Porting Torque XBOX

#1 I wouldnt even bother an xbox sdk is very exspensive and would take alot of work to port it over to to the platform

#2 More specificly, what needs to be reprogrammed?

#3 Search the forums, this topic has been beaten to death many times...

#4 Torque is natively an opengl app, there is a translation layer that converts the opengl calls to directX. All that would have to be dumped and replaced with xbox specific code. It is fundementally a waste of time.

#5 I believe I've read something about a linux port for Xbox (there also has been work on a PS2 port) which raises another very interesting possibility. The NVidia GeForce3 found in the Xbox should support OpenGL and of course Torque is compatible with linux and OpenGL.

The idea is there that potentially someone could distribute a linux based game which was Xbox compatible but did not require any MS licensing.

From a technical standpoint the question now becomes whether the linux port is complete enough to support the Torque, ensuring Xbox controller feedback is recognized (anyone know whether that would be an issue?), and getting Torque to launch on boot (obvious). Not having worked with Xbox I wonder if networking would be affected? Anybody know?

Whether or not anyone is willing to take the risk of a MS legal attack is another question.

#6 I had heard a while ago that nVidia was working on OpenGL drivers for the XBOX. I imagine they are available by now.

Recoding Torque to work with Direct3D wouldn't be particularly difficult anyway.

#7 We went the other way and got a Xbox game we made to run on the PC, didn't take any time at all. But that doesn't mean you will be alowed to distribute your Xbox game without getting the go ahead from MS, so you woudl still need to register as an xbox dev, get your dev kit etc, and then go through QA testing and make sure that you fit all the stringent rules as far as ghow your saved games are stored on the HD and Mem cards etc.

Its a really long and drawn out process producing console games, with a lot of stringent rules you have to adapt to.

#8 I know for a fact that it is possible to port Torque to D3D without going insane. So if you want to, just do it. :)

#9 Before you do all that, you should keep in mind that Xbox 2 is already under development and is HIGHLY rumored to be using IBM's new G5 chip that is made for Apple Computers. The current rumor is that it will contain TWO G5's with the HyperTransport technology from AMD, and the GPU will be Radeon.

There is also talk about doing away with the HardDrive in favor of Flash RAM.


Now, before you get to excited again, the configuration sounds REALLY expensive to me. To expensive for a console game to sell in any meaningful quantity. And even if it wasn't, I have a very hard time believing that Microsoft would have leaked specs like these for any other reason that to throw Nintendo and Sony a curveball to keep them guessing just how big Microsoft might go, or how big they themselves(Sony Nintendo) should go.

Bottom line is, there has been documented comments from Microsoft revealing that Backward Compatibility is still "Undecided". Before I would make any ports to Xbox at this point, I would consider what it would mean if they didn't make the Xbox2 Backward compatible, or at least build in an interpreter to run the older games. Of course, if you can get the port out before the end of this year, it shouldn't be a problem for you. If you cant,....

#10 If all you want to do is experiment, you can get up and running on sn XBox very inexpensively. Just buy an $85 mod chip for the X-Box you already own, and you can do development. Torque is a very good start to do this type of development. Last year, for our Marble Blast FX demo, we had Torque running on straight Direct-X in a couple of weeks.

GG's official position on consoles is that indies don't stand a chance. The distribution channels are closed, you can't publish without the box maker's approval, you are up against huge compeittors, there is no on-line distribution, etc.

You can get your game onto the Xbox for demo puposes. Maybe this would be enough incentive for a pubisher to pick up your product or your company. It is doable. It's just that you are on your own.

-Jeff Tunnell GG

#11 "GG's official position on consoles is that indies don't stand a chance. The distribution channels are closed, you can't publish without the box maker's approval, you are up against huge compeittors, there is no on-line distribution, etc."


Very excellent points Jeff.

#12 Jeff,

Ah dude you hit the nail on the head. Having a port to the XBox is a good way to get some attention from a potential publisher, or atleast being able to say you can port to the XBox is good.

Does anyone know of a team that has done this? Its always good to say "we dont have an XBox port but it has been done before and we can get one in x number of weeks.

#13 Last I checked, all the Linux versions you can get to run on the XBox are not capable of using the GeForce 3 card for hardware acceleration. And also you do not need a modchip to put Linux on an XBox, they've done a total software hack for it that leaves the original console working even.

Maybe this would just be a better resource though.

http://xbox-linux.sourceforge.net/

#14 Just to make it clear, I'm not talking about using Linux on the X-Box. That would be something that is fun to mess around with, but would not be a good way to run your game.

-Jeff

#15 Jeff, I've been running linux on my xbox for some time (have web/mail/ftp running on it just fine), but running a game on it under linux .... naaah :-)

Where there not a port of Tribes 2 for PS2 a while back ?? Tribes Aerial Assault or something ??

#16 Yeah, but that was on some weird, crazy branch of the code (if it was even based on Torque) that didn't come along when GG bought the rights from Sierra.