Homebrew Does the DSi offer new emulation possibilities

[xxRAG3]

Does the 4x Ram make any difference in emulation?

 

[wireles]

Does the 4x Ram make any difference in emulation?

Not sure but i noticed that my snes emulator works much better

 

[Maz7006]

most likely not, other than than the usual i.e. GB, GBC, SNES etc.

 

[Vague Rant]

Does the 4x Ram make any difference in emulation?

Not sure but i noticed that my snes emulator works much better

No, you didn't. Current DSi flash cards run in DS mode, which means everything runs pretty much exactly as it would on a DS/Lite, with the addition of extra hardware limitations like no SLOT-2 and no pressure sensitivity.

 

[DanTheManMS]

Not until we crack DSi mode and applications are recoded to take advantage of the more powerful hardware.

 

[wireles]

oh i see, sorry for my part

 

[razenoku]

With the ram I think emulators work better.
But I just think, I'm not sure.

 

[dsigirl]

i have just bought a DSi and a R4i-SDHC and i cant seem to find the rite hardware to get it to work....

please please help im having real difficulties.... if someone could send me the stuff sorted cus some of the instructions people have been giving dont make much sense....

thank you

 

[Dwight]

i have just bought a DSi and a R4i-SDHC and i cant seem to find the rite hardware to get it to work....

please please help im having real difficulties.... if someone could send me the stuff sorted cus some of the instructions people have been giving dont make much sense....

thank you

Well there's your problem

 

[Kingfield]

Does the 4x Ram make any difference in emulation?

no, but eventually when the DSi mode is unlocked then yes.

 

[Technik]

When we crack dsi mode it will be awesome. We might be able to get the special snes games like Super mario RPG on a ds emulator ( YESSSS!!!!! ) and maybe gba.

 

[quartercast]

Don't forget the DSi's ARM9 CPU runs at twice the frequency (133 vs 67 MHz).

 

[koji2009]

Charmandersrule: Do not count on it... In fact, I would count AGAINST it. There just is not enough horsepower in the DSi... The main processor may be double clocked, but most add-on chips are clocked at 4x or more of the original SNES cpu. The main SNES proc is clocked at 3.78mhz, but, for example, the SA-1 chip (used in super mario RPG) was clocked at 12mhz and was a slightly more complex chip (as well as containing additional RAM). FX chips (like those used on later 3D snes games and Yoshi's Story) were clocked at 20mhz.

And as I mentioned in a previous thread, it's not just a matter of emulating the chip, but successfully syncing the various "chips" together in software. That alone will probably take as much in the way of resources and ingenuity as reworking the added chips that need emulation.

I'm not saying that it's impossible... but it is increadibly unlikely to get running at full speed or even half speed on the DSi.

 

[jonesman99]

hey koji2009, does that count the same for the megaman x games on snes?

 

[koji2009]

While I don't know as much about the Cx4 chip (the one used in MMX2 and 3) I wouldn't have high hopes for it either... but if I remember right, that was about the only chip that didn't need to be properly synced with the main SNES cpu to function properly. Since I believe the Cx4 chip was used predominantly in stronger math calculations and decompression, it MAY be possible to emulate it on the DSi... but again, I don't have enough knowledge of that chip personally to tell you for sure.


Just did a little bit of extra research... The Cx4 handled advanced trigonometry calculations that aided in the wireframe "3d" effects the games used in several locations as well as the advanced sprite scaling and rotation effects... The DS has hardware that handles such effects, but whether that hardware is accessible and free to use (IE, not being used currently by other parts of the emulator) I'm not sure. Depending on that it may be relatively easy to emulate since it wouldn't require much from the processor.

If however, the hardware is already in use it may be possible to software emulate the chip using the extra resources available to the DSi. That said, I couldn't be certain either way without better understanding how snesemulds works.