Zeus
09-15-2005, 09:22 AM
Naoneo has given us a monster update on the status of PSIx, there is way to much to summarise here so here it all is from Naoneo...
Okay, big update now since i haven't really said anything too deeply reguarding psix at this point.
<center><a href="http://www.maxconsole.net/content_img/alphabuild-r6-2.jpg"><img src="http://www.maxconsole.net/content_img/alphabuild-r6-2.jpg" height="150" width="225"></center></a>
Currently, Psix is in a non working state, due to various implimentations and experiments with things i've wanted and attempted to include, there is a long list of features yet to include which are pushing me against a wall, so right now what im doing is working with a simple base (the osk/cursor) and making individual features for the base, and trying to work them into the current build, there are a few things which currently elude my grasp, the most notable being the ability to launch homebrew without completely removing psix from memory, as loadexec works fine, but only if you plan to simply quit the current process and start another, which isn't what we want!, i need to be able to hook the home key, or at the very least, have an ingame-reset style combination to return the user to the shell, without that, the point of the shell is pretty much defunct.
I've had a fair ammount of people say "But fastloader can do it!", but please understand, launching prx's and retail boot.bins, isn't the same as launching homebrew!, homebrew likes to take up lots of mem! and if you so code it to behave and not do so, for an odd reason it doesn't run.
A possible solution would be to ask developers to make their home buttons load up a universal eboot, which will do what it's told to in a config file, such as "loadshell=/psix/eboot.pbp" or "returntoxmb=yes" etc, however the chances of every developer out there doing this is very slim! :(
Also due to the nature of the animations and transitions im using with psix, if i try to include to much in the shell, i run out of memory, malloc errors are becomming very common due to the total rapage of system memory, so im working towards reducing the frame count of animations, and shaving off file sizes here and there, so yes, memory handling is a big headache for the time being, as you can see from the above image, psix is very eye-candy, and that eye candy takes up space, something which is like gold-dust to the psp.
Yet more problems!, i'm having a weird issue with the dropdown config menu, in that if you open the OSK or menu's whilst the animation of the dropdown is playing, the shell completely crashes!, ah well, for the sake of closure, i will now list current features and planned features, and features i've noted but removed for practicle reasons
Current features :
- Load icon image from homebrew eboot (currently loads the corner of the image :P, not very useful yet).
- Draggable icons with location's stored to conf.db (so it's like you left it when you restart).
- Renamable shortcuts.
- Changable icon images.
- OSK (Onscreen keyboard, see below).
- My PSP setup configuration (change psp settings such as region, button configuration, language, etc).
- Switchable background wallpapers, Background tiles if the image doesn't fit, will stretch too (from config) eventually.
- MP3 Player with fully working visual equaliser, though currently it goes out of sync/slows down unless you set cpu to 333 (needs optimising, crashes when large mp3's are played).
- UMD Config (to-do, will allow playback of any region umd video, bypassing firmware requirement).
- ISO Tab (This is NOT an iso loader, it will allow people to create homebrew iso packs, so they can easilly transfer different packs without moving multiple files, it also means homebrew developers can release single-file applications, and eliminate the need for specific file placement).
- Net tab (Not for browser, calm down!, it's for network updates of the psix shell, and for homebrew iso packs)
- FTPD (FTP Daemon, to allow ftp access to the psp via wifi
To do :
- RSS newsfeed reader, which will display the news across the bottom tab bar when active.
- Image viewer - Self explanitory
- Wifi configuration
- Email application
- Sound configuration (for menus)
- MS Duo tools
- Screensaver (So you dont have to switch it off of course!)
- Basic web browser (text based browser for various uses, not planning anything too fancy, i don't have long enough to write code parsers for all html, lol)
- Standalone mp3 player
Removed :
- Video player (Basically this was implimented as a test but would only play RAW video with poor sound quality and 2 second out of sync, it will be re-added in future when it's a more feasable feature, for the time being te video tab will be used to manage video files on the psp.
- Fullscreen Visualisation for audio (Wouldn't work at a decent speed, would cause malloc errors ALOT).
