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nor-and-or-not

237 karma · joined January 19, 2009

freelance coder, musician, demoscener, and pixel-wannabe.

composing on everything that blips and bleeps, or doesn’t yet.

email: alex (AT-AT) freQvibez.net

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nor-and-or-not··on Show HN: Our space game has a built-in RISC-V emulator that runs Linux
I'd play that, depending on the actual programming language used inside the game.
nor-and-or-not··on Show HN: Our space game has a built-in RISC-V emulator that runs Linux
Hey, thanks for your suggestions!

We already have a co-op mode, but it's still in alpha testing mode. It most likely will be in Early Access from the start.

Multiplayer is something we really want to do, but takes some planning and time, so it isn't our focus currently. So this will be more like an update once the final version is released.

Co-op mode integration and networking is based on BeRo's RNL, which is also FOSS:

https://github.com/BeRo1985/rnl

nor-and-or-not··on Show HN: Our space game has a built-in RISC-V emulator that runs Linux
:) Watching the pings time out would be highly dissatisfying, though.
nor-and-or-not··on Show HN: Our space game has a built-in RISC-V emulator that runs Linux
Thanks for your kind words and wishes!

I actually never played Stationeers, but sounds interesting, despite the limitation. I'll check it out sometime.

nor-and-or-not··on Show HN: Our space game has a built-in RISC-V emulator that runs Linux
Well, hypothetically speaking, as you would need a complete stack down to Vulkan for the game itself on this machine, and we still would need to sandbox the guest machine, but apart from that nothing speaks against a thin wrapper, that passes through native RISC-V instructions to the host machine. So while it doesn't as of now, it may in the future.
nor-and-or-not··on Show HN: Our space game has a built-in RISC-V emulator that runs Linux
Still got three dark-blue 0x10c T-shirts in my drawers. ;)
nor-and-or-not··on Show HN: Our space game has a built-in RISC-V emulator that runs Linux
Sadly! But you can run the many DCPU emulators, interpreters, and assemblers on the SEEDS computer to interact with the planet.
nor-and-or-not··on Show HN: Our space game has a built-in RISC-V emulator that runs Linux
I'm sure little aliens will like and explore it thoroughly. :)
nor-and-or-not··on Show HN: Our space game has a built-in RISC-V emulator that runs Linux
That he truly is!. I'm sure he loves to hear that and I tell him you said hi. ;)

ps: 0ok or farbrausch?

nor-and-or-not··on Show HN: Our space game has a built-in RISC-V emulator that runs Linux
For example, shaping the terrain and placing items. Our automation is in its early stages, basically a proof-of-concept.

Our main focus lies on manually shaping the ground, placing water and plants, growing things, at least for the current sandbox mode.

But then again, this may change, depending on the interest of the players.

nor-and-or-not··on Show HN: Our space game has a built-in RISC-V emulator that runs Linux
We mostly use Free Pascal (works fine on Linux and cross-compiling for Windows). But during development we also sometimes use and test Delphi builds on Windows.

We always make sure, it compiles with both.

nor-and-or-not··on Show HN: Our space game has a built-in RISC-V emulator that runs Linux
Hey! Yes, we plan to release the full version on GOG.
nor-and-or-not··on Show HN: Our space game has a built-in RISC-V emulator that runs Linux
I took the time and wrote a proper blog post describing our RISC-V emulator and a few other things at a high level:

https://againstallodds.games/blog/2026/10/03/our-risc-v-emul...

nor-and-or-not··on Show HN: Our space game has a built-in RISC-V emulator that runs Linux
I added a little information about PasRISCV here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49939720

nor-and-or-not··on Show HN: Our space game has a built-in RISC-V emulator that runs Linux
I added a little information about PasRISCV here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49939720

nor-and-or-not··on Show HN: Our space game has a built-in RISC-V emulator that runs Linux
A few things about our RISC-V 64-bit emulator. Please forgive me, if I make some mistakes, but I'm not the expert on this.

First, PasRISCV not only emulates userspace (RV64GC usermode), but a complete, modern machine (SMP/MultiHART, RV64, full RVA23.1 including Hypervisor, Crypto, Vector stuff, etc.), which is capable of booting a normal Linux kernel (either using direct OpenSBI -> kernel boot, but currently everything has to be in the initrd then), or using U-Boot (OpenSBI -> U-Boot -> kernel).

The emulator uses a hybrid of interpreter with a tracing JIT. Currently, the JIT is limited to host x86-64. About 99% of all instructions and are supported by the JIT. For example, the host FPU is passed through to the guest. But PasRISCV also supports an optional stricter FPU mode, where with soft floats and interpreter only, because IEEE754-2008 has specific rules, that don't exist on the x86 architecture.

Disk images are provided either using VirtIO-Block or NVMe via PCIe. We can either use disks in normal read-write mode, or also in read-only mode. This allows us to have a root partition, that we can overwrite with game updates, and have a user partition, where custom player stuff is stored. We also can mount host dirs as external paths/mounts over VirtIO-9P or VirtIO-FS, which is especially useful for development because this allows us to compile guest tools directly on the host system.

To display graphics on our virtual game screen(s), we currently use a framebuffer device (via SimpleFB with a custom MMIO framebuffer). But PasRISCV also supports other graphics "adapters", such as VirtIO GPU (with EDID, 2D, and experimental 3D/virgl support), or using PCI emulation (bochs-drm and Cirrus-DRM). We have some custom shaders modifying the framebuffer output, so that we can add some retro FX like scanlines, phosphor glow, etc.

