Menneisyys
07-13-2006, 08:50 PM
Today I’ve already reported (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=981&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1) on the brand new, great Pocket PC port of the well-known Super Mario Bros. clone SuperTux (also see this Wiki entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supertux) on the game).
Now that, thanks for the author of the Pocket PC port, I’ve received the game, I had the chance to test it. In a sentence: if you have the right Pocket PC (one that runs the game with a decent speed), it’s just great and not at all worse than on the desktop. The same visual and sound effects are present (the sound effects are, for example, stereo! Using a headphone is highly recommended so that you can really enjoy them.) - this is, fortunately, not just a dumbed-down, stripped-down port.
The game
Again, to get a feeling for the game (and to make sure you fell in love with it!), I recommend getting it from here (http://supertux.berlios.de/wiki/index.php/Download/Installation#Windows_Installer), installing and playing it. The Pocket PC version is very similar – with some changes.
First, the game supports both the Landscape and the Portrait orientations. You can’t switch between them in the game itself; the game uses the (system-level) screen orientation it was originally started at. This, unfortunately, also means WM2003 users will need to use third-party tools like Nyditot (http://www.nyditot.com/Home.asp) to switch to landscape mode before playing. Users of WM2003SE or WM5, on the other hand, won't have similar problems.
The game must be controlled by the D-pad (there’re no ways to redefine the D-pad left/right keys or use on-screen buttons/control areas, unfortunately – this is bad news for users with lower-quality D-Pads) and with either on-screen buttons (which are, fortunately, pretty big) or (for jumping) the Action button (the latter can’t be reassigned either).
In Landscape mode, the game looks like this:
http://www.winmobiletech.com/kuvat/SuperTuxLandscapehx4700.bmp.png
You can also disable fullscreen mode so that you see the taskbar and can even start other programs); then, the task bar will be visible as shown here (http://www.winmobiletech.com/kuvat/SuperTuxLandscapeNonfullscreen.bmp.png).
(Unfortunately, in Landscape, with the fullscreen mode switched off, as the entire screen shifts down several (in VGA, dozens of) pixels, the penguin sprite and the opponents on the ground won’t be visible any more, as can be seen in the above screenshot.)
Non-full screen is only usable in Portrait mode because, then, only the on-screen button size decreases as can be seen in here (http://www.winmobiletech.com/kuvat/SupertuxPortraitNonfullscreen.bmp.png) as opposed to the “regular”, full screen mode shown here (http://www.winmobiletech.com/kuvat/SupertuxPortraitFullscreen.bmp.png).
Speed and compatibility
I haven’t run into compatibility problems on my test Pocket PC's. Note that the game doesn’t support pre-WM2003 operating systems; that is, it won’t run on, say, the iPAQ 36xx/37xx.
Some speed benchmarks on my (freshly hard reset) test Pocket PCs:
HP iPAQ 2210 (QVGA): 16-20 fps (Frames per Second)
Dell Axim x51v (VGA): 19-24 fps
F-S Pocket Loox 720 (VGA): 5-6 fps (the same result with both with and without Picard’s GAPI hack)
HP iPAQ hx4700 (WM5; VGA): 8-9 fps
All these are measured with the music/sound enabled; without them, the performance gain was about 3-4 fps (with the two Pocket PC's that allowed for flawless gameplay; that is, the iPAQ 2210 and the x51v).
(Note that, as my HTC Wizard is being repaired now, I couldn’t test the title on it. I'd assume it will have around 15 fps. I'll report on this matter later tomorrow, after having received back the Wizard.)
The 19-24 fps (measured on the x51v) is still definitely worse than the 60+ fps (under SuSE Linux) the game runs on my UXGA (1600*1200) IBM Thinkpad A31p high-end notebook; still, it's really playable.
This clearly shows that you must have either a QVGA device or, as far as VGA Pocket PC's are concerned, the Dell Axim x50v/x51v for the game to run. Other VGA devices will probably be as (unplayably) slow as the hx4700 and the PL720.
As the author mentioned he would release a trial version later this week, you'll also be able to test the title to make sure it runs on your particular Pocket PC model with a decent speed.
Pros
Everything is here! The music, the (stereo!!) sound effects, everything!
The files in the filesystem are exactly the same as with the desktop version; that is, you can, for example, freely swap your ogg/mod music files of your choice if you want to change the ambient music or freely rearrange the maps
Both Portrait and Landscape orientation is supported (this is great news for people having problems with, say, the polarization issues of the Dell Axim x50v/ x51v (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=578&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1) and, therefore, preferring doing everything in Portrait).
The sources of the game are also here (see the contents of the supertux\qvgadata\distr\ subdirectory – incidentally, you don’t need to copy these files to your storage card as they aren’t needed for the actual gameplay)
There will also be a trial version so that you can test the game before purchasing it
Cons
Severe speed problems on the test VGA devices (except for the Dell Axim x51v) (on QVGA devices, there're no speed problems)
Keys not redefinable (you can’t use any other hardware button for, for example, jumping than the Action button)
On WM2003 devices, you can’t use the landscape (more natural) mode unless you use a third-party landscape setter tool
Non-fullscreen mode (so that you see the taskbar and have access to for example the Start menu) is useless in the more gaming-friendly Landscape orientation
There’s no CAB installer (the files must be manually copied) and the number of the files is 820, of which very few files can be left out (for example, the above-mentioned sources). Transferring these files can take ages if copied into flash ROM (particularly if it isn’t optimized for speed – please make sure you read this tutorial (http://pocketpcmag.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=17921) on this question)
Verdict
If you have a device that runs the game at an acceptable speed (a QVGA device or - as far as I can, based on my tests, tell - the Dell Axim x50v / x51v) and want a really good SuperTux port, go get it – you most probably won’t regret it! If you're feeling unsafe about the (possible) speed issues, you may also want to wait for some days for the trial.
