Hacking Wii U support in Dolphin

[CosmoCortney]

I'd prefer dolphin to have wii u support. The Wii u is still based on GameCube's architecture, so...

But i'd be fine with a separate emulator as well.

but.. first of all they need to have proper success in Wii u emulating..

 

[Lakum]

Yeah, he has zero interest, so...yeah...it's just the way he does things.

What about other devs ?

 

[Lakum]

I'd prefer dolphin to have wii u support. The Wii u is still based on GameCube's architecture, so...

But i'd be fine with a separate emulator as well.

but.. first of all they need to have proper success in Wii u emulating..

I also would prefer support for Wii U in Dolphin.

 

[NWPlayer123]

I'd prefer dolphin to have wii u support. The Wii u is still based on GameCube's architecture, so...

But i'd be fine with a separate emulator as well.

but.. first of all they need to have proper success in Wii u emulating..

Not really, but okay. They have a semi-mainstream GPU now, they're using eMMC for the most part, all the modules like the DVD drive are changed, and the GamePad is different enough that it's not worth anyone's time bloating Dolphin with more stuff that would slow it down. I honestly see no reason to try to do more with Dolphin then is already being done. You don't need a one-stop-solution for everything, that'd be a challenge in itself making them all work at the same efficiency. Do you want to bloat Dolphin with one more system-worth of emulation or do you want a seperate one that actually runs decently on a good computer?

 

[neobrain]

Has anyone tried working with the dolphin devs or they have no interest?

No interest. Read the thread again, the stuff announced in this thread is completely useless for actual WiiU emulation.

 

[the_randomizer]

What about other devs ?

Good luck convincing them to do otherwise.

 

[Lakum]

Not really, but okay. They have a semi-mainstream GPU now, they're using eMMC for the most part, all the modules like the DVD drive are changed, and the GamePad is different enough that it's not worth anyone's time bloating Dolphin with more stuff that would slow it down. I honestly see no reason to try to do more with Dolphin then is already being done. You don't need a one-stop-solution for everything, that'd be a challenge in itself making them all work at the same efficiency. Do you want to bloat Dolphin with one more system-worth of emulation or do you want a seperate one that actually runs decently on a good computer?

One solution for everything is actually very good idea . Dolphin has pretty good features and GUI already so it would be better than trying to create emulator from nothing still if devs dont want to emulate Wii U thats to bad but no one else has comparable experience with emulating this CPU architecture.

 

[NWPlayer123]

It's not that they shouldn't/couldn't use code from Dolphin, it's just that the rewrites needed for the majority of the program wouldn't be a good idea being kept in dolphin. You'd be better off using the base code of dolphin for all the powerpc instructions and such and then build up from there with the new hardware in mind.

 

[Lakum]

It's not that they shouldn't/couldn't use code from Dolphin, it's just that the rewrites needed for the majority of the program wouldn't be a good idea being kept in dolphin. You'd be better off using the base code of dolphin for all the powerpc instructions and such and then build up from there with the new hardware in mind.

They can do Wii U emulation in separate core/module in Dolphin it may even be faster than wii emulation if it will support more cores.

 

[neobrain]

Lakum: So what in your opinion would be the advantage of WiiU emulation in Dolphin if it's all in a separate module?

 

[Lakum]

Lakum: So what in your opinion would be the advantage of WiiU emulation in Dolphin if it's all in a separate module?

Good GUI for one and skilled and experienced developers for two.

 

[neobrain]

Good GUI for one and skilled and experienced developers for two.

Which parts of the Dolphin GUI can be reused for a WiiU emulator? Why would experienced developers be more likely to work on a separated WiiU emulation module in Dolphin than to work on a separate WiiU emulator?

 

[Duo8]

One solution for everything is actually very good idea . Dolphin has pretty good features and GUI already so it would be better than trying to create emulator from nothing still if devs dont want to emulate Wii U thats to bad but no one else has comparable experience with emulating this CPU architecture.

Then make a frontend for all emulators if you want that. Problem solved.
A new emulator is more likely due to major hardware differences, and even software.

 

[Lakum]

Then make a frontend for all emulators if you want that. Problem solved.
A new emulator is more likely due to major hardware differences, and even software.

As was pointed by others in this thread differences are not that big, GPU is different but CPU architecture is very similiar and can run wii software natively.

 

[Kargaroc]

The GUI? That's the easiest part to make! At least when it comes to Wii U emulation!

 

[Lakum]

The GUI? That's the easiest part to make! At least when it comes to Wii U emulation!

Yes obviously but still not every emulator has good GUI.

 

[Marionumber1]

For a Wii U emulator, it's highly likely that no hardware other than the Espresso would need to be emulated at all. Since Wii U applications access hardware through the Cafe OS libraries, rather than directly accessing hardware or IOS on the Wii, an emulator could just redirect Cafe OS calls into the emulator itself and provide the required functionality.

 

[Duo8]

As was pointed by others in this thread differences are not that big, GPU is different but CPU architecture is very similiar and can run wii software natively.

As pointed by one of the main devs in this thread, the CPU is also quite different (3 cores). Also the thing has an actual OS now.

 

[cdoty]

The GUI? That's the easiest part to make!

Said no real programmer, ever.

 

[WulfyStylez]

For a Wii U emulator, it's highly likely that no hardware other than the Espresso would need to be emulated at all. Since Wii U applications access hardware through the Cafe OS libraries, rather than directly accessing hardware or IOS on the Wii, an emulator could just redirect Cafe OS calls into the emulator itself and provide the required functionality.

Wow yeah, why hasn't anyone discussed HLE at all in this thread? There's totally no reason to go for brutally accurate emulation when we can get everything 99% working with a way lower requirement for hardware.