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Author Topic: Nice Article on Emulators at ars technica  (Read 6391 times)

RichardAmes

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Nice Article on Emulators at ars technica
« on: August 09, 2011, 09:41:29 pm »
There's a nice article from the author of bsnes over on ars technica.  The author gets into the trade offs of accuracy vs. host processor efficiency, and proposes that 3GHz could be considered the minimum host processor speed for a proper SNES emulator.  The follow on discussion picks up on details of how emulators are implemented, musings on FPGA implementations and how the factory-backed emulations are done.

edit: processor speed
« Last Edit: August 09, 2011, 09:53:16 pm by RichardAmes »
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SilverhawkBR

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Re: Nice Article on Emulators at ars technica
« Reply #1 on: August 09, 2011, 10:16:18 pm »
I run SNES on a Win98 with 150Mhz processor. I guess he was faaar wrong... ::)
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pcercuei

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Re: Nice Article on Emulators at ars technica
« Reply #2 on: August 09, 2011, 10:23:22 pm »
Obviously you didn't read the article.
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lemmywinks

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Re: Nice Article on Emulators at ars technica
« Reply #3 on: August 09, 2011, 11:08:59 pm »
Very interesting atricle, thanks for posting.
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Friendly Neighborhood Dingoonity Troll

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Re: Nice Article on Emulators at ars technica
« Reply #4 on: August 09, 2011, 11:45:17 pm »
Quote from: SilverhawkBR on August 09, 2011, 10:16:18 pm
I run SNES on a Win98 with 150Mhz processor. I guess he was faaar wrong... ::)

He's talking about perfectly accurate SNES emulation.
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SilverhawkBR

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Re: Nice Article on Emulators at ars technica
« Reply #5 on: August 10, 2011, 02:16:25 am »
Quote from: Ayla on August 09, 2011, 10:23:22 pm
Obviously you didn't read the article.

OMG, they found out my little secret.

Yeah, in that case, he's right, perfect emulation is quite a hard task and can't be easily done.

Then, i think, how much CPU would it require to run "accurately" a PS2 or a Xbox360?
Some 18Ghz perhaps?
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lemmywinks

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Re: Nice Article on Emulators at ars technica
« Reply #6 on: August 10, 2011, 09:49:59 am »
I would imagine that XBox and XBox 360 don't have too much in the way of specialised hardware, basically standard PC stuff?

I do remember programmers saying the PS2 was difficult to develop for and port to, more so than XB or GB.
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SilverhawkBR

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Re: Nice Article on Emulators at ars technica
« Reply #7 on: August 10, 2011, 05:39:34 pm »
Thing is, PS2 uses a lot of different things that have to be emulated at the same time.

And, there is a nice discussion on the PCSX2 boards, that it's confirmed that emulating a PS3 nowadays is still impossible. System requirements would be very very high, and the software will be very, very hard to be created.

May XB360 is easier on that case, but it still wont be an easy task tough.
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pcercuei

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Re: Nice Article on Emulators at ars technica
« Reply #8 on: August 11, 2011, 12:38:02 am »
Quote from: lemmywinks on August 10, 2011, 09:49:59 am
I would imagine that XBox and XBox 360 don't have too much in the way of specialised hardware, basically standard PC stuff?

The Xbox1 is basically a PC, yes. It has a x86 CPU, and a NVIDIA GPU. With some work, you can even run PC games on it.
The 360 is different, it is built with a PPC processor (just like the PS3, GameCube and Wii).
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SilverhawkBR

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Re: Nice Article on Emulators at ars technica
« Reply #9 on: August 11, 2011, 03:09:42 am »
Still the PS3 is quite harder to emulate tough, since it has.. i dunno, a lot of monstrous hardware doing a lot of things in a incredible speed?

Anyways, here's a discussion i was reading the other day on the PCSX2 boards:
http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-PCSX3--15534?page=1

They speak a lot of technical stuff there.. so be welcome to translate it if you can  :P
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bigdavebear

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Re: Nice Article on Emulators at ars technica
« Reply #10 on: August 11, 2011, 10:20:24 pm »
I have had no problems with SNES Emulation on ZSNES is a great Emu, only the GUI is a tad old fasioned and plain.

SNES9X i used to get to run well on older PC's but on my newer multi core ones they take more fiddle to get working propper.

My P3 600Mhz with 256MB Ram was my old Emulation Baby that Eumlated every 16 bit generation as good as you would need to.

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fmatheus2003

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Re: Nice Article on Emulators at ars technica
« Reply #11 on: August 12, 2011, 12:31:36 pm »
Yeah, guys... we don't need a lot of memory or a ultimate processor to run a snes game... in OUR WAY.

Buuuuuuuuut.... the thing is: tha author is talking about a PERFECT emulation. By perfect, please understand:

- Outstanding Graphical Quality    WITH
- Oustanding Sound Quality   WITH
- Outstanding Game Play Quality   WITH
- Ye playing in a PC REALLY thinking that you are playing on a real SNES.

All these thing at the same time (see that "with"???)... Sooooo... In these terms, I totally agree tha the minimum processor would be a 3Ghz... and I say more: if possible, a dual core one...  8)
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pcercuei

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Re: Nice Article on Emulators at ars technica
« Reply #12 on: August 12, 2011, 07:02:33 pm »
I don't think he's speaking about "perfect" emulation that way (enhanced sound and graphics), but rather that EVERYTHING of the original hardware is emulated, and the behaviour of the emulator is exactly the same than the real thing.

Let's take an example:
If the SNES copies a chunk of memory from A to B and then from B to C, a "standard" emulator would just copy the data from A to C to get some time. Even if there is no consequence at all on the game compatibility, that 'short path' does not mimic the real hardware; and thus that part of the emulator is not accurate.
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Solstice

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Re: Nice Article on Emulators at ars technica
« Reply #13 on: August 13, 2011, 08:04:08 am »
bsnes is my fav snes emulator by far, feels like the real thing,Especially games like star fox,the latest ver v080 does have problems staying at 60fps for me, v079 works great tho

Last night i played all the way thru Mario Kart on bsnes, Felt perfect and was great fun

« Last Edit: August 13, 2011, 08:15:35 am by Solstice »
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