PSP support/port

Is there still PSP support for EasyRPG? Apparently, there used to be, but none of the binaries I can find online work, and are all very old.

Is there any chance someone has a working PSP binary, or a chance that PSP support could be added to the project (even if I’m the one to do it)?

If Vita support was added, there seems to be no reason why not, as the PSP has enough to run RM2K/3 games.

I’m not sure how much work would have to be done to port it (?), or if it’s just a matter of building it with a PSP toolchain, but it’s something I’d really like to see happen, if possible.

And if anyone has any working PSP binaries, even if they’re old, could you post links, please?

Thanks for your help!

Hi @deadloli
The PSP port currently lacks sound effects and already falls below 60 fps when background music plays. That’s why we don’t consider releasing it currently.

Hi people,

I was wondering if it was only the sound that doesn’t work? Or are there more problems?
Has there been any progress on the psp version since august 2016?

Hi,
unfortunately I did not work much further on this since then.
Current state is, that small games run quite well, while big games are out of scope.
PSP has very limited RAM and we are not modest with allocations (caching images, sound effects and such).
On a PSP-1000 with 32 mb games like Ib can be played. PSP-2000 and PSP-3000 with 64 mb can also run bigger games.
However, it can get choppy when there is much movement on the screen or many enemies at once.

Another thing to note is, that we support many audio and image formats on the other platforms, which have their own limitations. For example MIDI music has small files, but either needs 16 mb of ram for instrument samples allocated permanently or a lot processing power to generate sounds with FM synthesis.
I have thought of disabling most formats, so the executable gets smaller (currently can not run on OFW due to size restriction - signing is not possible). This will require converting of game files then, which is also not a good solution. :frowning:
Another thing is the library we use for pixel manipulation has no fastpaths for MIPS targets like the PSP (only for newer hardware), so rendering is mostly unaccelerated.
That being said, I can likely provide a version with all current drawbacks, but is not really our goal to provide such unpolished port to the users.

Hi,
Thanks for your response. Wow I had no idea that the hardware of the psp would be such a problem.
I (like mose people i suspect) own a psp-3000. I feel you and others have put quite some work in trying to make it run on the psp, so I’ll take your word for it when you say that it just doesn’t run smooth enough.
“rendering is mostly unaccelerated.” (ouch:confounded:)

Nonetheless I’d like to try the psp version to see if I can somehow work around it. For example try to find a list of good rpg maker games that run very acceptabele on the limmited hardware of the psp.

At first I want to support carstene1ns statement, that it’s technically possible to run EasyRPG on the PSP but currently the port is too unpolished and not many people would be happy.

We hope to offer a nice port someday though because theres actually some demand.

Just adding some technical details :smiley:

64 MB is not thaaaat bad. The Wii has 88 MB but you don’t get 100% of this memory because the operating system wants some memory, too (well or the IOS in the case of Wii, has no OS in that sense). As said Yume Nikki, Ib & co. will probably run because they are memory friendly but forget any other games (needs a per-game testing).

The problem is that we use 100% software rendering (the only hardware accelerated step is “copy to screen” because upscaling in software to screen size is a waste of time). This makes porting much easier because you only have to write custom code for the screen-copy step, remaining code is always the same.
Software rendering is fast enough for RPG_RT because you work on a 320x240 surface, which is a laughable size for modern systems (your PC screen usually has 1920x1080 or more, just multiply it and you see a slight numerical difference :D)

We actually did huge performance improvements in our renderer because the Nintendo 3DS has really awful hardware and we had a hard time to reach 60 FPS on normal maps. This moved the PSP port actually in a more likely shape again, because of its slow CPU. One year before a PSP port was basicly just lagging like crazy. There was many years ago a PSP port but it was only so fast because the compatibility of EasyRPG was in it’s beginning, so many stuff just wasn’t emulated at all (less accurate = faster obviously).

The PSP still has one annoying hardware limitation: The CPU is slow and only has one core, this means that we have to do the audio decoding/playback on the same core as the game logic & rendering. So depending on which type of audio you play the framerate decreases or the audio stutters. On PSVita and the 3DS we simply handle the audio code on a 2nd CPU core to not influence the framerate.

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Awesome. Would you possibly be able to post a link?

hello I am working on a project which will be a small hardware limited game for the psp. I wanted to make an mmorpg yes an mmo for the psp, I just wanted to know if the editor supports online play, and if the port is also gonna be able to do so

Hi @Siliar1, I do not think we are the right engine for this task.
The psp port is still unavailable and RPG Maker has no internet features.

Sorry, I’m a layman on the subject. But if possible, I would like to know if the psp project was abandoned (sorry for the bad English too)

@Ch3rry: It was not abandoned, just not being worked on since a few years.
We have restructured our engine internally quite a bit since then (lower memory needs) and I have worked upstream on the toolchain (it was very outdated), so maybe is time to finish it.

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Hi everyone. I am new here. I registered specifically to ask about the PSP version of EasyRpg player.
Has the project been abandoned permanently? If so, it’s a pity because as of today the PSP is more alive than ever. Just visit the PSP section on GBAtemp to see how many translation projects are active and how much participation there is on a daily basis. And a possible PSP version of EasyRpg would be greatly appreciated by many, including myself.
I, on behalf of many users of that site, hope that someone will take this project to heart and, if the hardware will allows it, finally allow us to play old and new custom RPG games on our little, beloved console.
Excuse my clumsy english and my perhaps impetuous manner: it’s the enthusiasm that drives me so much…hehehe.
Thank you.

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Excuse me if I bumped my post. I noticed it’s been a while and I haven’t received a response, why is that? I don’t feel like responding with a simple yes or no wastes too much time, or does it?
I hope it doesn’t mean that the project doesn’t interest anyone and that it’s abandoned for good, because that would be a big disappointment for the still numerous PSP users.
Can anyone give me any news about this port, even unofficially?
Thanks.

Hello. Sorry for not responding. Must have missed this one.

Besides @carstene1ns nobody of us has a PSP or PS Vita to do any testing and afaik c1 is not working on this anymore / has no time.

So is kinda on hiatus until some motivated developer (also from outside of our dev team) finds time to port it to the PSP. If you should know anyone who can help please tell them to contact us.

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Thank you for your reply.
I have opened a thread on GBATemp.net reporting your request:
[Help wanted] collaborate to port EasyRpg Player on PSP | GBAtemp.net - The Independent Video Game Community
Hopefully someone interested will come forward to help out. :wink: