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https://github.com/multimediamike/dreamroq

A RoQ video playback system for the Sega Dreamcast video game console
https://github.com/multimediamike/dreamroq

c dreamcast vector-quantization video video-codec

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A RoQ video playback system for the Sega Dreamcast video game console

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README 

        
Dreamroq Library



Introduction

============

Dreamroq is a RoQ playback library designed for the Sega Dreamcast video

game console.



RoQ is a relatively simple video file format developed for video-heavy

CD-ROM games. Read more about the format here:



http://wiki.multimedia.cx/index.php?title=RoQ



The Dreamroq library includes a player component that is designed to run

under the KallistiOS (KOS) open source operating system. Read more about

KOS at:



http://gamedev.allusion.net/softprj/kos/



The library also includes a sample testing utility that can be built

and executed on Unix systems. This utility is useful for debugging and

validation.



RoQ sample files can be found at:



http://samples.mplayerhq.hu/game-formats/idroq/



RoQ files can also be created using the Switchblade encoder:



http://icculus.org/~riot/



A version of Switchblade is also included in FFmpeg and many derivative

programs:



http://ffmpeg.org/



License

=======

Dreamroq is meant to be license-compatible with the rest of the KallistiOS

operating system, which is a BSD-style open source license. You can read

the specific text in LICENSE.KOS.



Building (Unix)

===============

To build and test on Linux/Mac OS X/Cygwin, simply type:



  make



in the source directory. This will build the executable test-dreamroq. This

utility has the following usage:



  ./test-dreamroq 



This will decode the RoQ file from the command line into a series of PNM

files in the current working directory (watch out-- this could take up a

lot of disk space).



Building (KOS)

==============

There are 2 Makefiles included with Dreamroq. The first -- implicitly

invoked when running a bare 'make' command as seen in the "Building (Unix)"

section -- builds the test utility. The second Makefile is Makefile.KOS,

invoked with:



  make -f Makefile.KOS



This is a standard KOS Makefile which assumes that a KOS build environment

is available. This is covered in the KOS documentation. This step will

build a file named dreamroq-player.elf which can be loaded onto a Dreamcast

console via standard means (also outside the scope of this document).



The file dreamcast-player.c contains a hardcoded RoQ file path in its

main function. It is best if this points to a file burned on an optical

disc. It is also viable to build a small RoQ file as a ROM disk into the

ELF file (which is well supported in KOS) and load the file from the '/rd'

mount point.



Bugs, Issues, and Future Development

====================================

The player is just a proof of concept at this point. It doesn't try to

render frames with proper timing-- it just plays them as fast as possible

(which often isn't very fast, mostly due to the I/O bottleneck).



If the RoQ video is taller than it is wide, expect some odd rendering.



The API between the library and the client app leaves a bit to be desired.

Notably absent is some proper initialization and teardown mechanism.

Currently, the first call to the render callback initializes the PVR buffers

but they are never explicitly freed.



Credits

======= 

Library originally written by Mike Melanson (mike -at- multimedia.cx)



Audio support added by Josh "PH3NOM" Pearson ([email protected])