Homebrew Do you think a PS1/PSX emulator would be possible?

[DutchyDutch]

I know, another one of these threads. But I think this one makes sense. Even smea said it:

Spoiler

I think it would be awesome to play nostalgic titles like Spyro (my favorite PS1 franchise), Crash Bandicoot and Rayman etc on the 3DS!

Do you think it's possible? Are you intrested in coding it? Or neither? Share it in a reply.

 

[driverdis]

I know, another one of these threads. But I think this one makes sense. Even smea said it:

Spoiler

I think it would be awesome to play nostalgic titles like Spyro (my favorite PS1 franchise), Crash Bandicoot and Rayman etc on the 3DS!

Do you think it's possible? Are you intrested in coding it? Or neither? Share it in a reply.

I do not think a PS1 emulator would work very good on the 3ds. The best bet forhandled ps1 games is to run them on a PS Vita using TN-X rather than waiting on an emulator.

 

[Rinnegatamante]

I know, another one of these threads. But I think this one makes sense. Even smea said it:

Spoiler

I think it would be awesome to play nostalgic titles like Spyro (my favorite PS1 franchise), Crash Bandicoot and Rayman etc on the 3DS!

Do you think it's possible? Are you intrested in coding it? Or neither? Share it in a reply.

If a PS1 emulator ever appear on 3DS, you must be very lucky to get at least basic games like Kula World to be played with 20-25 fps.
Don't expect to get big titles like Final Fantasy IX and similar playable.

 

[Asia81]

If a PS1 emulator ever appear on 3DS, you must be very lucky to get at least basic games like Kula World to be played with 20-25 fps.
Don't expect to get big titles like Final Fantasy IX and similar playable.

Xena Warrior Princess <3

 

[DutchyDutch]

If a PS1 emulator ever appear on 3DS, you must be very lucky to get at least basic games like Kula World to be played with 20-25 fps.
Don't expect to get big titles like Final Fantasy IX and similar playable.

So you mean games like the first Rayman? I'm fine with that, theres enough fun ''basic'' ps1 games out there.
P.S: Don't like Final Fantasy anyways

 

[DarkFlare69]

Slow and laggy

 

[DutchyDutch]

Slow and laggy

Think it depends on the game.

 

[DarkFlare69]

Think it depends on the game.

All games would be. Look at the PS1 specs compared to SNES, GBA, or NES.

 

[DutchyDutch]

All games would be. Look at the PS1 specs compared to SNES, GBA, or NES.

No shit it will run worse. But I'm not saying the first build would be good.

 

[Satan2k]

I don't think it's possible to have decent emulation. Even with the full hardware access, it would be a crazy task.

Both console have nothing in common. So here are the reasons that came into my mind :
- CPU Limitations : the ARM core is pretty much slow and even if you somehow get access to both core, you'll run into other troubles : a multi core attempt could potentially run slower and cause thread locks...
- Ram Limitations : 64MB is pretty much low for High Level Emulation (HLE), even if you somehow get access to the full 128MB bank, if you want to use a dynamic recompiler (the only possible way to get decent speed), you'll run out of memory rapidly
- Sound : 3DS can use very easely the DSP inside but making an emulator using it is very hard, due to lack of documentation.
- Button Mapping : how would you deal with the L2 / R2 triggers unless you have a circlepad?
- GPU : we barely know nothing about the PICA and how it handles the work, we don't even have decent opengl lib ported to work with. And HLE would be the only "plausible" solution when you're taking in account the lack of raw CPU power.

So to summarize :
- Only HLE with dynarec possible, even there, the speed could be unsufficient
- Button Mapping would be garbage


Yeah i know poeple will rant and say : there's one on the wii, but let's face it :
- Wii had really more CPU raw power
- Wii had more memory (64+24) and on the 3DS, unless you'll get the full access of the hardware you'll end un with only 64MB
- Wii had lots of documentation about GX due to the good community support behind the gamecube, so basically the GPU wasn't the biggest issue there (and moreover it's really more powerful than the one shipped inside the 3DS)


I wouldn't say it's impossible; i saw lots of clever guys making crazy things around here, but don't expect one to be done during this year, even in the next coming year.

