Hacking Would you contribute to devs for emulators?

[Deleted member 42501]

Well, would you?

Money was a great incentive on the Vita scene and it helped in many ways to crack the console. I believe that its worth showing some love for those that take the time and effort to code the apps we use in an illicit fashion just like the old shareware days plus it provides a great motivator for those either lacking in the desire or resources.

So, would you stump up some cash if there were a way we could pool it/get it to the devs in question (sort of how wololo did) in order to finally get some decent emulators on this potentially awesome machine?

<Offers 50 bucks to whoever can port a 100% perfect implementation of Reicast over to the Wii U>

 

[DinohScene]

"cracking" a handheld isn't that difficult.
Just take both edges in your hands and smash it on your knee.

Voila, it's cracked, in half.

Serious answer:
A donation drive and a homebrew contest does attract a lot of attention.
Temp also did it a few years back.
It indeed is a good way to motivate devs to make homebrew.

 

[Deleted member 42501]

I agree and think it would be a fantastic idea as I recently thought that if we already have kernel access and can launch ISO loaders and whatnot there should also be emulators as they have access to the whole system and its resources - correct?

It just seems such a shame that the scene on the Wii U is so stagnant as it has the potential to be a better emulation machine that the OG Xbox which still does a stellar job to this day but is getting a bit old now in terms of spec and can't handle the newer systems.

 

[Haymose]

Well I have other machines to run emulators. So no.

 

[DinohScene]

Well, the problem of creating proper emulators that take all the resources available is that it takes time.
Optimizing them takes even more time.

For example, the PSP was able to emulate the N64 cause it shared the same CPU architecture.
N64 used a MIPS CPU and PSP used a MIPS CPU.
Hence, very little machine code translation is needed.
"fun" fact: The Vita isn't much more powerful then the PSP (the CPU is clocked at 444Mhz, albeit it's a quadcore)
So I doubt we'll see much more powerful emulators on that unfortunately.

As for the Wii U.
The entire Wii U scene is rubbish.
it's nothing but teasing and not releasing.
Along with false claims and barely any progress.
Then again, the Nintendo scene is already toxic as fuck as it is flooded by self entitled pirates.

Anyway, I've kinda given up hopes that the Wii U would be the next Wii when it comes to emulation.
Not to mention homebrew.

Then again, most of the hackers these days have moved on to Android (no nasty side effect of piracy)
So a handful of enthusiasts is what drives todays scenes.

Well I have other machines to run emulators. So no.

Everyone that has a phone/computer already can emulate more then what consoles can.
If you got nothing constructive to say, please don't post.

 

[QuarkTheAwesome]

(warning: 11pm post that will probably seem agressive/pushy in 8 hours; I don't mean anything by this)

My PayPal's been out there for a while; so far it's been $25 from another dev (sorry I haven't bought that Teensy yet, probably not gonna happen tbh; lemme know if you want a refund) and $1 so a certain someone can brag about it. I mean sure, if you can organise the community and get a pool together that would attract more developers; go for it (just be careful not to make it a competition, a collaborative effort is vastly superior to a million peaople working on the exact same thing (cough iosu cough)) but so far money hasn't proven to be a huge motivator for me. Sure, it makes me immensley happy but so do hugs, and y'know...

I don't speak for any of the other developers btw, only speaking from what I know gets me typing (p.s. it's hugs). At this time of night the whole team representation thing falls apart :3

(Also, status update! Wrote up ASL zeropage; now at 2 or 3 instructions out of 256. Noticed a weird bug where the P register isn't saved - pretty important fix since this is in charge of conditionals. I mean; we could try non-reactive NES games but I dunno if it'll work. Lucky for me that the whole thing works in Decaf Will update webpage and push code later.)

 

[Deleted member 42501]

Well I have other machines to run emulators. So no.

And there are other threads you can post in too, begone.

As for the Wii U.
The entire Wii U scene is rubbish.
it's nothing but teasing and not releasing.
Along with false claims and barely any progress.
Then again, the Nintendo scene is already toxic as fuck as it is flooded by self entitled pirates.

