Surreal64 - Xbox port of 1964

[desertboy]

I saw the previous post but I though you guys might be slighty interested in this emulator and would like a bit more of a lowdown.

Surreal64 is an N64 emulator for the xbox in fact it's 3 emulators with a frontend to set them all up.

1964 (Based on .85 although .99 as soon as oDD get's hold of the source)
PJ64 1.4
Ultrahle

It's has virtual memory for loading roms (The 1st version PJ64-x didn't have virtual memory which meant less for dynrec, audio plugin's and large roms crashed it anyway) so it can load larger roms, CBFD runs fine except for plugin issues.

It only has one video plugin rice's 5.1.0d and 2 audio plugins, Mupen and azimer's (Sorry for mispelling) ultrahle updated plugin.

Support for 4 pads with rumble pack support and mempaks.

So what you want to know how well does it run and what options can I play around with.

If you've seen pj64-x you'll be amazed at the difference.

Zelda Ocarina of time plays perfectly (scary how well this game plays on the xpad) with 0 crashes & 0 sound skips in over 2 hours of play (I'm at Lon Lon Ranch now, played from the start)

Mario Party 3 seems perfect so far played a few 4 player games.

Pilot wings while has rice plugin issues actually runs smoother and with better sound than my PC.

Only one game refused to boot RE2 and 80% of games I played, played at 100% speed with no slowdown.

Perfect Dark doesn't run well (Although it runs very respectably with 128meg xbox) an update to .99 will probably bring a lot of that 20% that run to slow into the 80% that run with 100% speed.

Really after the update to .99 for 1964 core the only thing left will be better graphics plugin. The results they pull off with rice's plugin is far past what I've been able to do on the computer so rice's plugin appears to shine.

Goldeneye runs too slowly in 1964 and pj64 and although ultrahle runs it very well it's not quite there.

The xbox pad seems to work remarkably well when playing N64 games it's the closest I've come to feeling like an N64 without using an adaptoid.

If anyone's interested I could post some screenshots (only from my digicamera) of this baby in action.

I'll try not to go on anymore but if you can check this out you'll be pleasently surprised.

Edit:: I forgot the options.

The only real options (Except control setup) are memory related you can set how much ram the dynrec uses, the audio plugin's use and the page file size for virtual memory.

I've not really played around with these but most games play fine on the standard options but if you do happen to find a good setup for the game you can set the dynrec memory, etc. on a game by game basis.

Interestingly 1964 has 8meg dynrec as standard and pj64 has 16meg yet I'm sure 1964 is the faster of the 2. In fact every game I tried plays as well or better than on the pj64 core.

I did try giving perfect dark a 20 meg dynrec for pj64 core but it didn't really seem to make any difference.

 

[Hexidecimal]

Very Interesting, and promising, and yeah, if you could take some screens that would be cool.

 

[schibo]

Perhaps the porter would care to explain why he felt the need to do this completely behind all our backs.

 

[desertboy]

Perhaps the porter would care to explain why he felt the need to do this completely behind our back.

That I can't say, I thought they'd actually been in contact with yourself and Rice in fact I was under the impression that part of the intial prize fund (There was an N64 emulator fund when PJ64 was first ported) was donated to Rice so he could buy a better video card. Since I do not know the ported personally all I can do is fire him a PM and ask him to contact yourself.

I just thought I should say that maybe he didn't want anyone in the loop as it's compiled with the XDK (M$ xbox dev kit) and hence is on decidedly dodgy grounds.

 

[Iriez]

Perhaps the porter would care to explain why he felt the need to do this completely behind our back.

It was *very* public knowledge that this was being worked on. Lantus has spoken with rice quite a few times in the past about his plugin, in relation to working on the xbox.

Nothing was done behind your back. I think the better way to look at it, is that it was done without pestering the original authors. I think that its a very respectable thing to accomplish, understanding the amount of work that has gone into this project (6 months before first public beta).

Azimer obviously knew it was happening, since he very graciously loaned his plugin for use with the project.

Why do i get such a negative feeling? = (

This was a fantastic achievement by oDD and lantus, and i figured if anyone would be happy to see their project strive in other area's, it would have been the creators = (

 

[Hexidecimal]

No disrespect to you schibo, but maybe he didn't contact you because he wasn't having any problems porting it?

 

[lantus]

Perhaps the porter would care to explain why he felt the need to do this completely behind our back.

