Overview
ProDG
for PlayStation®2 is SN Systems' suite of fully featured
tools that enable you to build and debug your game titles
for the PlayStation®2.
Components,
Features and Benefits
The
product consists of build tools (assemblers, C/C++ compiler
and linker for Emotion Engine™ (EE) and IOP), a fast
and dedicated source-level debugger, a target manager for
loading and running executables and monitoring target status,
and optional Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0 and .NET integration.
New
features in v3.2!
This release includes the following new features, in addition
to numerous changes and bug fixes:
- Debugger support for the SCE Performance Analyzer DTL-T15000,
with the new PA Pane
- This pane displays the CPU cycle and memory access
statistics recorded by the PA and overlays them on the
disassembly.
- Custom TTY streams
- Scripting is now
free to ProDG licensees
- More compact DLL format
Click
on any of the components below to list its key features, click
a feature to view its benefits.
- General
features
- Technical
Support/Updates
SN
Systems' technical support is widely regarded as being
the best in the games development tools business.
As a customer you have direct access, via telephone
or e-mail, to our dedicated technical support team.
You will also receive a username and password for
access to our support web pages, where you can download
free updates, patches and Beta files, and also browse
the Technical Library for information or hints &
tips.
- Japanese
localisation built-in
ProDG for PlayStation®2
suite has been localised into Japanese, and will detect
which language to run in. Debugger, linker and assembler
dialogs, error messages and tooltips will be in your
local language, ideal for international development
teams.
- Build
Tools
- Compilers
(EE and IOP) - Enhanced C/C++ Build Tools specifically
for the PlayStation 2
We have taken the GNU build
tools and extensively optimized them to give games
programmers on the PlayStation®2
extra power. For example, patches to enable the automatic
allocation of VU0's internal register set, and extended
maths functions. Provides support for additional R5900
MMI instructions and 128-bit data.
- Linkers
(EE and IOP) - Fast, specialised with data stripping
and DLL capabilities
Designed by SN Systems specifically
for games development purposes, PS2LD is an amazingly
quick linker, packed with extra features. It also
has function and data stripping capabilities, removing
unused or unnecessary code from your ELF file, meaning
smaller files and quicker load times. PS2DLLlk allows
the creation of DLL files, which allow parts of your
program to be dynamically loaded and unloaded to memory,
to get the most out of the available 32 MB.
- Assemblers
(EE, IOP and VU0/1) - Dedicated Emotion Engine™,
IOP and VU Assemblers
These assemblers are fast,
powerful and flexible, and have been created by SN
expressly for the various processors of the PlayStation®2
hardware. The assemblers are significantly quicker
than GNU based counterparts, whilst maintaining compatibility
with them. This leads to improved overall build times,
and code that executes quicker on the console.
- Compiler
Driver - PS2CC for complete control of the build process
Control your build options
easily with the PS2CC Compiler Driver. Builds can
be done without a makefile, and per-project settings
are stored in a simple INI file, allowing the entire
build environment to be backed up or transferred easily.
This setup allows you to switch compilers, linkers
and assemblers, as well as their command-line options
quickly and with ease.
- Debugger
- Fully
customisable colour-coded multi-window debugger
Provides optimal use of screen
real estate and organises debug information logically
by processor.
- Full
Support for EE, IOP and VU processors (VU0, VU1)
The debugger provides source-level
single-step, step-over, step-into, run to cursor,
and breakpoint support for all of the PlayStation®2's
processors (including VU processors).
- Advanced
VU source-level debugger
Provides flexible setting of VU
D-bit breakpoints - in program source at build time,
in uploaded DMA chains, or in microcode source.
You can now set a D-bit breakpoint
in VU code before it is DMA'd by loading VSM files
in an EE source window and double clicking to set
the breakpoint. (New
in 3.1)
- EE
Pipeline Analyzer
Unique to ProDG is an EE
pipeline analyzer, implemented in the disassembly
pane. For the first time you can get information on
resource usage and stall information.
- Resource usage shows the CPU resources required
by that opcode.
- Stall information is an estimate of the number
of clocks stalled and the reason. This figure
is an estimate since the debugger does not know
about cache misses (all loads are considered to
be from cache) and the way different stall effects
combine is in reality more complicated.
- Advanced
DMA pane, with DMA/VIF packet and VU microcode breakpointing
Display DMA channel registers, tags
and VIF packets, with real-time DMA chain error
checks and DMA hardware breakpoints. Can be used
to examine VIF0, VIF1, GIF, IPU, SIF0, SIF1, SIF2
and SPR information. Provides reliable DMA debugging
- hits D-bit breakpoints 100% of the time.
- In-depth
analysis of DMA packets
Parse the whole chain for errors
or cycle through errors one by one.
- PlayStation
2 EE profiler
View which functions are taking
the most EE time to get a good overview of how your
program will perform.
Fine tune your code and get instant
feedback via the profile pane's easy to view interface.
- Kernel
pane displaying thread information
The kernel pane displays
information about all threads running on the PlayStation®2
hardware. Kernel views are available for both the
EE and IOP processors, and can display thread and
semaphore data. The IOP kernel pane can additionally
display Events, Message Box, V Pool and F pool views.
- Workspace
pane allows easy project navigation
The workspace pane provides
quick access to the files, functions, globals and
class definitions within your ELF file. Combine this
with source code search paths to allow debugging of
anything you have source code for, regardless of who
built it, and what their setup was.
