gamedevlists-general

[GD-General] Is anyone using DirectMusic?

[Matt N. <mat...@ni...>]

I've been looking into DirectMusic recently for sound support in our =
game and have found little info about it on the web. Perhaps this is =
because I'm used to the amount of info around about Direct3D and it's =
just that sound in general is less widely discussed. I'm wondering if =
it's not popular because it's so platform specific though - with many =
games now being developed with multiple platforms in mind, tying your =
game into DirectMusic file formats is probably undesirable for many =
projects. So, how many people are actually using it for game sound, and =
if you are using it are you just using it for music or are you using it =
for all your sound effects as well?

---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.394 / Virus Database: 224 - Release Date: 03/10/2002
=20

[GD-General] Cell phone games...Test on regular cell phone?

[Colin F. <cp...@ea...>]

2002 October 20th
Sunday

I just bought a Motorola T720 with Verizon as the
carrier.  The phone features a color LCD, and it
runs simple applications.

Okay, I'm really sorry for posting this silly
question to this list, but...

Can I write applications and run them on this 
phone with this carrier?

I tried to do my homework before composing this
post.  I did all kinds of Google searches.
But I'm just confused and dazzled by all the
marketing and news bytes, and my current impression
is that you can't just code your own stuff for
your own phone (with the T720 / Verizon combo).

Is this a phenomena that cell phone developers
face in general?  Carriers suppress development
for an otherwise standard device (phone)?

Do other carriers have a more open approach
to developing code for your own phone?

I don't want to become a development partner
with a carrier, and I don't have any ambition
to sell my application to the masses, and I 
don't care if the only way I can get my
code on to my phone is a data cable connected
to my PC.

Am I living in fantasy-land, with an out-moded
mindset that happens to think that the latest
wave of information-gathering applications and
services is just insane (MSN/Passport, RealOne,
MediaPlayer7.1, etc), and proprietary methods
to access your own property requires licensing
and partnerships with "The Man" (Microsoft,
Verizon, Sony, Nintendo, Yahoo!, RealNetworks)?

Anyhow, I'm practically barfing less than 24 hours
after signing up with Verizon with a Motorola T720
mobile phone...  I have to pay $6/month to a
third-party company, upload my personal photo's
to their servers, just to get pictures on to
my own damned phone!  (This fee does not include
the "air time" or general Internet access fee,
which are perfectly reasonable charges.)
To my knowledge, there is no way to get ringer
sounds that weren't produced by third-party
partners of Verizon, mostly costing money.
Really, the biggest thing is the apparent inability
to download your own applications to your own
phone.  So, instead of at least having the option
of developing games and exchanging them for free,
what you are offered is what you get.  If a
giant corporation (EA, THQ, etc) doesn't 
write that handy game or app for your Verizon phone,
you're screwed!

Someone tell me I'm wrong about uploading your
own apps.  Someone tell me that it's easy to get
the necessary SDK (for the T720) and use a data
link cable to basically run whatever I want,
making whatever sounds and graphics I want.

I can return the phone within 14 days from today
with very little cash loss.  After that point I
might as well try hard to forget that the T720
is an awesome piece of hardware...And maybe I'll
even face regret when I see other people with
even cooler phones (with digital cameras) that
are totally open to development and really 
basic, basic operations -- like picture display.

I can't help it.  I know I should have studied the
service a bit more, but I never expected something
as insane as having third parties handle every little
aspect of your phone recreation for money.
I wrote an e-mail to Verizon saying that this was
basically as insane as being charged to open files
on your own hard disk on your own personal computer!
Just image having to transmit all of your files
on your hard drive to a third party, just so you
could access them on your desktop computer, and
there was a fee for this "service"?!

Man, this is so messed up!  Sigining up for an
MSN "Passport" just to do other basic things
with my phone also left me feeling compromised.
I try to get used to "progress", trying to
ignore the lengthly EULA's, profiles, cookies,
daemons, applets, kiosk mode pop-up windows,
fake e-mail, spam, fees, plans, endless voicemail
menus, inability to opt-out of any marketing,
and basically NO guarantee of any privacy about
the CD's or URL's you consume, ever...
But I can't.  I wonder how corporations in America
reached this unprecedented level of information-
gathering with no regard to privacy, and resorting
to extremes of licensing and protecting products
with proprietary and secret interfaces, connectors,
protocols, languages, etc.

I'm sorry that my question degenerated in to a massive
critique of the software industry and giant corporations.
Maybe someone can cheer me up with a statement like:
"It's easy to develop for the Motorola T720,
and carriers can't stop you!  Go for it!"

--- Colin
cp...@ea...

Re: [GD-General] Cell phone games...Test on regular cell phone?

[Mads B. D. <ma...@ch...>]

On Sun, 20 Oct 2002, Colin Fahey wrote:

> I'm sorry that my question degenerated in to a massive
> critique of the software industry and giant corporations.
> Maybe someone can cheer me up with a statement like:
> "It's easy to develop for the Motorola T720,
> and carriers can't stop you!  Go for it!"

I believe that this statement is true: 

"It's easy to develop for the Nokia 7650, 
and carriers can't stop you!  Go for it!"

I even think that it is very easy for all symbian devices. I have no idea 
about the Motorola T720.

Mads

-- 
Mads Bondo Dydensborg.                               ma...@ch...
The Microsoft Dictionary:

           interoperability: The ability of a Microsoft product to operate
                             with another Microsoft product.

Re: [GD-General] Cell phone games...Test on regular cell phone?

[Colin F. <cp...@ea...>]

2002 October 31st
Thursday

I wanted to summarize some of the things I learned about
cell phone development over the past few days -- because
almost everyone who reads this list will eventually have
a cell phone, and some basic facts about cell phone
carriers may greatly influence the experience you have
with your cell phone.

