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Forums - Gaming - 5 Reasons PC Gaming Is Better Than Consoles


And once again we have the same ignorance that I've answered before. 

Listen, improvement and emulation are two completely different things. "Improvement" upon something is a matter of opinion, emulation implies a logical goal to head towards: which is to get as close to the original specification as possible. "Improvement" is further extending the concept by that the designer had in mind, by ASSUMING what the game would be at eg. a higher resulution. Once again, unless you're part of the original design team, it cannot really be called a logical "improvement" by itself. And here you are trying to argue that the additions to an emulator can not only improve one game, but every game in the library...through use of assumption to say "well when the game meant *this*, it actually meant *this*. Trust me on this." Once again, "improvement" is only a matter of opinion.

Why would I want to play a game at it's designated speed? I dunno, probably because THE GAME ENGINE WAS BUILT TAKING THAT INTIO CONSIDERATION? That sounds like pretty damn good reason to me. do yourself a favour and read up a little on game design and mechanics before you go arguing about timing being irrelevant enough to change.

As I've already stated, emulation is handy, but nobody can argue that it will fully replace the real thing. That would be quite an ignorant approach to take.


right ill reply with some other logic, this has nothing to do with emulation but to do with more closely current generation console hardware vs current gen PC hardware, are you going to imply that Dirt 3 running on my PC @ 150 fps is beyond what codemaster's intended or has it got more to do with the console being limited by hardware restrictions @ 30fps, now ill go back to emulation, you say learn about game design yet fail to mention anything about hardware limitations when the game was designed, if the same game was designed today there is no doubt in my mind the developer would have used every available resorce to make the game run as good as it can possibly be ran, this is exactly what im doing when running games in emulation, its not ignorence it's using what i have available.

the argument isnt about replacing the real thing more about improving over the real thing.

such things are happening all the time for example Halo 1 being remasterd is much like what someone would be doing if emulating an old game, or like running xbox original games on the 360 with upscaled graphics using the 360's power, even the ps3 with the early released console being backwads compatable made existing ps2 games run at 1080i when the default res was 576i.

i dont see what the problem is with emulating games and making improvments on them, it seams to be a difference of opinion, mine being  a personal opinion rather than the general opinon.



Current PC build:

Asus Z97I-Plus, i5 4790K @ 4.6ghz, EVGA GTX 980 ACX 2.0 1377/1853/124%, Corsair Vengence Pro 2400mhz 2x 8192mb, Corsair RM850, Corsair H80i, 120GB OCZ Vertex 3 SSD, 750GB Seagate Momentus XT SSHD, 320GB Weston Digital HDD, Corsair 230T, Corsair K50 Raptor, HP XQ500AA mouse, Windows 10 Pro 64bit. iiyama Pro Lite G2773HS 120Hz 1Ms G2G gaming monitor.

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pezus said:
fordy said:
pezus said:

But the people who use the emulators don't just want to replicate the experience. They want better graphics and performance. All else about it not being perfectly the same is really not relevant, since if that's what you wanted you would just play the original console.


In that case, they are not emulators. I don't think you quite understand how assumptions put into code directly translate to "better" when the game wasn't designed for such a task. What game developers want in a sprite or polygon cannot be replicated "better" in all instances. Sometimes it can appear better, but other times it's just going down a path where assumptions skew on the developer's idea of how the game should be. This is why the theoretic process of emulation stops at the logical process of how the game is interpreted EXACTLY like the original, and not makes assumptions, or jumps to conclusions. What can be an improvement in framerate in some games totally fucks up the framerate in others that are perhaps deliberately limited by the original hardware.

Look back at the original argument. There was an argument trying to be made that PCs are better than consoles because of emulation. My point is that emulation can NEVER fully replace the original consoles. Why do you think that Video game record keepers do not allow emulators to be used to set records? I'll give you a hint....29.97Hz vs 30Hz.

