Maybe xbox 360 games? Isnt the wii u on a powerpc architecture, like the xbox 360? If so, xbox 360 games would be possible. I wonder if this would make ps3 possible too. These would be very difficult to implement.
Homebrew The Wii U Homebrew Request Thread
- Thread starter GalladeGuy
- Start date
- Views 166,066
- Replies 1,037
- Likes 8
It's not like the architecture has to match and nothing else.
The Wii U can't run XBOX360 games natively and emulation always require a way higher amount of power to be achieved.
D
Deleted User
Guest
The point is (and he is quite right with it):
if you have a PowerPC G5 and want to run code from it on a PowerPC 750 (which is a PowerPC G3, so just an older model of the exact same cpu with some lesser hardware-features) which is much faster btw- you don´t have to use "full emulation".
You don`t run it native either. it´s a mixture. Much code can be run natively. Only small parts such as the "altivec" would have to be emulated. Many games on Xbox 360 don´t even use the Altivec though or might not use some special commands of that cpu and that means you wouldn´t have to emulate it, since you have a 90% identical cpu after all.
The only differences between a PowerPC G3 and a PowerPC G5 are mainly just the SIMD-units after all. And some changes to the core, which means you have longer pipelines and thus the Xbox 360 has 3 cpu-cores but has another 3 HT/SMT-units in order to make sure the pipelines not run empty. The PowerPC G3 of WiiU is special since it doesn´t run out of pipelines either, since it uses way faster cache. Thus it doesn´t need SMT/HT-units.
In order to do that all you would have to first have hardware-accellerated GPU-access though. Which we don`t have (yet).
And so this cannot happen for now.
but some people allready have shown that the WiiU can use it´s arm-cpu to run a different OS on it too.
So yeah. Android is possible too. You would just have to recompile the code.
Or use older Arm V7-compliant Android-code. And of course harware-accellerateion for the GPU is required here too.
And the same is valid for the Playstation 3.
Emulation is only if you run e.g. x86-code on ARM or PowerPC-code on a completely foreign cpu such as x86 or ARM. Since that means EVERY part of a cpu and a GPU has to be emulated.
The rule is though the less parts (e.g. parts of a cpu such as the pipelines or the ALU or the SIMD) you have to emulate, the lesser it is a valid emulation, but more a code-translation.
You don´t fully emulate a PPC G5-code on a PPC 750-G3-cpu dude.
This is more like "part-emulation" which is similar to what you do, when you run Gamecube-code on a WiiU. You have 90-95% the same cpu (there are some minor changes to the WiiU-cpu though, like much faster bandwidth, way bigger caches (so part of cache is disabled), no sram-cache, instead much faster cache and some changes to the core as well)- and thus only 5% or even less of your code has to be emulated.
Emulation allways means you have to emulate ALL CODE. That means you can´t use a "code-forwarder" or something like they use in "Nintendon`t" (which is just a translator of Gamecube-To-WiiU-code).
In the end it´s all a matter of time and money though. If we get hardware-accelleration for the WiiU´s GPU (which takes time)...we might be soon able to run everything current much better since you wouldn´t require a frontbuffer-graphic design. You would literally run everything 10-100x faster.
And then you would need enough people and enough money to start such a project.
But yes: In theory, then it would be possible to run Xbox 360-games on a WiiU.
You- for example- could use "Ghidra", to reverse-engineer the games of the xbox 360 (or just it´s OS) and then make appropriate changes to the code to make it run on a similar, but indeed faster 3-core design of a Wiiu. Which is similar to what you do in Nintendon´t. You translate some parts of the code, which runs on Altivec, and make it run without altivec (which you might be astonished can be done if you have enough bandwidth on your cpu). For example in "Nintendon´t" they have to translate all syscalls and all "memory-card-reader" and I/O-stuff.
Most people don´t know that the Xbox 360 didn´t even use 3 cpu-cores for games though. It actually only used TWO cpu-cores for some games.
