How to Get Started on Making a Custom Plugin?
#1
I was interested in tinkering around with PCSX2 and making(or at least attempting) my own VR plugin. What would be the best way to get up to speed on making custom plugin's in PCSX2?
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#2
I'm assuming you're talking about VR in the likes of Oculus and the HTC Vive?

I don't know if you have experience in programming or computer science; but I can say there's alot more work than just building a plugin.

Unfortunately, we don't have the luxury of being able to use modern hardware to its full potential like a normal PC game. In our case, emulating 16+ year old hardware introduces alot of roadblocks that cause their own problems.

If you look at other projects like Dolphin (Gamecube/Wii) you will see that they have reached milestones that aren't even possible on the PS2. The hardware in the Gamecube/Wii is alot closer to the PC than the PS2 is. The Gamecube uses an ATI gpu, while the PS2 uses Sony's in-house hardware.

While they have preliminary VR support, that is a whole separate project on its own. With the way the GS and PS2 works as a while, I think it's unlikely to see VR at all.  As mentioned before, the GS was never designed with the intention of virtual reality.

Even now, the GS has alot of refinement underway. As it stands, we are still working on getting screens to align properly; but upscaling and additional screen elements come at a cost.
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#3
If you are dead set on trying this, I would suggest looking on PCSX2's source code at the various GS plugins (GSnull, zeroGS and especially GSDX) and looking at how PCSX2 uses the functions the plugin exports.

The GS plugin api in particular seems to have changed a bit over the history of PCSX2 (that and GSDX is compatible with PS1 emulators) so not all functions exported will be used in current day PCSX2.

That being said. I believe getting VR support running may be a substantial challenge (in addition to emulating whatever component your plugin serves as), given how the PS2 handles rendering (most of the 3D calculations aren't done on the GS IIRC, they are done in the VUs).
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#4
@geforce
Yes. Gs doesn't compute anything. It is just a rasterizer + texture mapping + output merger (and a ***** truck of trick to emulate a shader processor (so we emulate a fixed unit that emulate a shader on shader gpu....) )

What does it mean to create a vr plugins? Honestly we will get a better game experience with game designed for vr. I'm curious if it nice on dolphin or if it is the current hype.
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#5
VR would likely not work well on the PS2
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#6
(05-28-2016, 12:18 AM)gregory Wrote: @geforce
Yes. Gs doesn't compute anything. It is just a rasterizer + texture mapping + output merger (and a ***** truck of trick to emulate a shader processor (so we emulate a fixed unit that emulate a shader on shader gpu....) )

What does it mean to create a vr plugins? Honestly we will get a better game experience with game designed for vr.  I'm curious if it nice on dolphin or if it is the current hype.

@gregory
I looked into it earlier today and it turns out that VR on dolphin isn't officially supported. Dolphin VR is an complete fork of the original emulator

Just looking at the to-do list makes my head spin; but man it brings back memories of the early PCSX2 builds Smile
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#7
(05-27-2016, 05:31 PM)CK1 Wrote: I'm assuming you're talking about VR in the likes of Oculus and the HTC Vive?

I don't know if you have experience in programming or computer science; but I can say there's alot more work than just building a plugin.

Unfortunately, we don't have the luxury of being able to use modern hardware to its full potential like a normal PC game. In our case, emulating 16+ year old hardware introduces alot of roadblocks that cause their own problems.

If you look at other projects like Dolphin (Gamecube/Wii) you will see that they have reached milestones that aren't even possible on the PS2. The hardware in the Gamecube/Wii is alot closer to the PC than the PS2 is. The Gamecube uses an ATI gpu, while the PS2 uses Sony's in-house hardware.

While they have preliminary VR support, that is a whole separate project on its own. With the way the GS and PS2 works as a while, I think it's unlikely to see VR at all.  As mentioned before, the GS was never designed with the intention of virtual reality.

Even now, the GS has alot of refinement underway. As it stands, we are still working on getting screens to align properly; but upscaling and additional screen elements come at a cost.

Yep, Im a programmer, but I havent worked on much low level API stuff before.(Currently learning OpenGL) That sucks that it's pretty much not feasible. I've been using DolphinVR and for the games that it supports the results are truly amazing and run with next to no problems. It would be amazing if PCSX2 had support for it with the huge game library the PS2 has, but it seems it's just not meant to be.
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#8
Hum, Gamecube or Wii game ?
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#9
(06-02-2016, 05:24 PM)gregory Wrote: Hum, Gamecube or Wii game ?

Gamecube games only at the moment.(From the games I've tried) Games like Windwaker, Xenoblade Chronicles, and F-Zero all play great in VR and actually feel pretty natural and not like they were just thrown on. Windwaker especially.

Support for more Wii games is going to come eventually as 2EyeGuy(the DolphinVR dev) is still working on it.
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