Playable Quake, OpenGL Demo and Native SDK Possibilities: Busy Day for webOS Internals 92
What a difference a day makes. As of yesterday, the biggest recent news from the webOS Internals global team was the launch of Doom and a video of a non-playable version of Quake. Today, there are three new announcements from webOS Internals:
First, Quake is now playable, with keymaps developed with help from user Jack87. As with the updated Doom, Quake launches through an icon rather than needing any typed commands in Terminal. The more complicated movements make Quake a bit more challenging to maneuver, but movement and sound work quite well. Both Quake and Doom are available via Preware.
Second, on the webOSInternals YouTube channel, the team has posted a video of a demo OpenGL application (a triangle containing moving concentric circles) by bpadalino, further proof that Palm has enabled this graphic functionality in webOS 1.3.5, and hinting at upcoming gaming possibilities that are even further confirmed by…
The third announcement, via Rod Whitby’s PreCentral forum post this morning where he details his discovery of a method for installing and running native Linux applications without the need for add-on services like webOSInternals’ own Upstart Manager Service. Rod points out that the ability to launch native Linux apps within webOS has implications well beyond gaming, in terms of advanced homebrew application development beyond that enabled by Palm’s current SDK. (PalmInfocenter posted a simpler explanation of what Rod and his colleagues discovered here.)
Palm’s CES 2010 event is scheduled for this coming Thursday, and based on what the webOSInternals folks are discovering literally every day, 2010 looks to be a very exciting time both for webOS developers and for the users who have benefitted from their innovation.
92 Comments
It's definitely nice to have openGL support, but the issue is if pre actually provides hardware rendering. From what I heard, these demos and games are still running through software rendering. That's why quake is this laggy.
Yes, Doom and Quake are software rendered and displayed via SDL, but the OpenGL-Demo sounds like a test of the 1.3.5 implemented OpenGLes driver.
The new possibilities are only known for a couple of days, and the Webos-Internal's are moving really fast. So have some patience and you will see the real OpenGL hardware acclerated stuff (or at CES from Palm !?)
I'd have to agree..... I've been wondering just how long news like this would be coming along.... Webos internals, you have my thanks guys...
don't know what half of that means but it sounds awesome!
don't know what half of that means but it sounds awesome!
firefox please.
Hell yes!!!
I love WebOS Internals.
Pretty cool. How do you turn sound down? It goes up but not down. In quake
Only a matter of time till we have a native game SDK with OpenGl... now that the drivers are there... I think we might see many of these SDK popup... Eventually one from Palm but before we will have a number of home brew gaming SDKs out...
I think that's just incredibly optimistic.
But here's to wishful thinking!
I wonder if it's possible to flip the screen so the directional pad is on the left side of the screen?
Yeah, this would be a good idea for games that use a "d-pad" instead of the accelerometer.
Also, does this mean we can have a gameboy emulator now? Both the Pre and the Pixi's form factors beg for gameboy emulation.
Actually, there has been GameBoy and NES emulation available for a while now:
http://www.webos-internals.org/wiki/NES_and_GameBoy_Emulators
webOS Internals is just awesome. The next six months are webOS's time.
Now I'd just like to see OpenGL enabled for web-based apps and the OS itself.
All these new developments are extremely exciting. I understand about technically the games are still being rendered via software but the wrapper and framework is available now in the OS. What needs to be worked on now is get WebOS itself running using OpenGL ES to get the OS running on par to where it should be.
I bet we'll see some experimental builds of WebOS at CES, which might have OpenGL ES working and Flash installed.
Sounds about right. I can't wait!!
(Wrong person, lol).
WebOS Internals == Superheroes of the Pre community!
Two equals (==) checks to see if the 2 given values are equal. One (=) says that they are equal. So to correctly say that, you would put "WebOS Internals (=) Superheroes of the Pre community!" Just thought I would let you know ;)
Actually, the 1 equals sets WebOS Internals to superheroes... We all know that they are already superheroes, so WebOS Internals == Superheroes of the Pre community would return true and would be the more "correct" statement.
Yes, I forgot to indicate that the operation returned a true value, my bad, lol.
NEEEEERRRRRRRRDSSSSSS! (read in the voice of Ogre from Revenge of the Nerds)
niceniceniceniceNICE. However will we make it to Thursday?
I like how PalmInfoCenter notes how long it took for other OSes to reach this kind of acheivement, and yet Palm probably has like a quarter of the man-power their rivals have. You know they're really burning the midnight oil on WebOS to make it a success and I think CES will show that it is becoming a game changer.
quake and doom! don't show up my preware :(
If you're a US Sprint user, make sure you've updated your feeds, and look under the everything category. {Jonathan}
I am a US Sprint user, but when I go to "List of Everything" and then tap "Preware" in the top left and then "Update Feeds", I get the litle circle indicating everything is updating, yet when I get back to my A-Z list, I see
"Dolphin Theme
Dope Wars"
and
"Purple Theme
Quick Contacts"
but no Doom nor Quake :(
It looks all right, I really like it except the controls a way wacky lol. Thats not a big deal though, I'm sure I'll get used to it.
I want Duke Nukem!!
+1
I would love to see Duke Nukem for the Pre. :)
Oh, me too! I loved all those old Apogee games.
However, we need to be realistic here... the main thing Doom & Quake are showing us is that Linux SDL games are going to work (and soon OpenGL Linux games). So we should expect easy porting of those (moreso than Apogee games, which were MS-DOS).
The future is bright! Enigma, lbreakout, ltetris, Neverball, Neverputt, Tuxracer, Filletsng, Trackballs, Supertux, Foobillard, Chromium, etc, etc...
This is exciting times, for certain! Any thoughts I had about switching to android are all but gone. (still waiting for DTG to put the last nail in the coffin.)
I'm super pumped about the OpenVPN port that's in the works. Who needs an sd card or more storage when I can access all my stuff from home directly on my phone?
WebOSInternals ROCKS!
Thanks guys.
Well, that is fine except when you are underground. Like the millions of NYC Subway commuters :-P
Still -- this is pretty darn awesome. I was watching the WebOS intenal guys in action 'live' over IRC chat. They are just amazing on multiple levels: technical, humourous, and despite all of their knowledge whenever a newbie would pop on with a question, they were gracious. Never condescending.
ouch! Sorry about the subway. I have the benefit of the great plains of Texas where most buildings don't even have a basement, and there definitely no subway. =)
With Openssh/sftp/sshfs, you don't need a VPN for just file services.
Yeah, i'm thinking down the road and way more than file access tho'. It's a step on the road towards the day when having my Pre 800 miles away at my dad's house will be no different than being on my wifi at home with my laptop. THAT is gonna be cool.
Of course, bandwidth will be an issue until a wimax pre comes out, but until then a wimax mifi will fill the bill. =)
Hmmm. . . done in 7 months from the release of the Pre. This is awesome, and I think there is much more to come. Palm has the right idea, listening to the community of users, and developers.
T.
*Calling all naysayers*
Where you at now??? Platform dead eh? Eat it!! Lol
Who says you can't do big things with a x.x.4 update? I think their new strategy of using binary deltas will all them to do bigger things in smaller pieces. With all this, kind of blows your mind what a 1.5 update would bring, or even 2.0. :)
If those naysayers do show, here's a link to some delicious Crow Recipes
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=crow+recipes&aq=1&oq=crow+re&aqi=g10
/vindication off
-CK
here is a link to a youtube video of Quake on the Pre: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV-fE4ZRTPc
This is AWESOME!!!!!
not really a gamer... But does this mean that we can look forward to better apps to replace the native one? Like calender and tasks and/or combining the two apps? Or is it at least possible now with linux?
WebOS has always been Linux. Doom/Quake is showing that *SDL* (and later OpenGL) Linux applications will run after some tweaking.
