Improving The Wiki

[chame]

guys, many thanks for your effort with the wiki

documentation its crucial in a project like this. complete howto could be great also, is there a ebpage (apart from the forums) with detailed steps? (configuration, intallation, updating, application oriented help...)

 

[Eniko]

I took a look at the discussion pages and decided against using them since it seemed like nobody ever looks at them (most of them are empty). By making a topic here I was guaranteed that at least someone would see it. Plus if I want to make changes spanning multiple pages, then no one discussion page is really suitable.

I'm aware of and appreciate that the discussion pages aren't being used right now. But opting not to use them because they're not being used does not lead to more people using them, yanno? That's all I'm saying.

 

[craigix]

I've just had 5 mins to check this, and the updates look nice, however I'm slightly confused why it claims the Pandora can emulate up to anything predating the PSX, there is already a PSX and N64 emulator - and it's only going to get better.

 

[Pleng]

There's something known as managing expectations, Craig.

The PSX emulator is slow and has some compatibility issues. The N64 emulator is slow (with sound) and has a lot of rendering issues.

I guess you want people to wiki that it can run PSX and N64 so you can sell more units and have zero fallback on yourself when new customers complain that Pandora is not up to the task they purchased it for?

While I'm sure PSX emulation will approach perfection, and I guess N64 will improve, over time, I'd be sourly disappointed if I received one now and had purchased it purely for PSX and N64 emulation having read on the Wiki that it was able to emulate these machines.

 

[Cheese]

Actually I totally missed that somehow. I want to remove that statement and that list and link to a list similar to what's in "Projects under development" which will then show how complete the emulator is and and give links to Gibberish's compatibility lists (which probably should ultimately end up in the wiki as well). That way anyone looking who cares enough to click a couple of times can get a good idea of how good that emulator is.

From my experiences with the PSX and N64 emulators, there are enough games that work well enough and close enough to full speed that it would be neglectful not to say it can emulate those systems.

 

[SomeGuy99]

From my experiences with the PSX and N64 emulators, there are enough games that work well enough and close enough to full screen that it would be neglectful not to say it can emulate those systems.

Pleng is right. Currently nothing is emulated 'normally' on either (the sound is screwed up in both).

 

[Cheese]

I just finished updating the main Pandora page based on the outline I posted. I decided to skip the step of making a temporary page then replacing the main page since it looks like I have all the information that was on the page on this new page already. Some sections need to be expanded on, particularly the history section. I know some of it, but I only learned about the Pandora shortly before the pre-orders started, so I don't know much before then and even after then I only really checked on it a couple times a month until I finally decided to pre-order, then I started checking every day. Also it could use some proofreading. Link to it.

Edit:
I have an emulator list page up now. I know that most of the information is already on the projects under development page, but that page is so long and so out of date it's a little overwhelming. When we get this new page up to date we can link to it from that page. I don't really want to have to test every emulator myself so it would be helpful if anyone who's tried the emulator can update the background colour of the entry to reflect it's status, plus of course completing the list. Feedback would be nice too. Is the format of the page OK?

 

[God Ginrai]

I've just had 5 mins to check this, and the updates look nice, however I'm slightly confused why it claims the Pandora can emulate up to anything predating the PSX, there is already a PSX and N64 emulator - and it's only going to get better.

Maybe because if they included N64 and PSX, people might assume Saturn would be possible?

The PSX emulator is slow and has some compatibility issues. The N64 emulator is slow (with sound) and has a lot of rendering issues.

Slow? I can see you saying that it is slower than you would like, but if they can be made to run at playable or full speeds using overclocking or frameskipping, then I wouldn't consider that slow.

Pleng is right. Currently nothing is emulated 'normally' on either (the sound is screwed up in both).

How is the sound screwed up on the PSX emulator? Also, for the N64, the sound jumps more or less depending on the game.

-God Ginrai

 

[WizardStan]

Slow? I can see you saying that it is slower than you would like, but if they can be made to run at playable or full speeds using overclocking or frameskipping, then I wouldn't consider that slow.

Overclocking IS NOT GUARANTEED! and should not be counted on. Even if every single Pandora can overclock to 800, OPT is still only advertising it as a 600Mhz machine and anything that it is advertised to do needs to be done at that 600Mhz. You could probably get away with it if you put some disclaimer at the same time: "With significant overclocking, PSX and N64 are possible".

 

[Pleng]

I've just had 5 mins to check this, and the updates look nice, however I'm slightly confused why it claims the Pandora can emulate up to anything predating the PSX, there is already a PSX and N64 emulator - and it's only going to get better.

Maybe because if they included N64 and PSX, people might assume Saturn would be possible?

And life would then be perfect

The PSX emulator is slow and has some compatibility issues. The N64 emulator is slow (with sound) and has a lot of rendering issues.

Slow? I can see you saying that it is slower than you would like, but if they can be made to run at playable or full speeds using overclocking or frameskipping, then I wouldn't consider that slow.

Well Ridge Raver Type 4, Ridge Racer, and Road Rash all run at musch slower than full speed even at my maximum clock and frameskip doesn't seem to make any difference.

Monkey Hero and F1 2000 don't work at all.

They're the only Playstation games I own.

So I can quite comfortably say, from my own experience, that PSX emulation is currently SLOOOOW. Had I purchased a Pandora specifically to play my Playstation games then I would be right P.O.

As it happens I didn't. So all is fine. I'm battling my way through the tail end of Zelda - A Link to the Past (a game which I started on GP2X, skipped over on Dingoo, and will finish on Pandora). Once I've done that there's Parallel Worlds to have a look at, followed by the Links Awakening, and the couple of homebrew Zeldas that have just been ported.

Once that little lot is complete I'm hopefull PSX emulation will have marched on a little!

 

[Cheese]

Talking about the state of the emulators is all good and stuff, but does anybody have any comments or criticism about my changes? I don`t want to get so far then have someone notice a huge flaw that forces me to redo a bunch of things (though the chances of that do seem slim at best).

I made a few other changes too, the Projects under development page`s games and emulators sections now link to separate pages that also include the released projects. It didn`t make sense to me to have the released and still under development stuff on separate pages now that the Pandora is out. It just would have made the lists harder to maintain, speaking of which, the emulators and games lists need some updating (particularly games).

I think I`ve finally now eliminated most of the redundancy in the wiki that was bothering me, and now the main page reads like the Pandora is released, which was the main thing.

 

[tsh]

regarding games, it might be good to categorise them into free, purchasable, and need original games but they are no longer sold. (Since I have no old consoles, and probably no old C64 games cause they got thrown out). Assume I would like to stay legal (at least in spirit)

 

[Prometheus]

Please feel free to link to my Legal Emulation Resources thread from any emulator pages, if that would help - it's a good (and very large) showcase of what can be done emulation-wise, which is completely legitimate.