Hacking Wii U PS2 emulator

[TheSockNaster]

Since the Wii U is really strong as a system would it be possible to have a PS2 emulator?

 

[sarkwalvein]

Not likely, it is not strong enough to emulate a PS2.
The CPU is particularly weak, and I doubt they can use the GPGPU aspects of the GPU to compensate regarding PS2 emulation.

 

[crwys]

Not only that but we barely have a Wii U scene. The Wii scene is huge and we still don't have a near perfect n64 emu. It takes a lot of time and knowledge to make an emulator. PS2 is one of the hardest.

 

[dekuleon]

Even Sony couldn't make a perfect ps2 emulator for the ps3

 

[TheSockNaster]

Not only that but we barely have a Wii U scene. The Wii scene is huge and we still don't have a near perfect n64 emu. It takes a lot of time and knowledge to make an emulator. PS2 is one of the hardest.

1. We have Not64 2. There is a ps1 emulator and the ps1 us bigger than the n64

 

[crwys]

1. We have Not64 2. There is a ps1 emulator and the ps1 us bigger than the n64

Yes and even not64 still can not even load many games.
Yea there is a ps1 emu and it runs slow. That's not relevant to my point.

My point is there is not a lot interest in Wii U homebrew compared to the Wii. A PS2 emulator will not happen. And that is only one of the many reasons.

 

[TehCupcakes]

Before considering the possibility of any type of emulator, one must first consider what is the best emulator currently available on PC?

For PS2, the best emulator is PCSX2. As far as compatibility and speed go, it's pretty good if you have a i3/i5/i7 2.0 GHz+ processor... But still far from perfect. Even once all the cores are accessible on the Wii U, it still will not be as powerful as a mid-to-high-end PC, so we cannot expect an emulator on Wii U to run nearly as well. Emulation requires significantly more processing power than the original hardware it ran on in order for it to really run efficiently. That being the case, the Wii U is not nearly powerful enough to run a PS2 emulator without some crazy years of optimization work (that nobody is going to do.)

 

[sarkwalvein]

1. We have Not64 2. There is a ps1 emulator and the ps1 us bigger than the n64

Erm... actually the N64 was way more powerful and difficult to emulate.
PS1 had more games, and great games, that is for sure, but it has way weaker hardware than N64.
And actually Cartridges that should be loaded entirely to RAM for speed reasons require more resources to emulate than CD access. (so for PS1 emulation you should require way less RAM)

 

[yuyuyup]

I think this topic deserves 5 more pages of responses

 

[sarkwalvein]

I think this topic deserves 5 more pages of responses

I suppose people can get bored sometimes and just reply to any passing thread.
I should just go play some game probably.

 

[Acidflare]

1.24Ghz PowerPC CPU, 550 Mhz GPU the GPU takes care of dsp and lots of other things too, and only 2GB of DRAM I think you think too highly of the specs of home video game consoles

The PS3 can't play most PS2 games due to no EmotionEngine go play the PS2 copy of Jak and Daxter the precursor legacy on a fat PS3 you'll get somewhere after 2 hours of holding up on the left control stick but Jak 2 plays fine.

Also just so you know the old Apple Macintosh G4 and similar models were PowerPC Processors(PPC CPU)

 

[ned]

I'd rather see Wii/WiiU ports of PPSSPP and Reicast, I can't believe nobody hasn't tried porting ppsspp yet :-(

 

[the_randomizer]

I'd rather see Wii/WiiU ports of PPSSPP and Reicast, I can't believe nobody hasn't tried porting ppsspp yet :-(

PPSSPP would be feasible, and runs very fast on moderately powerful Android devices.

 

[Bladexdsl]

your kidding right? godly pcs can barely handle ps2 emulation the wiiu is NO WHERE near powerful enough!

 

[the_randomizer]

your kidding right? godly pcs can barely handle ps2 emulation the wiiu is NO WHERE near powerful enough!

Actually, I have a mid-range PC and can run many PS2 games at full speed and at full HD, you need to stop using the Intel Core i3 Sandy Bridge with an Intel HD 4000

 

[Oxybelis]

Won't ever happen.

 

[sarkwalvein]

Actually, I have a mid-range PC and can run many PS2 games at full speed and at full HD, you need to stop using the Intel Core i3 Sandy Bridge with an Intel HD 4000

Well, TBH I have a 3 years old mid-range notebook (that should account today as low end perhaps), core i5 2450M, nvidia GT630m... pretty weak just above the low-end.
It runs PS2 emulation quite well, but also this 3 years old sub-par hardware is way more powerful than the Wii U.
I love the Wii U (because of Nintendo's games), but let's face its hardware is not state of the art.

PS:
I am a strong believer that you don't need state of the art processing power to make good games.
The PS360/Wii U hardware level is more than enough to make good looking games, no need to go higher just because.
Of course, emulation is a different matter.

 

[Acidflare]

Well, TBH I have a 3 years old mid-range notebook (that should account today as low end perhaps), core i5 2450M, nvidia GT630m... pretty weak just above the low-end.
It runs PS2 emulation quite well, but also this 3 years old sub-par hardware is way more powerful than the Wii U.
I love the Wii U (because of Nintendo's games), but let's face its hardware is not state of the art.

PS:
I am a strong believer that you don't need state of the art processing power to make good games.
The PS360/Wii U hardware level is more than enough to make good looking games, no need to go higher just because.
Of course, emulation is a different matter.

I have a 2008 notebook that runs certain ps2 games due to the cpu only supporting sse3 not ssse3 I can still at least play monster hunter at full speed

 

[sarkwalvein]

I have a 2008 notebook that runs certain ps2 games due to the cpu only supporting sse3 not ssse3 I can still at least play monster hunter at full speed

Well, actually the CPU of the Wii U is a beefed up multicore PowerPC 750 (architecture from 1997).
Probably any PC CPU from the last ten years performs better.

 

[Acidflare]

Well, actually the CPU of the Wii U is a beefed up multicore PowerPC 750 (architecture from 1997).
Probably any PC CPU from the last ten years performs better.

yeah it slightly out performs a PIII at 1.01Ghz