EDIT: Just to add, I don't think you have the relevance to speak for EVERYONE who uses emulators as to what they want...

So you're telling me I've been living a lie and Dolphin isn't actually an emulator? You can argue semantics all day, but to me the games I run with the good emulators out there today run better and look better than their console counterparts. 

Nope. Parts of Dolphin are emulation, and parts are extras, but to imply that the extras are part of the emulation is making a huge mistake.

Also, the Gamecube runs at 29.97Hz interlaced, or 59.95Hz progressive, in essence a 29.97Hz non maskable interrupt phase. Dolphin runs at 30fps interlaced or 60fps progressive, essentially a 30Hz OS interrupt call phase. You can't possibly argue that an emulator can "run better" than the machine it's intended to copy, since everything designed for that machine takes the design of the machine into account, not the emulator that it was designed for. Explain to me how you can improve on 29.97Hz, when any numbers above or below this figure are considered "imperfect" on an emulation front.



r3tr0gam3r1337 said:
fordy said:
r3tr0gam3r1337 said:


are you a last word warrior!

Are you one who cannot find a valid argument to the above points mentioned, and has to resort to name calling?

I've already stated WHY emulation will never fully replace consoles, and it seems videogame record keepers agree with me. The only defense to that is calling me a 'last word warrior'? Let me give you the definition of that. A last word warrior is one who replies even IF they don't have relevant points to say. I put it to you that your own post, being as irrelevant as it is, makes you what you accuse me of being...

seams you cant read or that you did not understand the question 'are you' is not the same as 'you are', you assumed i name called which i did not and ill answer you rather stupid argument with this, why would i emulate any console to its actual spec resolution hz fps ect when using a HD display and a PC costing £1000 is completly pointless, the point we are trying to get across is that with a PC you can not only emulate but improve the games being emulates substantually with the latest PC hardware.

playing old games is great fun but improving to look and feel can some times make the experience better, for example GT1 on the ps1 back in 98 was a stunning looking game but by todays standards on even running it on the ps3 it still looks messy and pixilated, boosting the ps1 graphics by upping the res makes the game playable again with the added bonus of higher resolutions  and all the bonuses modern graphics cards can provide, if you want to play games at the origonal settings then just play them on the original console as that defeats the point of emulation on the PC.

now last word warrior is not how you discribed it, it is some one who no matter what has to have the last word hence last word warrior and i know you will replay hence you having the last word lol.

r3tr0gam3r1337 said:


right ill reply with some other logic, this has nothing to do with emulation but to do with more closely current generation console hardware vs current gen PC hardware, are you going to imply that Dirt 3 running on my PC @ 150 fps is beyond what codemaster's intended or has it got more to do with the console being limited by hardware restrictions @ 30fps, now ill go back to emulation, you say learn about game design yet fail to mention anything about hardware limitations when the game was designed, if the same game was designed today there is no doubt in my mind the developer would have used every available resorce to make the game run as good as it can possibly be ran, this is exactly what im doing when running games in emulation, its not ignorence it's using what i have available.

the argument isnt about replacing the real thing more about improving over the real thing.

such things are happening all the time for example Halo 1 being remasterd is much like what someone would be doing if emulating an old game, or like running xbox original games on the 360 with upscaled graphics using the 360's power, even the ps3 with the early released console being backwads compatable made existing ps2 games run at 1080i when the default res was 576i.

i dont see what the problem is with emulating games and making improvments on them, it seams to be a difference of opinion, mine being  a personal opinion rather than the general opinon.


If that was meant to be a question, then why in the hell didn't you use a question mark? How else is a question supposed to be interpreted otherwise. Nevertheless, I'll let you go with that one.

