[Nickos-V]

Noticed that on stock ROM some games are not working. This maybe an issue that affects rk2918 tablets? Do others use ChainFire to play these games? Does Roman's ROM make these playable by changing the device type?

These do not start. Do not work:
E Warriors
GT Free+ HD
Gun Bros
Star Blitz
Virtual City (crashes on start)

Maybe more but I have tested only very few games out.

[OscarM]

gun bros didn't work for me neither, with romans rom.
GT free+ HD was quite heavy, 700 mb, so i didn't have enough space for it.

[Nickos-V]

Ok, thanks for your reply. I would be much more happy if some people can try out other games and say which do not work. The problem is either the game looks for certain fingerprint (in build.prop) or specific OpenGL driver. Not sure which one. Could also be different for each game.

Device fingerprint is changed in build.prop. Roman made this device appear as a Droid 2 (OMAP 3620/3640 which uses PowerVR 530) with his firmware. The OpenGL fix would be to install Chanfire3D but would have to happen @ ROM level.

This post has been edited by Nickos-V: 17 October 2011 - 08:06 PM

[Vinxp]

E Warriors & Gun Bros. don't work or start for me too.

[Nickos-V]

I updated the firmware and made my tablet into Galaxy Tablet 7" (S5PC110) by making changes in build.prop. This allowed me to play E Warriors, Gun Bros, Star Blitz, Green Farm (Chinese language default), Asphalt 5 HD, ....

I tested some games that worked before and they still work now. Games that crash with error report still seem to crash. That means some type of bug that affects Rockchip CPU or Vivante GPU on the crashing games or apps.

Crashing programs so far are:
Virtual City
Super KO Boxing
Antutu Benchmark

[Nickos-V]

Ok, tested with Sentinel 3 and Let's Golf 3 and noticed that part of the graphics were missing. So, making the i7 pretend to be Galaxy Tablet is not going to work for every game out there. Though it seems to improve game selection in the market.

Many of the games are meant for Nvidia GPU (TEGRA 2), PowerVR 530(?)/540 (S5P chips, OMAP 3(?) & 4) and maybe Adreno 200 (Qualcomm). After these would be Mali-400. Though this should quickly improve now that Samsung is using Mali-400 GPU in their new phones.

I was hoping to use a popular phone (or tablet) that uses RK2918 chip to improve game compatibility on the i7 but had very hard time finding anything that stood out. Any suggesitions? If not, I may try making the i7 look like it uses Mali-400 GPU because that may work better for gaming. The Mali-400 & GC800 are likely much closer than the GC800 would be to PowerVR 530/540 GPUs. Hopefully that works out better.

[Nickos-V]

I changed my device into Samsung Galaxy S II phone which uses Mali 400 GPU and now can play these games. What I discovered is that many games were coded to use specific texture compression formats on different GPUs. Since the GC800 found in Rockchip RK2918 chip is not compatible with other compressed texture formats it lead to game crashing out or missing graphics. This is one reason why people use Chainfire3D on non-compatible tablets. To play games that were meant for PowerVR or ULP Geforce or Adreno GPUs. Each one has their "own version" of texture compression for graphics.

I could not find any easy way to install Chainfire3D on this tablet. There maybe a hard way but I do not want to spend anymore time on it. The easy way out is to reflash the i7 with a build.prop similar to SGSII. The Droid2 build.prop may show more games today but many will be incompatible because they were meant for PowerVR GPUs. The SGSII with Mali 400 GPU only supports ETC compression which is part of OpenGL ES spec. Same thing for GC800. So, games compatible and working on Mali 400 GPU will also work well and proper on GC800 GPU.

Games that crashed before still crash. Like Virtual City & Super KO Boxing. Antutu is now working and likely crashed before because was installing PowerVR GPU version. MSNBC no longer works because of some type of WiFi error but everything else seems to. Let's Golf 3 now works proper but too intense for this tablet to handle. I am really liking Gun Bros. I think that game is pretty well done and fun though the upper levels get pretty hard.

In next post I will provide build.prop with couple of tips.

[Nickos-V]

