I found a great tool for PS3 Linux that uses a single SPE to zoom in on the center of the screen by a factor of 2X, 3X, or 4X. This helps when running many different games or emulators since you can run at the original resolution (much faster than scaling done by the application) and the scaler tool, using one of the SPEs, takes care of enlarging it.
Here’s where you can get the source (translated page): link to “miya’s Diary” post
Applications I have used it with so far are Quake 2, QEMU running Windows 95 / Diablo-Hellfire, VICE (C64), snes9x-gtk, and sdlmame. Screenshots can probably explain this better than I can, so …
snes9x-gtk running a game at the original resolution:
about to start scaler:
photo of scaler running — snes9x-gtk is still running the game at the original resolution, but scaler has zoomed in on the center of the screen (3X):
Here’s one way to set it up … download the scaler.tar.gz file (which includes source & a binary), save to your desktop and extract it, then copy the included scaler binary to your /usr/local/bin folder:
cd ~/Desktop
tar -xvf scaler.tar.gz
cd scaler
sudo cp scaler /usr/local/bin
Or to compile it on YDL 6, just enter make from the scaler folder. I had to install some additional development libraries on my system — this might take care of getting them all: yum install *spu* *ppu*
There are many different ways this tool can be used … for example, you can include it in a script to start Quake 2 like this:
#!/bin/sh
scaler -s 3 -t 3000 & quake2.sh
killall scaler
The -s switch tells it how much to scale, and the -t switch tells it how long to run. Running Quake 2 at 320×240 on a 1280×720 screen would normally result in the game screen being very small, but fast (about 150 FPS 94 FPS timedemo) on the PS3. Using scaler you can run it at 320×240 with 3X scaling so it displays at 960×720 and still runs at 150 FPS around 90 FPS (timedemo test), whereas if you run Quake 2 normally at 960×720 you get around 25-30 FPS. Or course it looks better when Quake is actually running at 960×720, but the additional speed you get from running it at 320×240 and using scaler is great!
Or you can set it up so you can zoom in on the screen at the press of a key using custom keyboard shortcut commands in GNOME. See here for info on setting up custom commands:
Create custom keyboard shortcuts in Linux
EDIT: You’ll need to install gconf-editor for this — yum install gconf-editor
I set mine up so I can use F9, F10, F11, and F12 to scale 2x, 3x, 4x, or turn scaling off.
EDIT: Hmm… it seems that was a poor choice of keys, though…
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July 19, 2008 at 3:06 pm
JJr
do you no why yellowdog_board is down. Im trying to get you article on how to make my sixaxis wireless
July 19, 2008 at 4:15 pm
billb
No, I don’t know why the board is down — it’s a bit of a mystery.
I have a new forum up:
http://forums.ps3bodega.com/
Look in the Guides & How-to Articles section.
July 19, 2008 at 8:58 pm
JJr
I remember seeing you article on yellowdog-forums, so when i was ready the site was down. Looked every where for a subsitute but not explained as well as yours. This being said, Thanks, really. You got anything on how to compile mame to work on my ps3 yld6 linux.
July 20, 2008 at 1:00 am
billb
Also on the new forum, look under Gaming & Emulation (just posted it).
July 24, 2008 at 10:04 am
keefy
Whilst it works I cannot get the zoom to zentre on Quake 2 it always seems to be in topleft of screen quake2 that is not the zoom.
Also gconf-editor is not recognised in YDL
July 24, 2008 at 2:42 pm
billb
Not sure I understand … what resolution are you running on your desktop, and at what resolution are you running quake2 full screen?
Re: gconf-editor, you just need to install it first (it’s included in yellowdog-base)
yum install gconf-editor
July 31, 2008 at 1:35 am
nick
awesome yellowdog-board.com is back up and running
August 10, 2008 at 12:59 pm
D
I have the same new Hitatchi hard drive, can you tell me how to format my old 80 GB ps3 Hard Drive so I can use it as an external drive for my ps3 plugged into the usb
August 10, 2008 at 3:05 pm
billb
Assuming you’re using YDL6, one way to do it would be to install this version of gparted:
http://pleasantfiction.ipower.com/ps3linux/ps3bodega/gparted-0.3.3-3.ppc.rpm
And I would strongly suggest reading about how to use gparted before using it — wouldn’t want you partitioning / formatting the wrong drive!
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/manpage.php
Also, you should be able to determine which device it is after you plug it in with:
su -l
fdisk -l
(those are lowercase l’s, not number 1’s)
If you have trouble, please post on yellowdog-board.com or forums.ps3bodega.com.
August 10, 2008 at 3:10 pm
D
I figured it out finally thanks anyway
September 3, 2008 at 2:44 pm
dacre
hi, really good tutorial. I got everything working *nearly*
cant seem to get past the
LoadLibrary(”ref_softx.so”) failed: No such file or directory
error when I boot up. Its only building ref_softsdl for me as well
any ideas??
September 3, 2008 at 3:09 pm
billb
You must be compiling Quake2? The comments don’t always come up under the correct post here … I’ll need to go back and look at how I launch it … I’ve created an RPM package for it since that post — if you’re running YDL6 on PS3 you can install it with that, instead … you can find it here:
http://pleasantfiction.ipower.com/ps3linux/ps3bodega/repodata/repoview/Amusements.Games.group.html
September 3, 2008 at 3:40 pm
billb
OK — this is how I’m starting it:
cd /your/quake2/folder
./sdlquake2 +set vid_ref=softsdl
Reference link:
http://www.yellowdog-board.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=2937#p10945
September 3, 2008 at 4:14 pm
dacre
wow thanks for the quick reply! i am compiling quake2.. noticced i don’t hax x11r6 libraries .. at least where the make script is looking for them - i’ll try your rpm first though
yeah i have ydl6 on my ps3
September 3, 2008 at 4:16 pm
dacre
yeah i start it in the same way, do i need to set some kind of env var to tell it where to find the file?
September 3, 2008 at 4:27 pm
dacre
cool it works
September 3, 2008 at 7:12 pm
billb
Glad that worked for you …
Occasionally it crashes (segmentation fault) at startup but will usually run on repeated attempts … never figured out why it does that and haven’t had the motivation to try a debug build and see what the backtrace looks like. Most of the time it starts up with no problem.