N64 Development

I think I might have been unclear in my ramblings--which that is what they were...

hopefully nobody minds this bump, but I think maybe I didn't represent myself well enough in the first post.

The question(s) could be sumarised as:
1) Are Gnu Cross Compiler's MIPS extensions still broken? (according to FreeBSD ports it is, but I am not sure I trust that)
2) What all are there, homebrew wise for N64 development? While this is mostly not for game development, N64 is a game system, primarly anyways, so I think this site would probably be the best place to ask.
3) Any information on working with the N64 and MIPS in general?
4) Any recommendations on working with working with Multiple Processors? I did a google search on "multiprocessor best practices" and what I got was not useful.

Anyways, I kind of like how if I am not using a feature I don't have to allocate memory for it (Some of the tech readouts I've read say the memory of the N64 is not predecided for its use, if you want to use 3MiB for textures and 1MiB for other things, go ahed. If you want to use 3MiB for vertices and ~1MiB for textures, go ahead). Which is part of the reason it is one of the few systems you can upgrade memory on =^.^= (or so I'd guess).

>> 1) Are Gnu Cross Compiler's MIPS extensions still broken? (according to FreeBSD ports it is, but I am not sure I trust that)

Try it and see.

>> 2) What all are there, homebrew wise for N64 development? While this is mostly not for game development, N64 is a game system, primarly anyways, so I think this site would probably be the best place to ask.

I'm not aware of anything. It is a decade-old system based on cartridges with no network or significant way to make PC connections. Newer systems are easier to develop with, are more readily available, and have significantly more power.

>> 3) Any information on working with the N64 and MIPS in general?

There is a ton of information about MIPS in general. Ask some specific questions about it.

>> 4) Any recommendations on working with working with Multiple Processors? I did a google search on "multiprocessor best practices" and what I got was not useful.

Multiprocessing is a huge field. Ask some specific questions about it.

Quote:

Original post by frob >> 1) Are Gnu Cross Compiler's MIPS extensions still broken? (according to FreeBSD ports it is, but I am not sure I trust that) Try it and see.

I did--but then again, package management systems are sometimes behind in versions, and I have better things to do than compile a tool chain. If somebody can say a definitive yes or no--just from personal knowledge--then this should suffice.

Quote:

Original post by frob >> 2) What all are there, homebrew wise for N64 development? While this is mostly not for game development, N64 is a game system, primarly anyways, so I think this site would probably be the best place to ask. I'm not aware of anything. It is a decade-old system based on cartridges with no network or significant way to make PC connections. Newer systems are easier to develop with, are more readily available, and have significantly more power.

Well, it is mostly for getting an N64 to run certain software not usually done on an N64 as a box mod. There was one previous attempt at what I am trying to do, but once it went main stream, the developers split (this previous attempt was done by somebody else).

Quote:

Original post by frob >> 3) Any information on working with the N64 and MIPS in general? There is a ton of information about MIPS in general. Ask some specific questions about it.

I was mostly asking for user testimonials.

Quote:

Original post by frob >> 4) Any recommendations on working with working with Multiple Processors? I did a google search on "multiprocessor best practices" and what I got was not useful. Multiprocessing is a huge field. Ask some specific questions about it.

Well, I was more asking for an FAQ. However I have revised my search string and actually found a few FAQ (why does FAQ bring up so much useful stuff and something like "Best Practices" doesn't bring up much >o.O=).

Thank you for your time.