Anyway, I've kinda given up hopes that the Wii U would be the next Wii when it comes to emulation.
Not to mention homebrew.

Then again, most of the hackers these days have moved on to Android (no nasty side effect of piracy)
So a handful of enthusiasts is what drives todays scenes.

The old DC and Xbox scenes were the best as they had a dedicated crew of coders with everyone else pitching in where they could help, great vibe and time. Thats what surprises me so much about the WiiU scene, its just full of flagrant epeen polishing and warez kiddies so I fully agree with the part in bold.

It's a shame as the WiiU has the grunt to be able to become the best all in one machine for emulating loads of systems but this messed up attitude is just holding it all back, hence the offer of loot as that is often a great motivator plus I believe the people who put in the grind deserve some kind of acknowledgement and not just this "hit and run" mentality.

I'd check Android if I didn't find it to be a horrendously flawed platform akin to the Windows experience which just detracts a lot from it. Have they managed to fix the audio latency issues yet that plagued most of the emulators?

if you can organise the community and get a pool together that would attract more developers; go for it (just be careful not to make it a competition, a collaborative effort is vastly superior to a million peaople working on the exact same thing (cough iosu cough)) but so far money hasn't proven to be a huge motivator for me. Sure, it makes me immensley happy but so do hugs, and y'know...

Indeed, consider the fact that any IOSU thread has around 500 folks reading it at any given time, if they all just contributed a couple of bucks there's a thousand in the kitty without even counting those willing to donate a little more. I remember when the lads were working on PSP downgrading and the amount of machines that were bricked in the process only to have others donate - either cash or a spare mobo or machines with broken screens for spare parts, even an old battered up console that looked like it had barely survived a mortar attack - lead to a stable downgrader that helped that scene progress in leaps and bounds.

Could you please clarify a point?

The kernel access used by loadline to allow warez is also the same jumpoff that could allow emulators - correct? What I mean is IOSU or no IOSU we already have full access to the machines components just nothing via a permanent hack - correct?

 

[QuarkTheAwesome]

Could you please clarify a point?

The kernel access used by loadline to allow warez is also the same jumpoff that could allow emulators - correct? What I mean is IOSU or no IOSU we already have full access to the machines components just nothing via a permanent hack - correct?

Yeah, pretty much. About the only thing IOSU will add (programming-wise) would be USB support, but that doesn't matter from a development perspective (more of an add-it-later than a design-around-it). The reasons behind the current lack are completely human, not technical.

As for the rest of your post; while I agree that helped the PSP scene immensley, Wii U homebrew development is never gonna brick a console (if you stick to kernel) and the exploit developers, who are actually at risk, seem to be doing just fine. Make of it what you will.

 

[osaka35]

Yeah, pretty much. About the only thing IOSU will add (programming-wise) would be USB support, but that doesn't matter from a development perspective (more of an add-it-later than a design-around-it). The reasons behind the current lack are completely human, not technical.

For me, having one HDD that can house my Wii U, Wii, and gamecube games plugged in and forgotten about would be a dream. I would definitely give money towards that goal.

 

[QuarkTheAwesome]

For me, having one HDD that can house my Wii U, Wii, and gamecube games plugged in and forgotten about would be a dream. I would definitely give money towards that goal.

You'd probably want to push the exploit developers (SALT etc.) before you start paying homebrew developers. We can't do any USB stuff without an exploit and an app to add it to.

 

[ShadowOne333]

My PayPal's been out there for a while; so far it's been $25 from another dev (sorry I haven't bought that Teensy yet, probably not gonna happen tbh; lemme know if you want a refund) and $1 so a certain someone can brag about it. I mean sure, if you can organise the community and get a pool together that would attract more developers; go for it (just be careful not to make it a competition, a collaborative effort is vastly superior to a million peaople working on the exact same thing (cough iosu cough)) but so far money hasn't proven to be a huge motivator for me. Sure, it makes me immensley happy but so do hugs, and y'know...

If I give you a hug would you make me a N64 emu, please?!

 

[Chakratos]

You'd probably want to push the exploit developers (SALT etc.) before you start paying homebrew developers. We can't do any USB stuff without an exploit and an app to add it to.

If you would like to hug an bear you can hug me if you want

 

[Deleted member 42501]

Yeah, pretty much. About the only thing IOSU will add (programming-wise) would be USB support, but that doesn't matter from a development perspective (more of an add-it-later than a design-around-it). The reasons behind the current lack are completely human, not technical.

As for the rest of your post; while I agree that helped the PSP scene immensley, Wii U homebrew development is never gonna brick a console (if you stick to kernel) and the exploit developers, who are actually at risk, seem to be doing just fine. Make of it what you will.

What a strange scene this is. I've been out of the loop for a while so I'm unsure of what occurred between the Wii and U revision in terms of the teams but it seems so strange when you consider the stark difference between the two. Whats saddest of all is that the way the game is now it means the Wii U would have failed to realize its potential not just once but twice.

Another bizarre point is the existence of "private exploits" that appear to have been there from the off, if they truly are private then why even speak on them if not for epeen purposes? Who knows how this could've all played out had the platform been cracked earlier, for its been dead in the water for a while now as there would have been more steam behind the scene as folks generally do not develop for "dead" platforms, preferring instead to move onto the next one.

Is the programming environment for the Wii U particularly obtuse as there haven't even been any quick and dirty ports of open source emulators, it was this total lack of a scene that lead me to believe that there was no type of access. Yet the devs that do choose to develop create warez loaders and such like whilst ignoring the true potential of this fantastic hardware.

When you look at how crazy this place goes at any IOSU rumours it shows there is definitely a surfeit of "useless eaters" and when you consider that the machine is for all intents and purposes open now the lack of apps shows that those that can't choose not to, for whatever reason.

All in all the scene around this console is as anomalous as the machine itself.

 

[DinohScene]

The old DC and Xbox scenes were the best as they had a dedicated crew of coders with everyone else pitching in where they could help, great vibe and time. Thats what surprises me so much about the WiiU scene, its just full of flagrant epeen polishing and warez kiddies so I fully agree with the part in bold.

It's a shame as the WiiU has the grunt to be able to become the best all in one machine for emulating loads of systems but this messed up attitude is just holding it all back, hence the offer of loot as that is often a great motivator plus I believe the people who put in the grind deserve some kind of acknowledgement and not just this "hit and run" mentality.

I'd check Android if I didn't find it to be a horrendously flawed platform akin to the Windows experience which just detracts a lot from it. Have they managed to fix the audio latency issues yet that plagued most of the emulators?

I cried a little at that thought ;-;

Yep.
It's disappointing at best.

No clue, I own 1 android phone which I barely use besides me bf and TSTO.

 

[QuarkTheAwesome]

If I give you a hug would you make me a N64 emu, please?!

If you would like to hug an bear you can hug me if you want

*bearhugs* what do you mean you can't breathe
N64 isn't my thing tho, as some of you know I've got a NES emu in the works and the N64 VC doesn't seem too bad (not as bad as the NES VC anyway). Definitely on the books though since it seems to be all people ask for, aside from snes9x.

Is the programming environment for the Wii U particularly obtuse as there haven't even been any quick and dirty ports of open source emulators, it was this total lack of a scene that lead me to believe that there was no type of access. Yet the devs that do choose to develop create warez loaders and such like whilst ignoring the true potential of this fantastic hardware.

When you look at how crazy this place goes at any IOSU rumours it shows there is definitely a surfeit of "useless eaters" and when you consider that the machine is for all intents and purposes open now the lack of apps shows that those that can't choose not to, for whatever reason.

All in all the scene around this console is as anomalous as the machine itself.