Non-GUI Linux applications already run (ssh, cp, bash scripts, etc). And porting those is usually just a recompile.
However, Linux [desktop/full systems] uses X as it's native GUI. So X based programs (which are the bulk of the non-gaming apps- Firefox, Gnome/KDE, Audacious, OpenOffice, Gimp, Inkscape, etc, etc) will not run under WebOS unless someone develops and/or ports an Xserver for WebOS. Although possible, this is unlikely. Of course, I have been surprised several times already.
Thanks for the responce. I was thinking they were able to run/write any linux program on WebOS. Man I wish there was a way to get a datebk type calendar on here. So this is pretty much gaming?
No prob... I am a major Linux geek :)
Anyway, no, it is not just games that can benefit from SDL and OpenGL apps. But, the need for fast graphics usually revolves around games and they benefit the most from it.
But if you would like an examples of Linux non-SDL/GL apps- Google Earth comes to mind. So do video editing and playing apps.
I've downloaded it but when I go to launch it it does nothing. Acts like its working and nothing opens and thats it. Any suggestions?
There is more than an "it", there is a launching service and Quake itself. Both must be installed.
Webos 1.3.5 is cool! I ran Doom, Quake, and Paratroopers at the same time! My Pre didn't even slow down. Will someone please port Frozen Bubble over to the Pre? My wife loves that game. It would make her (and my) day.
+1 !!
I love frozen bubble! Since it is Linux and SDL (through Perl), it should be very easy to run on WebOS (as long as there is an SDL Perl for the WebOS).
It is already running on Android....
so awesome, I can't wait foe nes and gameboy emulater to run without having to use terminal
Well, it's cool to see all these improvements, but WebOS still missing some basic:
1- Bluetooth transfer: I want to transfer files from my computer to my phone.
2- Visual voicemail
3- Voice dialing
4- Video recording
5- Audio recording
Sometimes we should not keep on relying on apps to do just the basic a freaking phone.
(Insert what you think is missing below)
no shit Sherlock, thanks for reminding us
While I do agree and can beleive some are ok to have,I will insert what I think is missing, as you required:
What is missing is to recognise how incredibly fast Palm is moving with a 6 month Operative System and the huge improvements the community is also doing to it, with Palm not trying to block it in anyway but actually the opposite. That feeling seems to be missing almost everytime something new or some improvement arises.
People don't care. If their per feature isn't addressed, Palm is doing nothing. Most of those people have probably never written a line of code in a real product in their life.
Well, in their defense, things like video recording and voice recog are available on most modern smart phones right out the door. So I will cut them some slack. However, I don't think it is appropriate to bring up such things in a thread/article about Quake.
what does all of this mean for the pixi..? Has anyone tried to run any of these on the pixi?
I understand it has a lower grade processor, but still performs well in comparison to the pre (when I have compared).. Does the pixi have the same graphics card as the pre?
Sorry for all the questions! If anyone could help me out I would really appreciate it! Thanks!
VERY GOOD JOB!!! QUAKE
i think all that stuff will come give palm 3 to 5 months and i think everything we wanted will be available but this is great and truly exciting now i have something to show off to my friends tomarrow who just got the droid eris and rub in their faces
You know, TuxRacer with accelerometer controls would be really badass . . .
Not that I'm a Linux nerd or anything.
it was already released, on another phone with native SDK http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnwMAABTvjs wouldnt expect it on WebOS anytime soon though, lack of SDK is seriously killing whole platform, they are basically couple of years behind everyone else
And everything of this without GPU Support?... oh my... or ?
You are correct
Jedi Knight, Outcast and Academy anyone?
Were those ever available for Linux? If not, then don't hold your breath...
I don't see these games in preware. I go to manage feeds in preware, I only see "feed" under optware & webos-internals. For the other feeds I see the long links. What should I do to fix this?
