Jaguar Developer Software
Become a Jaguar Developer
Jaguar Developer Software
The low-down on Developer Software.
What do I need, computer software wise?
SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT TOOLS
You need assemblers and maybe a 'C' compiler for your chosen computer platform,
Atari ST or IBM PC compatible. To get the software visit the Jaguar Server
Home-Page, there are links to software from there, and of course there is
more software on the Just Claws Developer Site. Software available comprises
tools, assemblers for the 68000, GPU and DSP processors on Jaguar, and there
is an illicit copy of the Atari 'C' compiler for the PC too. Most binaries
are for the Atari ST.
ROBUST OPERATING SYSTEM
Of course, I would also say that you need a GOOD operating system... and
being an OS/2 user since version 2.0, I'd recommend IBM OS/2 Warp 4, Merlin.
Microsoft software tends to say "Windows 3.1 or better required." Warp is
better... miles better. You can run multiple independent DOS sessions for
your development code, and you can also run Windoze 3.1 and Win32s applications,
and of course, all the really EXCELLENT 32-bit native OS/2 applications.
Get serious. Get OS/2.
What do I need, graphics wise?
BITMAPS CODE
For bitmap image creation, you will need to create your graphics using some
tool which can save them in .RAW format, or write your own code for the Jaguar
to decompress JPEG or similar format files. That is difficult, and the code
is large, so I'd recommend .RAW format. That means every byte is stored
uncompressed, sequentially, and the palette details are stored in a separate
file. The Jaguar has no built-in means of displaying bitmap images, the
object-processor displays bitmaps, but there are no library routines available
to do that.
3D POLYGON CODE
For 3D graphics, DO NOT expect to create a 3D model is something like Real-3D
or AutoCAD, and then download it magically onto the Jaguar and get a 3D image.
There are no libraries for you to use. You need to write the code to draw
lines, polygons, use texture-mapping, and more. If you cannot create 3D polygon
code on your PC or Atari, don't expect to do it easily on the Jaguar. Everything
is up to you. The machine can easily do 100,000 polygons a second, 10,000
with texture mapping, but the code to achieve that is far from easy. If you
can do the code in 'C', good, but you really need to use assembler...
(Go buy yourself some decent 3D programming books for a start...)
What do I need, sound wise?
By now you will not be surprised to read that generating sound is not easy
either. The Jaguar DSP can generate an UNLIMITED number of sound channels,
but the DSP is a processor and requires a program. You cannot just write
a value to a register and then get that sound. You need to write a piece
of code which hooks onto a regular interrupt, (and you decide the frequency),
and then output a wave form to the left and right sound outputs. You can
use .WAV files from Windows if you write a suitable routine and strip off
the header. You can generate NO SOUND AT ALL from the 68000 CPU, you need
to call the DSP.