I'm going to learn to develop on the Saturn and eventually be able to optimize and squeeze as much juice out of it as possible. Although I don't really know what I'm doing.. I know C and C++ and can write fairly advanced 3D game engines so I just need guidance getting this whole thing set up, the documentation is scarce and hard to navigate and there are some prequisite pieces of knowledge that I wish were documented idiomatically. Firstly, how to compile for the Saturn. I would like to experiment and learn ASM through the saturn but I could do with some help actually getting an environment set up for this with a compiler/assembler etc. I am aware of more high level libraries available but I would like to study the Saturn hardware and not be limited by a slow library, I know the maths behind 3D perspective projection, raycasting, rotation, collision etc and I wish to optimize these things for the Saturn as a learning tool and have it running smoothly, but I question how I get off my feet as smoothly as possible? Cheers.
Need help with setting up my tool chain.
- Thread starter aquarius
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I would use such a thing but using such a high level library kind of defeats the point does it not? May as well just write for PC with OpenGL or whatever, what I want to do is understand the hardware and optimize for the system.
Getting the Saturn to display anything at all is hard enough with a library like Jo engine (which is built on top of SGL). Doing everything in assembly sounds like an exercise in frustration.
The Saturn technical docs are stored in the Resources section if you want to download them.
The Saturn technical docs are stored in the Resources section if you want to download them.
Funny because I just set up Jo engine and it was way easier to set up than OpenGL. Odd that there is a presumption that I don't know how to write a graphics library and a game engine using primitive logic, I asked for help with a tool chain. I want to squeeze whatever juice there is in the system. The technical docs are not what I need help with, it's the means of controlling the CPU so that I can experiment with it and work through the docs. Hell, you can build a machine to solve polynomials using just gears: see the babbage machine. The high level system calls and high level features available in a CPU are far more comfy than that, and the babbage machine isn't all that complicated. The CPU is just a float reg[16]; that holds syntax and system call and that is hardly an impenetrable structure, converting mathematical formulae to ASM does not seem too difficult. I'm just clueless on some fundamentals of assembling for the Saturn, the tool chain. I guess I will learn Megadrive asm instead and transfer the knowledge to the Saturn.
Difference engine - Wikipedia
Difference engine - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
The discord is where most of the devs hang out, you'll get a way better response for this there.
I didn't presume anything. The Saturn being a frustrating machine isn't exactly news - but I hope you are able to find the info you're looking for and wish you luck on your Saturn projects!
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