Beta Psx4Pandora Beta

[notaz]

It is a new port based on PCSX-Reloaded, with a new recompiler started from scratch, new SPU, new GTE in ARMv5 assembler, improved GPU, etc.
And it is far better than Zodttd's PSX4ALL: faster, more compatible, complete and good sound (XA+CD-Audio), etc. You will be impressed how well it runs on the WIZ.

Wow that feels real fresh in our stagnated emulation scene! Looking forward to see all this in action.

So he won't be releasing the source code then? I'd have thought he would, I thought he was in to the open source scene.

WTF? Of course i will release the source code as PCSX has GPL license.
But your friend Zodttd does not release the source code (he should, PSX4ALL is also a port of PCSX) and worse (he gets money from iPhone downloads).

There is a git repo somewhere with some old Zod's sources, but he surely could do better job complying GPL. Also agree about him selling the emu though, when he only did frontend, some hacks and dynarec, which isn't even done by him alone.

 

[craigix]

Zod would release it if you made an effort to ask him, he has sent me stuff I've asked for before after a few emails, it's just hard to contact him, you have to be persistent, he's a busy guy and I know he gets hundreds of emails which just drown out important ones. I get exactly the same situation and then suddenly I've offended someone by accident by not answering them. It's not personal and there is never any conspiracy. It's just the nature of being so easy to contact.

And Franxis I was going from what must have been a badly translated message (not just here, also on GP32spain) which seemed to suggest there would be no source code which was why I answered saying I doubted that would be true. I'm happy to hear that you will be releasing it!

 

[fusion_power]

It is a new port based on PCSX-Reloaded, with a new recompiler started from scratch, new SPU, new GTE in ARMv5 assembler, improved GPU, etc.
And it is far better than Zodttd's PSX4ALL: faster, more compatible, complete and good sound (XA+CD-Audio), etc. You will be impressed how well it runs on the WIZ.

Sounds good.
But could a Pandora port also benefit from the WIZ version? Will it be harder to adjust the Emulator for the Pandora than for the WIZ? And will there be an Pandora Version?

 

[God Ginrai]

Franxis are you using Opengl ES for GPU? maybe try to contact Tinnus, he is working on one for Psx4all

IIRC, The Wiz doesn't use OpenGL ES, and instead has a more close relationship with its graphics hardware. So i doubt Franxis would be using it. Tinnus will probably just have to look at the source once Franxis releases it and see if he wants to try to put effort into getting his work to work with pcsx4all.

-God Ginrai

 

[Franxis]

IIRC, The Wiz doesn't use OpenGL ES, and instead has a more close relationship with its graphics hardware. So i doubt Franxis would be using it. Tinnus will probably just have to look at the source once Franxis releases it and see if he wants to try to put effort into getting his work to work with pcsx4all.

The WIZ has OpenGL-ES 1.1, there is no OpenGl-ES GPU in PCSX4ALL yet but it is being working on...

 

[God Ginrai]

IIRC, The Wiz doesn't use OpenGL ES, and instead has a more close relationship with its graphics hardware. So i doubt Franxis would be using it. Tinnus will probably just have to look at the source once Franxis releases it and see if he wants to try to put effort into getting his work to work with pcsx4all.

The WIZ has OpenGL-ES 1.1, there is no OpenGl-ES GPU in PCSX4ALL yet but it is being working on...

Ah, ok. I didn't realize that.

-God Ginrai

 

[greendots]

Will the ARMv5 assembly run on pandora?

 

[sbock]

Will the ARMv5 assembly run on pandora?

Yeah, sure. Cortex uses ARMv7 which is more advanced and downwardly compatible.

 

[Yod4z]

God Ginrai, the Wiz have Open GL ES 1.1 and Pandora have 1.1 and 2.0. Maybe an 2.0 have better performance on Pandora

 

[DaveC]

It is a new port based on PCSX-Reloaded, with a new recompiler started from scratch, new SPU, new GTE in ARMv5 assembler, improved GPU, etc.
And it is far better than Zodttd's PSX4ALL: faster, more compatible, complete and good sound (XA+CD-Audio), etc. You will be impressed how well it runs on the WIZ.

Sounds good.
But could a Pandora port also benefit from the WIZ version? Will it be harder to adjust the Emulator for the Pandora than for the WIZ? And will there be an Pandora Version?

It seems hard to port stuff from the Wiz to Pandora. Stuff that writes directly to hardware seems like it is allot of work. This is why PocketSNES, MAME4all, and GPSP didn't make it to pandora. Right now the Wiz and even GP2X have superior emus of these systems compared to the quick PC ports to the Pandora. I was at least hoping MAME from the Wiz was going to be ported but I guess it didn't happen.

Too bad this new PSX emu wasn't targeted for the Pandora. It will be nice that the Wiz will have a better one than they got now but I doubt it will be able to run full speed with sound unless you over clock to the max due to the weak hardware. It would have a better chance of being full speed on Pandora.

