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New SS Game

Ratamahatta - Feb 24, 2002

		Ratamahatta		Feb 24, 2002
			Ok, for all you badass programmers, heres a question, what format are saturn movie files? and how would i go about encorporating one into a game Plus what do I need to get started programming for the saturn? programs etc? (Edited by Ratamahatta at 7:24 am on Feb. 24, 2002)

		ExCyber		Feb 24, 2002
			"Ok, for all you badass programmers" Well, I'm hoping you'll accept my advice too. "what format are saturn movie files?" Any format that you can write or obtain an encoder and Saturn-compatible playback code for, since Saturn has no hardware video decoder. The formats primarily used on commercial games are Cinepak... (various versions) and Truemotion.... If you want to replace one in an existing game (wasn't 100% clear on whether or not this is what you want to do), you'd need to get the same encoder used for the original movies, or one that produces a compatible format. AFAIK, the Cinepak and Truemotion encoders demand some big bucks and thus aren't incredibly common. I'm pretty sure some games (e.g. the Street Fighter Alpha/Zero games) use the Saturn graphics hardware to do cutscene animation instead of making it FMV. "Plus what do I need to get started programming for the saturn?" In general, if you don't mind using SGL, you'll need: - A compiler toolchain (A semi-custom Sega version of GCC/EGCS... and GNU binutils... is usually used). This is what lets you compile a C program for Saturn. - SGL itself. This is a library that lets you use some high-level calls and constructs to do Saturn programming. It's not directly compatible with OpenGL, libc, or anything else you're likely to see on PC, so you'll need to learn some things about Saturn's architecture to use it effectively. AFAIK, these can be found on Slinga's FTP (if it's still running). Takashi has a couple SGL tutorials... available (though I can't recommend following his example of putting everything in c:dev - this has to do with the GNU tools originally being developed for unixlike systems, where the /dev directory has a special purpose). Hope this helps.

		TakaIsSilly		Feb 24, 2002
			But IIRC, BeOS uses /dev for the GCC compiler, hence my assumption that it would be a general good location BTW, I have yet to see a working example of the "streaming from CD" file functions, so if you're planning on doing a software video decoder, you'll need to read up on that.

		ExCyber		Feb 24, 2002
			With the way the Sega compiler directories are laid out, I doubt that any problems are likely, but it's something that's stuck with me since reading the DJGPP install text...

		RadSil		Feb 27, 2002
			"Don't install in /dev, as DJGPP treats that directory specially" Yeah, I know what you're talking about.