So, I'm New

[Dark Dude]

Ohhhhh ok, right, I get this now. So Extended Rotation would be used for stuff like sprites, rather than tiles?


Now, if you don't mind, I'll round my bout of questioning up for a while, and ask some finishing questions about stuff which I can't find any documentation on whatsoever:

1) Sockets. I understand there's a sockets library for DS, which is excellent, as most of my prior programming experience has been in Berkeley-derived networking models like Winsocks. Is it much the same as all the others or...? Also, how would one go about DS-DS adhoc connections via this? I take it one person establishes as a server, which broadcasts the DS to other DSs, and allows the clients to connect?

2) As an extension of this, I get the concept of WifiMe from PC->DS adhoc, but is there any way to have DS Download Play from the DS itself to other DSs, like most DS games generally do? The Nocash specification sheet seems to describe the DS Download Play handshake in depth, and it seems pretty complicated (why the crap would you want RSA for such a simple task?!)

3) In my emulator, when I save a game, it saves it as 512KB .SAV files with the same filename as the NDS file saving... this is EEPROM emulation, right? If so, how can I access this type of functionality in Libnds? I've searched around the folder and found several functions like cardWriteEeprom() and whatnot, so I tried using them, but it's causing stuff to crash and all sorts of nasty stuff without actually saving/reading anything... Any documentation on this?

4) All the ordinary DS games seem to have integrated file tables in the .NDS file at the end of the binary code. I guess this is what NitroFS is for? Or is NitroFS just an interface to the FAT table?


Thanks very much for your patience once again, most people would've told me to get on IRC or RTDM (the latter of which is often not possible with regards to the latter questions).

[Sylus101]

The bg really shouldn't have anything to do with sprites... totally separate subject

1 through 3... sorry... no wifi nor eeprom experience here...

4. NitroFS appends data to the nds file. It's basically accessed the same as FAT (same i/o functions) but the data is written to the rom when you compile. You can only read from NitroFS, so as far as I know output has to be to FAT. I think, actually, fat is used more often for save files than accessing other memory areas.

[StevenH]

1) Yes there's a Berkley-derived networking sockets library (libwifi) and unfortunatly there's no way to do adhoc ds-ds comms at the moment, there's a hack to do it on gbadev forums, but it may cause issues with any wifi signals in the area as it does not follow the wifi standard.

2) Again at this moment there's no way to do DS Download play, and the reason for the RSA is unknown, but it does stop unauthorised code from running on a DS easily - which is why FlashMe exists.

3) There is no eeprom access for homebrew as homebrew does not need eeprom, we have FAT (libfat to be exact)

4) Sylus101 answered this...