DROID Does - EverQuest!

[ShadowWulf]

First post here really, but I wanted to share this finally outside of the Everquest community.

YOUTUBE VIDEO
[video=youtube;-bGPo0O4sKA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bGPo0O4sKA"]YouTube - Project 1999 Running on a Moto DROID Pt 7[/video]

This is Project 1999, emulated EQ classic server. Im running BB 1.0 overclocked to 1.2 GHz and using PhoneMyPC to connect. So yes I am playing the game, live and real time, on the droid, and pretty damn smoothly at that! Thus far this is the smoothest I have gotten game play by tweaking various things around quite a bit both client side and phone side. This was done on WiFi, and features me healing a group during a quick fight, with particle effects the only major object I had to really reduce. I know some others have gotten this to work decently for gaming but there arent many "In Action" videos out there.

Forgive the crappy camera work please, its filmed one handed as i played using my wife's ERIS actually. I did the best i could.

Originally this all started as an experiment I was doing on the EQ forums. I started with VNC (Ick!) until i learned other ways of doing things. The videos came about as a sort of "Proof" because, honestly, nobody in game believed me until I showed them!

Temps reached their highest at 105f not bad at all.
WiFi is sweet for this, however 3G gaming....bites the big one! Im still trying to get the client optimized as much as possible in the game for it but I honestly dont think much will come from it.

A big round of THANK YOU to the awesome app creators and devs who made this moment of EQ geekyness possible!

Pete! (Im running BB 1.0)
Bekit (Using your 1.2 GHz LV kernel)
PhoneMyPC devs (Because this app kicks ass when set up correctly)
Evercrack because the game made me do this.


Finally, this isnt an Advertisement ive seen people try and call out other posters in the past for that, thank you. Im just trying to share something "neat" gaming wise that people might find interesting. dancedroid

 

[iPirate]

Awesome. I would like to see a windows emulator, emulate win98 or around there. I want to play Sim Tower

 

[cb2000a]

I will wait for the dual cpu's coming out next year for games such as this (and of course the better gpu's as well).

 

[ShadowWulf]

I will wait for the dual cpu's coming out next year for games such as this (and of course the better gpu's as well).

Unneccessary, this depends very little on the CPU speed post 1.0ghz it seems. You have to remember Everquest was released in 1999, and the emulated project 1999 has system requirements almost exactly like EQ had at launch.

Pentium II 266 or greater
· 64MB RAM
· Direct3D or Glide compliant video card with 8MB RAM
· 500MB Hard drive space
· 28.8k+ internet connection
· DirectX compatible sound card
· Mouse, Keyboard
· 2X speed CD-ROM

 

[Natolx]

so... how to we get this?

 

[Diordna]

so... how to we get this?

PhoneMyPC, playing on his droid by connecting through the computer.. which is what PmPC does.

 

[Natolx]

so... how to we get this?

PhoneMyPC, playing on his droid by connecting through the computer.. which is what PmPC does.

oh I misunderstood... thought EQ had been ported to android!

 

[ShadowWulf]

so... how to we get this?

PhoneMyPC, playing on his droid by connecting through the computer.. which is what PmPC does.

oh I misunderstood... thought EQ had been ported to android!

The truely classic server we play on this is Project 1999 - Classic Everquest.
700+ on each night now, classic EQ only, exactly as it was in 1999. Were going up to Velious in expansions and thats IT. dancedroid Being a true classic gameplay and graphics wise is one of the biggest reasons it plays so well on the Droid.

 

[gwlaw99]

Correct me if I am wrong, but phonetomypc essentially streams a video of what is on your pc screen so technically any game could be played this way as long as the controlls were set up properly.

 

[ShadowWulf]

Correct me if I am wrong, but phonetomypc essentially streams a video of what is on your pc screen so technically any game could be played this way as long as the controlls were set up properly.

YES, with a few cavets. As previously mentioned the resolution of whats its streaming, as well as general complexity, have a profound impact on playability. In my video I was actually running at 1680x1050, full screen on the PC side, with only particles turned down. However the game still plays fairly well. I tried Crysis at the same settings and it was on average 1fps.

By cutting the clients resolution even lower (1024x768) the framerate becomes buttery smooth over WiFi (at home or remotely), and almost passable on 3g (where bandwidth is the biggest hurdle).

Also, having your droid overclocked to 1ghz+ is a huge difference compared to stock, and the bugless beast rom is the the icing on the cake because of the way it manages memory so efficiently.

 

[gwlaw99]

So if you lowerd the resolution of World of Warcraft really low and turned off all particle effects, etc..., you could play that as well?

 

[ShadowWulf]

So if you lowerd the resolution of World of Warcraft really low and turned off all particle effects, etc..., you could play that as well?

Yes, obviously I recomend slower paced games like classic EQ for obvious input and awkward control issues. I spend time on it buffing and trading for example for donations, not really anything to stressing or active.

WoW has a very simple client and if you really cranked it all down it should play passably well for buying and selling, but due to the FAST nature of combat I don't know if i recommend farming anything actively. I haven't played wow in years so i dont have a client I can test right now.

 

[gwlaw99]

This would probably be really good for turn based games like Fallout 2 or civilization that do not require reflexes or games that you can pause to set up actions like Baldurs gate 2.

 

[ShadowWulf]

Ok i just rolled out one more video of the gameplay (I just copy-pasted my youtube description for the video btw. The information though applies to ANY game you might want to run on it, the idea and technique applies across the board.)

Ok another CLASSIC Everquest running on android upload! Thanks to Project 1999 for the server! Project 1999 - Classic Everquest check it out, start playing on PC! READ EVERYTHING to understand what im doing here!

Again, this is filmed with my wife's droid ERIS one handed so be kind! Also, due tot he way it processes the image it appears much slower, in actuality I now have it running smoothly at about 30+fps, even in the rain and while moving over WiFi.

This is an experiment in usability and playability using an app called PhoneMyPC (no I dont work for them!) to play classic Everquest on your ANDROID phone! This video is one mainly centering around optimizing the client and UI settings for cell phone use! You'll notice I had to do almost no zooming or screen moving this time. How?

CLIENT: 800x600 resolution, 16-bit color, actor and far clip plane set to 25%, simple sky, particles are left ON but density is set to MINIMUM and distance pulled as close as possible. ALL advanced shaders disabled. Simple water in all zones (no NEW water), no shadows. Its EQ the changes on a mobile are unnoticeable !

In fact, dropping the resolution and effects like this speeds the streaming a huge amount, yet due to the much smaller and pixel-dense DROID screen the resulting image is in fact very clear, colorful and properly proportioned.

By dropping the resolution it blew up the UI which is PERFECT. As you can see all text is perfectly readable and clear, the larger icon size makes clicking a breeze with screen controls, and the mobs and players are sized in a way easy to see and interact with.

So for sitting around, buffing for donations, chatting with your guildies or anything else it works great setup like this! Enjoy!

App used: PhoneMyPC
ROM: Petes BuglessBeast 1.0
1.2 GHz Low Voltage overclock Kernel
WiFi connection
And a bunch of other EQ client side and droid side minor changes that added up to this, smoothest yet experience (see above!)

Highest Temp reached: 101f stable. Nice!

[video=youtube;zrAr9S--rsk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrAr9S--rsk]YouTube - Project 1999/EverQuest Running on a Moto DROID Pt 8, UI and playability![/video]

 

[JasumX]

That is really cool. Keep up the good work!

I just started experimenting with PMPC in order to check WOW auctions on the go Still haven't figured out the movement piece though... It seems nothing I have tried yet allows me to bind characters to any move or autorun keys.