And one full cpu-core was there for OS-purposes only.
One example:
Bioshock on Xbox 360. It ran on 2 cpu-cores only. But one cpu-core was occupied to run the music of the game alone. Only one cpu-core actually ran the game´s logic itself.
So yeah. I assume there will be a lot of Xbox 360-games which only even use 1 cpu-core to begin with.
This would be a very big project though. And it would need several years, similar to how "BBA" on WiiU, Gamecube & Wii was done (works best on WiiU for reasons).
In the end: We will soon enough see what can be done and what cannot be done. but Altivec isn´t that special, since it´s just math after all.
The WiiU´s cpu uses it´s own simd-units, which is paired singles. NIntendo used that simd-tech since the Gamecube.
And there are reasons why developers of Ghidra say "the emulation of paired singles is very slow on modern hardware"
And the reason is: Paired singles is a very powerful instruction (for example used in Luigi`s Mansion 1 or Starwars Battlefront 1/2).
It essentially means: You can do stuff like lighting-calculations (32-bit-floating point) specialized on your cpu havint to calculate it on your gpu.
And people say, you can split up 64bit-floating-points easily into two paired-single-instructions. Which is even quite easy (for a PPC-instruction) to do, since all you do is split up the 64-bit-numbers into TWO 32-bit-numbers. And then you give the cpu the necessary instruction to to a paired-single instruction (which means two 32-bit-floating-points are loaded at once and handled as ONE big 64-bit-instruction).
And that´s what would happen then in such a program:
Each time the program recognizes an Altivec-isntruction it would translate it into a paired single instruction to make up for the same result.
So assuming we would get native Hardware-accelleration for the WiiU´s Wii-GPU (important! Not the WiiU`s AMD-gpu, but the embedded Wii-gpu which is very similar to that of an Xbox 360 = ATI Radeon, very old GPU-design).
All you would (theoretically) have to do is reverse engineer that Xbox 360-OS in "Ghidra" or some appropriate program- and you then are able to partly-emulate and mainly natively run it on a WiiU´s cpu. Only Altivec-Instructions and some minor OS-typical "syscall" instructions would have to be translated into PPC 750-compliant or Paired singles-instructions.
But there´s another issue we have yet to overcome with:
3-core-cpu support.
Currently Linux (e.g.) cannot use the 3 cpu-cores of Wiiu since there is no SMP-support yet. You need a special script which is suitable for Linux or your program, in order to wake up the other 2 cpu-cores in order to be just able to run code on all 3 cores instead of just 1.
For now, we are still stuck at SINGLECORE only. That means 20 Gbytes/second of cpu-bandwith.
You could do a lot with it. But you need 3-core cpu-support and GPU-hardware-accelleration and GOOD programmers.
If you ask me, how long it would take for that to happen:
5 years minimum. We won`t see that before 2025. Such things take a looooooooong time.
But as allways: What can be done will be done. And if you have tools to translate Altivec-Instructions directly into Paired singles...then yeah: it might work. Just give it time, dude.
D
Deleted User
Guest
^^ Meh, there was a typo above in the text. It should say "which means one big 64bit-instruction (xbox 360) is loaded and split into TWO paired single-instructions"
I would like to see some emulators and wii homebrew get gamepad support but alas the devs would have all moved on.
Rick dangerous was a great homebrew version on wii but the Amiga could do with gamepad support as it has great titles.
Rick dangerous was a great homebrew version on wii but the Amiga could do with gamepad support as it has great titles.
What about a media player built for the Wii U capable of playing HD videos? I used to use Plex to watch videos on my Wii U, but plex no longer works in the Wii U browser, granted I still can watch Netflix, but I have a large selection of digital videos that I'd love to play on my Wii U, and while I'm aware the vWii has media players, these obviously aren't in HD despite the fact that the Wii U itself is capable of HD output.