PHONE MODELS, CARRIERS, AND PROGRAMMING ENVIRONMENTS:
=====================================================

A given phone model (e.g., Motorola T720, ... ) for a given 
carrier (e.g., AT&T, Verizon, ... ) executes a single type
of code (e.g., J2ME, BREW, ... ).

If you get a contract with Verizon, and you choose the
Motorola T720, the phone executes BREW only.

If you get a contract with AT&T, and you choose the
Motorola T720, the phone executes J2ME only.

It's critical to note that if you get the same model
phone with a different carrier, it may fundamentally
execute a different kind of code.  The two major
platforms are: J2ME and BREW.


WHAT IS SO WRONG ABOUT "BREW":
===============================================

BREW is "Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless",
a proprietary platform developed by QUALCOMM.
To learn more about BREW, visit their WWW site:

http://www.qualcomm.com/brew

The BREW version of the ARM compiler required
to develop code for your own phone costs $1,500.

No application (even those you download yourself
via a data cable) can survive on your phone for
more than three months, at which time you need
a new "signature" from QUALCOMM.

If you are developing an application for a BREW
phone, you must submit all source code, original
and compiled art assets, and documentation to
QUALCOMM -- just to get a "signature".

Once you develop an application or even simple
resources like "desktop wallpaper" or "ringer tunes",
you need a closed technology called "Get It Now"
(a service of QUALCOMM, not the carrier) for 
people to download your creations (for a fee).

All phones with Verizon contracts use BREW.

A person who worked at a company that does BREW
development told me that the fact that BREW was
a closed platform (very costly to acquire compiler,
very costly to share your creations with others,
hard to acquire temporary "signatures") results in
higher quality products in the market.  But for
the consumer the situation is actually very bad,
since this closed system pretty much guarantees
that anything you can possibly download is going
to cost money!  Even if I wanted to give away my
cool ringer sounds or desktop wallpaper, I think
I'd need an elaborate partnership with QUALCOMM
just to let you download my creations via
"Get It Now".

BREW destroys the value of an otherwise advanced
phone (e.g., Motorola T720).  When I purchased
the phone I had dreams of uploading cool pictures
for my desktop, and playing sound clips from
movies and video games whenever the phone "rings".
Wouldn't it be cool to have your phone do a
Ren & Stimpy voice ("You EEE-diot!") or 
Ms. Cleo ("Oh my goodness!"), or any sample
you could find?  Well, unless you're willing to
pay a third party some money, you can't do
any of this with a BREW-based phone.

I am returning my phone and cancelling my contract
today (within 15-day trial period) to get the
exact same phone (Motorola T720) with a carrier
that chose J2ME for their phones (e.g., AT&T).


WHAT IS J2ME?  
===============================================

J2ME is "Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition", a
"highly optimized" Java runtime environment.
To learn more about J2ME, visit Sun's WWW site:

http://java.sun.com/j2me

Chances are that you have already done some
Java programming in your life!  I was very
surprised to learn that J2ME really does have
a lot of Java functionality!

You can create threads, sockets, etc, very
easily.  You can distribute the *.JAR and
*.JAD files.

I never liked the idea of "Garbage Collection"
on any platform (Java, C#, etc), or the fact
that every Java temporary value is an object
that must be garbage collected (so something
like s = "a" + "b" + "c"; leads to a temporary
object "ab" (or "bc") that might persist for
quite a long time!).

Actually, there's a lot I don't like about
Java, but it is FREE and well-documented,
and millions of people have developed code
for Java.  I'm sure there are lots of discussion
forums for J2ME.  (Contrast all of this with
the BREW situation!)

In fifteen minutes of WWW surfing I found
tons of cool applications, images, and
sound effects for the Motorola T720 
J2ME version -- all FREE.

People wrote some crazy applications for
their phones, like WWW servers and databases!

I'm told that the gaming or multiplayer
experience won't be real-time for years
(since phones don't recognize multiple
simultaneous button pressing, and there's
a lot of LATENCY in network traffic), but
I am very excited by being able to take
full advantage of the multimedia aspects
of my property (phone) without having
third parties (QUALCOMM, Verizon, Microsoft
MSN) invading my privacy and extorting money
from me when they made no contribution to
my product.


GENERAL SUMMARY:
============================================

When I learned that I couldn't even set my
"desktop wallpaper" on my new Motorola T720
phone without paying Verizon / QUALCOMM, and
uploading my personal images to a stranger's
server, I was stunned and depressed.  I wondered how
"The Man" was able to get this far in a free
market.  Now I know, from experience, that
it's just the ignorance of the consumer;
I just wasn't aware how radically different
the phone experience could be, just based
on partnership decisions of the carrier.

Business and development models like BREW / "Get It Now",
and information gathering strategies like
".NET Passport", "Real One Player", "Microsoft
Windows Media Player", etc, have greatly held
back the promise of technology by setting
up barriers and telling the consumer (by actions,
not by promises to the contrary) that his or her privacy
has no value whatsoever.  How can even the most forgiving
personality avoid becoming cynical when giant
corporations, which could comfortably grow
without uploading every CD track title and WWW site
URL that you visit, do it anyway just to derive 
marginally more cash from you?

I hope developers will not get suckered in to
the BREW paradigm.  And, ultimately, I think
consumers will discover and choose the open
paradigm (e.g., J2ME).

It may be true that BREW / "Get It Now" is
sufficiently closed to turn more downloads in
to cash for the developer -- but the closed
nature may be the exact reason the entire 
market shifts to something like J2ME.
Also, a small J2ME developer can get 100% of 
the purchase price of any item, and developement
tools are FREE.

I gotta go; I have a phone to return!  I am
voting with my wallet.

--- Colin
cp...@ea...