Homebrew Is the 3DS powerful enough to run an N64 emulator?

[shutterbug2000]

This isn't meant to be one of those "can the 3DS do x" threads(Sorry if you take it that way ). I'm asking if it would be possible within the 3DS' hardware. I know the DS couldn't do it, but could it be on a 3DS.

 

[DiscostewSM]

Not at a tolerable frame rate I'd say. The GPU itself is missing numerous features that would be required to properly display the games (no paletted texture support as far as we know).

 

[shutterbug2000]

Not at a tolerable frame rate I'd say. The GPU itself is missing numerous features that would be required to properly display the games (no paletted texture support as far as we know).

Ah, I see. So the limitation is the GPU.

Also, on another emulation topic, DOSbox port/ DOS emulation? Is that possible on the 3DS(I'd think it would be, but the DS couldn't really ever run DOS emulation(to my knowledge, at least)

 

[DiscostewSM]

Ah, I see. So the limitation is the GPU.

Also, on another emulation topic, DOSbox port/ DOS emulation? Is that possible on the 3DS(I'd think it would be, but the DS couldn't really ever run DOS emulation(to my knowledge, at least)

The GPU is just one part of the emulation equation, but unlike emulators that do SNES and other such retro devices, emulation of the N64 does require a good GPU to relieve the CPU.

As for DOS emulation, the DS had DSx86 (with the DSTWO having DS2x86), so a DOS emulator for the 3DS is not out of the question.

 

[shutterbug2000]

The GPU is just one part of the emulation equation, but unlike emulators that do SNES and other such retro devices, emulation of the N64 does require a good GPU to relieve the CPU.

As for DOS emulation, the DS had DSx86 (with the DSTWO having DS2x86), so a DOS emulator for the 3DS is not out of the question.

Oh yeah... I forgot about DSx86. It would be interesting to see a port of it or something like that.

 

[TecXero]

The more I look at the 3DS, the more I think a N64 emulator couldn't be done. At least anything playable or enjoyable.

 

[Jim_e]

Not at a tolerable frame rate I'd say. The GPU itself is missing numerous features that would be required to properly display the games (no paletted texture support as far as we know).

I know the N64 had a color palette mode for it's textures, but that's not quite analogous to SNES color palette. For SNES you have to render 256x224 pixels from 64 KB of tile memory, for N64 you have a max res of 640x480i and only 4Kb of texture memory.

That means prior to drawing a frame, assuming any changes to the color palette, you would only have to update a max of 8192 pixels in texture memory vs Snes's 60,000 pixels for either the tile memory or the screen. The situation is better for the N64 given that the texture memory is so small and there is no racing the beam tricks employed like on the NES, SNES, and GB.

That's not to say it's possible, but I wouldn't discount the possibility on the new 3ds.

 

[lisreal2401]

Yes - but no way would it be really playable. Think where Wii64 is at now and that MIGHT give you an idea.

 

[JoostinOnline]

Yes - but no way would it be really playable. Think where Wii64 is at now and that MIGHT give you an idea.

Wii64 runs pretty well. However, it has the full resources of the Wii, while a hypervisor is still running on 3DS homebrew

 

[Arecaidian Fox]

Hey, it would have to be better than DaedalusX64 on the PSP, right ?

 

[sweis12]

Hey, it would have to be better than DaedalusX64 on the PSP, right ?

Haha
But, I think the new 3ds would do alot better than the regular 3ds xD!
Someone should slap together a beta emulator so people would stop compaining.

 

[Deleted User]

I honestly think at the peak of the n3ds hacking you will get something close to the psp's level of n64 emulation, aka not very playable.

 

[hippy dave]

The N key is only three away from the C key. You probably meant C64, right? Yeah, it could emulate one of those pretty nicely I reckon.

 

[Pleng]

This isn't meant to be one of those "can the 3DS do x" threads(Sorry if you take it that way ).

I don't really see how else the question can be taken? Because that's exactly what you've asked!

I'm asking if it would be possible within the 3DS' hardware. I know the DS couldn't do it, but could it be on a 3DS.

 

[TecXero]

Hey, it would have to be better than DaedalusX64 on the PSP, right ?

Not really. Even though the 3DS has a few more points in its favor on the technical side of things, the PSP had an architecture that was more similar to the N64 than the 3DS. Not saying it's impossible, but it would require some very impressive coding skills from a very dedicated person. I'd be surprised if it ran as well as DaedalusX64.

Honestly seems like these topics pop up every week or so. Either that or they pop up whenever a new exploit is announced.

 

[nero99]

The more I look at the 3DS, the more I think a N64 emulator couldn't be done. At least anything playable or enjoyable.

If the psp's craptacular hardware can run a n64 emu a decent rate on some games. I think the 3ds would be able to do a much better job. Especially the New 3DS.

 

[loco365]

We can barely emulate the GBA right now. A Nintendo 64 emulator would barely be playable at this point.

 

[Lucifer666]

If the psp's craptacular hardware can run a n64 emu a decent rate on some games. I think the 3ds would be able to do a much better job. Especially the New 3DS.

I think analysing whether or not something is achievable by a certain set of hardware isn't just a matter of saying "well x is better than y and y could do it so x must do it too"

it's a matter of looking at in what ways x is better than y. it's not a clear better than/worse than scenario, y might have certain attributes that x does not despite being the "inferior" of the two

 

[TecXero]

If the psp's craptacular hardware can run a n64 emu a decent rate on some games. I think the 3ds would be able to do a much better job. Especially the New 3DS.

Not really, the PSP was running a MIPS based architecture, as was the N64. They still had plenty of differences, even CPU side, but at least it didn't have to emulate as many points for the CPU. As for the 3DS, it's running ARM. Is it possible? Technically, yes. Will someone create an enjoyably playable emulator? Probably not.

There's a lot more to hardware than the numbers it boasts. Even with the N3DS, I have my doubts. Maybe if Nintendo got a full team to create a VC wrapper for N64 VC games on the N3DS, but even then it would probably be a bit crappier than the Wii's N64 VC wrapper.

 

[DiscostewSM]

I know the N64 had a color palette mode for it's textures, but that's not quite analogous to SNES color palette. For SNES you have to render 256x224 pixels from 64 KB of tile memory, for N64 you have a max res of 640x480i and only 4Kb of texture memory.

That means prior to drawing a frame, assuming any changes to the color palette, you would only have to update a max of 8192 pixels in texture memory vs Snes's 60,000 pixels for either the tile memory or the screen. The situation is better for the N64 given that the texture memory is so small and there is no racing the beam tricks employed like on the NES, SNES, and GB.

That's not to say it's possible, but I wouldn't discount the possibility on the new 3ds.

Well, you may be onto something. As it is, various other emulators/plug-ins have had the ability to swap in-game textures with hi-res packs, so I'd imagine that since they'd have to start with a dump or cache of in-game textures to accomplish that and have ties of when/where/how they get used, a cache of converted textures could do the trick, assuming there isn't any special things done like palette animation, and that RAM could hold them all alongside the game also in RAM. Is it split half and half for game/OS, or 96MB/32MB?