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Why not using frameskipping?

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rayearth_05

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Throughout all my experience with emulators and since I not always had a fast computer, I could suggest the use of frameskipping; With the fastest prosesors available you would achieve probably 10 to 15 fps, a nice frameskipping would make the game playable (at least until you guys find some other algorithms to use). For the sake of the emulator you could always allow the source code to be requested, but if not please add an advanced frameskip option.... thanks

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Nifty

New member
What exactly does frameskipping do?
It probably skips some frames :) but what exactly does that mean?
Does it show a frame, then skips one, then shows one,... or does it work otherwise?
 

vleespet

The decent one
There are several ways of skipping frames. The gamecube is running at a fixed amount of fps (frames per second), so when your computer can't handle it anymore, there will be slowdown, because all the frames got to be displayed. The first way is like you said it skips one (or more) frames (a fixed amount in a second), but there is also a way of dynamically skipping frames (just when there is slowdown, it will skip a frame, so the game won't slow down).
 
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rayearth_05

New member
frameskipping is..

In Dolphin case, frameskipping would be skip 9 frames (game images) and show 1, approximately, so it would be 9 off, 1 on, 9 off, 1 on and so on, I really hope the authors can read and consider this, this is a temporary solution to his emulator's problem

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JinXD

Member
Dolphin is not meant to be a replacement of an actual cube. At present I do not believe that speed is important, only compatability. I doubt that frameskip will be implemented anytime soon.
 
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ector

Emulator Developer
Also it wouldn't really help much since unlike the SNES emulation days of old, the biggest bottleneck is the processor emulation, not the graphics emulation. Yeah the graphics emulation is expensive and you would get maybe a 30% speed boost by skipping drawing every other frame, but it would be quite pointless since it wouldn't be anywhere near real-time in most games anyway.
 
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rayearth_05

New member
Yes but why do you want the emulator for if u cannot play it, frameskip would allow the emulator to be playable from the first time at 100% speed synched with the sound, so why not using it at the same time of being developing it?, it would be a good option more for Dolphin 1.03 for example wouldn't be it?.

P.D.:If speed isn't important then what is?, of course real time would be possible, at least at the same speed as the gamecube, just not with the same fps

Thanks :)
 
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MGFox

The Quiet One!
rayearth_05 said:
Yes but why do you want the emulator for if u cannot play it

The emulator is purely a "Proof of Concept" to show that a GameCube can be emulated, not to replace the console...we actually like Nintendo and believe they deserve money for their fantastic Video Games contribution!

rayearth_05 said:
frameskip would allow the emulator to be playable from the first time at 100% speed synched with the sound

As pointed out in the post above yours (by ector)...no it wouldn't, the slow-down in the emulation comes from the CPU having to translate and then perform the GameCubes commands. Frame-skip would only take the pressure off of the GPU, which is not a significant factor with todays Graphics Cards!

rayearth_05 said:
If speed isn't important then what is?

As JinXD said...Compatability! and he also said "At present..." meaning that games should be running accuratly first THEN worry about the speed!

Cheers,
Fox
 

Federelli

Beta Tester
Besides, there's a reason why it hasn't been implemented yet, and it must be a good one.

In fact it's been stated in this very thread, that regardless of frame-skip, it's the CPU emulation which is bottlenecking the whole thing.
 

Dysprosium

Graphics Designer
Federelli said:
Besides, there's a reason why it hasn't been implemented yet, and it must be a good one.

Indeed, the Team has thought it all through before. They'll implement what they want, and we'll like it because their aim is to emulate the Gamecube. It might not be 100%, but at least they're trying and doing a great job, eh? Their emulation was a proof of concept, showing that it was possible. If it wasn't for them, we might not have seen Gamecube emulation until years to come.

The only thing I'd like them to finish for the next release [Apart from working on compatability and all that. ;P] is the Full Screen option they were working on. It would be an excellent feature, but I'm not about to bug them about it.
 

ector

Emulator Developer
rayearth_05 said:
Yes but why do you want the emulator for if u cannot play it, frameskip would allow the emulator to be playable from the first time at 100% speed synched with the sound, so why not using it at the same time of being developing it?, it would be a good option more for Dolphin 1.03 for example wouldn't be it?.
P.D.:If speed isn't important then what is?, of course real time would be possible, at least at the same speed as the gamecube, just not with the same fps
Thanks :)

Of course we WANT to get it running realtime. Problem is that it's not really possible :( It takes too much power to emulate the gamecube accurately..
And as I said, frameskipping does not help since there isn't much to skip.. you still have to run the emulated PowerPC at full speed, all you could skip is the graphics command translation for every other frame or so, but this would not help enough.
 

Lemming

New member
Can't you use the graphics card as a CPU? It is much better in floating point calculations than a CPU (correct me if 'm wrong) i guess it is lots of work to get the GPU to process things and send them back to the CPU instead of the monitor but i have seen some newspost once about plans about programming a GPU as a sound card
 

DarthDazDC

An Alright Guy
Lemming said:
Can't you use the graphics card as a CPU? It is much better in floating point calculations than a CPU (correct me if 'm wrong) i guess it is lots of work to get the GPU to process things and send them back to the CPU instead of the monitor but i have seen some newspost once about plans about programming a GPU as a sound card
:plain: Shut up. :plain:
 

Federelli

Beta Tester
What? Having the GPU doing the CPU work AAAAND the GPU?

Regardless of how many mips or whatever it can do, it's too much for both operations, besides, you'd be emulating again :p.
 

Super Noodle

New member
Well, can more stress be put on the video card instead of the CPU? I have a 6800gt, and willing to stress test any new programing thats supposed to stress more on the graphic card then the CPU.
 

ector

Emulator Developer
It's not that simple.
I would be happier than most of you if I was able to get Dolphin full-speed.

Thread closed.
 
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