..:: PCSX2 Forums ::..

(09-14-2011, 05:27 AM)synce Wrote: [ -> ]I assumed all the pcsx2 coders have cushy IT jobs

In time my boy, in time they WILL have cushy IT jobs

(09-14-2011, 12:30 AM)xstyla Wrote: [ -> ]where the hell the gs emulation is slow?! don't think so. I don't really see it. only big problem is the gs block memory and that format conversions and transfers or dependant sampling of textures.

Textures can be moved, be reinterpreted (cast) and be available only in low mipmap detail, for example.
The GS just has tons of ways to manipulate stuff in memory.
This requires a huge overhead in any typical texture cache design, as you have to update and handle all these (and more) cases whenever memory is accessed. This is so bad that in bad cases it may be faster to have no cache at all.

Then there's the 2 analogue outputs merging the GS can do.
This is simply not accessible on todays graphic cards / APIs so at best
we can try to emulate it. This is again slow and may get very complex.

Then there's the problem that games try to use the (real) GS efficiently, meaning they'll depend on the 48GB/s texture moving performance it offers.
Simply keeping those speeds up in emulation is going to be a major bottleneck.

I'm just writing about this from memory (Pseudonym and Gabest are the people knowing best about this) so it's likely that I'm leaving out even more problems here but yea, GS emulation will always be hard to do and it'll always be very demanding.

I can't really say that Dolphin is faster.

Zelda TP works pretty well on my i5 Sandybridge, but slows down to ~10-15fps on the Hyrule field which is unplayable slow,
while Final Fantasy X and XII on pcsx2 runs perfectly at fullspeed all the time.
I really depends on the games, some are unplayable, some are running perfect.

first of all i don't see dolphin progressing much faster than pcsx2; the initial release of dolphin-emu was in 2003 according to wikipedia, which is around the same time pcsx2 started too.
so both emulators are around the same age.

in terms of compatibility i don't know where dolphin stands, but unless its at 95%+ compatiblity, you can't say its much better than pcsx2 which nowadays has pretty high compatibility.

as for speed, it has a better chance at being faster, because the architecture is simpler to emulate. the more complex components in the system, the harder and slower it is to emulate. the ps2 has more complex components than the gc/wii.

as for wii support, the wii is essentially an upgraded gamecube, so if you have a gamecube emulator already working, you already have most of the wii working too.

so i don't agree with "dolphin progressing faster than pcsx2", i don't see it doing a much better job.
and the extra developers it has isn't really helpful. too many developers isn't a good thing.

I think the VU's and GS are the most complex part of the PS2.
Even Sony didn't managed it to get a GS perfectly emulated on an Nvidia GPU, so that's why they built in a real GS in to the first PS3.

edit:
ah sorry, the second PS3, which was the EU PS3 got the GS as hardware only.

The first one (JAP+US) had the complete hardware (EE+GS) built in.

They may have more coders, but in terms of helping people having problems, this community here is MUCH better. Here, people with knowledge answer the questions and are very helpful. I have never seen a Dolphin Dev helping people in their forums.
I am currently trying to run Xenoblade Chronicles on Dolphin, many people have problems but not a single Dev seems to give a f*ck about it. The thread is currently just being clogged with people posting more or less precise problem-descriptions, but noone with knowledge tries to help. I am really disappointed there. So in conclusion: Thumbs up for the PCSX2 community.

When the question have been asked and answered million of time, you stop give a damn.

Indeed Dolphin has better emulation speed -- Call of Duty 3 and Resident Evil 4 run on Dolphin much faster than they do on PCSX2. But why too many coders is not a good thing? You can share your work, and everything is done faster.

Quote:You can share your work

Most problems I've seen in their google code page are because of people not communicating and then having others do many reverts to the code, then again that may have changed with GIT but it kinda throws out regular users feedback...

Apples and Oranges.....Apples and oranges.