PS3 Development

Zookey · Post by **Zookey** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 4:12 pm

Hello, My name is Josh aka Zookey. I found this site and forums while googline to look up PS3 dev kits.

I am Co-Founder and Lead Game Designer of Team KAIZEN (www.teamkaizengames.com)---we are an indie start up studio currently seeking funding---we already pitched our game to Sony once (just the concept of it--we don't currently have a tech demo) and we were turned down with the note that we should come back once we have a tech demo--so we are trying to make one now.

I was wondering:

A) Is there a flavor of Linux that can turn a store-bought PS3 into a PS3 dev kit that we can make our tech demo on?

B) would any of you be interested in talking with me more about being on our team?

If you'd like to talk with me about either one, please hit me up zookey-at-teamkaizengames-dot-com ---any help on either one of those two would be awesome! If at all possible, we'd like to make our tech demo on PS hardware so that any assets we make could, if needed, carry over to the final game.

Thanks! Sorry for coming off as an ad-bot or something (I know it is weird to bust into requests with my first post)---but if any of you guys are interested in helping us out I'd love to hear from you!!!!!

Josh Hughes aka Zookey

J.F. · Post by **J.F.** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 5:13 pm

Fedora is a great distro for developers. I've got Fedora 9 on my PS3 right now. The main place to find info on F9 on the PS3 is the Mac & PPC forum at Fedora Forums:

http://fedoraforum.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=51

If you read this thread, you'll find people talking about how they installed Fedora 10 on the PS3.

http://fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=205379

After installing, you probably want to compile a custom kernel for the PS3 - it makes linux MUCH faster than the stock PPC kernel. Also, switching from Gnome to XFCE eases the strain on the PS3's limited memory (memory being the primary limitation on the PS3).

Post by **jbit** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 10:00 pm

I would highly recommend doing any tech demos on the PC rather than on PS3Linux. PS3Linux has limited GPU access, so you'll either need to use an existing software rasterizer (such as MESA), which are very slow. Or custom make a software rasterizer, and while that's fun and potentially fast it seems like a waste of time for a startup, especially since you'll be using the GPU in the final version.

Alot of "PS3 games" have basic PC versions of the engine for the editor and for fast prototyping, it's generally not considered a waste. I don't see why any assets you make for the PC version wouldn't be portable to the PS3 with the right workflow. Also when I say make a PC version, I do not mean write a PC engine, I mean write a PS3 engine that uses the PC.... So make sure your tasks don't use more than 256kb of ram, make sure a lot of stuff is happening in parallel and not the traditional linear work flow, this way when you get your PS3 kits moving chunks to the SPUs should be easy.

I hope this helps.

Zookey · Post by **Zookey** » Mon Dec 08, 2008 7:45 am

Sweet--I am going to forward all this info to my coders--thanks for your help guys!!!!!!
Josh

rapso · Post by **rapso** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 11:34 pm

jbit wrote: Also when I say make a PC version, I do not mean write a PC engine, I mean write a PS3 engine that uses the PC....

I'd suggest to use opengl and cg for that task.

So make sure your tasks don't use more than 256kb of ram,

i'm sure jbit was talking about MB, i'd suggest you to rather fit into 200mb.

make sure a lot of stuff is happening in parallel and not the traditional linear work flow, this way when you get your PS3 kits moving chunks to the SPUs should be easy.

for a techdemo for sony that might not be urgently needed.
the most important part is that you show of your key features of the planed tech and game.

Post by **jbit** » Thu Dec 11, 2008 12:03 am

rapso wrote:
So make sure your tasks don't use more than 256kb of ram,
i'm sure jbit was talking about MB, i'd suggest you to rather fit into 200mb.

Nope, I meant 256kb, as in the size of the SPUs local store.. but yes you should make sure your resources fit in the PS3s main RAM too :)

My point about designing for PS3 (parallel, SPU compatible tasks, etc) wasn't about impressing sony (although it would), it was more about avoiding duplicating work. If you design your code to work on PS3 from the start then moving it over to PS3 will be much easier.

And yes, I'd also recommend using OpenGL and Cg for the render code.

rapso · Post by **rapso** » Thu Dec 11, 2008 12:17 am

jbit wrote:
rapso wrote:
So make sure your tasks don't use more than 256kb of ram,
i'm sure jbit was talking about MB, i'd suggest you to rather fit into 200mb.
Nope, I meant 256kb, as in the size of the SPUs local store..

sorry, I didn't expect you talk about spus :/

My point about designing for PS3 (parallel, SPU compatible tasks, etc) wasn't about impressing sony (although it would), it was more about avoiding duplicating work. If you design your code to work on PS3 from the start then moving it over to PS3 will be much easier.

yeah, writing code twice is bad, but it depends on weather you want to use the prototype as base for the game or not. writing fire&forget techdemos can be 10times faster than writing solid code for the final game. (and without the SDK and final hardware it might not even work the way you design it).

I think, for a (tech)demo of the game you might even use some external engines. Having the ps3 license would give you access to the phyree engine, that might be the basis that you need for your game that you'd otherwise write yourself for the techdemo.

But that depends on your company's goals for the size and marked of the game, so it's just an alternative possibility.

btw. it's also beneficial to have a publisher to get a ps3 license from sony. that might be an easier stept at first.