Do the Devs of PCSX2 have any other projects?
#1
Hi,
just wondering if the developers of PCSX2 have any other emulator projects on the go?

I know of the ps1 emulator, which is final now I believe..

Anything else such as PSP maybe?
System Specs: Phenom II X6 2.8ghz 6 core, 4gb 2133mhz Ram, Radeon HD 5850, Sound Blaster X-FI, Windows 7 X64
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#2
I have a NES emulator project i work on when i'm not working on pcsx2.
http://cottonvibes.blogspot.com/2011/01/...onnes.html

currently porting it to android OS and writing a dynamic recompiler for it.
as far as i know, its the only nes emulator with a real recompiler which i think is pretty cool; and its my first time working with arm-asm so its good experience.
its a fun project and i'm proud of it since i coded it from scratch.

i also wrote a chip8 emu which i didn't really like too much; mainly because the chip8 itself is a poorly designed 'system' (its actually not a system but an interpreted language).
Check out my blog: Trashcan of Code
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#3
Not at the moment, i keep pondering doing stuff like cotton and making other emus like NES and Gameboy, but until I have the time to do so, its just PCSX2 for me.
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#4
I'm not either at the moment, though I've thought about writing a z-machine interpreter at some point. Of course, I've also thought about a few non-emulator related projects. I think it might be fun to write an epub reader, for example (An epub file is mainly a renamed zip file with xhtml files inside of it, so it shouldn't be too difficult). And I have worked on Angband before, and I keep meaning to get back to it.

Of course, the times I would do these things usually end up with me working on pcsx2, or gaming. Sad

I might have to try cottons nes emulator on my Nexus One, if it's being ported to android...

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#5
I can relate to the whole lack of free time thing *sigh* so many cool programs that I enjoy working with but have barely scratched the surface of their potential because I'm either working or with the girlfriend..

Well good luck with it all. NES for Android does sound pretty cool, my gf would love to have it on her phone. I'm now following Cotton's blog Smile
System Specs: Phenom II X6 2.8ghz 6 core, 4gb 2133mhz Ram, Radeon HD 5850, Sound Blaster X-FI, Windows 7 X64
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#6
Lack of time is indeed a problem for me with my projects as well.
Its not always that i don't have free time, but also that i have too many projects i want to work on and i really can only focus on one of them at a time.
I tend to switch projects after i start getting bored with the current one; the worst projects for me tend to be my game projects since i never end up finishing them.

Furthermore with big projects like pcsx2, they don't just involve programming; but you also end up spending a lot of time helping users, and large amount of time testing your code + bug tracking + regression testing. So although the progress the users see is only from the programming side, there's a lot more to the project that consumes time.
Check out my blog: Trashcan of Code
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#7
(02-13-2011, 10:18 AM)cottonvibes Wrote: Furthermore with big projects like pcsx2, they don't just involve programming; but you also end up spending a lot of time helping users, and large amount of time testing your code + bug tracking + regression testing. So although the progress the users see is only from the programming side, there's a lot more to the project that consumes time.

Just replying to reitterate this information, it couldn't be any more on the mark. If it was just a small side project nobody cared about, i guess we wouldn't spend so much of our time on it, however, we are huge, so we need to make sure things are right, this can take the time.
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#8
Just wondering, since emulators are generally freeware. (I'm sure there are legalities regarding the system in question being emulated to prevent profiting from the software) What do you guys really get out of working on a project like PCSX2? Is it just for the love of what you do or is it something you can present to a company when wanting a job/better job and say "This is some of my work"? What's the angle?
System Specs: Phenom II X6 2.8ghz 6 core, 4gb 2133mhz Ram, Radeon HD 5850, Sound Blaster X-FI, Windows 7 X64
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#9
(02-14-2011, 02:59 AM)ichimitch Wrote: Just wondering, since emulators are generally freeware. (I'm sure there are legalities regarding the system in question being emulated to prevent profiting from the software) What do you guys really get out of working on a project like PCSX2? Is it just for the love of what you do or is it something you can present to a company when wanting a job/better job and say "This is some of my work"? What's the angle?

The main reason we work on the project is because we like working on it.
You can learn a tremendous amount of information working on a complicated project like pcsx2, and the mental stimulation the project provides is great. When I started hacking around with pcsx2's sourcecode i didn't even know c/c++, and now I know more about the languages than my uni professors.

There is also the nice satisfaction when your new code fixes problems in games or speeds up the emulation of games by a noticeable margin.
Getting the praise from the users also provides motivation for us to continue working on the project.

There are periods of time where our motivation to do things is low, so this is one of the reasons some members take breaks from the project. You can't expect us to be motivated all the time.

I don't know about the others, but for me I will put my experience with pcsx2 on my resume when looking for a job. Although it is questionable whether putting emulator related experience is always a good thing on a job application; I believe I have seen someone who owns emulator-related websites send a resume to nintendo as a joke to see what they would say, and they told him that although his experience met the requirements, they did not approve of his projects.
I have on the other hand seen emulator programmers who have gotten jobs based on their emulation experience, so it kind-of is a double edged sword.

In my opinion though, working on emulators gives you a tremendous amount of knowledge ranging from system architecture to programming techniques. So programmers who have worked on emulators and similar projects have better experience and knowledge than those who have only stuck to simpler applications.
Check out my blog: Trashcan of Code
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#10
I imagine it would be pretty satisfying to work on a project like this knowing
that it's users are all completely dependent on it, being the only one of it's kind or at least the only one in it's league and yeah, you couldn't work on it if you didn't love what you do.

As for user praise though.. Well I admit to not having spent much time on the PCSX2 forum yet but I do frequent quite a few forums for different emulators being the fanatic that I am and it seems that people generally just ***** and moan when they post... There are a few people that are grateful and say thanks but the majority seem to forget that it's a free product who's developers are volunteering their time and they just gripe about the things that aren't yet working or request features be added like it can be done with a few mouse clicks.. If it were me I would be thinking why am I doing this for these ingrates :/ but yeah I guess it would teach you a lot along the way and find out a lot about things you wouldn't in a classroom.

Anyway I for one am stoked with the work you guy are doin Laugh Thanks.
System Specs: Phenom II X6 2.8ghz 6 core, 4gb 2133mhz Ram, Radeon HD 5850, Sound Blaster X-FI, Windows 7 X64
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