Can't say for sure about the other developers, but at very least the reason I haven't been pumping out quick-and-dirty FOSS ports is simply because that's just not what I'm into. That and you often get weird bugs with code that's not specifically written for the console. While that's an easy thing to work around for some, I have trouble with that stuff if I don't know the code inside and out, which is why I tend to write stuff myself. That and I'm a bit of a masochist sometimes, thus why I write stuff in PowerPC Assembly. Hey, at least it's not x86.
Again, this doesn't really apply to anyone else, this is just my reasons for not really doing many ports. Although, should I take up the task of the N64 that'll almost certainly be a port.

holy moley don't get me started on the IOSU!

 

[ShadowOne333]

*bearhugs* what do you mean you can't breathe
N64 isn't my thing tho, as some of you know I've got a NES emu in the works and the N64 VC doesn't seem too bad (not as bad as the NES VC anyway). Definitely on the books though since it seems to be all people ask for, aside from snes9x.



Can't say for sure about the other developers, but at very least the reason I haven't been pumping out quick-and-dirty FOSS ports is simply because that's just not what I'm into. That and you often get weird bugs with code that's not specifically written for the console. While that's an easy thing to work around for some, I have trouble with that stuff if I don't know the code inside and out, which is why I tend to write stuff myself. That and I'm a bit of a masochist sometimes, thus why I write stuff in PowerPC Assembly. Hey, at least it's not x86.
Again, this doesn't really apply to anyone else, this is just my reasons for not really doing many ports. Although, should I take up the task of the N64 that'll almost certainly be a port.

holy moley don't get me started on the IOSU!

Just don't strangulate me with that hug!
I want to be alive by the time that comes!

 

[QuarkTheAwesome]

Just don't strangulate me with that hug!
I want to be alive by the time that comes!

bwahaha *sqeeze*

also shoutouts to my man Matthias! no idea who you are but thanks.

 

[pedro702]

Well, the problem of creating proper emulators that take all the resources available is that it takes time.
Optimizing them takes even more time.

For example, the PSP was able to emulate the N64 cause it shared the same CPU architecture.
N64 used a MIPS CPU and PSP used a MIPS CPU.
Hence, very little machine code translation is needed.
"fun" fact: The Vita isn't much more powerful then the PSP (the CPU is clocked at 444Mhz, albeit it's a quadcore)
So I doubt we'll see much more powerful emulators on that unfortunately.

As for the Wii U.
The entire Wii U scene is rubbish.
it's nothing but teasing and not releasing.
Along with false claims and barely any progress.
Then again, the Nintendo scene is already toxic as fuck as it is flooded by self entitled pirates.

Anyway, I've kinda given up hopes that the Wii U would be the next Wii when it comes to emulation.
Not to mention homebrew.

Then again, most of the hackers these days have moved on to Android (no nasty side effect of piracy)
So a handful of enthusiasts is what drives todays scenes.



Everyone that has a phone/computer already can emulate more then what consoles can.
If you got nothing constructive to say, please don't post.

PSP n64 emulation sucks, everything is basicaly unplayable lol, but yeah it was a nice effort but i couldnt ever play a single n64 game on it too much slowdowns and lag.

The problem with using money incentive is you have no garantees that the dev will ever finish the product, they might just make a first release hat works with very few games and then abadon the entire project.

 

[the_randomizer]

The thing is, my ideas or rather, the things I want to see on the Wii U, well, I don't care about USB loading or game backups (well, okay, to an extent), but the primary thing I want to see are ports of emulators, notably better Snes and NES emulation. My reasoning for this is one, the VC NES emulation is pretty bad; dark, muddy, and meh. Snes emulation, not very compatible, no Super FX support, Snes9x on the Wii is based off of Snes9x 1.52 which is five years old and has to rely on numerous speed hacks to compensate for the Wii's weak CPU and low memory. Sure on the surface, most games run fine, but this breaks a lot games and causes other stability issues. Having Snes9x 1.54 and Nestopia Undead would be fantastic. N64, maybe, PSP (PPSSPP), PCSX-R would be awesome to see

 

[grossaffe]

Everyone that has a phone/computer already can emulate more then what consoles can.
If you got nothing constructive to say, please don't post.

The question posed in the topic was whether one would contribute to devs for emulators. Seems like his post was perfectly on topic.