I find this point rather humorous. For starters, you refuse to take my advice and read up on game console mechanics, so you're only displaying your idiocy to the rest of the thread and let me tell you why. Unlike many PC games, console games use a technique where the mechanics are updated in exact sync with the framerate of the screen. So a sprite or polygon velocity is measured by displacement per cycle, as opposed to displacement per second. This is where you're making your fundamental mistake here. An engine displaying an object with a fixed displacement will be affected if the cycle time (ie the screen refresh. Keep this in mind. It's 1:1 with game consoles) changes from it's intended frequency of 29.97Hz. You see how stupid you point is now? Go ahead and run your game at 150fps. It's rather wasteful, considering you get 5 frames exactly the same before the refresh timer is invoked (which as we've discussed before, runs slightly faster than the original hardware intended. You get an actual increase in speed (NOT refresh rate, so don't go there) of the game. This is why game record companies refuse to acknowledge records set on emulators, because it provides an advantage of an extra cycle in the game every 33.3 seconds.

I don't know what you plan to achieve with this "last word warrior" bullshit. Are you too afraid of replies and try to instil some kind of fear back in an attempt to not receive one? It's not working. As long as you keep spewing ridiculous statements, you're going to get those statements chopped down.



pezus said:
fordy said:

Nope. Parts of Dolphin are emulation, and parts are extras, but to imply that the extras are part of the emulation is making a huge mistake.

Also, the Gamecube runs at 29.97Hz interlaced, or 59.95Hz progressive, in essence a 29.97Hz non maskable interrupt phase. Dolphin runs at 30fps interlaced or 60fps progressive, essentially a 30Hz OS interrupt call phase. You can't possibly argue that an emulator can "run better" than the machine it's intended to copy, since everything designed for that machine takes the design of the machine into account, not the emulator that it was designed for. Explain to me how you can improve on 29.97Hz, when any numbers above or below this figure are considered "imperfect" on an emulation front.

Fine, I'll grant you the performance part (for the most part), but I still don't see your point. The games look better (quite clearly I might add), whether you call it emulation or not.

My point, as I always stated, is that while emulation is handy, it still is not a perfect replacement for the real thing. Apparently a few of you took that as going way over the top for some reason...



fordy said:
r3tr0gam3r1337 said:
fordy said:
r3tr0gam3r1337 said:


are you a last word warrior!

Are you one who cannot find a valid argument to the above points mentioned, and has to resort to name calling?

I've already stated WHY emulation will never fully replace consoles, and it seems videogame record keepers agree with me. The only defense to that is calling me a 'last word warrior'? Let me give you the definition of that. A last word warrior is one who replies even IF they don't have relevant points to say. I put it to you that your own post, being as irrelevant as it is, makes you what you accuse me of being...

seams you cant read or that you did not understand the question 'are you' is not the same as 'you are', you assumed i name called which i did not and ill answer you rather stupid argument with this, why would i emulate any console to its actual spec resolution hz fps ect when using a HD display and a PC costing £1000 is completly pointless, the point we are trying to get across is that with a PC you can not only emulate but improve the games being emulates substantually with the latest PC hardware.

playing old games is great fun but improving to look and feel can some times make the experience better, for example GT1 on the ps1 back in 98 was a stunning looking game but by todays standards on even running it on the ps3 it still looks messy and pixilated, boosting the ps1 graphics by upping the res makes the game playable again with the added bonus of higher resolutions  and all the bonuses modern graphics cards can provide, if you want to play games at the origonal settings then just play them on the original console as that defeats the point of emulation on the PC.

now last word warrior is not how you discribed it, it is some one who no matter what has to have the last word hence last word warrior and i know you will replay hence you having the last word lol.

r3tr0gam3r1337 said:


right ill reply with some other logic, this has nothing to do with emulation but to do with more closely current generation console hardware vs current gen PC hardware, are you going to imply that Dirt 3 running on my PC @ 150 fps is beyond what codemaster's intended or has it got more to do with the console being limited by hardware restrictions @ 30fps, now ill go back to emulation, you say learn about game design yet fail to mention anything about hardware limitations when the game was designed, if the same game was designed today there is no doubt in my mind the developer would have used every available resorce to make the game run as good as it can possibly be ran, this is exactly what im doing when running games in emulation, its not ignorence it's using what i have available.

