[Ohrrpgce] The OHRRPGCE on an Intel Compute Stick

[Ralph Versteegen]

On 17 May 2018 at 01:00, Michael Kidder <mkidder at gmail.com> wrote:

> Since I've done this before with running the engine on new OSes or weird
> hardware, today's test is a newly acquired Intel Compute Stick I got as a
> gift.
>
> The Compute stick is a tiny computer that can be plugged directly into the
> back of a TV via the HDMI port. It can be powered by the included plug
> (which ends in mini-USB) or powered by a USB port, leading to the funny
> situation that you can power an entire computer from another computer's USB
> port.
>
> The stick is powered by a fully x86 processor, and by default comes with
> Windows 10 32-bit installed. Apparently you can install Linux on this
> thing, but I haven't gotten around to trying that yet.
>
> Stick specs:
>
> Model STK1AW32SC
>
> Intel Atom x5 Z8300 @ 1.44GHz (4 cores)
> 2GB RAM
> onboard flash storage with SD card slot
> 1x USB2 port
> 1x USB3 port
>
> From running tests, the engine seems to run okay once loaded. I played the
> included version of Vikings of Midgard. Sound and everything worked as
> expected, no strange performance issues. The only difference I noticed is
> Vikings took upwards of ~20 seconds to load either via CUSTOM or GAME. This
> wasn't including the upgrade process for the file's data, just the entire
> time I saw "Unlumping data...". This was confirmed by letting Custom
> upgrade the game, saving it, then loading again, still the same 15-20
> second load time on unlump.  This is likely due to the flash storage and a
> bunch of files being created. (Windows Updates take eons on this thing for
> similar reasons)
>

Hmm, that would be rather slow flash storage, but it's similar to the
unlump times on my old android phone.
Very slow upgrade time is also explained by Windows Defender (or other
antivirus). It makes writing files sloooooow. Especially if you're writing
hundreds of files, or even worse, repeatedly opening, writing and closing a
file. (I don't know whether we do that during upgrade, but we do do it in
plenty of other cases, because it's instantaneous on Linux). The slow CPU
will greatly magnify slowdown due to a virus scanner.

This is another reason that we should stop unlumping .rpgs to play them.


>
> The stick supports Bluetooth. While I have the Xbox One controller that
> supports Bluetooth, and a PS4 controller, I haven't tried to get either to
> work with the engine, but I'd assume anything that connects via BT in
> regular Windows computer installs will work here too.
>

Well, joystick support is still totally borked. I expect to do something
about it soon though.

So did you use a bluetooth keyboard/mouse with it? Or a USB keyboard? I
assume that most people would need bluetooth keyboard/mouse to run desktop
programs.


>
> Overall, a competent device for the engine, outside of the unlump times.
>
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