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Why do the emulators run so slowly?

Azimer

Emulator Developer
Moderator
I certainly hope it won't require 64bit processors to emulate a 32bit one. :)

The problem with emulation speed is emulation. You are taking software designed for another system and trying to simulate the hardware at the CPU instruction level. This is good for compatibility and leads to tremendous breakthroughs with simple bug fixes. UltraHLE taught us what the future of speedy emulation will require. This is a LOT of extra work with limited compatibility.
 

mateyo

This cant be really happening
is there a possibilty in going a little more into detail ...
so is dolphin trying to emulate the system calls of the powerpc architecture?
or is the graphics chip the bottle neck, although its an ati chip which should be based on an regular graphic card chip.
 

Azimer

Emulator Developer
Moderator
is there a possibilty in going a little more into detail ...
so is dolphin trying to emulate the system calls of the powerpc architecture?
or is the graphics chip the bottle neck, although its an ati chip which should be based on an regular graphic card chip.

The graphics chip is customized for the gamecube.
 

ector

Emulator Developer
I certainly hope it won't require 64bit processors to emulate a 32bit one. :)

The problem with emulation speed is emulation. You are taking software designed for another system and trying to simulate the hardware at the CPU instruction level. This is good for compatibility and leads to tremendous breakthroughs with simple bug fixes. UltraHLE taught us what the future of speedy emulation will require. This is a LOT of extra work with limited compatibility.

Actually, the new JIT does require 64-bit. Both for an address space trick to speed up memory map emulation, and for the 16 registers it has. Wow, does 16 regs feel like freedom compared to the 8 you get in 32-bit mode...
 

kenvin100

Banned
heck if u guys rly wanna play gc..go buy one..or better yet get a wii...i've lost confidence in dolphin, gekko and all gc emulators..better just buy one..
 

Doomulation

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That's always the best suggestion if you want to play games. Those who stick to emuation of GC isn't the (well, mostly anyway) type who simply wants to use the emulator to play games.
The cur-gen systems are still too slow to emulate and the new-gen are a nightmare.
 

ShizZy

Emulator Developer
Yeah, props to ector and f|res... in all cases dolphin out compats Gekko, and most cases it out performs it as well. However, this may or may not change pretty quickly, considering the new 64bit enhancements on Dolphin, as well as new changes to Gekko that no one has seen yet :]

Nonetheless, Dolphin is still a much more complete and further-developed emulator than Gekko is.
 

kenvin100

Banned
That's always the best suggestion if you want to play games. Those who stick to emuation of GC isn't the (well, mostly anyway) type who simply wants to use the emulator to play games.
The cur-gen systems are still too slow to emulate and the new-gen are a nightmare.

true. very true. People were trying for months to emulation xbox 360 (funny i know) unfortunately, emulation will eventually die soon. If only this was as fast as PSP homebrew. As each day passes, hackers are outsmarting Sony, making them look like complete a** holes. Ah well, we can't get everything we want. Better just hope Gekko has a chance. Life goes on..where's santa when you need him:santa:
 

VampLordAlucard

Hellsing's Finest
This may sound like a dumb/retorical question, but why cant the various ppl working on GC emulators come together and work on a single, top notch emulator instead of seperate projects? Wouldnt development be much faster that way?
 

Allnatural

New member
Moderator
This may sound like a dumb/retorical question, but why cant the various ppl working on GC emulators come together and work on a single, top notch emulator instead of seperate projects? Wouldnt development be much faster that way?
What would be the fun in that?
 

Vinilipe

Brazillian EmuTalk Member
I kind of agree with VampLordAlucard... but nowadays, competition is what keeps people going.
BTW, I don't think emulation is not dead or will die. People are getting used to have things too fast, that's the problem. I mean, a Snes emulator was released last week, N64 and PSX are really far from being totally emulated.... and people are already wanting to see a PS2, GC, even XBOX360 emulators!!!!
Emulation is a slow thing and people that just want to play new games should buy the console first.
 

Doomulation

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What people don't understand is that emulation is just like other projects - the authors do not necessarily do it for US, but for themselves, for the challenge of emulating such a thing. Now THAT, people, is why they don't bond together - because it's a personal project which they like to do.
Emulators given to us for free is a good thing which we should respect, but do not expect one major big emulator. And don't expect the progress to be quick.
 

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