Hacking Emulation Potential Speculation

[metroid maniac]

Well yea I guess that's true as well, but if the 3DS is somewhat close to psp in specs there might be a chance.

Also now that I remember i actually played KoF on a neogeo emulator on the psp, makes me wonder if arcade emulator can work on a 3DS too.

Just because the 3DS and PSP are comparable in power doesn't mean they're comparable in architecture. The PSP uses a MIPS processor and the 3DS uses ARM.

 

[Seraphiel]

Just because the 3DS and PSP are comparable in power doesn't mean they're comparable in architecture. The PSP uses a MIPS processor and the 3DS uses ARM.

Yes of course, but just saying its worth a try, I'm not a programmer or anything but just thought was worth mentioning it

 

[TheCasketMan]

Just because the 3DS and PSP are comparable in power doesn't mean they're comparable in architecture. The PSP uses a MIPS processor and the 3DS uses ARM.

And which is better for emulation. I am sorry if this is a stupid question, but I am curious. My guess is ARM since everyone uses that nowadays.

 

[metroid maniac]

And which is better for emulation. I am sorry if this is a stupid question, but I am curious. My guess is ARM since everyone uses that nowadays.

The PS1 used a MIPS processor which meant the PSP was extremely efficient at emulating it accurately.

 

[thraden]

Already, the Snes emulation aspect is showing it better than on the PSP, at least when it comes to sound emulation, which been an issue on portable devices with said emulation. Genesis can be done I'm sure, GB/ GBC is being worked on, as is NES. Soon I hope we get GBA emulation as Nintendo used DS mode for their Ambassador Program, so, for pretty much all 8, 16 and some 32-bit systems, I can see it being done on the 3DS. PSX, maybe, but it would be a royal pain to port code written in x86-64 to ARM for a console that was written in MIPS (both PSX and N64).

Well, there's PCSX-reArmed.

 

[Thirty3Three]

SNES, at most. Not even sort of 64. Given the architecture of the system, we'd be incredibly lucky to get something even remotely like PSP's N64 emulator on it.

 

[Kioku]

I'd be okay with SNES and Genesis.

 

[tbb043]

I'd be shocked (but happy) if they got PSX working to any decent degree on 3DS. You can't just compare the 3DS power to the PSP, it's like, "the Wii U can run GC games, so I bet the PS360 can too," but no, the raw power isn't the whole story, Wii U has stuff in it that was made to be able to run GC games, and PSP has stuff in it that was made to be able to run PSX. They're compatible by design, not just by power.

 

[emmauss]

there already arm emulators for the ps1 and the n64(one ps1 emulator run on old arm winmo devices).due to cpu restrictons, n64 emulation may be a little tricky, since you need a higher clock speed than the 3ds (for a single core) to emulate( the one on android runs smoothly on my 1ghz android, although i have heard that you need a good cpu on an android device, so this is more or less the optimal speed).if one can make and efficient multi threaded emulator, well, i am a noob at this, so my word may not reliable.


now lets dream big. what about psp emulator?

 

[metroid maniac]

there already arm emulators for the ps1 and the n64(one ps1 emulator run on old arm winmo devices).due to cpu restrictons, n64 emulation may be a little tricky, since you need a higher clock speed than the 3ds (for a single core) to emulate( the one on android runs smoothly on my 1ghz android, although i have heard that you a good cpu on an android device, so this is more or less the optimal speed).if one can make and efficient multi threaded emulator, well, i am a noob at this, so my word may not reliable.


now lets dream big. what about psp emulator?

Not going to happen unless you're satisfied with silky smooth 7fps.

 

[probablygay]

Would love to see a PSX emulator so I can get my Megaman X5 on-the-go.

 

[metroid maniac]

Would love to see a PSX emulator so I can get my Megaman X5 on-the-go.

Of all the X games, X5?

 

[kedest]

Even if possible, I think a PSX emulator would drain the battery like crazy

 

[DiscostewSM]

I actually wonder if GPU rendering of the PS1 on the 3DS (under hardware) is easier than trying to handle SNES rendering. The one thing missing is paletted texture support, but not only is the format of PS1 paletted graphics in bpp form (making it quicker to convert into a tile cache like what StapleButter is doing for BlargSNES), but it also does direct 16/24bit color textures that don't require any converting. Also, unless I'm mistaken, the PS1 doesn't do anything regarding scanlines and altering data in that manner, which won't complicate matters like it does for hardware rendering for systems like the SNES.

Same could be said for the N64 perhaps.

 

[the_randomizer]

I actually wonder if GPU rendering of the PS1 on the 3DS (under hardware) is easier than trying to handle SNES rendering. The one thing missing is paletted texture support, but not only is the format of PS1 paletted graphics in bpp form (making it quicker to convert into a tile cache like what StapleButter is doing for BlargSNES), but it also does direct 16/24bit color textures that don't require any converting. Also, unless I'm mistaken, the PS1 doesn't do anything regarding scanlines and altering data in that manner, which won't complicate matters like it does for hardware rendering for systems like the SNES.

Same could be said for the N64 perhaps.

That is true, the PS1 does handle graphics differently, even the resolution being rendered at 320 x 240, with all that is said and done, PCSX-Reloaded would be a good candidate to port. The only real issue I can see are the ISO images, so you'd need a 32 or 64-bit GB SD card if you want to hold a good collection Would the emulator be better off using software or hardware rendering?

 

[DiscostewSM]

That is true, the PS1 does handle graphics differently, even the resolution being rendered at 320 x 240, with all that is said and done, PCSX-Reloaded would be a good candidate to port. The only real issue I can see are the ISO images, so you'd need a 32 or 64-bit GB SD card if you want to hold a good collection Would the emulator be better off using software or hardware rendering?

Definitely hardware, which I believe the 3DS would have a much easier time doing. The PS1, as far as I'm aware, do not render polygons/pixels like the SNES or even the DS in either 2D or 3D (which is left-to-right by pixel, top-to-bottom by scanline). The PS1 utilizes full-screen buffers, and plops polygons onto that as they are fed in (whether individually, or by its packet method). Here's a layout of the PS1's VRAM.

1) The full-screen buffers (either 16bit or 24bit)
2) Texture area (not limited to just one texture type at any given time)
3) Palette area
4) The entire VRAM block (which is 1024 x 512 pixels @ 16bit = 1MB)

As was said, it would still need to convert and store textures that are paletted because the 3DS does not have support for them.

 

[the_randomizer]

Definitely hardware, which I believe the 3DS would have a much easier time doing. The PS1, as far as I'm aware, do not render polygons/pixels like the SNES or even the DS in either 2D or 3D (which is left-to-right by pixel, top-to-bottom by scanline). The PS1 utilizes full-screen buffers, and plops polygons onto that as they are fed in (whether individually, or by its packet method). Here's a layout of the PS1's VRAM.

1) The full-screen buffers (either 16bit or 24bit)
2) Texture area (not limited to just one texture type at any given time)
3) Palette area
4) The entire VRAM block (which is 1024 x 512 pixels @ 16bit = 1MB)

As was said, it would still need to convert and store textures that are paletted because the 3DS does not have support for them.

Hmm, intriguing, the PS1 is definitely a unique piece of hardware in how it rendered graphics, I can see the 3DS doing it, actually as it might make it easier on the PICA200 GPU, but my knowledge on hardware and programming. Nevertheless, I see the 3DS does indeed have a lot of potential, how would one go about delving more into this, like, would there be a thread for this and possibly porting PCSX-R over? This interests me