PSP Lua Programming

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PSP Lua Programming

• By Kevin Randino

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What is Lua?

• Lua is an interoperated scripting language.
• It bares a close resemblance to Java.
• It is as easy to use as BASIC.
• Lua means moon in Greek it is not an acronym.

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What is a PSP?

• A PSP is a portable gaming device created by
  Sony.
• With just the right modifications, it can support
  homebrew games such as Lua scripts.
• Thanks to Sonys horrible security, homebrew on
  the PSP has a strong fanbase.

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Why Program for the PSP?

• High CPU power for a portable system (333 MHz)?
• Easy to use Coding Language.
• More people do Homebrew on it than the DS.
• DS Cartages are expensive

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What Hell have I Unleashed?

• Throughout my Seminar class I've been working on
  a Random 3D Maze Generator called MazeGen3D.
• I built it from the ground up with no knowledge
  of 3D programming.

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How do you generate mazes?

• A Maze is nothing more than a 2D Integer Array,
  where 0 is a wall and 1 is a path.
• To create a maze, you must
• Create a start and end point.
• Create a straightforward pathfrom the start
  point to the end point.
• Add Branches
• Remove extra paths
• The end result should look something like this

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OK, so you have a 2D Maze... now what?

• It's quite simple really, now that I've created a
  program that makes random mazes, I just need to
  place 3D cubes wherever there's a wall.
• By placing the cubes together, it will make it
  appear as though it is a continuous wall, and
  therefore, a3D maze is born!

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What can you do with Mazes?

• Because maze files are so generic, they can
  easily be modified to be played differently.
• One example is my 3D Pacman engine that takes
  maze files and turns them into a Pacman game.

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What did I learn from this?

• Through this program I got a basic knowledge of
  programming 3D games.
• I also learned a lot more about recursion, code
  optimizing, and working with random factors.
• I'll be using what I learned in future games both
  for and not for the PSP.