3D capabilities of the PocketPC

[defroster]

Hello,

I have two concepts for games to be specially developed for the pocket pc platform, they're both, in my opinion, very solid concepts and most importantly they capitalize on the touch-screen interface of the ppc.

I am, by trade, a 3D artist, I've worked on a few games before and am familiar with working within polygon count restrictive environments but have never been required to do anything for ppc, not many people have apparently judging from the lack of content out there.

So my question is, can a good 3D engine be developed for the platform and how restrictive would the limitations be, also, how much more difficult (if any) is it to code for than x86 (I'm not a very good coder so I wouldn't be doing any of the programming)?

Seeing fpsece (playstation emulator) run at relatively high speed on my XDA II gives me hope, because we all know how inneficient emulation is, so surely a native renderer could achieve spectacular results?

This would be a paying job of course but I need to work out if it is viable first.

Thanks for any input you may have.

[defroster]

The first idea is a sword fighting game where the touchscreen controls the positioning of your character (ie; sword up, sword down, move back, jump, duck, strike forward, strike downward) in 3D using an end chain effector using an inverse kinematics chain setup.

I've seen lots of flash (macromedia) demos that achieve similar things, not in 3D, but there's no reason it can't be done, I can setup a rig in softimage that can do more or less what I'm talking about in real time.

Second idea is a 3D flight combat game on rails, going through many environments you play the gunner on a craft (not a spacecraft since it can also travel through atmosphere), I've already got a voice actor for the female pilot - she controls your flight path and you just have to handle the weapons systems (think mechwarrior 2, where you had a hugely interactive control panel; shields forward, shields aft, charge EMP, weapons selection etc.) - think miniguns blazing, targetting missiles, exciting environments to zoom through and a good story behind it. Inspirations for this one were einhander (psx) and mechwarrior 2 (pc).

I'm not going to go into too much detail on here but if I can get some programmers interested then we can really get these projects moving.

[Rudegar]

well being that doom1 2 quake 1 & 2 and dukenumem 3d and heretic and hexen have been ported to pocketpc (from pc) and run just fine
even though it dont use the special image chip from ati at all

i'd say that 3d engiens can run on pocketpc's
and made for them if one feel it's necessary

but imho then i'd never really play those kinda games with a pocketpc
and havy gaming would wear down even the most persistent screen protector dont even want to think about what it would do to a pocketpc without a screen protector

[defroster]

Ah, but I think the pocketpc lends itself to a unique type of game, one which the pc can't emulate (unless you buy a tablet pc I suppose), the interaction between screen and stylus really has not been exploited except in perhaps 2-3 games (ICBM and that one with the bricks, balls and paddle come to mind).

These units get heavy screen/stylus usage under any circumstances, and anyone not using a screen protector have no-one to blame but themselves. Even so, I don't think it would be as bad as even solitaire, since solitaire you're always hitting the same area of the screen, these games would have alot larger interaction area.

[Rudegar]

oooh and about an engien then try looking at this
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic?t=7296#34415

[defroster]

three and a half year bump

[Wexx]

Well, recently graphical posibilities of this platform has been pushed much farther. Even older devices with 600MHz XScale processors were capable of running Quake II at reasonable FPS without any 3D acceleration. With today's 3D accelerators level of visual quality used Quake III should be easily achieved (was possible without acceleration years ago but in low FPS).

[twolf]

Yeti 3D engine:
http://www.intuitex.com/yeti.html

[wingmanjd]

There's a Call of Duty 2 port for the PPC. It ran reasonably well on my 400Mhz iPAQ 4155. It even had multiplayer.

Also, Descent was ported to the ppc.

[twolf]

Sadly after 2003's Tombraider I havent seen a better 3D game:

http://bp2.blogger.com/_2ABZ20IFFq8/RvH7YW5qChI/AAAAAAAAAIw/nOQdI3GGM9I/s320/tombraider2.jpg http://www.tombraiderchronicles.com/images/pda1/screen11.jpg

Thats over 5 YEARS and still no better match!
And its not because there aren't good games or better mhz machines... companies rather do silly puzzle games for ppc than a good 3D game. :(
And I'm refering to oficial ports, because the Quake's are obviously better.

The Yeti 3D I posted before is a very good and extremely fast engine, and its been around since 2004, why nobody uses it is beyond me.

[Alen.M.]

ola, can u give us link to download the tombrider game? looks cool.

thanks,

[pongothemagnificent]

he cant cause thats a retail game and not a freeware

[joel2009]

ola, can u give us link to download the tombrider game? looks cool.

thanks,
Welcome to xda, i suggest you do a quick read through of the rules to avoid getting yourself in trouble (or any of us)..... there is a link in my sig.

Try google if you would like to find the game and legitimatley obtain a copy of it. If you will read the rules though, you will see that we do not support software piracy (cracks, serials, ect)

[epismax]

oooh and about an engien then try looking at this
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic?t=7296#34415

It looks like OpenTribe link has problem.