Homebrew Question Would PS2 emulation ever be possible on the switch?

[sarkwalvein]

Don't worry, an HD port of Xenosaga is quite likely. I just took a look at my crystal ball.

 

[Techjunky90]

I think it’s possible. If we get that version of android os I think it’s called (damon pro ps2) because that’s emu is compatible with ARM devices. Unfortunately there’s no version of pcsx2 for ARM devices because it is very amazing ps2 emu

Damon pro is an unofficial port of pcsx2

 

[Deleted User]

I really want to play Xenosaga on the switch, but there’s no port (feelsbadman), is there a ps2 emulator coming in the near future?

The simple answer is that nobody really knows at the moment. Will there be a one? Probably..
Will the switch be powerful enough to emulate PS2 games? On Lakka (with full switch clock speeds), most likely some of them.

If developers manage to find a way to unlock the full cpu/gpu clock speeds of the switch on Horizon (Switch OS) and if damonPS2 is properly ported to the switch with a little extra effort to optimize it for the Tegra X1 (Switch CPU) then yes, I am fairly confident that a decent library of games will run on the switch at full or near to full speed.

It should be noted that Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2 both run on the shield TV that has the same cpu as the switch with the latest version of damonPS2 at almost full speed.

 

[kumikochan]

The simple answer is that nobody really knows at the moment. Will there be a one? Probably..
Will the switch be powerful enough to emulate PS2 games? On Lakka (with full switch clock speeds), most likely some of them.

If developers manage to find a way to unlock the full cpu/gpu clock speeds of the switch on Horizon (Switch OS) and if damonPS2 is properly ported to the switch with a little extra effort to optimize it for the Tegra X1 (Switch CPU) then yes, I am fairly confident that a decent library of games will run on the switch at full or near to full speed.

It should be noted that Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2 both run on the shield TV that has the same cpu as the switch with the latest version of damonPS2 at almost full speed.

The same cpu but clocked differently. The switch is quite downclocked compared to the shield so if it doesn't even run full speed on the shield then it def won't run properly on the switch. But like you said if they find a way to unlock the cpu but that would give heat issues and i don't think anyone would want that

 

[Idaho]

If someone or a team of people would care enough to release an optimised emulator for the switch it could happen but as of now I don't see that happening, my bet is we can aim for N64/PSX and Dreamcast emulation at most, the rest is tedious work that will most likely not happen, but it's still quite big if we get to emulate the consoles I've listed on the switch, no cracked console would have reached that level before...

 

[eldavo2090]

With stolen code and speedhacks turned up to 1000%

What does it has to do with the possibility of the emulator? Stolen code or not, the thing kind of ran on android

 

[uyjulian]

What does it has to do with the possibility of the emulator? Stolen code or not, the thing kind of ran on android

Yes it ran on android with speedhacks turned up to 1000% so compatibility is low

 

[KHEOPS]

If someone or a team of people would care enough to release an optimised emulator for the switch it could happen but as of now I don't see that happening, my bet is we can aim for N64/PSX and Dreamcast emulation at most, the rest is tedious work that will most likely not happen, but it's still quite big if we get to emulate the consoles I've listed on the switch, no cracked console would have reached that level before...

Dreamcast emulation at most?
Are you serious?
What I know today, Saturday, September 29, 2018, is that the bleemcast emulator on dreamcast makes the ps1 run better than lakka, and this on a lower hardware, Do you agree or disagree?

And while I'm at it, I'd like to see sega rally dreamcast without bugs, fullspeed on switch, and Windows Ce games
Tomb Raiders, Resident Evil 2 and some others.this dreamcast too ,since apparently it's possible, there's only to wait and eat popcorn

Ps2 is a nightmare emulated.....
Gs, cell, emotion engine,fillrate and more
“When the [PlayStation 2] came out, one unique characteristic of that system was that the screen fill rate was very fast. Even looking back now, it’s very fast. In some cases, it’s faster than the PS3. There, we were able to use a lot of textures. It was able to do that read-modify-write, where it reads the screen, you take the screenshot, and you modify it and send it back. It could do that very quickly.

“I don’t know if anybody remembers, but when the PS2 first came out, the first thing I did on that was a demo for the announcement. I showed a demo of GT3 that showed the Seattle course at sunset with the heat rising off the ground and shimmering. You can’t re-create that heat haze effect on the PS3 because the read-modify-write just isn’t as fast as when we were using the PS2. There are things like that. Another reason is because of the transition to full HD.”
Yamauchi has a soft spot for the PS2 iterations of GT - with its exceptionally fast fill-rate, they were able to achieve feats not possible on the PS3 or even, he claims, the PS4.
Interesting discussion here
https://forum.beyond3d.com/threads/ps2-vs-ps3-vs-ps4-fillrate.55200/

This is not out of scope, to emulate hardware in software, you have to know perfectly the hardware and how it works, who talked about the n64? ( write dynarec? )
All this to say, that creating an emulator on ps2 is possible, but to avoid speedhacks or other, you really need to know the hardware of the target emulated
So my current point of view
1/ target ps2 our knowledge? Not 100%
2/ hardware switch knowledge? Not 100% (Seeks rather in the sdk nintendo, Reverse engineering,vulkan libraries.)
3/ target android ? Yes 100% Knowledge of sdk android? Of course it is.
So yes I dream of ico, shadow of colossus, but given our current knowledge, unlikely, I'm sure it would go faster by porting android Os to switch, with hardware acceleration of the switch enabled ,with opengl 4.3 or vulkan, and using overclock in docked console.

