pocketSand v0.8.3
Well, i finally managed to have some time to work on pocketSand and i’m releasing a couple of fixes.
- Under some circumstances pocketSand won’t startup.
- Added pixel-doubling feature in order to gain more speed, primarily on VGA devices where the higher resolution involve too much calculations: the switch is also available for QVGA devices as well. That feature is *enabled by default* on VGA devices!
- A screen-clearing icon (trashcan) has been added.
- The main application icon has been added.
- Credits moved.
Also, all versions are available for win32-desktop too (GDI only), but i never released them, i just thought you already had one ;)
So, i really hope Shane H. and Crayfish will be able to play with this new version, let me know!
Time of update!
This version should run slightly faster than the previous one and hopefully rather good on most of the VGA devices: also it should work on WM5 devices too.
Thank you all for feedback and reports, always appreciated!
– Switched VGA approach: it will be handled only by using RawFrameBufferInfo information.
- It appears the WM5-platform runtime library implements the “rand()” function differently than on the WM2003/SE one, and also noticeably slower. This has been substituted with a “Mersenne Twister” random number generator (ref. “M. Matsumoto and T. Nishimura, ‘Mersenne Twister: A 623-Dimensionally Equidistributed Uniform Pseudo-Random Number Generator’, ACM Transactions on Modeling and Computer Simulation, Vol. 8, No. 1, January 1998, pp 3-30.”).
pocketSand v0.8 released
I’m happy to say that [tag]pocketSand[/tag] is now available for download!
This build is still a development version, so you could expect some bugs coming up: also, you are encouraged to report any malfunction.
The installer is a Windows-desktop one: once launched, the usual “Add/Remove” programs window of the WindowsCE manager will appear and you should just follow the on-screen instructions.
Download pocketSand v0.8dev
Download pocketsand_v0.8dev (.cab)
(WM2003/2003SE/2005 only)
NOTE
If you are having any problems running it, please contact me at _manuel_.bua@bit-fire.com (be sure to remove the underscores thing) attaching the game-generated logfile called aqua_log.txt in the game’s folder.
2006/11/07 UPDATE
With the help of some helpful people i’m trying to address a VGA issue that exhibits a severe stylus misalignment (Dell Axim x50v/x51v are the most reported devices): stay tuned for updates.
2006/11/08 UPDATE
A .cab file has been provided.
Also, VGA and misalignment issues should be resolved in the next version.
pocketSand on the way
There is a simple yet addicting little game out there called Falling Sand Game: there are no rules or goals, but you have to be sure the imagination is your only one limit: rather than a game, i would call it simulation btw.
The first version i ever seen around was at the DOFI blog and since then, there have been other numerous variations on that theme such as this, this or this one too.
There is a fan-site too here and they have other numerous variations and add-ons to the original version, including a link to an SDL-based one, that’s a C++ port using the well-known SDL library: also, someone told me that there is a PalmOS version too.
At this point i was really expecting to see a [tag]PocketPC[/tag] version of that game, just because of the nature of the game itself: the game mechanics is coupled with the lowest human interaction i would expect to see in a game due to the fact that particles’ physics and properties do the rest, and this interaction is perfectly suited to a PocketPC’s stylus.
I ported the SDL-based version to the PocketPC platform, by using the cross-platform framework i’m currently developing: the screenshot on the right come from a win32-desktop build of pocketSand.
I plan to release it really soon, just the time to give it some tweaks and optimizations, mainly for the PPC build, and i really would love to have some feedback about it, such as how it performs on your device and/or if you are having problems just running it.
If you want to give pocketSand a try, stay tuned for updates!