the argument isnt about replacing the real thing more about improving over the real thing.

such things are happening all the time for example Halo 1 being remasterd is much like what someone would be doing if emulating an old game, or like running xbox original games on the 360 with upscaled graphics using the 360's power, even the ps3 with the early released console being backwads compatable made existing ps2 games run at 1080i when the default res was 576i.

i dont see what the problem is with emulating games and making improvments on them, it seams to be a difference of opinion, mine being  a personal opinion rather than the general opinon.


If that was meant to be a question, then why in the hell didn't you use a question mark? How else is a question supposed to be interpreted otherwise. Nevertheless, I'll let you go with that one.

I find this point rather humorous. For starters, you refuse to take my advice and read up on game console mechanics, so you're only displaying your idiocy to the rest of the thread and let me tell you why. Unlike many PC games, console games use a technique where the mechanics are updated in exact sync with the framerate of the screen. So a sprite or polygon velocity is measured by displacement per cycle, as opposed to displacement per second. This is where you're making your fundamental mistake here. An engine displaying an object with a fixed displacement will be affected if the cycle time (ie the screen refresh. Keep this in mind. It's 1:1 with game consoles) changes from it's intended frequency of 29.97Hz. You see how stupid you point is now? Go ahead and run your game at 150fps. It's rather wasteful, considering you get 5 frames exactly the same before the refresh timer is invoked (which as we've discussed before, runs slightly faster than the original hardware intended. You get an actual increase in speed (NOT refresh rate, so don't go there) of the game. This is why game record companies refuse to acknowledge records set on emulators, because it provides an advantage of an extra cycle in the game every 33.3 seconds.

I don't know what you plan to achieve with this "last word warrior" bullshit. Are you too afraid of replies and try to instil some kind of fear back in an attempt to not receive one? It's not working. As long as you keep spewing ridiculous statements, you're going to get those statements chopped down.


just a word in your ear Dirt 3 is not being run on an emulator so you can come out with as much jargon as you like but the fact is there is a huge performance difference between 30 fps and 150 fps, the PC is not hardware restricted as much as consoles and for your information this debate is 5 reasons why pc gaming is better than consoles not have a hissy fit with pc gamers who use emulation to run old games with better graphics, im not accepting your advice cause you are trying to force me to accept what you say as fact and change my opinion as to what i consider to be emulation.

so according to you you are accusing codemasters own benchmark of lying! lol and apparently i make ridiculous statements, i suggest you get in contact with codemansters and call them out aswell.



Current PC build:

Asus Z97I-Plus, i5 4790K @ 4.6ghz, EVGA GTX 980 ACX 2.0 1377/1853/124%, Corsair Vengence Pro 2400mhz 2x 8192mb, Corsair RM850, Corsair H80i, 120GB OCZ Vertex 3 SSD, 750GB Seagate Momentus XT SSHD, 320GB Weston Digital HDD, Corsair 230T, Corsair K50 Raptor, HP XQ500AA mouse, Windows 10 Pro 64bit. iiyama Pro Lite G2773HS 120Hz 1Ms G2G gaming monitor.

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hows about we call a truce on this subject as neither of us will agree with each other.

was supposed to be quote 'fordy'



Current PC build:

Asus Z97I-Plus, i5 4790K @ 4.6ghz, EVGA GTX 980 ACX 2.0 1377/1853/124%, Corsair Vengence Pro 2400mhz 2x 8192mb, Corsair RM850, Corsair H80i, 120GB OCZ Vertex 3 SSD, 750GB Seagate Momentus XT SSHD, 320GB Weston Digital HDD, Corsair 230T, Corsair K50 Raptor, HP XQ500AA mouse, Windows 10 Pro 64bit. iiyama Pro Lite G2773HS 120Hz 1Ms G2G gaming monitor.