Official HomePage: <a href="http://www.naoneo.com/dev/05sept.html" target="_blank">naoneo.com</a>
Okay, big update now since i haven't really said anything too deeply reguarding psix at this point.
<center><a href="http://www.maxconsole.net/content_img/alphabuild-r6-2.jpg"><img src="http://www.maxconsole.net/content_img/alphabuild-r6-2.jpg" height="150" width="225"></center></a>
Currently, Psix is in a non working state, due to various implimentations and experiments with things i've wanted and attempted to include, there is a long list of features yet to include which are pushing me against a wall, so right now what im doing is working with a simple base (the osk/cursor) and making individual features for the base, and trying to work them into the current build, there are a few things which currently elude my grasp, the most notable being the ability to launch homebrew without completely removing psix from memory, as loadexec works fine, but only if you plan to simply quit the current process and start another, which isn't what we want!, i need to be able to hook the home key, or at the very least, have an ingame-reset style combination to return the user to the shell, without that, the point of the shell is pretty much defunct.
I've had a fair ammount of people say "But fastloader can do it!", but please understand, launching prx's and retail boot.bins, isn't the same as launching homebrew!, homebrew likes to take up lots of mem! and if you so code it to behave and not do so, for an odd reason it doesn't run.
A possible solution would be to ask developers to make their home buttons load up a universal eboot, which will do what it's told to in a config file, such as "loadshell=/psix/eboot.pbp" or "returntoxmb=yes" etc, however the chances of every developer out there doing this is very slim! :(
Also due to the nature of the animations and transitions im using with psix, if i try to include to much in the shell, i run out of memory, malloc errors are becomming very common due to the total rapage of system memory, so im working towards reducing the frame count of animations, and shaving off file sizes here and there, so yes, memory handling is a big headache for the time being, as you can see from the above image, psix is very eye-candy, and that eye candy takes up space, something which is like gold-dust to the psp.
Yet more problems!, i'm having a weird issue with the dropdown config menu, in that if you open the OSK or menu's whilst the animation of the dropdown is playing, the shell completely crashes!, ah well, for the sake of closure, i will now list current features and planned features, and features i've noted but removed for practicle reasons
Current features :
- Load icon image from homebrew eboot (currently loads the corner of the image :P, not very useful yet).
- Draggable icons with location's stored to conf.db (so it's like you left it when you restart).
- Renamable shortcuts.
- Changable icon images.
- OSK (Onscreen keyboard, see below).
- My PSP setup configuration (change psp settings such as region, button configuration, language, etc).
- Switchable background wallpapers, Background tiles if the image doesn't fit, will stretch too (from config) eventually.
- MP3 Player with fully working visual equaliser, though currently it goes out of sync/slows down unless you set cpu to 333 (needs optimising, crashes when large mp3's are played).
- UMD Config (to-do, will allow playback of any region umd video, bypassing firmware requirement).
- ISO Tab (This is NOT an iso loader, it will allow people to create homebrew iso packs, so they can easilly transfer different packs without moving multiple files, it also means homebrew developers can release single-file applications, and eliminate the need for specific file placement).
- Net tab (Not for browser, calm down!, it's for network updates of the psix shell, and for homebrew iso packs)
- FTPD (FTP Daemon, to allow ftp access to the psp via wifi
To do :
- RSS newsfeed reader, which will display the news across the bottom tab bar when active.
- Image viewer - Self explanitory
- Wifi configuration
- Email application
- Sound configuration (for menus)
- MS Duo tools
- Screensaver (So you dont have to switch it off of course!)
- Basic web browser (text based browser for various uses, not planning anything too fancy, i don't have long enough to write code parsers for all html, lol)
- Standalone mp3 player
Removed :
- Video player (Basically this was implimented as a test but would only play RAW video with poor sound quality and 2 second out of sync, it will be re-added in future when it's a more feasable feature, for the time being te video tab will be used to manage video files on the psp.
- Fullscreen Visualisation for audio (Wouldn't work at a decent speed, would cause malloc errors ALOT).
Official HomePage: <a href="http://www.naoneo.com/dev/05sept.html" target="_blank">naoneo.com</a>