

PCSX2 1.0 released - dreampeppers99
http://pcsx2.net/244-pcsx2-1-0-released.html
The best ps2 (PCSX2) emulator is out with new major version
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avolcano
What always annoys me in emulation is how it always reacts so bad to slowdown.
Was trying to get my Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 on, but apparently my poor Core
2 Duo E6600 and GTX 275 couldn't handle it. I was getting 30fps - which would
be fine in a regular game, but in an emulator actually means playing the game
at half speed (full speed being 60fps). Including the music, which, well, that
was interesting.

Still, I'm glad to see progress being made in emulation. I think it's
extremely important that we will have access to gaming history for a long time
to come, even after most of the hardware has died or simply can't be hooked up
to modern TV systems.

Seems like the next big step will be Xbox 1 emulation, which no one has
tackled yet. Anyone know why?

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dbaupp
An interesting article demonstrating the performance dependency of emulation:
[http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011/08/accuracy-takes-
power-o...](http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011/08/accuracy-takes-power-one-
mans-3ghz-quest-to-build-a-perfect-snes-emulator/)

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faragon
IMO, post author is an idiot: Nesticle/Nesticle95 did not required patches to
NES games, it was that most time-consuming parts were written in assembly
(6202 CPU, PPU, and sound synthesis).

Also back in 1996, the Snes96 SNES emulator ran some games at almolst playable
speed on 486-DX4 @100MHz (ones not requiring DSP nor "mode 7"), few years
later NLKSNES was even faster, being even full frame rate (less accurate,
though). IMO, a SNES emulator requiring 3GHz means brain-dead implementation,
simple as that (even emulating per-line effects -HSYNC IRQ with palette
changes-, custom chips DSP1/FX/FX2 or even a second 65816 found in some
cartridges for doing RLE decompression, etc.).

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daeken
> IMO, a SNES emulator requiring 3GHz means brain-dead implementation, simple
> as that

No, it means _accurate_ implementation. That doesn't mean accurate gameplay
(which many inaccurate emulators achieve), but proper accurate _emulation_.
You should really, really read up on byuu's work; he's probably the best
developer in emulation at this point.

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faragon
Even for accurate SNES emulation implementation, 3GHz (on 3 way OooE CPU with
massive SIMD capabilities -e.g. Core2Duo, Core iX, or modern AMD-), is crazy.
BTW, my evaluation was based on his article, not on his reputation.

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daeken
No, it's not crazy at all. There's a massive amount of synchronization that
has to be done between, say, the CPU and PPU. It's not possible to even do
per-pixel synchronization right now, which is why line-based sync is in use.
Have you read the source? The implementation is brilliant, even if it is
"slow".

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faragon
Per-pixel synchronization makes sense on systems writing pixels directly to
the CRT, like the case of Atari 2600, which has no framebuffer at all, and
required accurate CPU timing for writing to the DAC (Atari 2600 TIA).

In case of the SNES, or any tile-based 8 and 16 bit console, IMO, the only
accurate synchronization required is per-line (HSYNC) and per-frame (VSYNC),
in most cases. If a SNES game, for perfect emulation, requires higher than
per-line synchronization, it was not properly written (complex multiprocessors
systems with CPUs, coprocessors, DMA, rely on interrupts for synchronization,
although some per-cycle heterogeneous memory access thing was used as anti-
copy protection, timer handling, etc.).

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rcfox
> If a SNES game, for perfect emulation, requires higher than per-line
> synchronization, it was not properly written

That's the whole point. There are games that did crazy stuff, and don't work
well on many emulators. Perfect emulation requires software simulation of
these crazy exploitations of the hardware.

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faragon
Yes, but 3GHz of a modern OooE CPU (with at least 3 instruction per clock,
capable of massive SIMD)? Come on. Also, from desktop snapshot, in task
manager it showed 4 CPUs, with 3 of them at almost 100% (!). It reminds me the
comparison between Git and Monotone made by Linus Torvalds. I find no reason
in the Earth for perfect SNES emulation with just _one_ core of a modern OooE
CPU and 1-1.5GHz (with GPU assistance for stretch and filtering/postprocess),
even written in C, with no SIMD assembly at all (SNES 65816 CPU was running at
maximum speed of 3.58 MHz, being its coprocessors even slower).