r3tr0gam3r1337 said:


just a word in your ear Dirt 3 is not being run on an emulator so you can come out with as much jargon as you like but the fact is there is a huge performance difference between 30 fps and 150 fps, the PC is not hardware restricted as much as consoles and for your information this debate is 5 reasons why pc gaming is better than consoles not have a hissy fit with pc gamers who use emulation to run old games with better graphics, im not accepting your advice cause you are trying to force me to accept what you say as fact and change my opinion as to what i consider to be emulation.

so according to you you are accusing codemasters own benchmark of lying! lol and apparently i make ridiculous statements, i suggest you get in contact with codemansters and call them out aswell.


The PC is not as restricted as a console, but there are a few things that set it apart. PC games use software interrupts issued by the OS. A lot of this is subject to other tasks that the OS is processing at the same time, and can skew the timing or firing of said interrupts. Game consoles use hardware interrupts, which are guaranteed to fire at exactly (in nearly all cases) 29.97Hz. Games that run in this fashion call an update routine every 29.97Hz to reposition sprites, redraw the screen etc. 

If Dirt 3 is not being run on an emulator, then it's a port or a remake, a completely different topic altogether. Emulators run by means of interpretation, not compilation. If a game that originally ran at 30fps vsynced now runs at 150fps, that means the original code has undergone changes, something that emulators do not cater for (they work off the same ROMs being read by the sytem. If the system does not cater for 150fps, neither can the emulator).

If you think that it's a "hissy fit", then you obviously didn't read my last answer to pezus, since I mentioned that, once again, while emulators are handy, they CANNOT fully replace the real thing, nor did you read my original post. You might think that a PC running a console emulator is the be all-end all, but it isn't. Emulators still have to abide by the laws dictated by the emulated console as well as the hardware, and there is no such thing as "a fraction of an interrupt". therefore, you're stuck with the "close enough" result of 30Hz on emulation. Anything that attempts to get around that limitation is a port of a game, not an emulated game. I'm sorry, but you can't have it both ways. You can't say emulated games are allowed to break the rules of timing because they can't. If you ramp up the speed of an emulated game without appropriate changes to the game code, you're only going to get a fast, unplayable game. Any change to the code to break these limitations turns an emulated game into a port. If you have a different interpretation for emulation, that's your problem, not mine.



r3tr0gam3r1337 said:
AndrewWK said:
Well if you want your games to look much better then on consoles, you have to upgrade your PC frequently. 


thats not true, unless you buy basic parts and i mean basic $50 graphics card $50 cpu then yes but most PC gamers spend on average $500 every 3 years just to keep their gaming PC in the sweet spot, there are still quite a lot of PC gamers using GTX 480 gpus and 1st gen i5's/i7's, its a common misconception that PC games have to frequently upgrade their computers.

Fuck that if I have to play Assassins Creed 3 on low or medium settings, there almost no difference to consoles then.



AndrewWK said:
r3tr0gam3r1337 said:
AndrewWK said:
Well if you want your games to look much better then on consoles, you have to upgrade your PC frequently. 


thats not true, unless you buy basic parts and i mean basic $50 graphics card $50 cpu then yes but most PC gamers spend on average $500 every 3 years just to keep their gaming PC in the sweet spot, there are still quite a lot of PC gamers using GTX 480 gpus and 1st gen i5's/i7's, its a common misconception that PC games have to frequently upgrade their computers.

Fuck that if I have to play Assassins Creed 3 on low or medium settings, there almost no difference to consoles then.


thats not my fault your not prepared to spend money buying realistic PC upgrades, if you think a $50 graphics card is ok for gaming you are living in a fantasy world, most people can build a gaming PC to play every pc game to date at medium to high settings for around $500-$700 which will last them at least 4 years before needing an upgrade.

my PC cost me £1000 only cause i wanted a high spec machine so i can play all PC games on high to ultra settings @ 1080p, after i factor in the amount of money ive spent on consoles since 2005 it works out to more than £1250 so my PC is actually cheaper than all the consoles that i bought yet is at least 10 times more powerful.



