Console to PC Emulation

[antipunt]

The issue with console emulation is that not only does the PC have to emulate the CPU, it has to emulate EVERYTHING exactly as the console managed it.

One example you mention is the original xBox. Unlike what you may think the xBox is increadibly hard to emulate because it uses a different (and larger) number of values in its application package launchers than windows (or something similar to that), thus windows struggles to read them (struggles = doesn't at all).

The PS2 emulators that have arrived recently suse 100% of a core 2 e6600 because the thing needs to emulate the Emotion Engine, graphics engine and so forth all on the CPU.

Even today, it is not as clear cut. The closest thing to an emulated 360 game I can think of is GTAIV, which uses 3 CPU cores when it has them to almost max capacity but leaves a forth on its own. This pretty much matches the 360. However because all the games are tuned specifically for the 360 on that console, you need a mother of a graphics card and alot of ram to run it at xbox-quality graphics (known as medium on the settings).

GTAIV is a performance hog and that was emulated using the source code of the game. Emulating a console means it has to run the source code from as many games as possible. Not easy.

What he said. =P

And yeah, emulation isn't illegal. You just need to burn an iso from your real game and also dump bios from your real ps2.

My main point is: I would dare say that emulation is DEAD post Ps2 emulator. Being a member of their forum (and a chronic user), I can testify that the pcsx2 is far from perfect even now. Running a game 'perfectly' akin to the Super nintendo emulator or playstation emulator, etc. is impossible even now for the ps2. There are always some sort of graphical glitches (varying from game to game) and even worse, massive slowdowns (sometimes sporadic throughout the game).

And think, how OLD is the ps2. And this is the furthest we've come. My point isn't to criticize the devs; its to say just how FRACKIN hard emulation is.

To emulate a ps2 'well', you need ideally around a 3.0ghz C2D, or better yet, an 8400 overclocked to 3.6-4.2 ghz, and even that won't perfect the emulator.

Imagine if we'll ever get to xbox....we'll have to do xbox and gamecube before the xbox360 and wii...

 

[Danny Ocean]

Well I was just trolling there, but it could work in theory though.

I guess to open the xbox without screwing it up, you would have to carve the plastic casing LOL.

Well if you're the kind of guy up for modifying a PC case you're the kind of guy up for cutting through some meagre plastic!

We could go ahead and request red-ringed 360's to sacrifice in the name of science (and exploratory surgery).

You know that isn't a bad idea. I could use broken ones for measurements before getting a working one in.

What's best is that I could run them at the same time if I had two monitors. 360 could be on speakers, and PC on headphones, with no slow-down to either of them.

Main issue is heat, though. I could try one of those immersion cooled projects. Convection ftw!

Well, guys, Xbox are basically PC's. All you need to do is find the command prompt and hack it.

No, not really. Read the rest of the thread.

 

[new_age_reject]

Personally I never even try to emulate beyond the PS1.
Atm, we have (almost) perfectly working emulators for pretty much every console up to PS1 and some of the greatest games were created for past generations.
Unfortunately due to the fact that the games need more and more specialised hardware to run them, I don't think we will be getting any stable xbox emulators any time soon.

 

[Nivag the Owl]

Everybody is wrong. The reason it's so hard is because as people get better at hacking, software developers make a stronger level of data encryption to protect against it. The only way people will ever have a long-term encryptian bypass is to solve the Reimann hypothesis.

 

[blueye]

I'd say the number one thing keeping it from happening is the legal issue. There was a software released back in the PS1 era that actually allowed you to play PS1 games on your PC. You inserted the PS1 disk into your computer and everything. I remember seeing it in Best Buy.

I can't remember what the software was called, but I remember there was a legal firestorm over it. Eventually the product was deemed to be legal, but the company that developed it had lost so much money in legal fees due to Sony's lawsuits that they eventually filed for bankruptcy.

Does anyone else remember what it was called? It's driving me crazy.

This what ya meant?

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_117/2295-Best-Little-Emulator-Ever-Made

 

[antipunt]

Everybody is wrong. The reason it's so hard is because as people get better at hacking, software developers make a stronger level of data encryption to protect against it. The only way people will ever have a long-term encryptian bypass is to solve the Reimann hypothesis.

you're kidding.......right?...

 

[runtheplacered]

Everybody is wrong. The reason it's so hard is because as people get better at hacking, software developers make a stronger level of data encryption to protect against it. The only way people will ever have a long-term encryptian bypass is to solve the Reimann hypothesis.

you're kidding.......right?...

I have a feeling he wasn't, sadly.

 

[Ace of Spades]

I can't even get PC games to work on PC half the time.

 

[Ago Iterum]

And Wii homebrews are awesome, wish I had the money to make the Wiimote work with my computer T_T

I'd be fine with a Wiimote that worked at all.

Wiimotes work fine if you tune it properly and get rid of any extraneous infrared sources near your TV, not really a complaint

Not if you chuck it through your TV. Then they're both buggered.

I cleverly managed to step around this problem, by not chucking it through my TV.

 

[Nivag the Owl]

Everybody is wrong. The reason it's so hard is because as people get better at hacking, software developers make a stronger level of data encryption to protect against it. The only way people will ever have a long-term encryptian bypass is to solve the Reimann hypothesis.

you're kidding.......right?...

I have a feeling he wasn't, sadly.

