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    Possible to port GridWars 2

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General Discussion and Gaming
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    • S
      spud11 @fluffypillow
      last edited by

      @fluffypillow @herb_fargus Thanks for your replies, guys. Must admit I haven't even been able to get it to run at all. I've copied the gridwars-armhf-rel file into a folder together with all of the source files. The binary is executable. I've run the binary straight from commandline using sudo /bin/bash gridwars-armhf-rel with the result gridwars-armhf-rel: gridwars-armhf-rel: cannot execute binary file.

      RetroPie v4.4.1 • RPi3 Model B • 5.1V 2.5A PSU • 32GB SanDisk Extreme microSD • 2TB Toshiba Canvio Basics Portable USB 3.0 hard drive • 4 x DragonRise USB Arcade joysticks • 2 x TurboTwist spinners • 1 x USB trackball • 1 x PS4 wireless • 1 x 8BitDo Zero

      mituM cyperghostC 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • mituM
        mitu Global Moderator @spud11
        last edited by

        @spud11 Which folder have you copied into ? Looks like an error related to the filesystem mount options, usually you get this when the filesystem is mounted with the noexec option.

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          spud11 @mitu
          last edited by

          @mitu Seems a bit strange because I haven't used noexec option anywhere. All files appear in the /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/gridwars2 folder that I have created and I'm just trying to start the file from commandline.

          RetroPie v4.4.1 • RPi3 Model B • 5.1V 2.5A PSU • 32GB SanDisk Extreme microSD • 2TB Toshiba Canvio Basics Portable USB 3.0 hard drive • 4 x DragonRise USB Arcade joysticks • 2 x TurboTwist spinners • 1 x USB trackball • 1 x PS4 wireless • 1 x 8BitDo Zero

          mituM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • mituM
            mitu Global Moderator @spud11
            last edited by

            @spud11 Have you made the file executable (chmod +x gridwards-armhf-rel) ? Note that you should run it via ./gridwars-armhf-rel, not with sudo bash ....

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              spud11 @mitu
              last edited by

              @mitu said in Possible to port GridWars 2:

              ./gridwars-armhf-rel

              Hi mitu. Happy New Year! Yes, I have given it the correct permissions and for good measure used the command you gave. I have also tried ./gridwars-armhf-rel, but get permission denied.

              RetroPie v4.4.1 • RPi3 Model B • 5.1V 2.5A PSU • 32GB SanDisk Extreme microSD • 2TB Toshiba Canvio Basics Portable USB 3.0 hard drive • 4 x DragonRise USB Arcade joysticks • 2 x TurboTwist spinners • 1 x USB trackball • 1 x PS4 wireless • 1 x 8BitDo Zero

              mituM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • fluffypillowF
                fluffypillow
                last edited by

                Just tried the binary on an up-to-date RetroPie, and it launches fine for me, without sudo or anything. Your errors seem to show filesystem issues as @mitu said; are you trying to run the game from USB or Samba share perhaps? Have you tried a different SD card?

                As for the game, due to the GLES lib name changes on Stretch, it hangs on startup with an initialization error, then eventually crashes (patching the binary is not enough). Likely a bug in the engine itself.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                • mituM
                  mitu Global Moderator @spud11
                  last edited by

                  @spud11 I got the same behavior as @fluffypillow - the program starts, but it's not fully compatible and crashes. But it's not the same error as yours, for sure.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • cyperghostC
                    cyperghost
                    last edited by

                    If someone is interested for Windows version.
                    This link seems to be the only woking one

                    You will find download link directly under first picture ;)

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                      toto2000 @cyperghost
                      last edited by

                      Up ! Can someone sum up where we are?
                      Which version did you use ?
                      I can certainly help going forward with this quest (having GW run on the pi), I'm a CS engineer...

                      fluffypillowF S 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • fluffypillowF
                        fluffypillow @toto2000
                        last edited by

                        @toto2000 great! So at the moment on Debian Stretch the game doesn't start up properly, however it used to work (as in, launched) on Jessie (Wheezy?). There are quite a few issues with the engine causing crashes, you may want to run through the code with the debugger to catch them all.

                        You can get the code and my patches here, and also some build instructions. A prebuilt binary is here, the one that used to launch originally.

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                        • S
                          spud11 @toto2000
                          last edited by

                          @toto2000 That would be great. I was unable to get the pre-built binary to work on Jessie (which I'm still on).