Current PC build:

Asus Z97I-Plus, i5 4790K @ 4.6ghz, EVGA GTX 980 ACX 2.0 1377/1853/124%, Corsair Vengence Pro 2400mhz 2x 8192mb, Corsair RM850, Corsair H80i, 120GB OCZ Vertex 3 SSD, 750GB Seagate Momentus XT SSHD, 320GB Weston Digital HDD, Corsair 230T, Corsair K50 Raptor, HP XQ500AA mouse, Windows 10 Pro 64bit. iiyama Pro Lite G2773HS 120Hz 1Ms G2G gaming monitor.

fordy said:
r3tr0gam3r1337 said:


just a word in your ear Dirt 3 is not being run on an emulator so you can come out with as much jargon as you like but the fact is there is a huge performance difference between 30 fps and 150 fps, the PC is not hardware restricted as much as consoles and for your information this debate is 5 reasons why pc gaming is better than consoles not have a hissy fit with pc gamers who use emulation to run old games with better graphics, im not accepting your advice cause you are trying to force me to accept what you say as fact and change my opinion as to what i consider to be emulation.

so according to you you are accusing codemasters own benchmark of lying! lol and apparently i make ridiculous statements, i suggest you get in contact with codemansters and call them out aswell.


The PC is not as restricted as a console, but there are a few things that set it apart. PC games use software interrupts issued by the OS. A lot of this is subject to other tasks that the OS is processing at the same time, and can skew the timing or firing of said interrupts. Game consoles use hardware interrupts, which are guaranteed to fire at exactly (in nearly all cases) 29.97Hz. Games that run in this fashion call an update routine every 29.97Hz to reposition sprites, redraw the screen etc. 

If Dirt 3 is not being run on an emulator, then it's a port or a remake, a completely different topic altogether. Emulators run by means of interpretation, not compilation. If a game that originally ran at 30fps vsynced now runs at 150fps, that means the original code has undergone changes, something that emulators do not cater for (they work off the same ROMs being read by the sytem. If the system does not cater for 150fps, neither can the emulator).

If you think that it's a "hissy fit", then you obviously didn't read my last answer to pezus, since I mentioned that, once again, while emulators are handy, they CANNOT fully replace the real thing, nor did you read my original post. You might think that a PC running a console emulator is the be all-end all, but it isn't. Emulators still have to abide by the laws dictated by the emulated console as well as the hardware, and there is no such thing as "a fraction of an interrupt". therefore, you're stuck with the "close enough" result of 30Hz on emulation. Anything that attempts to get around that limitation is a port of a game, not an emulated game. I'm sorry, but you can't have it both ways. You can't say emulated games are allowed to break the rules of timing because they can't. If you ramp up the speed of an emulated game without appropriate changes to the game code, you're only going to get a fast, unplayable game. Any change to the code to break these limitations turns an emulated game into a port. If you have a different interpretation for emulation, that's your problem, not mine.

i did try to call a truce on this debate as we will never agree and this will otherwise continue till xmass 2020, basically im not giving in as such im just fed up of arguing with you about emulation as we cant seam to come to a comprimise unless this is a comprimise.



Current PC build:

Asus Z97I-Plus, i5 4790K @ 4.6ghz, EVGA GTX 980 ACX 2.0 1377/1853/124%, Corsair Vengence Pro 2400mhz 2x 8192mb, Corsair RM850, Corsair H80i, 120GB OCZ Vertex 3 SSD, 750GB Seagate Momentus XT SSHD, 320GB Weston Digital HDD, Corsair 230T, Corsair K50 Raptor, HP XQ500AA mouse, Windows 10 Pro 64bit. iiyama Pro Lite G2773HS 120Hz 1Ms G2G gaming monitor.