Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!news
From: Alex Herbert <aherbert@ndirect.co.uk>
Newsgroups: scee.yaroze.programming.3d_graphics
Subject: Re: GsLinkObject4 Confusion - Currently: Direct Hardware Access is Naughty
Date: Thu, 03 Sep 1998 16:33:02 +0000
Organization: PlayStation Net Yaroze (SCEE)
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Craig Graham wrote:

> Gerrit Goossen wrote:
>
> > I just want to double-check as I believe James did a good job of
> > explaining the distinction between what's okay and whats not: Bypassing
> > the libraries with your own functions is okay -- But directly accessing
> > hardware functions/features (other than the cpu :^) is not.
>
> You'd be find reversing the GPU packets (I think) - it's a similaridea to the
> on-the fly TMD generation that folks use - not in the libs,
> you need to use your own code to do it, but it's not direct hardware access.

Yeah, but Sony gave us the info on TMDs.  They haven't even hinted at the GPU
packets format.  Therefore we'd have to resort to reverse engineering (by
watching what the libs do).  Anyone at Sony like to comment?

>
>
> > If my understanding is wrong, please let me know!
>
> Publicly endorsing hacker sites is a 'bad thing'. I know some of themare
> *extremely* talented, but you cann't piss Sony off if you want thier
> cooperation.
>
> > So it should be fine to shove your own primitives into the OT, but
> > accessing the light gun (as someone was discussing in another ng post)
> > or using the dual-shock (didn't someone get that to work?) would make
> > you non-eligible for a CD.
>
> Sounds about right to me (but hey, I don't work for Sony).

I thought we could use the G-Con 'cos it shows up like a normal controller?  (Not
that I've tried it tho.)

> > >I agree.  A GsSortPoly() type function would be very useful.  Oh well.
> > >How much is a Pro Dev Kit?
>
> Lots. You could buy a very nice car for less.
>
> > There's no such thing in the real libs because no real developer would
> > use it! Why would you incur the overhead of formatting your data for a
> > routine plus the function overhead for something as simple as sorting a
> > single polygon? (Especially since you'd most likely be doing it several
> > hundred times per frame? The PSX is only a 33Mhz cpu remember...)
>
> You'd probably setup lots of macros to do the primitive insertion for you,
> or keep the functions real simple (no local vars, etc) and use inline
> functions
> instead (pretty much the same effect as a macro).
>
> > - Gerrit
>
> Craig.

Herbs