RuneCast - RuneScape Classic for the Sega Dreamcast

[megavolt85]

what about PPP over Serial (PPPoS)?
This solution is already built into KOS, moreover, this solution is supported by WEB browser and Alien Front Online

[Lobotomy]

Starting to learn how the software renderer works. Got marginal gainz. Game still runs miserably, but this is only about 5x worse than what you'd expect out of a computer from the era. Yeah, I'm not really selling this speedup, am I?

what about PPP over Serial (PPPoS)?
This solution is already built into KOS, moreover, this solution is supported by WEB browser and Alien Front Online

I'm 100% in support for any new networking idea. I would love a small cottage market of networking gizmos for the Dreamcast some day.

[gamesreup]

Starting to learn how the software renderer works. Got marginal gainz. Game still runs miserably, but this is only about 5x worse than what you'd expect out of a computer from the era. Yeah, I'm not really selling this speedup, am I?

what about PPP over Serial (PPPoS)?
This solution is already built into KOS, moreover, this solution is supported by WEB browser and Alien Front Online

I'm 100% in support for any new networking idea. I would love a small cottage market of networking gizmos for the Dreamcast some day.

Keep up the good work my friend

[Gamer]

How is this port coming along?

[Gamer]

Starting to learn how the software renderer works. Got marginal gainz. Game still runs miserably, but this is only about 5x worse than what you'd expect out of a computer from the era. Yeah, I'm not really selling this speedup, am I?

what about PPP over Serial (PPPoS)?
This solution is already built into KOS, moreover, this solution is supported by WEB browser and Alien Front Online

I'm 100% in support for any new networking idea. I would love a small cottage market of networking gizmos for the Dreamcast some day.

Is there any news on this?

[Lobotomy]

Is there any news on this?

Some gainz, not enough to post about yet. I'm setting up the game to build with SDL2 as an option right now. Trying to diagnose a problem with the game hanging, which is artificial, as I've seen it run at nearly full speed, before gradually slowing to seconds-per frame. Something is amiss, and it seems like it's just one thing.

[Zuchary]

I want to see this project succeed. Even if it takes years, I'll be waiting.

[Lobotomy]

A couple of you were asking about Single-Player RuneScape. That appears to be possible now, as of today, with RSC Sundae! I don't know if this is lean enough to fit on the Dreamcast, but I'm back-pocketing it for later.



I enabled ToonScape mode, one of the many low-memory modes in the game, to see if I could improve the performance. It did not seem to do anything for it. Still a neat mode, though. Strips most of the textures out of the game, lowers the color-space, and blends the scene colors together, giving a cartoon-y look.

So far, none of the graphics settings of the game being lowered, have improved performance. Halved the resolution, lowered the color space, played with low-performance modes, nothing. I can only conclude that it's either SDL1.2, my code, or a combination thereof. To get my head around it, I'm also going to be porting RSC to SDL2, so I can compare performance against the original port, and hopefully be able to make some more sense of it.

I also made a Discord server for the project. It's mostly here as a personal notepad, but you're more than welcome to pop in if you want more up-to-date news, want to help, or whatever else.

[Gamer]

This is awesome! I was obsessed with Runescape at one stage in high school, and I have a friend who I believe still plays classic. I'd be tempted by this if it ultimately becomes fully playable on stock hardware.

That's the goal. My primary motivation is to get enough homebrew games with networking capabilities put out there to convince the KallistiOS devs and hardware mod devs to come up with a solution for getting the Dreamcast online in a novel way, particularly, through the serial port. I think that if firmware can be written for the WaveShare RPI2040 W, and if an interface can be made to the DC serial port, you could build a sub-$20 device that would enable the console to use Wi-Fi for networking, and maybe even cache downloads to a Micro-SD reader to read from or extract to your computer, later. Slow, but not Dial-Up slow. Perfect for any network-capable game that could be ported to the Dreamcast.

Something like that could serve all the functions of the DC Coder's Cable, and the DreamPi/BBA, wirelessly, in one device. It may only work for homebrew, but frankly, I'm only interested in homebrew. I have had 25 years to taste the retail Dreamcast Library, and it's something I can always go back to. Networking was always the frontier of ambition for the DC, and I want it to be able to do networking in every way theoretically possible, so people can stop bitching and moaning about how much a BBA costs. All those complaints, and never a solution. I will bang this drum until I'm blue in the face, we need more networking options that don't rely on the GAPS bridge. Serial comms are basically networking with fewer steps, might as well just hitch some dongle on that port and let 'er rip.

Imagine how nice it would be to push an .elf of your game, to your DC, wirelessly, with that game's asset directory already on the SD card in the 2040W, and have it boot, knowing already what to load? Sounds like another flex this console can have on the rest.

Dont give up as you could pave the way for further games just like RSC to be ported to the DC, you are doing amazing, keep up the great work

[Sonic1994DC]

Keep at it man. While the game might be giving you trouble right now you'll find a way to get it to run good on Dreamcast. This game would be a welcome addition to the Dreamcast online scene. It makes me want to try the game out