Now that, thanks for the author of the Pocket PC port, I’ve received the game, I had the chance to test it. In a sentence: if you have the right Pocket PC (one that runs the game with a decent speed), it’s just great and not at all worse than on the desktop. The same visual and sound effects are present (the sound effects are, for example, stereo! Using a headphone is highly recommended so that you can really enjoy them.) - this is, fortunately, not just a dumbed-down, stripped-down port.
The game
Again, to get a feeling for the game (and to make sure you fell in love with it!), I recommend getting it from here (http://supertux.berlios.de/wiki/index.php/Download/Installation#Windows_Installer), installing and playing it. The Pocket PC version is very similar – with some changes.
First, the game supports both the Landscape and the Portrait orientations. You can’t switch between them in the game itself; the game uses the (system-level) screen orientation it was originally started at. This, unfortunately, also means WM2003 users will need to use third-party tools like Nyditot (http://www.nyditot.com/Home.asp) to switch to landscape mode before playing. Users of WM2003SE or WM5, on the other hand, won't have similar problems.
The game must be controlled by the D-pad (there’re no ways to redefine the D-pad left/right keys or use on-screen buttons/control areas, unfortunately – this is bad news for users with lower-quality D-Pads) and with either on-screen buttons (which are, fortunately, pretty big) or (for jumping) the Action button (the latter can’t be reassigned either).
In Landscape mode, the game looks like this:
http://www.winmobiletech.com/kuvat/SuperTuxLandscapehx4700.bmp.png
You can also disable fullscreen mode so that you see the taskbar and can even start other programs); then, the task bar will be visible as shown here (http://www.winmobiletech.com/kuvat/SuperTuxLandscapeNonfullscreen.bmp.png).
(Unfortunately, in Landscape, with the fullscreen mode switched off, as the entire screen shifts down several (in VGA, dozens of) pixels, the penguin sprite and the opponents on the ground won’t be visible any more, as can be seen in the above screenshot.)
Non-full screen is only usable in Portrait mode because, then, only the on-screen button size decreases as can be seen in here (http://www.winmobiletech.com/kuvat/SupertuxPortraitNonfullscreen.bmp.png) as opposed to the “regular”, full screen mode shown here (http://www.winmobiletech.com/kuvat/SupertuxPortraitFullscreen.bmp.png).
Speed and compatibility
I haven’t run into compatibility problems on my test Pocket PC's. Note that the game doesn’t support pre-WM2003 operating systems; that is, it won’t run on, say, the iPAQ 36xx/37xx.
Some speed benchmarks on my (freshly hard reset) test Pocket PCs:
HP iPAQ 2210 (QVGA): 16-20 fps (Frames per Second)
Dell Axim x51v (VGA): 19-24 fps
F-S Pocket Loox 720 (VGA): 5-6 fps (the same result with both with and without Picard’s GAPI hack)
HP iPAQ hx4700 (WM5; VGA): 8-9 fps
All these are measured with the music/sound enabled; without them, the performance gain was about 3-4 fps (with the two Pocket PC's that allowed for flawless gameplay; that is, the iPAQ 2210 and the x51v).
(Note that, as my HTC Wizard is being repaired now, I couldn’t test the title on it. I'd assume it will have around 15 fps. I'll report on this matter later tomorrow, after having received back the Wizard.)
The 19-24 fps (measured on the x51v) is still definitely worse than the 60+ fps (under SuSE Linux) the game runs on my UXGA (1600*1200) IBM Thinkpad A31p high-end notebook; still, it's really playable.
This clearly shows that you must have either a QVGA device or, as far as VGA Pocket PC's are concerned, the Dell Axim x50v/x51v for the game to run. Other VGA devices will probably be as (unplayably) slow as the hx4700 and the PL720.
As the author mentioned he would release a trial version later this week, you'll also be able to test the title to make sure it runs on your particular Pocket PC model with a decent speed.
Pros
Everything is here! The music, the (stereo!!) sound effects, everything!
The files in the filesystem are exactly the same as with the desktop version; that is, you can, for example, freely swap your ogg/mod music files of your choice if you want to change the ambient music or freely rearrange the maps
Both Portrait and Landscape orientation is supported (this is great news for people having problems with, say, the polarization issues of the Dell Axim x50v/ x51v (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=578&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1) and, therefore, preferring doing everything in Portrait).
The sources of the game are also here (see the contents of the supertux\qvgadata\distr\ subdirectory – incidentally, you don’t need to copy these files to your storage card as they aren’t needed for the actual gameplay)
There will also be a trial version so that you can test the game before purchasing it
Cons
Severe speed problems on the test VGA devices (except for the Dell Axim x51v) (on QVGA devices, there're no speed problems)
Keys not redefinable (you can’t use any other hardware button for, for example, jumping than the Action button)
On WM2003 devices, you can’t use the landscape (more natural) mode unless you use a third-party landscape setter tool
Non-fullscreen mode (so that you see the taskbar and have access to for example the Start menu) is useless in the more gaming-friendly Landscape orientation
There’s no CAB installer (the files must be manually copied) and the number of the files is 820, of which very few files can be left out (for example, the above-mentioned sources). Transferring these files can take ages if copied into flash ROM (particularly if it isn’t optimized for speed – please make sure you read this tutorial (http://pocketpcmag.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=17921) on this question)
Verdict
If you have a device that runs the game at an acceptable speed (a QVGA device or - as far as I can, based on my tests, tell - the Dell Axim x50v / x51v) and want a really good SuperTux port, go get it – you most probably won’t regret it! If you're feeling unsafe about the (possible) speed issues, you may also want to wait for some days for the trial.