There is a video mode changer, but idk if it can change color range.
I would be honestly surprised if this did not exist already. Maybe we should get a vlc port or something going.
In fact it really doesn't what was a shame always. Don't know if the RetroArch port has the ffmpeg core running on the Wii U (never tested it) but apart from that there's only Linux for Wii U or WiiMC in Wii mode (obviously not supporting HD playback).
D
Deleted User
Guest
Afaik they said it actually WORKS (The FFMPEG on WiiU) though you have to use software-emulation mode only and that means you only get to play MPEG2-files. Such as DVD or S-Video (old format) or MPEG 1(stone old format).
The cpu has to do the task alone which is hefty, since normally a GPU does 99% of the DVD-playback or MPEG4/H.264-decoding.And since you don`t even have GPU-accelleration and you can´t even use the Gamepad´s integrated H.264 accelleration for this FFMPEG....eh. Not really suitable right now.
You have to be patient since they are working on getting the right driver for WiiU`s GPU working. Will take it´s time though (6-12months i guess).
Complex software-development takes time guys.
But i don`t know if you heard it yet or not: WiiU`s Homebrew is rolling. 2 projects have just been announced. One is the NIntendon`t BBA finally working on Gamecubes, Wii & WiiU (made compatible to work on WiiU too) which means about FIVE Gamecube-games (with a certain patch) can be played ONLINE now. And another project is that big PS1-Emulation project "Beetle PSX" running right now. Which will be finished after christmas.
Some guy here claimed a few months ago though that he got the H.264-accelleration for video/movies working.
The driver is there after all. You can directly use that.The problem was that: Its limited to VERY few sound-formats only (only uncompressed sound, not from H.264 typically compressed, so files from Bluerays etc would be useless unless you want to transcode them!) and well:
It doesn´t run that well. It´s limited to certain low bandwidth and max. 720p resolution.
And that´s it. You can find this H.264 accelleration project on the WiiU`s "plugin"-site. Google it, and install that plugin, that might then be able to play some movies.
But it´s very complicated. Clearly not made for easy-use now lol. You have to load one file at once (limited) for now, at least that´s what i heard and like i said: no compressed H.264 audio. No high bandwidth H.264-movie.I dunno the exact bandwidth-limit but i guess it´s something like 20-30 mbits.
if you reach that it will begin to stutter and/or crash.
People wanted to make other projects out of it...but they gave up early.
Don't know from where you've got that insights and didn't know the Wii U is still being developed for but if that's true, it would be pretty cool news!
What about Wiimote+Nunchuck emulation trough the Wii U Gamepad?
I saw someone working on wiimote emulation trough gamecube controllers and I know TeconMoon's WiiVC injector has a feature that allows vertical wiimote emulation but nunchuck and motion controllers are not supported, I don't really know about code but I think that it could be possible. Playing Mario Galaxy Using Only the gamepad would be amazing.
I saw someone working on wiimote emulation trough gamecube controllers and I know TeconMoon's WiiVC injector has a feature that allows vertical wiimote emulation but nunchuck and motion controllers are not supported, I don't really know about code but I think that it could be possible. Playing Mario Galaxy Using Only the gamepad would be amazing.
Any Wii game that could play with the Wii classic controller can be injected into a Wii VC game to launch from the Wii U menu and be played with a Wii U classic controller or the Wii U gamepad. Most of such injects are already made and available to download and install on that iso site.
Sorry I was mistaken. Thought for sure you could use the Wii U pro controllers for such Wii games, but after testing it turns out, its only the Gamepad.
Similar threads
- No one is chatting at the moment.
-
-
@
RedColoredStars:
Never even seen a tiger crust pizza in any stores around here. Walmart, Cub, or otherwise. -
-
-
@
RedColoredStars:
Last thing I told her is how much I love her, and that Im not leaving her there forever and I promise to come back and take her back home with me.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