 

[zbw2000]

even the new 3ds would probably struggle to play most games

 

[Selim873]

I'm going to agree with Smea on this one.

 

[Odnetnin46]

I'd say it's plausible. Looking back, the PS1 had some pretty paltry specs (a whopping 33MHz processor and 3MB of RAM total!) that I'm sure the 3DS breaks the law of 10x for. Of course, the scene as a whole would need to evolve first since lots of basic documentation and libraries are missing.

 

[Satan2k]

I'd say it's plausible. Looking back, the PS1 had some pretty paltry specs (a whopping 33MHz processor and 3MB of RAM total!) that I'm sure the 3DS breaks the law of 10x for. Of course, the scene as a whole would need to evolve first since lots of basic documentation and libraries are missing.

Again, we'll say it once again : it has nothing to do with Mhz... By example, even a SNES with close to perfect emulation needs a 3GHZ X86 computer In our case we'll just be glad enough with HLE and a dynamic recompiler, which will work for 95% of the titles even with unprecise emulation. BUT, the arm11 in the 3DS is really slow and the memory is really low.

Even the raspberry pi struggled for a long time to have "decent" PSX emulation, and let's face it, the core itself is more powerful and had 4 times to 8 times more memory.

The only positive side would be the PICA200 but we barely know nothing about it. We have roughly a first attempt to implement opengl on it (i looked on other topics..., i'm already impressed by this breakthrough)

Moreover I never said it would be impossible. You could potentially emulate any type of console with any type of hardware: but you'll end up to have <1 fps. You really need a powerfull hardware and tricks (or skills) to gain execution time and get close to the original framerate. I think we could have PS1 emulator on 3DS, but the emulation quality, even with best effort put on it, would look like garbage.

I'm open if someone more clever would prove us I'm wrong, but for now, I'm waiting about proofs and facts

EDIT : example on pandora clocked at 900Mhz, don't even think about 266 Mhz ARM 11 in 3DS :

 

[DutchyDutch]

Again, we'll say it once again : it has nothing to do with Mhz... By example, even a SNES with close to perfect emulation needs a 3GHZ X86 computer In our case we'll just be glad enough with HLE and a dynamic recompiler, which will work for 95% of the titles even with unprecise emulation. BUT, the arm11 in the 3DS is really slow and the memory is really low.

Even the raspberry pi struggled for a long time to have "decent" PSX emulation, and let's face it, the core itself is more powerful and had 4 times to 8 times more memory.

The only positive side would be the PICA200 but we barely know nothing about it. We have roughly a first attempt to implement opengl on it (i looked on other topics..., i'm already impressed by this breakthrough)
Moreover I never said it would be impossible. You could potentially emulate any type of console with any type of hardware: but you'll end up to have <1 fps. You really need a powerfull hardware and tricks (or skills) to gain execution time and get close to the original framerate. I think we could have PS1 emulator on 3DS, but the emulation quality, even with best effort put on it, would look like garbage.

I'm open if someone more clever would prove us I'm wrong, but for now, I'm waiting about proofs and facts

EDIT : example on pandora clocked at 900Mhz, don't even think about 266 Mhz ARM 11 in 3DS :

Not saying that it'll change much, but doesnt the New 3DS have 266x2 mhz? And twice the ram AND VRAM? But if i remember correctly emulators usually are single core only so that wouldnt change much I guess.

 

[Vipera]

My 600mhz phone could run a PS1 emulator. I don't see why not.

Not relevant

 

[hashcheck1]

New 3ds GPU is the same only more vram and better cpu

 

[TecXero]

I could see it, but it would take a lot of work if you want something playable. I doubt anyone would really want to put that much work into it, though.

 

[DutchyDutch]

New 3ds GPU is the same only more vram and better cpu

But the gpu isnt that important in emulating though. It helps, but isnt the main thing. (CPU)

 

[mar789]

I feel if they ever actually got one running on the 3DS, it would never hit a good amount of compatibility and it wouldn't perform well.