The emulator also has audio using emulated CMI8738 and FM801 cards (both with OPL2/3 support), as well as Intel HDA and VirtIO-Sound. Our little space game (Space Prowler) inside SEEDS has a title tune which is made using PCM+OPL3. I coded a small tracker, which runs in a plain Linux console, so I can even compose inside our game on its 80×50 (640×400px) framebuffer console, albeit it's a bit cumbersome. I'll release the tracker as FOSS when we have a bit more spare time, as I need to make it a bit more user-friendly.

We use vsock (Linux virtual sockets) to interface with the game outside of the emulated machine. We use a small serialization format (basically something similar to binary JSON) to communicate bi-directionally, like you'd expect over normal network. We have a small priority queue and message referencing for urgent and request-response communication. For example, the client to display a planet sphere on the in-game computer can ask for updated positions of e.g. terrain or all animals.

The emulator embeds its own disassembler and debugger, and also can act as gdb server, which means you can use your favourite debugging tools, as long as it speaks gdb's server protocol.

It has real network support through a Slirp-like usermode NAT (without using external libs) which supports IPv4 and IPv6. We can run APK's update and install directly on the emulated machine.

Our game uses a slightly modified Alpine Linux 3.23 and custom kernel build, but a recent stock Alpine image also runs without problems.

PasRISCV is licensed under the permissive zlib license.

If you have any questions, I'm sure BeRo is happy to answer questions with far more detail than I could. :)

nor-and-or-not··on Show HN: Our space game has a built-in RISC-V emulator that runs Linux
Hey, thanks for asking! If you scroll to the bottom on the homepage, there's a bit of info, and we also have some information on the Steam page of the game.

We plan to do a series of blog posts with technical information about the game and its internals, but right now, we're busy preparing for an Early Access release.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5186640/SEEDS__Echoes_Ben...

nor-and-or-not··on Show HN: Our space game has a built-in RISC-V emulator that runs Linux
PasRISCV: https://github.com/BeRo1985/pasriscv

pasriscvemu: https://github.com/BeRo1985/pasriscvemu

PasVulkan: https://github.com/BeRo1985/pasvulkan

POCA https://github.com/BeRo1985/poca

BeRo of farbrausch is 1/3 of our team. :)

(edit) added a link to POCA, the scripting language, as it's relevant, too

nor-and-or-not··on JPEG XL Test Page
Same here, doesn't work, FF 148.0b5
nor-and-or-not··on PasLLM: An Object Pascal inference engine for LLM models
PasLLM runs models such as Llama 3.x, Qwen 2.5 and 3, Phi-3, Mixtral, Gemma 1, DeepSeek R1 and others locally, without any external dependencies for inference. Currently it only runs on the CPU, but GPU acceleration is planned.

The inference engine uses its own custom 4-bit quantization formats that balance good precision with reasonable model sizes, and also supports larger bit sizes. Models need to be converted into these formats using the provided tools, but pre-quantized models are available for download. Details about the optimized formats can be found here: https://github.com/BeRo1985/pasllm/blob/master/docs/quant_4b...

It supports both Delphi and Free Pascal on all major operating systems. A CLI version as well as programs and examples for various Pascal GUI frameworks (FMX, VCL, LCL) are included.

PasLLM is licensed under the AGPL 3.0 and may be integrated as a Pascal unit directly into third-party Object Pascal projects.

nor-and-or-not··on Make Your Own Backup System – Part 1: Strategy Before Scripts
I second that, and you can even self-host it.
nor-and-or-not··on Connomore64: Cycle exact emulation of the C64 using parallel microcontrollers
SIDPLAY for macOS / Mac OS X

http://www.sidmusic.org/sidplay/mac/

nor-and-or-not··on Young men and women are drifting apart
So, you disagree that the right and conservatives cling on to the older concepts, hierarchies, as well as racial and patriarchal structures of society, not because they have been proven as better, but because they had more control over women and people in general.

This is described as reactionary, a core element of the right; whereas the left wants societal progress, despite or because it breaks up old hierarchies and crusty structures, and gives people equal chances, empowers them through education, wants to set them free through collective ownership.

The whole political orientation is a scale, although not of two dimensions, but more, for example if we consider fiscal and corporate views.

But the terms left and right are definitely a valid spectrum and description of social progressivism vs. social conservativeness.

nor-and-or-not··on Young men and women are drifting apart
The cynic in me thinks that some young men are disappointed that the patriarchy is falling, partly because (young) women are more empowered and self-determined, and they no longer own women. Which is a good thing.
nor-and-or-not··on PaperMC/Paper: The most widely used, high performance Minecraft server
So, how compatible is this to the vanilla server?

Does anyone have experience with this?

nor-and-or-not··on GitHub disabled the repository of a Pascal compiler
Yep, but given that the repo is many years old (possibly without any change), that's no good excuse, I think. :)
nor-and-or-not··on GitHub disabled the repository of a Pascal compiler
The repository in question (https://github.com/BeRo1985/berotinypascal) is a small learning Pascal compiler, written in Pascal itself.

Github has blocked the repository without specifying a specific reason ("due to a terms of service violation").

A possible reason could be that there was an .exe in the repository that was compiled with a corresponding assembler. But is that really enough to be deactivated? Many repositories contain .exe files.

Is Github overshooting the mark here?

nor-and-or-not··on Show HN: Temporary Note – Convenient way to use a browser tab as a notepad
Yes, not via the normal browser referrer stuff, but Google Ads runs as JS into the site.
nor-and-or-not··on Show HN: Temporary Note – Convenient way to use a browser tab as a notepad
I wonder, with Google Ads included, if the note (here the URL content after the hash) is also submitted/collected as referrer?
nor-and-or-not··on Mastering Nim, 2nd edition
It may not be obvious if you're just looking at the book. But if the images of the front and back are put together side by side, like in the post, I think it's quite obvious. I'd be surprised if this wasn't intentional.
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