Misc Why do consoles like the Wii & PS3 have fully working emulators and the Xbox 360 doesn't?

[Torchwood2007]

This has been confusing to me for a while. Why do these consoles, which are both harder to develop for (PS3) AND initially harder to decrypt data for (Wii), have fully working emulators that not only emulate games at faster rates than the physical hardware, but can also play almost every game that has ever been released for said consoles, yet the same can't be said for the Xbox 360? Even though it is practically just a PC but with special Microsoft software installed onto it. We've already managed to rip almost every title that has ever been released for the console, yet we can't get a functioning emulator to work? My brain trembles....

 

[hippy dave]

Relative lack of interest, I guess. Did most games come out for Windows as well?

 

[Bagel Le Stinky]

isn't there Xenia?

 

[Reploid]

Even though it is practically just a PC but with special Microsoft software installed onto it.

Nope, totally different architecture. OG XBOX was just that, but it's still hard AF to emulate. So I think it's more about dedication.

There is Xenia tho, I've played Guardian Heroes HD with it, worked alright.

 

[godreborn]

My guess is that there's far fewer sceners in the 360 scene than the ps3 or wii ones. You still have to open up your console for any exploits on the 360 whereas with the ps3 or wii, you'd have to an idiot if you couldn't exploit either one of them.

 

[FanNintendo]

calm the fuck and try solve it

 

[maryxmary]

Who the fuck bought Xbox 360? lol JK but meh 360 is lame . I dont even want to touch the controller. Its too big for my hands. Wii is still the best console for me. MEMORIES!! <3 <3 <3

 

[godreborn]

Might as well buy a series x. The only game I personally want from the 360 catalog, that it can't emulate, is eternal sonata.

 

[nine0nine]

Available software, the console's success (nor the size of your hands) do not always reflect on the desire to build an emulator. I have no idea how well documented the 360s hardware is, but sometimes the fact that something is difficult is the draw for an emulator developer.

In short: I have no idea.

 

[brickmii82]

It's my understanding that the 360 and PS3 were a nightmare to develop for/emulate due to Cell and PowerPC CPU architecture.

 

[LainaGabranth]

Because the Wii was weak as shit and built on similar hardware to the previous console. I can't speak as to why the PS3 has such an emulator beyond perhaps the fixation on its exclusives; most exclusive Xbox 360 games are ported to PC and the like, or at least playable on XSX and XSS.

 

[DKAngel]

It's my understanding that the 360 and PS3 were a nightmare to develop for/emulate due to Cell and PowerPC CPU architecture.

except the wii was also power pc and the game cube and the wii was easy to emulate, just noone cared enough about the 360 to bother emulating it but the ps3 emulation has a come along way in the last year

 

[brickmii82]

except the wii was also power pc and the game cube and the wii was easy to emulate, just noone cared enough about the 360 to bother emulating it but the ps3 emulation has a come along way in the last year

Idk, like I said it was my understanding. That was a question(why aren't there more 360 devs) I asked a friend who does that kind of dev work and he told me "It's a pain in the ass to allocate resources with the documentation they provided" whatever that means. I left it at that.

 

[HelpTheWretched]

My understanding is that Wii was heavily based on GameCube hardware. So in addition to being less powerful than the other two, there was that leg-up. I mean the leading Wii emulator started as a GameCube emulator.

 

[Dungeonseeker]

It's my understanding that the 360 and PS3 were a nightmare to develop for/emulate due to Cell and PowerPC CPU architecture.

PS3 yes, XB360 not so much. Cell is a PPC based architecture and PPC is very well established (was used by Apple Macs through most of the 90s and 00's), the thing that made Cell so difficult to program for was the 8 co processors it had allowing it to do certain things incredibly quickly but only if the devs wanted to put in the time to learn how it all worked (kinda like the Saturn TBH).

My understanding is that Wii was heavily based on GameCube hardware. So in addition to being less powerful than the other two, there was that leg-up. I mean the leading Wii emulator started as a GameCube emulator.

Understatement, the Wii was literally a very slightly overclocked GC hence why it had GC mem card and controller ports on it.

 

[brickmii82]

PS3 yes, XB360 not so much. Cell is a PPC based architecture and PPC is very well established (was used by Apple Macs through most of the 90s and 00's), the thing that made Cell so difficult to program for was the 8 co processors it had allowing it to do certain things incredibly quickly but only if the devs wanted to put in the time to learn how it all worked (kinda like the Saturn TBH).

Understatement, the Wii was literally a very slightly overclocked GC hence why it had GC mem card and controller ports on it.

Xenon CPU was basically like a downgraded Cell from what wiki says.

 

[Donnie-Burger]

This has been confusing to me for a while. Why do these consoles, which are both harder to develop for (PS3) AND initially harder to decrypt data for (Wii), have fully working emulators that not only emulate games at faster rates than the physical hardware, but can also play almost every game that has ever been released for said consoles, yet the same can't be said for the Xbox 360? Even though it is practically just a PC but with special Microsoft software installed onto it. We've already managed to rip almost every title that has ever been released for the console, yet we can't get a functioning emulator to work? My brain trembles....

Most My 360 emulators are better than wii and or ps3 for the most part. N64 runs like shit just like the wii, ps1 with dynarec is actually really good on 360. Most systems below all run good.

Gamecube would be the only thing I can think about in terms of power that the 360 doesnt emulate. Yet the Wii can't emulate Xbox og. Retroarch update for the 360 with a nice core set would be Epic.

 

[Dungeonseeker]

Xenon CPU was basically like a downgraded Cell from what wiki says.

Xenon & Cell were both pased on IBMs Power PC Architecture and the base CPUs were very similar, what made Cell different was its coprocessors. Cell was essentially designed as a complex arch that is extremely powerful at crunching numbers assuming you could wrap your head around splitting up your workload in the best way to take advantage of its subprocessing power.

 

[tech3475]

Xenon & Cell were both pased on IBMs Power PC Architecture and the base CPUs were very similar, what made Cell different was its coprocessors. Cell was essentially designed as a complex arch that is extremely powerful at crunching numbers assuming you could wrap your head around splitting up your workload in the best way to take advantage of its subprocessing power.

IIRC, at one point Sony even contemplated not having a GPU and instead just rely on CELL.

 

[godreborn]

IIRC, at one point Sony even contemplated not having a GPU and instead just rely on CELL.

you are correct, then they couldn't get it to work correctly, so they just through in some random rsx.