​

No, this is not another trick Nintendo has for its handheld nor a homebrew app for the same console. 3DNes is a Unity-based emulator that adds another dimension to Nintendo's very first video games.

Developed by Geod Studio, the emulator is still in beta mode and has been released this week for all of us to try. You can do so right here. Be warned that it currently works only on Firefox browser and while Super Mario Bros. being the most successfully emulated, not all games are compatible.

​

Check out the developer's Youtube Channel for more such videos.

It might be in its early days but this project is worth checking out. Geod Studio's Trần Vũ Trúc even quit his job to go all out for his passion! The developer wrote the emulator himself, further adding that "the essential difference between it and any normal emulator is the PPU. I call it - 3D PPU which will render the game on 3D buffer". He also hints about allowing manual adjustments for certain games in the future but is focusing on having a "strong emulation engine as the backbone" for now. Furthermore, he adds that "if the emu can render decently 1/4, 1/5 or even 1/10 nes game collection, it's already a big success for me".

Although in beta state, the whole concept is worth praising. I'm sure most of us can't wait to see more games running on the emulator and possibly having it running on other platforms. Until then, we can rejoice over the videos at the very least.

[UPDATE]
Turns out that the man behind the project is now a Temper under the username @geod80 and made a thread about it earlier. Check it out here. And if he finds the time, he might answer some of the most pertinent questions.

SOURCE

 

[seam]

OT
How is Mario running backwards in the video o.O
Render error?

lol no its not an error, its a trick you can do

 

[raystriker]

lol no its not an error, its a trick you can do

Never played the NES game :guilty:
I guess he's just showing off

 

[Subtle Demise]

Except it is and you can load ROMs into it.

This is the same concept as the voxel engine here:



However from there it looks like some specific sprite work was done, there is nothing to prove that the emulator does not have a sprite database available. Logistically this could make a quick internet call to a location that has the voxelized textures and download them for use(since they would be very small). Not what it is actually doing... but possible.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/03/how-a-new-emulator-generates-3d-scenes-from-2d-nes-games/

 

[leon315]

Moon walker!

 

[GamerzHell9137]

Looks crazy!

 

[Dan-the-Rebirth]

Well it didnt work on my pc...cant start webgl even with firefox.

Can someone try maniac mansion and post a vid"

 

[cots]

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/03/how-a-new-emulator-generates-3d-scenes-from-2d-nes-games/

Yeah, I read this on Ars a few days ago. Cool stuff.

 

[KingBlank]

This is similar to what I'd been hoping 3ds emulators to achieve - except I just want to be able to render the different render layers at different 3D heights.
GBA games for example use a bunch of video layers that you can enable/disable in most gba emulators.

 

[Doran754]

Any word on if this will work with 360 controller support

 

[LoganK93]

Has anyone actually gotten this to work personally? It just throws a lot of errors at me, even just using his demo rom. I kind of got it to load once, but the "textures" were all garbled and then it just crashed lol

 

[tony_2018]

This looks promising, hope the guy continues.

 

[Catastrophic]

Can't wait to try out Rad Racer with 3D mode enabled... In 3D!

 

[Subtle Demise]

Any word on if this will work with 360 controller support

Use joy2key

 

[SMG5]

How does this work? It can't be automatic. He'd have to write a function that recognizes objects on a 2D plain, a difficult task by itself. But then converting 2D objects into 3D? There's no way this is a real emulator. He must have remade all the sprites and textures in 3D and edited the code of the games.

Yeah, must be a special program itself, not a ROM that is a completely different program ten the game on his PC instead of it being real. Created, just a progeram

 

[TotalInsanity4]

Yeah, must be a special program itself, not a ROM that is a completely different program ten the game on his PC instead of it being real. Created, just a progeram

Could you please repeat that?...

 

[LoganK93]

Could you please repeat that?...

Ahem, allow me. "Yes, it must be a special program which is self contained, not a rom that is being actively read and translated to 3D, but rather a separate program that reads which "scene" it should load from an external source that matches said rom, instead of it creating the polygons live. It is just a program, not an emulator."

Basically he thinks the roms "unlock" a programmed from scratch version of each game, where the 3D assets such as pipes and bullets are pre-made models built into the program. He would also be wrong.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

Ahem, allow me. "Yes, it must be a special program which is self contained, not a rom that is being actively read and translated to 3D, but rather a separate program that reads which "scene" it should load from an external source that matches said rom, instead of it creating the polygons live. It is just a program, not an emulator."

Basically he thinks the roms "unlock" a programmed from scratch version of each game, where the 3D assets such as pipes and bullets are pre-made models built into the program. He would also be wrong.

Actually, if that's what he's saying, I'm guessing he's not far off (unless you have the technical know-how to say otherwise, because, I'm just speculating based off of what I can see). Since it seems as though it can differentiate between a circular pipe and a square block, for instance, there probably are already some reference models that the emulator wraps the sprites around to create a texture

 

[bradzx]

I am only say two words. 20% cooler.

 

[lonzodavis]

I saw this in the other thread, this is a cool way to replay Super Mario Bros in 3d like this, very nice.

 

[geod80]

In-game real-time editing feature - Let your imagination fly up to the sky
Part 1: