Developers Dealing with the Problems of Windows Mobile SE

[Ed Hardy]

Few new things come without drawbacks, and the updated version of Microsoft's mobile operating system is no exception.

Read more at http://www.brighthand.com/article/De...le_SE?site=PPC

[imported_iNOMAD]

give me vga games, i have pleanty of memory!

[pixelator]

Astraware said that? Anyone who says a PDA game can't be 'immersive' needs to take a good look at Legacy (also a PalmOS title), Everquest (PPC), Fade (PPC), or even the rather old first version of DragonBane (Palm... In monochrome, no less).

AW has turned out some PDA classics, to be sure. Bejeweled and Insaniquarium are two must-haves for PPC and PalmOS alike, but hey -- we will be more than happy to make a little extra room for VGA games. They ought to know that perfectly well, as they were among the first to start supporting the (then new) Hires format on CLIE and later Palm devices. They also were among the first to support Hires+ (or HVGA) on newer CLIE and later Palm models with aforementioned Insaniquarium.

So yes, Astraware, just as you lept from 160x160 all the way to 320x480 on PalmOS, so too can you go form 240x320 to 480x640 on PPC. We'll buy your games just like we always have.

[aaronchow]

Astraware didn't say anything about a game can not be immersive if it's in VGA resolution.

It's just that the file size in general will likely be double since it requires more resources to fill up the screen.

[Dan East]

I think your subheadline "All software will have to be updated" is a bit sensational. Ony software using GAPI (or some other method of direct screen access) will be affected. That of course is a small percentage of 3rd party Pocket PC applications.

Even then, an updated gx.dll could be distributed to maintain backward compatibility with existing applications.

Dan East

[Ed Hardy]

Originally posted by Dan East
I think your subheadline "All software will have to be updated" is a bit sensational. Ony software using GAPI (or some other method of direct screen access) will be affected. That of course is a small percentage of 3rd party Pocket PC applications.

You must have skimmed over the first section called "Software Compatibility" in which it was pointed out that most software will have to be modified to be able to deal with landscape-oriented screens. Take a look at it again.

[pixelator]

Originally posted by aaronchow
Astraware didn't say anything about a game can not be immersive if it's in VGA resolution.

As quoted from the article: "This means that although we can make sharper graphics, it doesn't change the fact that a small screen isn't conducive to an immersive experience (compared to your 21" monitor, for instance)."

[altema]

Originally posted by pixelator
Anyone who says a PDA game can't be 'immersive' needs to take a good look at Legacy (also a PalmOS title), Everquest (PPC), Fade (PPC), or even the rather old first version of DragonBane (Palm... In monochrome, no less).

I don't know how many hours I've lost to Warfare Inc. I could spend an entire day if my eyes could take it. That's enough immersion for me!

[dorelse]

Maybe I'm missing something (usually am), but is there no way for a developer to 'lock' the screen to only portrait like the T3's can be? The orientation icon is greyed out, thus locking the orientation to only portrait for that application....

I was thinking that could be a quick 'stop-gap' measure until they have enough time to do the redesign needed for landscape mode.

Or maybe locking the orientation on an app isn't even an option?

[CorwinB]

Originally posted by Ed
You must have skimmed over the first section called "Software Compatibility" in which it was pointed out that most software will have to be modified to be able to deal with landscape-oriented screens. Take a look at it again.

You must have skimmed over the description of WM2003SE saying apps designed for portrait only would get automatic scrollbars in landscape mode...

From the MSDN

An application marked with a subsystem version number (in the executable header) of 4.20 or below will be considered a legacy application assumed to only support portrait mode. To make these applications usable even in landscape mode, a vertical scrollbar will appear in landscape mode if the application is dialog based. The scrollbar will allow the clipped part of the screen to be scrolled into view. This also happens for .NET Compact Framework applications.