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disolitude said: First of all, thanks for the accolades... :) |
You're welcome. After reading your explanation I'm even more impressed. I didn't realize how much work would be involved in actually setting up the emulators.
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disolitude said: You're right that emulation is dependant on CPU for the most part but there are a few emulators that need a GPU as well on 1080p settings (Dolphin and PCX2 to be exact). |
Well, that answers a long-standing question of mine. I've often wondered if any emulators are able to take advantage of actual hardware like a GPU. My understanding is that the reason performance can lag in emulation, even on hardware much more powerful than the original console, is because emulators can't really use the available hardware the way a game does.
That's kind of the point of emulators. When a game is ported to a system, it's programmed to use the relevant hardware. But an emulator is a self-contained software package that performs the functions of the relevant hardware, and it's run primarily by the CPU.
Which has led me to wonder if an emulator could be made which, rather than directly emulating hardware via software, could make the game think that the system it's running on is the relevant hardware. If there were a way to actually redirect the game's workload to the appropriate components then emulating pretty much any system would be easy (power-wise).
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disolitude said: Believe it or not, I initially wanted to do this with a Genesis... |
The greatest console ever made! You should have gone with that! 
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disolitude said: ... and a desktop thin ITX board/i3 4150. |
Hmm... as I type this... combined with a cheap drive and 4GB of RAM, that comes to $301...
http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/HptzhM
Which... I don't know. Is it just me or does that still seem like overkill for such old systems? Perhaps I'm underestimating how much it takes but when you consider the hardware these games were running on, I can't help but feel that you could get a perfectly capable CPU for under $100. Still, you sound like you have a better idea about this than I do; I'm just going on intuition here.
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disolitude said: If one wanted to build a serious gaming rig out of a classic console, they could use a Snes or NES, XBOX 1, Genesis + Sega CD or even a Sega Saturn. Those were large enough to house a decent CPU + a small dedicated GPU (ie GTX 760 mini). |
760 mini? Huh! That's a new one on me. Is it comparable in performance to the standard GTX 760? Because if it is then I definitely have to call overkill on this one. I recall reading somewhere that the GPU in the PS3 was about the equivalent of a Geforce 7800. And that's an old graphics card. A good card in its day (I had one), but waaaay out of date now. I can't imagine needing anything like a GTX 760 to play games even older than that.
Though, if it's a mini version, it probably does take a hit in terms of power. Honestly, I've never really taken much notice of these smaller form factors before. Perhaps I should familiarize myself with them.
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disolitude said: Regarding the video: Sounds good. :) I will make one in a week or two and post it here... :) |
For real? Awesome! Thank you! I look forward to it!
ColdFire - The man with no name.