I'm one of the porters your talking about. Over last 6-8 months or so, ive been in touch with Rice via email about our development plans and he has been more than helpfull with his suggestions and providing us with source code to his plugins and general DirectX advice.

 

[schibo]

That I can't say, I thought they'd actually been in contact with yourself and Rice in fact I was under the impression that part of the intial prize fund (There was an N64 emulator fund when PJ64 was first ported) was donated to Rice so he could buy a better video card. Since I do not know the ported personally all I can do is fire him a PM and ask him to contact yourself.

Ok but that incorrect. Not once was I contacted about any port. And I would certainly never "ok" porting our years of hard work for a quick buck for someone else. The plugin port is a different issue that I was not involved in.

 

[Iriez]

Ok that is false. Not once was I contacted about any port. And I would certainly never "ok" porting our years of hard work for a quick buck for someone else. The plugin port is a different issue that I was not involved in.

I think you have a misunderstanding.

He was speaking about a very old contest (which was won by the pj64-x port). This port has nothing to do with any contests or any money. There is no "quick buck".

Please dont create a false first impression. None of us want to offend you, and had there been a single solitary thing in which we felt would be offending, lantus or oDD would have contacted and asked you first.

 

[lantus]

Ok but that incorrect. Not once was I contacted about any port. And I would certainly never "ok" porting our years of hard work for a quick buck for someone else. The plugin port is a different issue that I was not involved in.

quick buck? are you refering to the infamous "N64 contest for an Xbox emulator" that happened months ago?

Surreal64 has nothing whatsoever to do with that at all.

We just ported your code to the Xbox, just like another user might port it to Linux etc. I dont see what the problem is?

 

[desertboy]

Ok but that incorrect. Not once was I contacted about any port. And I would certainly never "ok" porting our years of hard work for a quick buck for someone else. The plugin port is a different issue that I was not involved in.

Actually the port he got the money for was PJ64 and he donated some of that money to emulation64 as the authors wish.

Not wishing to sound like I'm on a high horse here but if you didn't want people to port it without your knowledge why open source it.

No disrespect because I adore your emulator and think you've done a sterling job, I know it's always nice to be notified but this isn't disrepectful to yourself probably more they didn't want to bother you.

 

[schibo]

None of us want to offend you, and had there been a single solitary thing in which we felt would be offending, lantus or oDD would have contacted and asked you first.

I refer you back to my original question.

 

[Rice]

I know my plugin was ported, but I was not awared of porting of 1964 until yesterday when I happened to come across a news about it.

 

[Iriez]

I refer you back to my original question.

And i give you my original response.

Nothing was done behind your back. I think the better way to look at it, is that it was done without pestering the original authors. I think that its a very respectable thing to accomplish, understanding the amount of work that has gone into this project (6 months before first public beta).

I see where your coming from, but im sensing a uncomfortable amount of negativity from you that i simply cannot understand. Is there perhaps something that you dont understand about my reply?

Is there something beyond this (odd and lantus not contacting you) that is bothering you?

If so, please say so, as i would like to see any informalities or misunderstandings resolved.

No one's out to steal your work, rip you off, or make money off you.

 

[schibo]

How does it not seem like common sense to let us know about this project ahead of time. Anything else looks like a stunt. As usual, we might have been glad to help.

 

[mamajo]

Schibo and Rice please read this:
oDD stated months ago he was porting 1964 to the Xbox.
http://www.emutalk.net/showthread.php?t=16989&highlight=xbox

 

[Hexidecimal]

If the emulator is open source doesnt that mean anyone can grab and mess with it? I wasn't aware you had to notify the original authors if you downloaded and ported the source, but then again i don't know much about programming

 

[schibo]

If the emulator is open source doesnt that mean anyone can grab and mess with it? I wasn't aware you had to notify the original authors if you downloaded and ported the source, but then again i don't know much about programming

You may make a derivative work as long as the source code is released with it in its entirety.

 

[Jabo]

I could be wrong, but I think he wanted something like...

Sample email:

"Hey schibo, just to let you know we've been spending the last few months porting 1964 to Xbox, I realize this might bring some undesired attention to your project considering the legality of our port. I wanted to just send this quick note to you so when you read the news this does not take you off guard. Thanks."

 

[Hexidecimal]

Oh, thanks for clearing that up, I have only one more question, was the original source released with the project then?