- Supports
conditional/counted breakpoints
Conditional breakpoints aid
debugging by allowing specified criteria to trigger
a break in your code. You can also use counted breakpoints
to halt code execution once a breakpoint has been
triggered a specified number of times.
- Mixed-mode
Source/Disassembly pane
The mixed-mode pane allows you to
quickly toggle the format of your source code. Display
the source, disassembly or mixed-mode, which will
interleave the disassembly of code with the original
source line.
- Register
pane, with custom templates
The registers pane supports
the display of custom hardware register layouts to
suit your personal preference. Profiles are provided
to focus on the DMA Controller, GIF interface, IPU,
Timers and the VIF0/1 DMA registers. Add your own
to display a mix and match of the available registers,
on any of the processors within the PlayStation®2.
- Regular
expressions
Regular expressions are a
standard way to describe a string pattern, and can
be used for searches within the debugger.
- Flexible
pane and window system
Allows multiple, simultaneous views
of the CPU registers, memory, disassembly, source,
local variables, and watch points, on any combination
of the PlayStation®2's
processors. You can also save
numerous layouts and recall them as and when needed.
Tabs
have been added to the source, watch, locals and
TTY panes. Default values for the number of tabs
and history entries can be changed in the 'settings'
menu. (New
in 3.1)
- Save/load
data to/from various panes
Many of the panes have the
ability to save or load blocks of information to and
from disk. Use this to quickly restore a game state,
or compare the status of memory on different hardware.
- User-configurable
accelerator keys/bindings and color schemes
The debugger key map can
be altered to suit the developer. SN provide pre-defined
keymaps for Visual Studio and SN (for users who are
used to our SDevTC product). The font, size and colour
of text in each pane can be altered also.
- Pop-up
expression evaluation
The debugger source panes
feature hover evaluation. Simply hover the cursor
over some text or a selection, and the evaluation
or value of the underlying item will instantly popup
in a tooltip.
- Fast
update and display
The SN debugger is one of
the quickest performing available. Panes update in
real-time, and single-step speed is best in class.
- Integrated
TTY pane
Display Printf and Debug
messages from the various TTY streams. Supports ANSI
coloring.
- Uses
the industry standard ELF file format
The debugger recognises the
STABS debug information used in the ELF standard,
so the debugger is 100% compatible with files built
on Linux using the standard tools.
- Visual
Studio Integration
- Build,
edit and manage your project using the Visual Studio
IDE
VSI will install a toolbar
into Visual Studio to allow your ProDG build environment
to be used by Visual Studio. Any feature natively
available in Visual Studio is available to use in
your PlayStation®2
project, for example, Source Safe controls.
- Tight
integration between the IDE and the ProDG Debugger
Once built, you can run/debug
your game in the ProDG debugger from within Visual
Studio. Breakpoints (including conditional information)
are automatically transferred between the IDE and
debugger, and files in the debugger source pane can
be opened in Visual Studio from within the debugger.
- ProDG
build tool integration
The ProDG build tools can
be controlled by standard switches entered into Visual
Studio's project options dialogs. Options and switches
specified in the IDE will be interpreted as necessary
and passed to the ProDG build tools. Manage projects
for multiple platforms from within a single workspace.
Any build error messages are output in the IDE so
that double-clicking one will take you to the line
in question, ready for editing.
- Source
browsing
Use Visual Studio's built
in source browsing capability in your PlayStation®2
project, just as you would in a Win32 build.
- Project
dependencies
Setup build dependencies
using Visual Studio's built in capability to automatically
rebuild all the necessary parts of a project, as and
when needed.
- Target
Manager
- Load/Run
ELF and IRX files
Quickly and easily load
and run an ELF/IRX file to any connected development
hardware, ideal for artists and testers.
- Manage
all development hardware from your own PC
Target Manager provides
a quick and easy interface to manage the various targets
(the development hardware) that is available to you,
including networked hardware and hardware shared through
a remote host PC.
- Integrated
Kernel flashing
Target Manager can update
the Kernel on remote Sony Computer Entertainment PlayStation®2
Development Tool DTL-T10000 targets
quickly and simply using the flash update files provided
with the SDK updates, removing the need for a separate
Linux box.
- Full
file serving, including named pipes
File serving allows your
application, running on the development target, to
access files located on your host PC. You can read
your game data directly from your PC, saving you time
and resources, and access file information such as
size and access times directly from the target. Furthermore,
named pipe support provides a two-way communication
channel between your application and the host PC.
Now you can write software to control the target from
your PC!
- TTY
output pane
Enables you to view the
multiple TTY output streams for a target including
a summary view that highlights TTY streams with new
input (indicating the byte count). Supports ANSI coloring
and a resizable buffer to store as much information
as you need.
- Target
Manager Software Development Kit (SDK)
ProDG Target Manager SDK provides
programmatic access to the functionality of ProDG
Target Manager.
- Access
to ProView for PlayStation 2
Your
ProDG license enables you to download and use our
artist preview tool, ProView.
- Write custom tools and plugins for artists,
testers and level designers.
System
requirements
- Development
PC running Windows NT 4, 2000 or XP Professional.
-
Sony Computer Entertainment PlayStation 2 Development Tool
DTL-T10000 or DTL-T15000.
-
Network card.
Prices
Please contact contact@snsys.com
for further information.
