment for that reason, just IrrAI!

Anyway, to answer the questions.

A PS3 Devkit is a £5k massive piece of hardware which is basically a PS3 with an extra communications processor in it, that's about it i think, just gives you extra ability to communicate with it. And it's also got extra RAM and a 400GB HDD for development purposes.

The chances of you getting your hands on one if you don't work for a PS3 development company are ultra slim i should think. If you can impress Sony enough of your gaming skills and have a small team put together then you may be able to get a Debug PS3, which is capable of development, for something like $800 or £800 (i forget which), this is what Varmint and Krabbo (and anyone else part of the Krabbit team) are/where attempting to do and also FMX is attempting to head down this route. How successfull they'll be i don't know.

It sounds like you probably don't actually have access to a devkit, or even a debug and just have a consumer PS3 that you've bought in the shops. In that case all you can do is install Linux on it and program on that, which will basically be just like programming a game on a PC with Linux installed i imagine. sure you can take advantage of the SPUs but anyone who plays your game would require to have linux installed on their PS3, it won't run on the PS3 as standard.

Bullet for PS3, as Halifax says, has been optimised for PS3 (as has Physx and Havok) but this is only available to PS3 developers with devkits (maybe debugs too).

If on the other hand you do have access to a devkit then i'd advise just using PhyreEngine or Gamebryo which are two graphics engines available to PS3 developers that are already optimised for PS3, whereas any version of Irrlicht you got working probably wouldn't be, without a lot of hard work and time!