Hacking Saturn Emulator in the Works

[teq]

The multi-platform Sega Saturn emulator called Yabause (http://yabause.org) now supports the Wii's architecture. It's still in alpha, but the code can be compiled and tested.

 

[shred6waves]

havent looked at the link, but thats great news

 

[science]

Ahh, Sega Saturn. I used to own five of them. With one power cable. And zero controllers. And zero games. Good times.

 

[deba94]

Segata Sanshiro, Segata Sanshiro, Sega Satan... Shiro...

lol, can't wait for this project to be in a stable beta, playing the Segata Sanshiro series on the wii would be great

 

[MrBubbles]

brb, changing my pants. I came hard.

 

[Lumstar]

How would this run smoothly on Wii? Even my dual-core 2.66ghz PC with 2GB RAM and GF8800 GTS isn't fast at Saturn emulation.

 

[NikoK]

I think your PC may have some serious problems if thats the case. My 2.2ghz x1800 runs dreamcast fine.

 

[deba94]

I think your PC may have some serious problems if thats the case. My 2.2ghz x1800 runs dreamcast fine.

This is a saturn emulator not dreamcast....

 

[Lumstar]

I have a good GPU, but this CPU is ****. And emulation is usually very CPU-centric.

 

[teq]

How would this run smoothly on Wii? Even my dual-core 2.66ghz PC with 2GB RAM and GF8800 GTS isn't fast at Saturn emulation.

The emulator you're using probably isn't optimized for your processor.


The fact of the matter is, the Wii's architecture is more similar to the Saturn's than your PC will ever be. Your PC uses a CISC based processor, while most consoles(the XBOX is currently the only exception) use RISC based processors.

RISC processors have virtually minimal error control, so code executes without the processor having to trip over itself along the way, among other architectural differences. A 700Mhz RISC processor can keep up with a 2Ghz CISC processor in most tasks.

GPUs currently use RISC based architectures, also.

 

[porchemasi]

My PC can run Saturn and Dreamcast almost perfectly if the emulator can handle (compatable) with that particular game. Tested DBZ Legends and Nights into Dreams and xmas edition.

flawless on my pc ...saturn on wii seems possible ... if PS1 is perfect on PSP .... anything is possible

 

[jinxvorheeze]

Just talked to BlueCrab (one of the Yabause creators) and he says to use the direct source of the initial 0.9.5 release and use the new updated lib files for Devkitpro to compile. You cannot just -make- file though, you must follow these steps:

This is how I compile it currently (From CyberWarriorX):
-Go into Devkitpro environment(msys)
-go to yabause's /src directory
-type "make -f makefile.wii"
-Wait until it finishes

Also he says that bios support is shit for the time being and they should have a binary release optimized a little more for the Wii out soon.

 

[Eternal Myst]

Playstation on Wii anybody?

 

[jinxvorheeze]

Playstation on Wii anybody?

 

[teq]

Playstation on Wii anybody?

Possible, but I guarantee Sony won't be happy...

 

[TrolleyDave]

Is the Wii a dual core CPU machine?

edit : Just had a look and if I've read it right the Wii just has the single CPU and GPU. If that's the case it'll never be able to emulate the Saturn properly. The Saturn is actually a pretty powerful machine with a dual core CPU base. As the Wii only has one CPU it'll never be able to do the parrallel processing needed to emulate it properly. There's alot of games that only took advantage of one CPU so those will probably run fine but without a dual core it'll never run stuff like VF2, Sega Rally and Burning Rangers properly.

 

[Lumstar]

The Wii architecture is directly based on GameCube. All GameCube code on a software level can run 100% native, no emulation or co-processor involved.

Even DS and PS2 need their co-processor to assist in backwards compatibility.

 

[SpaceJump]

Playstation on Wii anybody?

Possible, but I guarantee Sony won't be happy...

Who cares

 

[Jacobeian]

he emulator you're using probably isn't optimized for your processor.


The fact of the matter is, the Wii's architecture is more similar to the Saturn's than your PC will ever be. Your PC uses a CISC based processor, while most consoles(the XBOX is currently the only exception) use RISC based processors.

RISC processors have virtually minimal error control, so code executes without the processor having to trip over itself along the way, among other architectural differences. A 700Mhz RISC processor can keep up with a 2Ghz CISC processor in most tasks.

GPUs currently use RISC based architectures, also.

I already told you, this is not the problem
the problem is that Yabause is not coded for Wii or Gamecube specifically, it's just C portable code and the toolchain (devkitppc) does not magically transform your code to make it run faster because it's for a RISC CPU just like the emulated CPU

and again , emulating a console is not only emulating the CPU, in the case of the Saturn there are a bunch of extra chips to take care of, and this take a lot of CPU times to emulate them all together, that's why a double core CPU is often required because in this case, CPU raw speed is the only thing that matter.

theorically ANY emulator coded in portable C could be ported thanks to devkitppc/libogc, just take a look in other ported emulators to see that they use quite the same approach to handle host system specific stuffs (video with GX texture, audio with AR DMA, input with PAD/WPAD). The current emulators (8bits/16bits generation) does not require too much CPU power because the machines they emulate are (relatively) simpler. The last example is mupen64 which need a lot of rewriting from the original PC version (Dynarec, n64 3D hardware translation to GX) to be able to run "correctly".

So, unless Yabause critical parts (memory handlers, SH2 core, ...) are also rewritten to take benefits of the GC/wii architecture (PowerPC ASM, GX functions...), you won't be able to achieve decent speed with a simple port...

but I am also convided that Yabause authors knwo all this stuff already and are maybe working on that (this was the positive note for those whod don't like negative comments lol)

 

[Killer Phantom]

I looked, then I got wet.

Saturn Bomberman, just all I need to play on the Wii.