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byuu
> Also, from desktop snapshot, in task manager it showed 4 CPUs, with 3 of
> them at almost 100%

The Ars Technica image guy made that screenshot. It wasn't from running my
emulator, which is strictly single-core (for a whole host of reasons I won't
get into.)

Your guess is as good as mine why he chose that screenshot, I didn't know
about it until after the article was published.

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faragon
Thank you for the answer, byuu. Don't get me wrong, your emulator is great,
and I apreciate very much your commitment with open source. I simply pointed
about the Nesticle patches were not necessary for speeding up the emulation,
and that 3GHz was overkill, in my opinion. I bet in the future it will be much
faster, no mater if is optimized by yourself o by others (I understand that
may be optimization is not your goal, my point is just that the 3GHz is not a
requirement just because precission, but because of current implementation).
Best regards, and please, excuse me for telling you "idiot" in a previous
post, change it by "innacurate" (Nesticle thing) and "incomplete" (3GHz
required not only because accuracy, but also because current implementation
limitations).

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ojiikun
Interesting project, but is anyone else put out by whatever frame-destroying
script-fu their webpage does? Your site shouldn't forcibly rip me out of my
reader app, please.

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mortenjorck
So let's say I have my copy of Burnout 3, possibly the best arcade racer on
the PS2, sitting on the desk in front of me, and I just downloaded the Mac
version of PCX2. What all currently stands between me and some classic Road
Rage mode on my Mac?

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dreampeppers99
Basically you just need to install (the "full isntaller" install the main
plugin) and put your bios on bios folder and then you make an ISO of you own
copy and that's it! Go to menu File Run ISO, done!

For sure, you can experiment changing video .... and so on!

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mortenjorck
Is there any specific kind of DVD drive I need to image the disc, or will the
one in my MacBook Pro be able to read it?

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voltagex_
Your Macbook should be fine, I'd probably use Disc Utility to dump the disc to
an ISO if you have the space.

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ntkachov
These guys have been in development a long time. I remember playing on version
9.7 and 9.8 and it was really solid back then.

I wonder how long it will take before we see PS2 emulated on android devices.

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dreampeppers99
I think it is not that long! It relies mainly on cpu power (even though gpu
counts as well)! Maybe the new multicore devices will be able to play it with
low fps

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Maven911
Does anyone what are good sites to find n get more info on roms and emulators

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Karunamon
Rules 1 and 2 of emulation have always been, for good reason, "You do not ask
about roms". Seriously. Dump them yourself if you own them, or use google-fu
to find them elsewhere. Nobody here is going to help you find warez.

As far as emulator information, I've always been a fan of zophar.net or
emulation64.com

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johncoltrane
I have fond memories of emulation/translation forums circa 00. Waiting for a
complete translation of Tales Of Phantasia has been an exhilerating
experience.

BTW, I designed the icons for the firt Mac port of PCSX(1) back in the days.

Those were good times.

(1) <http://pcsx.gpost.dk/>

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Karunamon
Likewise.. the amount of time spent looking for various emulators (and yes,
roms) is something I remember somewhat fondly from those days.

For me, the game to beat was Star Ocean on the SNES, came out 1/1/2003.. the
last translation that DeJap ever did.

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johncoltrane
I discovered Star Ocean and Tales of Phantasia at the same time, in 2001. TOP
was finished but SO was not translated (or maybe only item names…) and I
remember being so impatient that I printed a walkthrough and played about one
third of it in Japanese in the summer of 2002. I wanted to play it so badly
that it pushed me to register on many forums at that time.

And now I can't even remember my usernames or even the name of some of the the
forums I joined.

Do you remember Silhouette? That's the first SNES emulator I've used, back in
1996 or 1997. A friend gave it to me along with 4 roms, including Chrono
Trigger. I wasn't into Video Games before that…