To get closer to the nvidia shield, android tv X1 etc....
Example I played halflife2 nvidia android, on my gpdxd arm mali(android kitkat 4.4.4), no k1, or nvidia x1 as far as I know in my gpd xd, with gltools ( gpu emulation)

I bought a switch to replace my lower xd hardware gpd xd, and am I in or today?
Well, my.gpd xd is far ahead.
Ps1 hd fullspeed,n64 fullspeed in 98% of the games that works,dreamcast (not perfect),nintendo ds,msx,genesis,sega cd,32X,pc engine,pc engine cd,nes,mastersystem,etc...,gba + shader+ overlay+ sound effect and music,who talks about lakka?

 

[Idaho]

Dreamcast emulation at most?
Are you serious?

As I said, more consoles could be achieved but it'd require special work of optimization, I think that with few dedication to the project, Dreamcast and equivalents can be achieved, but with good dedication, time and people maybe PS2 and equivalents could happen...

 

[KHEOPS]

Frankly, if it could happen, I could play ico, it would be the best homebrew emulator machine for me, so I'll sit down and wait and eat popcorn, for an engineer to develop it for us
See you soon and have a good game

 

[6adget]

Regarding the OP, I know you asked about the switch being able to emulate the PS2, But have you tried running a PS2 emulator on your PC? I am able to play the PS2 game discs off of my PC's DVD rom drive, and I use a PS3 controller wirelessly connected to my PC. I am able to play the games without any lag or artifacts. So if you were asking about the switch so that you could play PS2 games on the go then this won't help, but if you want to play them on a computer hooked up to a tv then this works great. As long as you have a decent pc.

 

[KHEOPS]

Are you talking about PCs? I agree, that's why I have this
Pc mame cab radeon calamity drivers hack
Windows xp pro, to avoid having the bilinear filter of win10 or win7 or win8, all my emulators in native resolution, both in pal 50hz, as well as in ntsc 60 hz, all attached with a UMSA adapter vga peritel rvb, on a crt SONY quality PVM

But I want this on switch.

 

[MasterJ360]

I really want to play Xenosaga on the switch, but there’s no port (feelsbadman), is there a ps2 emulator coming in the near future?

All 3 Xenosaga games are very buggy on the PS4, but play perfectly on the PS3 for obvious reasons highly doubt such a thing will be tolerable on a Switch

 

[Clydefrosch]

not in a way you'd be able to enjoy it.
certainly proof of concept at 5fps. but not much else.

 

[Silent_Gunner]

Don't count on it. I wouldn't even call PCSX2 my favorite emulator in terms of configuring things. I mean, it's been more than 10 years, and major games still require you to put the CPU in certain modes, you have to switch between Software and Hardware mode for a lot of things (Silent Hill 2 FMVs), and it's just not a very pleasant experience in general.

I personally am looking forward to DobieStation to hopefully Make PCSX2 Emulation Great Someday! Or for someone dedicated to PS2 emulation to take the code and go all RPCS3 with it. The emulator needs a developer(s) with a Patreon in order for it to happen these days, I imagine.

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If someone or a team of people would care enough to release an optimised emulator for the switch it could happen but as of now I don't see that happening, my bet is we can aim for N64/PSX and Dreamcast emulation at most, the rest is tedious work that will most likely not happen, but it's still quite big if we get to emulate the consoles I've listed on the switch, no cracked console would have reached that level before...

This is how far I think we'll be able to go in terms of the Switch, and personally where I'd be happy. About the only thing from Dolphin I'd want is F-Zero GX, but I have a clean Switch with Fast RMX if I wanted to play something futuristic. While Metroid Prime 1 and 2 would be nice, those games are more demanding on the GC side of things where Dolphin's concerned. As for DC, I'd love to be able to play all of the late era Capcom and Sega games, be it Capcom Vs. SNK 2 (in Japanese, mind you, but that's OK), Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, Virtual-On, Virtua Fighter 4 if we can emulate NAOMI, Guilty Gear X2, Power Stone, Cannon Spike, the whole nine yards.

 

[Shubshub]

If something like what CEMU does happened (Patreon Funded) Then I think it would be very doable.
I believe it has the Power it just needs the optimization efforts.