
RPCS3 PS3 Emulator – January 2019 Progress Report - pplonski86
https://rpcs3.net/blog/2019/03/17/progress-report-january-2019/
======
afraca
These reports are amazing, even though it's hardly understandable if you're
not on the project.

I recommend the Dolphin emulator blog as well. The last one: [https://dolphin-
emu.org/blog/2019/02/01/dolphin-progress-rep...](https://dolphin-
emu.org/blog/2019/02/01/dolphin-progress-report-dec-2018-and-jan-2019/)

I remember vaguely something about them using a visual difference tool as a
regression test, really cool!

~~~
monocasa
> I remember vaguely something about them using a visual difference tool as a
> regression test, really cool!

FifoCI! One of the coolest ideas to come out of that project.

[https://fifoci.dolphin-emu.org/about/](https://fifoci.dolphin-emu.org/about/)

------
sergiotapia
Please donate if you can afford it:
[https://www.patreon.com/Nekotekina](https://www.patreon.com/Nekotekina)

This project is very important to preserve one of the largest console of the
past generation.

~~~
ss248
To be honest, i think $3k per month is already pretty generous, considering
the amount of work the lead dev does. I followed the project closely couple of
years ago and even back then it obvious for anyone who studied the codebase,
that nekotekina lost all enthusiasm about the project a long time ago.

They should consider switching to per-task payment model, so maybe some other
talented people can participate, because nowadays devs supported by that
patreon page do just enough work to put at least something in the monthly
changelog.

~~~
idonotknowwhy
2 lead devs now (kd-11) and they're making amazing progress every month.

~~~
ss248
kd-11 was fine, the criticisms is mostly directed at "the main dev"
nekotekina. Go through the git history of the last 4~ years. It's not amazing
or impressive by any stretch of the imagination.

~~~
dmix
hmm, the Patreon claims ($4k/m) is to support both of those developers "full-
time". I have to agree the commit history (for both) seems a bit thin.
Although not to the point it's alarming or anything, as work _is_ being done.
I'm also well aware that's not always the best measure of contributions to
software. Especially given the high-quality work going into documentation on
this blog...

~~~
idonotknowwhy
A fair bit of this would be testing, reverse engineering, etc. If you look at
the commit history of any of the devs where I work, it'd look a bit thin too,
but we're all working 8+ hours / day.

~~~
Tsubasachan
An emulator can be very easily and objectively judged on the number of games
it supports. That is what its for.

How much of the PS3 library can be played?

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Causality1
Good to hear that emulation development is still alive and well, for so many
reasons. As consoles became more locked-down emulation seemed to stall, what
with the unusually long generational span of the 360/ps3 era. Someday it will
be outrageously expensive to find a working ps3 or Xbox 360, and when that day
comes emulation will be the only way to enjoy the titles from your childhood,
especially for non-blockbuster titles with little chance of remakes. Scanning
preserves our photographic history, digitalization preserves our film history,
and emulation is how we preserve our gaming history.

~~~
ariwilson
Microsoft's proprietary emulator for Xbox 360 provides access to 551 out of
2100 released games on the Xbox One. One of the main reasons I bought one
(pretty amazing I can LAN party Halo Reach between my 360/One X).

I can't see any reason they wouldn't keep improving the emulator and bringing
it to their next consoles (which are very likely to be AMD machines and thus
have near native backwards compatibility with Xbox One).

~~~
Causality1
They would stop the very moment it ceased being profitable.

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saagarjha
> threads relating to RSX, SPU and PPU have higher priority, audio threads are
> delayed during bottlenecks leading to crackling or complete loss of sound

This is an interesting choice, given that almost everywhere else it seems like
audio is given the high priority to prevent stutters like these.

As an aside, the font size is a bit small on my iPad (nothing Reader mode
couldn’t fix, though).

~~~
edoceo
In Dolphin for example, if games are not smooth I disable the audio (not mute,
disable) and games are a very smooth (looking at you Mario Kart Wii)

------
petermcneeley
What is the legality of emulating proprietary hardware like this?

~~~
idonotknowwhy
Sony don't seem to mind anymore, considering the Playstation Classic console
uses the opensource pcsx emulator:

[https://www.dualshockers.com/playstation-classic-emulator-
pc...](https://www.dualshockers.com/playstation-classic-emulator-pcsx-
rearmed/)

~~~
Tsubasachan
Sony doesn't seem to care about emulation of old systems. The reality is that
old games doesn't bring in much money for them and the people who run
emulators are a niche.

Piracy of the PS4 would get their attention.

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PorterDuff
How interesting. So they actually emulate the whole deal? Cell, GPU,
peripherals? Cool.

I had one of those running Linux and got one of the lights of death. Bummer.
Into the trash.

~~~
idonotknowwhy
If you still have it, keep it. They can be repaired pretty easily and you can
use it to dump your games for emulation.

Yes, they emulate the whole deal (DS3 support isn't there yet) but RSX and
Cell, yeah.

You can even run PS1 classics (emulating an emulator!)

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visualstudio
How's the game that shall not be named running these days?

~~~
idonotknowwhy
If you mean MGS4, it doesn't run. It uses a ps3 feature which no other game
uses, so it hasn't been prioritized.

Or if you meant TLOU, 12fps on a very high end system, give it more time.

~~~
monocasa
Which feature?

~~~
idonotknowwhy
sys_overlay

> sys_overlay, a special way for games to load external code. While it is very
> much a work in progress, it shows real promise because Metal Gear Solid 4
> needs it to run

[https://rpcs3.net/blog/2018/01/03/progress-report-
december-2...](https://rpcs3.net/blog/2018/01/03/progress-report-
december-2017/)

I don't think that PR ever got merged. It was barely in-game anyway.

------
Asooka
Can we please not have news about software that supports piracy and
disrespects authors' rights on the front page? Why isn't this banned outright?

I wonder how Stallman would feel if Apple were to take GCC's source, add
support for e.g. Swift and keep it closed source while violating the GPL and
then post blog posts about what great engineers they are.

~~~
staticassertion
We also have posts about hackers and all sorts of shit. It's here because it's
technically interesting.

Projects like this are also critical - tons of media running on proprietary
hardware/software will be lost without projects like this. Think about DOSBox,
or even just Flashplayer games, or how rare an n64 is. All of the art produced
on these platforms will be lost unless we build software to run it.

Emulators are also, generally, ~5-10 years behind the consoles. At that point
the consoles themselves are likely deprecated in favor of the next platform.
PS3 has been out for _13 years_. Do you really believe this code will
negatively impact sales of games, when it's usable nearly 2 decades after
release?

*edit

And a side note - I believe PCSX2 was the first program I ever compiled, as a
teenager. It was at least some part of what interested me in computers - I
wanted to know why some games were slow or fast, or what role the GPU played.
Emulators are some of the coolest projects out there, I think, and posts about
their implementation seem very fitting for HN.

~~~
pedrocx486
> or how rare an n64 is

I may be reading this completely wrong, but are you implying the N64 console
is rare?

~~~
staticassertion
They're no longer manufactured, and therefor the numbers are only decreasing.
A quick look at amazon prices one at ~100 dollars. What do you think that'll
be in a decade?

Certainly some games are already quite pricey as there are fewer and fewer
copies out there (check out prices for SSBM).