                          RetroPie v4.4.1 • RPi3 Model B • 5.1V 2.5A PSU • 32GB SanDisk Extreme microSD • 2TB Toshiba Canvio Basics Portable USB 3.0 hard drive • 4 x DragonRise USB Arcade joysticks • 2 x TurboTwist spinners • 1 x USB trackball • 1 x PS4 wireless • 1 x 8BitDo Zero

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                            toto2000 @fluffypillow
                            last edited by

                            @fluffypillow Ok, I already managed to recompile completely the compiler itself and maxIDE on my Mac + compile GridWars using the command line + MaxIDE. Next -> recompile all these things in the Pi. I followed your instructions + get your controls.bmx patched file (original did not compile due to a Joycon not found error)

                            Do you have an idea of what was going wrong? Problems with the OpenGL version?

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                              toto2000 @fluffypillow
                              last edited by

                              @fluffypillow Which version of the compiler did you use? This one : https://github.com/bmx-ng/bmx-ng/releases/tag/v0.81.3.16.rpi or a more recent one that you recompiled for the pi? On the Mac I used https://github.com/bmx-ng/bmx-ng/releases/tag/v0.99.3.31.macos and was wondering if I could recompile the up to date sources on the Pi, like I did on the Mac... Maybe this would maximize the chances of building a runnable GridWars..?

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                                toto2000 @fluffypillow
                                last edited by

                                @fluffypillow You have been talking about Opengles, but the REAL OpenGl should be supported on Pi (see

                                ) with the Mesa lib... I saw that you added some ? if nopt Opengles in some of the bmx files so that it compiles. Do you think that might be the problem when the game was badly running? Do you think it was slow because it did not use OpenGL hardware acceleration two years ago?

                                Look at the YT video I linked. Apparently, OpenGL hardware acceleration is still experimental in 2018 and should be turned on from raspi-config... Ok, I'm investigating, and will let you know if I find something interesting...

                                mituM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                • mituM
                                  mitu Global Moderator @toto2000
                                  last edited by

                                  @toto2000 Turning on the OpenGL driver will probably break the other RetroPie emulators, so be aware of that when testing.

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                                    toto2000 @mitu
                                    last edited by

                                    @mitu Ok. I'll see what's happening then....

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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                                      toto2000 @mitu
                                      last edited by

                                      @mitu The problem is that Gridwars uses the OpenGL driver that requires OpenGL 1.1 minimum. (See this line in gridwars.bmx :

                                      Framework BRL.GLMax2D

                                      If I change this to :

                                      Framework Pub.OpenGLES

                                      That is the framework supported by default by the Pi, then, many things will not compile (such as TImage not recognized etc.)

                                      So, we have to stick with the openGL driver. And if it's not hardware accelerated, then the Mesa OpenGL software implementation is certainly the one being used, that for sure will make the game unplayable.
                                      My goal is to 1) recompile blitzmax tools (not use the old precompiled binary) 2) compile GridWars 3) try with the experimental hardware accelerated driver.

                                      I'll keep you informed...

                                      fluffypillowF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                      • fluffypillowF
                                        fluffypillow @toto2000
                                        last edited by

                                        @toto2000

                                        Which version of the compiler did you use? This one : https://github.com/bmx-ng/bmx-ng/releases/tag/v0.81.3.16.rpi or a more recent one that you recompiled for the pi?

                                        Yes, I've used that for the on-the-Pi builds. It used to be "just a few days old" back when I've compiled the game first; a newer version would certainly have more chance for success.

                                        Problems with the OpenGL version?
                                        Do you think it was slow because it did not use OpenGL hardware acceleration two years ago?

                                        Yes, there are several places where desktop OpenGL calls are used for effects. As a workaround I've disabled them, but that didn't help with the rest of the crashes unfortunately. If I remember correctly there wasn't proper Mesa support back then, so trying it out now would be an interesting experiment.

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                        • cyperghostC
                                          cyperghost
                                          last edited by cyperghost

                                          @toto2000
                                          Maybe this can help
                                          https://github.com/ptitSeb/gl4es
                                          This made OpenBOR 6xxx branch run on Raspberry.

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                                          • T
                                            toto2000
                                            last edited by

                                            Thanks, I will give it a try... I'll certainly have time tomorrow....

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