 

[fusion_power]

Yes, we have alot "quick ports" for the Pandora but only a few programs that are really optimized and close to the Hardware. PSX Emu, N64 Emu and Pico Drive are the ones that are more than quick ports and it's good to see how many people work to optimize this Stuff.
But somehow it feels like enven onto a 200MHz GP2X, many Programs just run smoother, faster, better...while the Pandora needs 500 or more MHz to not even reach half the performance of GP2X or Wiz (pure Subjectivity of course)
Maybe, the new Kernel with HW-Acceleration 'n stuff can help or maybe HW accelerated SDL but both is still far away. I know, a Pandora program never can use the Hardware that close, a NDS or a PSP program can do, we have a entire Linux, Window manager and some Driver layers in between and I've read that we don't eben have the best drivers at the moment. ^^"""

But I'm sure, in the Future things will be much more optimized and you don't need 500 MHz to play an NES or Gameboy Emu onto the Pandora.

 

[Yod4z]

DaveC this emulator don't seem to use some specific hardware (like the second CPU on GP2x on hack to have full RAM access), it use "just" ARM instruction set v5 then it can be ported to all ARM chip (>=ARM11) easily

 

[Exophase]

It seems hard to port stuff from the Wiz to Pandora. Stuff that writes directly to hardware seems like it is allot of work. This is why PocketSNES, MAME4all, and GPSP didn't make it to pandora. Right now the Wiz and even GP2X have superior emus of these systems compared to the quick PC ports to the Pandora. I was at least hoping MAME from the Wiz was going to be ported but I guess it didn't happen.

Nope, the reasons are:

PocketSNES - SNES emulator port was done by someone who had nothing to do with the GP2X/Wiz builds and instead, with familiarity of the Dingoo scene, picked that one
MAME4All - Maintainer isn't porting stuff to Pandora
gpSP - People are struggling to port it probably due to cache invalidation issues w/dynarec, nothing to do with Wiz or GP2X code..

True, it's not as easy as hitting recompile, but it's usually pretty straightforward.. contrast with all the other emulators that have been ported.

IIRC, The Wiz doesn't use OpenGL ES, and instead has a more close relationship with its graphics hardware. So i doubt Franxis would be using it. Tinnus will probably just have to look at the source once Franxis releases it and see if he wants to try to put effort into getting his work to work with pcsx4all.

The WIZ has OpenGL-ES 1.1, there is no OpenGl-ES GPU in PCSX4ALL yet but it is being working on...

I have a bad feeling that if you did try using OGL ES 1.1 for 3D on Wiz you'll end up with driver-related performance overheads that are difficult to remove, or even account for. The user guide for the Pollux has everything you need to access the 3D directly, it would be interesting if someone eventually took this on.

 

[God Ginrai]

gpSP - People are struggling to port it probably due to cache invalidation issues w/dynarec, nothing to do with Wiz or GP2X code..

It's good to hear something about the progress of gpSP. So, would someone mind elaborating on the nature of these cache invalidation issues that didn't exist on the Wiz and GP2X? (And possibly PSP and iPhone?)

-God Ginrai

 

[Exophase]

They do exist on Wiz, GP2X, PSP, and iPhone, I guess the conventions are just different or something? Honestly I'm not really sure why people are struggling with it on Pandora.

 

[DaveC]

They do exist on Wiz, GP2X, PSP, and iPhone, I guess the conventions are just different or something? Honestly I'm not really sure why people are struggling with it on Pandora.

Maybe they are not struggling. Maybe they tried to port it then just didn't get too far then quit. Do we know that anyone is actually doing anything with it?

 

[God Ginrai]

They do exist on Wiz, GP2X, PSP, and iPhone, I guess the conventions are just different or something? Honestly I'm not really sure why people are struggling with it on Pandora.

Maybe they are not struggling. Maybe they tried to port it then just didn't get too far then quit. Do we know that anyone is actually doing anything with it?

Pickle and SteveM said they were looking into it.

-God Ginrai

 

[crow_riot]

I have a bad feeling that if you did try using OGL ES 1.1 for 3D on Wiz you'll end up with driver-related performance overheads that are difficult to remove, or even account for. The user guide for the Pollux has everything you need to access the 3D directly, it would be interesting if someone eventually took this on.

i was thinking of getting a plugin to work when the emulator is already out. seems to be like a nice challenge to me

 

[cosam]

They do exist on Wiz, GP2X, PSP, and iPhone, I guess the conventions are just different or something? Honestly I'm not really sure why people are struggling with it on Pandora.

Maybe they are not struggling. Maybe they tried to port it then just didn't get too far then quit. Do we know that anyone is actually doing anything with it?

It's kind of between the two, really. It builds fine, but as much as I'd love to finish it off, the cache problem seems to be rather platform-specific and is blocking further progress. We've tried several different approaches but as yet to no avail. With so many other projects on the go, it has (quite unintentionally) ended up on a back burner. If anyone who knows their ARMs from their elbows fancies taking a look, just say the word.

 

[smoku]

The emulator we have been working Chui and i for months is not based on Zodttd's PSX4ALL at all.

It is a new port based on PCSX-Reloaded, with a new recompiler started from scratch, new SPU, new GTE in ARMv5 assembler, improved GPU, etc.
And it is far better than Zodttd's PSX4ALL: faster, more compatible, complete and good sound (XA+CD-Audio), etc. You will be impressed how well it runs on the WIZ.

You might be interested in the fact, that I started working on GLES GPU plugin last weekend.
I guess it would make a perfect fit for your work.