Wolfenstein Pre-D: WANT 24
Weren't we just saying that gaming on the Pre was going to be better than you might have expected? Yes, yes we were. In those selfsame Palm Gaming forums we just mentioned, Indecom has posted screenshots and a quick progress log for Wolfenstein Pre-D. It's running at 25-33 frames per second in the emulator, hopefully we'll see similar results when it runs on device.
The most exciting part: it's all build with standard Palm Mojo SDK Magic:
This game currently uses nothing other than standard javascript, html, and css. I'm not using canvas, not yet anyways. The main goal of Wolfenstein Pre-D is to reproduce the shareware episode of Wolfenstein 3D as accurately as i can on the pre while still making it playable, fun, and run smoothly.
3D textures, 3D positioned sprites, a simple enemy AI, weapon switching, it's all already here. Indecom is planning on just reproducing the shareware parts until permission for the whole game comes (note: Carmack open sourced the Wolfenstein code some time ago [via TiPb], so we're hoping this won't be difficult).
Gaming on the Pre is starting to feel very exciting. Nice job so far, Indecom!
Thanks to PreGame for the tip!
24 Comments
Yes there are several groups of developers working on this type of game for the pre. Let alone any standalone devs that want in on the action.
So is this being re-written? Could an emulator be created that just uses the data files?
@Jason: The article does say that AI is present.
I wonder if this will be like psx4pre - we'll never see it or hear mention if it again.
Actually, at first glance, this looks like the relatively well-known existing javascript code from http://blog.nihilogic.dk/2008/04/javascript-wolfenstein-3d.html
Unless the developer has expanded on that existing code (or he's made his own port from scratch), none of the enemies will attack you; there's absolutely no AI, and a fair bit of work still would need to be done.
EDIT: looking at it a second time over, it looks like its a new port
yes, but will it make me nauseous like the original did?
I'm just glad we have a hardware keyboard to use. Everything else is just icing on the cake.
Yep, but don't you wish that "center button" on the Pre was a 5-way nav button instead?
I sure do.
oh yesssss
so wait, it will be on the pre's app catalog at some point, right?
Um... the emulator DOESN'T scale performance so that you can get an accurate idea of device performance.
I never did any scientific tests but running on the emulating versus the phone would show an incredible speed difference.
The JavaScript for something like this isn't going to help gaming at all. It's too difficult, too slow and too time consuming to do it. This "port" was most likely "inspired" from the already existing code but I wouldn't exist it to run very fast at all.
Wait for the real game framework.
The keyboard is fine for typing but I see no practical way to make wasd navigation work...
old games like this take up barely any space at all
It is interesting to watch all the developments
It is like watching your baby grow and reach milestones.
First it's Born
Then it learns to say "Hello World"
It keeps learning new tricks in its development
It is now trying to be come a teenager
And we will be so proud when it become a fully functioning adult
Just interesting to watch the fairly standard progression of a device through updates and it's homebrew.
I hate to be negative, but I agree that perfomance in emulation is better than on device. Take the emulator boot time of 1-2 seconds, for instance. Hope it works out, though!
Indecom is planning on just reproducing the shareware parts until permission for the whole game comes (note: Carmack open sourced the Wolfenstein code some time ago [via TiPb], so we're hoping this won't be difficult).
Actually, while the source code of Wolfenstein 3D (and Doom, and I think Quake and some other id games) is open, that only covers the program itself, and is largely irrelevant when the game's been "ported" to Javascript and the canvas.
The game data (textures, maps, sprites, etc.) have always remained proprietary, so you're supposed to extract the data from your legally purchased copies of the full versions of those games in order to use them with the various ports to other operating systems and devices. Even Wolf3D is still available for sale in various places, e.g. Steam.
That, or you can make your own maps with the textures from the shareware versions or new art altogether, which developers have also done.
Just remember that it requires them to implement OpenGL in the underlying OS first, and then write a graphics driver for the GPU. All of this is required for webGL to function (all it does is connect the OpenGL capability to js).
Hey guys, this is Indecom here, the very developer of this app. I gotta say i was quite surprised to find my baby on precentral lol. I've read through the comments and i agree, this would be far far better when the GL framework is released. However, i did mention back in the dev thread later on that it's actually based on that raycasting engine, and i've been in contact with the engine's original creator, and i dont doubt at all that we could get it far more optimized. One great thing about the engine when i found it was the use of delta-time, meaning the game wont slow down if the frame rate drops. As of right now, enemies attack, the player attacks, there are tons of engine additions, and the quality will be customizable. I wont have my hands on a real pre to test the game until later this week. So once i get that, we'll see how well this really works :) Thanks for the comments, and for the post on pre-central, like i said i was quite surprised :)
Hey guys want to direct you to a now outdated video of the project running at less than half the regular fps, but it's still playable thanks to delta timing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA7PfqKU7rE