Ok woah, woah, woah, I was kidding. Don't make me out to be an idiot > Though it has become apparent that nobody will get the referance.

 

[xitel]

And Wii homebrews are awesome, wish I had the money to make the Wiimote work with my computer T_T

I'd be fine with a Wiimote that worked at all.

Wiimotes work fine if you tune it properly and get rid of any extraneous infrared sources near your TV, not really a complaint

Not if you chuck it through your TV. Then they're both buggered.

I cleverly managed to step around this problem, by not chucking it through my TV.

That is ingenious! How did you come up with that marvelous plan!?

 

[runtheplacered]

Everybody is wrong. The reason it's so hard is because as people get better at hacking, software developers make a stronger level of data encryption to protect against it. The only way people will ever have a long-term encryptian bypass is to solve the Reimann hypothesis.

you're kidding.......right?...

I have a feeling he wasn't, sadly.

Ok woah, woah, woah, I was kidding. Don't make me out to be an idiot > Though it has become apparent that nobody will get the referance.

haha, Ok. Sorry about that. Hard to tell kidding from real statements on the interwebs. And nope, I didn't catch the reference, sadly.

 

[Ago Iterum]

And Wii homebrews are awesome, wish I had the money to make the Wiimote work with my computer T_T

I'd be fine with a Wiimote that worked at all.

Wiimotes work fine if you tune it properly and get rid of any extraneous infrared sources near your TV, not really a complaint

Not if you chuck it through your TV. Then they're both buggered.

I cleverly managed to step around this problem, by not chucking it through my TV.

That is ingenious! How did you come up with that marvelous plan!?

Well I was having a laugh and a drink with god one day, talking about what a ***** it was that so many TV's were getting broken by the Wii. So we did a little bit of thinking, (bearing in mind I was pretty drunk) and I proposed an idea called 'grip'. He totally wasn't on board with it, so I went home. The next day, I wake up, and everybody's gripping things.

And worst of all, he gets all the praise for it.

Always patent, kids!

 

[Asehujiko]

As soon as consoles start using x86 cpu's, it should be praciticaly possible to make them run as paralel os on a pc or the other way arround. that way you can have one machine capable of playing both crysis, halo 3, ssbb and mgs4 as long as you plug in the correct controller(a logitech G11/15 and a Novint Falcon should cover everything nicely). But alas, MS will be too greedy to give up xbl, sony too snobbing to associate with anything "below" them and nintendo will have their hands full of making the wii seem more innovative then it realy is, lest they go under at 8th gen.

The pc is ready for the fusion. We only await awnsers from the consoles.

 

[irrelevantnugget]

That is ingenious! How did you come up with that marvelous plan!?

Not playing anything, I suppose.

 

[forever saturday]

different games have different engines which all work differently. also, the reason an xbox isnt just a computer is that it basically has a very different operating system. this is why you cant just put a pc game in an xbox and play it.

 

[Wicky_42]

Forever saturday's missing the point of emulation, obviously, lol. Yeah, it was the PS1 emulator that allowed you to run the game from the disk in a PC that got me thinking about this.

Basically, to read through the responses, the key hardware difference is in the processor, a custom-built beasty with three cores n other funky stuff. So, essentially, the major hurdle would be that the power needed to emulate that much processing from within windows would require a vastly more powerful rig. So would making a version of the console bios/operating system and setting it up as an alternative boot partition help alleviate the problem?

I've got a Core 2 quad core processor, a 8800 GT graphics card and 4 GB of ram, so in terms of raw power there's enough there to run a xbox game. The issue, I guess, is the differences in processing methods - the xbox, as far as I can see, does a large chunk of its graphics processing on its cpu, whilst PCs generally make more use of the graphics card. Could they not share the load more? Or is that hard-coded into how the game runs?

 

[number2301]

I'd say the number one thing keeping it from happening is the legal issue. There was a software released back in the PS1 era that actually allowed you to play PS1 games on your PC. You inserted the PS1 disk into your computer and everything. I remember seeing it in Best Buy.

I can't remember what the software was called, but I remember there was a legal firestorm over it. Eventually the product was deemed to be legal, but the company that developed it had lost so much money in legal fees due to Sony's lawsuits that they eventually filed for bankruptcy.

Does anyone else remember what it was called? It's driving me crazy.

Bleem, and the reason there was such an uproar about it was that it was so good Sony thought it had been reverse engineered. I remember playing Metal Gear Solid using Bleem, was spot on right up until the boss fight where you had to use the second pad.

 

[Da_Schwartz]

Or ya could just buy cosole games for a console and when you have a game thats also pc go that route. I mean..that's what i do. Just buy it. -.-

 

[xenus87]

PS2 emulation is coming along quite well, although there are a hell of a lot of games that wont work with it yet, or are incredibly buggy if they actually load.

God of war 2 is one game that has major graphical problems once you get in game, although the FMVs work fine, the sound also has a strange 'echo' to it as well.

This is it running on my pc at the moment from an image ripped from my own disc :-

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c170/blackrainbow666/GoW1.jpg
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c170/blackrainbow666/GoW2.jpg

And this is what its like in game:-

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c170/blackrainbow666/GoW3.jpg

You do need a fairly fast processor to get the games on there to run at more than a crawl due to all the work being forced onto it and you graphics card sitting there doing nothing.