Build.prop similar to SGSII one

Spoiler

# begin build properties
# autogenerated by buildinfo.sh
ro.build.id=GINGERBREAD
ro.build.display.id=GINGERBREAD.XWKI8
ro.build.version.incremental=XWKI8
ro.build.version.sdk=10
ro.build.version.codename=REL
ro.build.version.release=2.3.5
ro.build.date=Wed Sep 28 20:51:36 KST 2011
ro.build.date.utc=1317210696
ro.build.type=user
ro.build.user=root
ro.build.host=DELL149
ro.build.tags=release-keys
ro.product.model=GT-I9100
ro.product.brand=samsung
ro.product.name=GT-I9100
ro.product.device=GT-I9100
ro.product.board=GT-I9100
ro.product.cpu.abi=armeabi-v7a
# Samsung Specific Properties
ro.build.PDA=I9100XWKI8
ro.build.hidden_ver=I9100XWKI8
ro.build.changelist=616395
ro.product.cpu.abi2=armeabi
ro.product.manufacturer=samsung
ro.product.locale.language=en
ro.product.locale.region=US
ro.wifi.channels=
ro.board.platform=s5pc210
# ro.build.product is obsolete; use ro.product.device
ro.build.product=GT-I9100
# Do not try to parse ro.build.description or .fingerprint
ro.build.description=GT-I9100-user 2.3.5 GINGERBREAD XWKI8 release-keys
ro.build.fingerprint=samsung/GT-I9100/GT-I9100:2.3.5/GINGERBREAD/XWKI8:user/release-keys
# Samsung Specific Properties
ro.build.PDA=I9100XWKI8
ro.build.hidden_ver=I9100XWKI8
ro.build.changelist=616395
ro.tether.denied=false
ro.flash.resolution=1080
# end build properties
#
keyguard.no_require_sim=true
ro.com.android.dateformat=MM-dd-yyyy
ro.com.android.dataroaming=false
ro.ril.hsxpa=1
ro.ril.gprsclass=10
ro.config.notification_sound=OnTheHunt.ogg
ro.config.alarm_alert=Alarm_Classic.ogg
ro.opengles.version=131072
wifi.interface=wlan0
persist.webview.minscale=0.5
persist.webview.maxscale=2
persist.webview.wml=disable
product.version=Rooted RK2918 Gingerbread v1.28
EXTERNAL_STORAGE_STATE=removed
persist.sys.timezone=America/Denver
ro.setupwizard.mode=OPTIONAL
dalvik.vm.dexopt-flags=m=y
net.bt.name=Android
dalvik.vm.stack-trace-file=/data/anr/traces.txt
# ro.compcache.default=0
# This is a high density device with more memory, so larger vm heaps for it.
dalvik.vm.lockprof.threshold=500
# dalvik.vm.startheapsize=32m
dalvik.vm.heapsize=40m
#
# ro.tchip.livewallpaper=com.android.wallpaper/com.android.wallpaper.fall.FallWallpaper
ro.tchip.defscr_br=165
ro.tchip.defscr_timeout=600000
#
# Battery Savings (Sleep Mode)
ro.ril.disable.power.collapse=0
pm.sleep_mode=1
#
# Render UI through GPU instead of CPU
# Comment out if this causes laggy UI (it should speed up UI)
debug.sf.hw=1
#
#
dalvik.vm.execution-mode=int:jit
ro.kernel.android.checkjni=0
wifi.supplicant_scan_interval=180
#
windowsmgr.max_events_per_sec=150

You have to unpack system.img. Use the tools provided by Roman to do this. Then replace build.prop in system folder with this build.prop. Repack your system folder. Replace system.img with this newer, repacked system.img and flash the i7. You should also look at using some type of backup application to avoid having to download all your working programs over again.

line below affects timezone:
persist.sys.timezone=America/Denver

line below affects language (en=English)
ro.product.locale.language=en

line below affects location (US=America)
ro.product.locale.region=US

Change the lines above to default to your local time, language and country.

EDIT: ONLY USE THIS ON WOPAD TABLETS. IT MAY ALSO WORK WITH OTHER RK2918 TABLETS. IT CAUSES NOVO7 TO LOOP SO DO NOT USE IT ON THAT TABLET. ALSO, THERE IS SGS2 BUILD.PROP IN ONE OF THE NOVO7 THREADS SO LOOK FOR AND USE THAT INSTEAD.

This post has been edited by Nickos-V: 23 December 2011 - 11:49 AM

[N_M_S]

interesting to know before I buy it....


Thanks all,

[TheRedZebra]

Nickos, thanks for all the tips.

Which system.img did you start with?

[Nickos-V]

N_M_S, on 06 November 2011 - 10:59 PM, said:

interesting to know before I buy it....

You maybe better off going with Novo 7A for your first tablet. I believe Novo7A to be little better than this one.

The i7 has slightly better screen & WiFi but the Novo 7A has somewhat better battery life, little faster CPU, many co-processors which make it run smoother and an uncompressed system folder which allows using any root type program. i7 only allows root programs that do not install into system folder.

In any case, this tablet is still very good but maybe not the best choice for 7".

[Nickos-V]

TheRedZebra, on 10 November 2011 - 01:10 PM, said:

Which system.img did you start with?

I used Roman's firmware version but stock should work too. It was just easier to download Roman's since Pandawill wanted me to register on their site. Also, I removed Extras folder since those APKs will get installed to system folder and will not be removable after. Better to side load them from TF card or download off Market.

My first version put heapsize to 32MB because most other firmwares I checked used the same. I upped it to 40MB just yesterday. Stock firmware I believe used 48MB. Android default is 24MB. Larger heapsize may help with game lag but too big and you have less RAM for programs to run in. 40MB is probably the best size but would have to test out to know for sure.

This post has been edited by Nickos-V: 18 November 2011 - 11:55 AM