I don't see these games in preware. I go to manage feeds in preware, I only see "feed" under optware & webos-internals. For the other feeds I see the long links. What should I do to fix this?
Be sure your Preware is version 9.12. Also under "Manage Feeds", make sure both "Webos-internals" & "Webos-patches" are switched "ON". (the paths should be like "ipkg-preware.org/feeds/webos-internals/...")
Next go to Menu > Update Feeds, then look in Available Applications > Games and both are there.
To whom it my concern thank u ...........
and here's the video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV-fE4ZRTPc
I'm not that interested in games... I would much rather see these powers used for something like enabling mplayer so we could play many more formats of video, not just mp4.
None quake neither doom install for me. First of all they dont even appear in Preware. I went to webos quickinstall, download the, and i get errors. F^*&% this #$I%...
im having the same problem =[...
sadly, I'm having the same problem here along with my own idiocy... I had Doom installed but saw a new version which is self launchable was available, so I deleted it with the intention of reinstalling. I actually saw Doom and Quake in Preware, but after deleting the file from my Pre both were gone from Preware. It's been 14 hours of intermittently restarting my phone and updating feeds and NOTHING. Interestingly enough, though, while webos - internals in on my updates list, it's not showing in my feeds list. Anyone else having this specific problem? I too went into quick install, saw both files on that, but got lengthy error messages when I tried to install via that route. I wonder if instead of problems with those two particular files if there isn't an issue with webos - internals' feed right now.
this is no big deal but, why is that keyboard colored? is it the Pre Plus? All i want is flash, video and high end apps
That is just a retouched photo to show the relationship of the key assignments in the game.
Damn I just want the battery to last longer and for all the unexplained, intermittent lagging to stop without having to reset every time.
Most people report that the intermittent lagging did stop with 1.3.5. It did for me...
this is incredibly exciting stuff. the sky's the limit on what guys like webos internals will do with this higher level access to the phone. webos internals you guys are studs.
everytime i try to play quake it sais on the bottom "quake is starting" then it never starts..anyone have this problem?..it would show up on the bottom and kind of freeze a bit
Hey yea, same issue, i just posted the same problem, didnt see yours.
Mine does the same thing and I am not sure what is up with it either. anyone?
WOW thanks to all the linux geeks who made this possible. Without precentral i would have probly found out weeks later. last time i played quake was on a 486 dx120. This really beats out any other game to play to kill some time while waiting.
Hey so when i launch it, the notification pops up at the bottom for a second then goes away, and the game never launches. Is there some other place i should be asking technical questions?
I am having an issue with Quake. I start the app, it says it is starting, but never starts up. Any ideas or pointers?
For the above dozen posts. Make sure you installed the service, not just Quake. Without the service, it will not launch. And no, I don't remember the NAME of the service right now. Why it is not mentioned on the WebOS Quake page, I don't understand. But it is clearly "required" in Preware when you try to install Quake....
It is installed, if you install it through preware it tells you that it relies on the upstart service.
I don't see either of these apps anywhere...did I miss out or did they pull it off preware to work out some bugs?
I wasn't even getting the feeds in WEBOS.
Where did they go?
I don't Quake or Doom in Preware and I am running the must up-to-date version of Preware and have all my feeds updated.
People keep saying that they are there, but for some people who are running the latest version of Preware and Package Manager Service, they are not.
I can't get either Doom or Quake to work...I have both icons and both say starting then it goes away...I installed everything I was supposed to..at least that I saw. Anyone have any ideas?
Got them both to work..I uninstalled both games...updated my feeds, reinstalled and now they both work fine....controls are hard to use though...looks good and is really fast
This worked fine for me..... I loaded the games through WebOS Quick Install after upgrading to 1.3.5.1. Controls are hard, but definitely fun to do all over again
i had the same problem where it says its starting. I unistalled doom quake, supertux, and tetris, then i uninstalled upstart service and package manager. rebooted my phone. opened preware and updated feeds. reinstalled everything again, and it still doesn't work wtf!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!