Portal 64 was originally written using Nintendo's proprietary libraries and tools. This material is not included in this repository, but ROMs built with it will necessarily contain Nintendo code. This is the reason Portal64: Still Alive currently does not distribute compiled ROMs in any form.
One major goal of this fork is to remove the requirement on proprietary code. The most mature open-source option is libdragon. When Portal 64 originally began development, libdragon did not support 3D graphics. Since then, a full OpenGL 1.1 port has been implemented in its unstable branch, along with open-source boot code (IPL3) and many other features!
Portal 64's high-level usage of proprietary libraries is listed in the following table:
| Library | Subsystem | Usage | Free equivalent implemented? |
|---|---|---|---|
| libultra | Audio (al) | Music | ❌ |
| Sound effects | ❌ | ||
| Display processing (gDP/gsDP) | Graphics rendering* | ❌ | |
| Signal processing (gSP/gsSP) | 3D Math, lighting, culling, etc.* | ❌ | |
| Graphics common (gdSP) | Lighting | ❌ | |
| Graphics utility (gu) | 3D math | ❌ | |
| Operating system (os) | Address translation | ❌ | |
| DMA | ❌ | ||
| Timers | ❌ | ||
| Interrupts | ❌ | ||
| Task scheduling | ❌ | ||
| Message passing | ❌ | ||
| Peripheral access | ❌ | ||
| Video initialization | ❌ | ||
| Math | Trig functions | ❌ | |
| libnustd | Math | floor() |
✅ |
| String | strcpy(), memset() |
✅ |
* = Not only the game uses these APIs. At build time, Skeletool64 reads YAML files located in assets/materials to generate code containing static display lists. The YAML files, generated code, and Skeletool itself all refer to xDP/xSP function names and parameters.
Using new libraries in such core areas is a large task, but as long as no binaries containing proprietary code are distributed, changes can be done incrementally so the effort is manageable. The table in the previous section will track this progress (and a dedicated document will be created if necessary).
Additionally, since nothing containing Nintendo libraries will be distributed while they are still a requirement, regular progress on the game itself can also continue at the same time. There is no need to drop everything and rewrite large portions of the codebase all at once before continuing -- rather, technical debt can gradually be addressed alongside regular development so that the pace of the project remains steady.
Important: Nintendo's libraries will not be fully removed at first. Instead, a library-independent layer will be built to allow compiling with either libultra or libdragon. This has several benefits:
- Testability of changes (can compare with original implementation)
- Emulator compatibility
- Cleaner code
- Easier porting to other platforms in the future