Quick question re. different builds

Subforum for discussion and help with ScummVM's Nintendo DS port

Moderator: ScummVM Team

Post Reply
vaderag
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Feb 03, 2008 3:13 pm

Quick question re. different builds

Post by vaderag »

Just got my DS and over the moon to see that there is a scummVM version for it!
I have a quick question re. the various different builds supplied. Why do different games require different builds when the normal ScummVM has just the one build?
Also, what would happen if i tried to play a game that needed build C (for example) on build A?

Thanks
tomten
Posts: 138
Joined: Mon Oct 16, 2006 9:16 am

Re: Quick question re. different builds

Post by tomten »

vaderag wrote:Why do different games require different builds when the normal ScummVM has just the one build?
The NDS has much less memory than the devices you run the "normal" ScummVM on. The different NDS "builds" contain emulators for different types of games, since not everything can fit in memory at the same time. In fact, many game types supported by the "normal" ScummVM can't run on the NDS version because of memory and/or resolution requirements.
vaderag
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Feb 03, 2008 3:13 pm

Re: Quick question re. different builds

Post by vaderag »

tomten wrote:
vaderag wrote:Why do different games require different builds when the normal ScummVM has just the one build?
The NDS has much less memory than the devices you run the "normal" ScummVM on. The different NDS "builds" contain emulators for different types of games, since not everything can fit in memory at the same time. In fact, many game types supported by the "normal" ScummVM can't run on the NDS version because of memory and/or resolution requirements.
Right, i see. Could not all the different emulation requirements be built into 1 nds tho and switch depending on the game being run?
agentq
ScummVM Porter
Posts: 805
Joined: Wed Dec 21, 2005 4:29 pm
Location: London, UK

Post by agentq »

The NDS file containing the code to run every game is several times larger than the DS's total memory.

However, it may be possible in the future to not have any engines in the NDS, and load them from disk in a separate file as needed. I haven't looked in to this, but I may do at some time in the future. It's not really a priority for me at the moment though since things seem to run pretty well as they are.
vaderag
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Feb 03, 2008 3:13 pm

Post by vaderag »

Fair enough - that's really interesting to know.
I for one would like to see this possibility in the future as it's going to get confusing trying to remember which version to use for which!
However, it's really not that much of a problem :)

If i was to run the wrong game with the wrong version, would it just crash?
User avatar
md5
ScummVM Developer
Posts: 2250
Joined: Thu Nov 03, 2005 9:31 pm
Location: Athens, Greece

Post by md5 »

vaderag wrote: ...

If i was to run the wrong game with the wrong version, would it just crash?
No, it just wouldn't run that game and it would exit
agentq
ScummVM Porter
Posts: 805
Joined: Wed Dec 21, 2005 4:29 pm
Location: London, UK

Post by agentq »

No, it just wouldn't run that game and it would exit
No, each build of ScummVM DS uses a different game list. If you try to add a game using the wrong build, it will give the 'No games could be found in the selected directory' message and not add it to the list. So you can't attempt to run an incorrect game.
Post Reply