Playstation2 Linux Games Programming
I lecture on the Undergraduate and Postgraduate Computer Games courses in The Institute of Arts, Media and Computer Games at The University of Abertay Dundee (UK). One of my teaching interests is programming game consoles. At Abertay University we have a game console programming laboratory containing around 40 PlayStation2 Linux Development Kits. These pages hope to help those of you who would like to create games and graphics applications using the Playstation 2 Linux Development Kit.
If you have any comment
on these tutorials, I can be contacted via this email h.s.fortuna@abertay.ac.uk.
A number of people have contributed to these tutorials and I would like to thank: Jonathan Hobson (kazan)
for providing some of the program code and text. Alex Mole (lordbosh)
for providing the controller pad code. Steven Osman (sauce)
for developing and making available SPS2. Sarah Ewen (sarahe)
for providing support from Sony Computers Entertainment Europe. Sony Computer
Entertainment Europe for
making the PlayStation2 Linux Kit Available. Contributors to
the developers forum at playstation2-linux.com for invaluable help and support. And my Students
(too many to mention by name) who have contributed countless ideas and resources - this site is dedicated to their indefatigability in the pursuit of
knowledge. For the majority of these
tutorials you will need the Direct PS2 Access Environment. Some tutorials require the
Vector Unit Command Line Pre-Processor. Both of these resources are no longer available since the Sony PS2 Linux site has gone offline, but if you contact me I should be able to help.
One final word – these
tutorials are not coded in the highly optimised manner that you might find in
professional game code. The tutorials are meant to illustrate development methods
and techniques and are therefore written in an instructive manner that should
enlighten the reader. Have fun. (Note: The manuals
referred to in the text of the tutorials can be found in the directory sm_pdf
which is in the root directory of DVD 1 that comes with the Kit.) PlayStation2 Linux Programming
Articles PlayStation2 In Higher
Education - So You Want To Be A Games Programmer? -
Read Article. Teaching Console Games
Programming with the Sony PlayStation2 Linux Kit
(5th Game-On Conference, Reading (UK) 2004) -
Read Article. PlayStation2 In Higher
Education (Higher Education Academy Presentation November 2005) -
View Presentation. The PS2 Direct Memory
Access Controller - Read Article Using the DMAC in Games
Programming - Read Article PlayStation2 Linux Games A selection of PS2-Linux
games and demos can be found - here Application Framework Files The most recent version of the
Framework files for creating 2D Applications can be obtained
here. The most recent version of the
Framework files for creating 3D Applications can be obtained
here. Tutorials The following tutorials are split into
groups. The Introductory Tutorials describe the prerequisites required in
order to get started with PS2-Linux development. The 2D Graphics Tutorials
introduce the techniques associated with 2D games development such as the
drawing and manipulation of 2D sprites. There are then some General Tutorials
which provide more infrastructure support applications such as rendering text,
using the co-processors and taking screen captures. The 3D Graphics Tutorials
introduce the techniques that open up the full potential and power of the PS2.
These tutorials introduce the use of Vector Unit 1 for vertex transformation and
lighting. A number of other tutorials are provided in this section for loading
3D models and manipulating the movement and position of objects within a 3D
world. In the Applications Framework section,
a basic framework is provided for creating games. The framework provided a state
machine implementation for controlling the flow of the game. A 3D API which
includes 3 directional lights and ambient light is provided for developing 3D
games, and an Audio framework is provided for including sound effects and music
within an application. The Network Gaming with Sockets tutorials provide
information on implementing network gaming within applications under PS2-Linux
and the final section on Technical Demos illustrates some more advanced
techniques in action such as split screens and sky boxes.
(These tutorials and accompanying program code are used at your own risk. The
author accepts no responsibility for any damage caused by running these
programs.) (The old
site can be found here
) Dr Henry S Fortuna University of
Abertay Dundee