Virtua Racing Emulated

[Exophase]

The sound is "free" because it uses standard Genesis hardware. Conditions are good because I still have deep knowledge on how it all works. The experience gained while working on this would probably allow me to write better SH2 dynarec for 32X in the future..

In that case you should probably do it, if you want the experience.

To be totally honest, if I was in your position I doubt I'd be able to not do it. I wouldn't even ask. It's too tempting to avoid such a "border problem" like this, something that you feel like you can pull off fullspeed but only with a lot of work.

 

[PokeParadox]

FYI both 32X and SVP don't have any kind of 3D hardware, everything is done in software by some fast CPUs, the same way as 3D stuff is done in GP2X. 3D accelerator wouldn't help emulating them a tiny bit.

This is something that I have wondered about from time to time... and yes this is a little off-topic: These games that render 3D in software mode, is there no way that they can be made to use a 3D Accelerators features? I'm not saying this is in anyway a benefit for the GP2X, but after seeing Level 1 of Star Fox recreated in Wario Ware on the Wii... even at 640x480 the game looked a lot nicer...
So just in brief, Would it be possible to render the software 3D as hardware accelerated 3D on games such as, Virtua Racing, Star Fox/2 Stunt Race FX?

 

[Exophase]

FYI both 32X and SVP don't have any kind of 3D hardware, everything is done in software by some fast CPUs, the same way as 3D stuff is done in GP2X. 3D accelerator wouldn't help emulating them a tiny bit.

This is something that I have wondered about from time to time... and yes this is a little off-topic: These games that render 3D in software mode, is there no way that they can be made to use a 3D Accelerators features? I'm not saying this is in anyway a benefit for the GP2X, but after seeing Level 1 of Star Fox recreated in Wario Ware on the Wii... even at 640x480 the game looked a lot nicer...
So just in brief, Would it be possible to render the software 3D as hardware accelerated 3D on games such as, Virtua Racing, Star Fox/2 Stunt Race FX?


Not realistically. In theory you might be able to write high level emulation wrappers for the 3D library code for each game to map it to 3D acceleration. In practice this would probably be too difficult/time consuming and numerous complications could arise.

Since these games use very simple/low polygon count 3D that usually doesn't involve texturing and uses flat shading going to a higher resolution would win very little, just sharper looking edges (when you're looking at what's very visibly a handful of simple geometric shapes I don't think "jaggies" are going to be a huge concern)

 

[DaveC]

Of course it all depends on a few things. How fast could it actually get? could it have sound? What would be worked on instead of this if anything?

The sound is "free" because it uses standard Genesis hardware. Conditions are good because I still have deep knowledge on how it all works. The experience gained while working on this would probably allow me to write better SH2 dynarec for 32X in the future..

Well that is a different story. If it is something you want to do for your own fun/experience then go ahead.

It would be interesting to see even if the game itself is just "OK".

 

[Jaguarandine]

Sounds like a great project to me. Good luck.

 

[shinra]

Ok notaz I voted yes, this is just because you can try what you think it's fun and will give you the experience you need. I will simply be amazed of your achivements just like the sega cd emulation, if you think you can do this, even if it's only for one game, then go ahead.

[offtopic]
I found that gunstar heores and contra hard cops have some background issues in your last release(it wasn't on the previous). In contra on the second stage when you chose not to follow the guy (the huge enemy ship before the crash landing does not appear), and in gunstar heroes the background when you're fighting orange.
[/offtopic]

 

[Rivroner]

I found that in v1.35 in Catlevania:Bloodlines there is a graphic problem when you go down in the first part of the game, near the water.

I have all the acurracy and 16 bit options enable.

Anyway, back to SVP, more than a 80 % have spoken Thank you for the future job

 

[notaz]

I found that gunstar heores and contra hard cops have some background issues in your last release(it wasn't on the previous). In contra on the second stage when you chose not to follow the guy (the huge enemy ship before the crash landing does not appear), and in gunstar heroes the background when you're fighting orange.

I found that in v1.35 in Catlevania:Bloodlines there is a graphic problem when you go down in the first part of the game, near the water.

Thanks, will check these later. By "first part of the game", you mean the first level, or level 2 with water?

 

[Yrx]

From my own perspective, if doing this will help the plausibility of 32X emulation in the future, then it's definitely worth doing. Looking at this from your perspective, I can imagine that this would result in a great deal of personal satisfaction on your part for doing something that no one has done yet. If that's the case, then do it regardless of what anyone else says.

 

[Rivroner]

I found that gunstar heores and contra hard cops have some background issues in your last release(it wasn't on the previous). In contra on the second stage when you chose not to follow the guy (the huge enemy ship before the crash landing does not appear), and in gunstar heroes the background when you're fighting orange.

I found that in v1.35 in Catlevania:Bloodlines there is a graphic problem when you go down in the first part of the game, near the water.

Thanks, will check these later. By "first part of the game", you mean the first level, or level 2 with water?


The first water in level one

 

[namco]

QUOTE

FYI both 32X and SVP don't have any kind of 3D hardware, everything is done in software by some fast CPUs, the same way as 3D stuff is done in GP2X. 3D accelerator wouldn't help emulating them a tiny bit.



And the 32X doesn't run ALL the graphics, in fact the graphics are shared by both the 32X chipset and the megadrive. Mainly, the megadrive handles the menu graphics, although, in some games, like Toughman Contest, the megadrive handles all but the background.

I know this because I have a dicky 32X that flickers the 32X graphics when the unit becomes warm with use, although the megadrive graphics come out wonderfully.

So really, depending on the game, the 32X is more of a graphics enhancer, more than anything else.

If anyone does work on a 32X extra to a megadrive emulator, would anyone need me to tell them which graphics use which console? Dunno if that'd help any?

 

[White Demon]

OMG Notaz you truly are a god among men. This must be done!

Just had a bash at the Windoze version. The game doesn't seem as good in full screen as it used to (it was still awesome just to play though), but it will no doubt be better on the small screen.

The MD version of Virtua Racing was my favourite home version, the others didn't seem as faithful to the Arcade original as the MD version was.

btw If you can't get it full speed (or close) on the GP2X, then it must be made a priority for running on Pandora!

At the end though, I just feel it's not worth the effort to play a single game.

And yet people want to see the SNES emulators updated to run the special chips that were only used in one or two games, so why not this game for the MD emu?

 

[Exophase]

And yet people want to see the SNES emulators updated to run the special chips that were only used in one or two games, so why not this game for the MD emu?

I guess supporting 2-6+ games is 2-6 times better than supporting one game.

 

[naples39]

And yet people want to see the SNES emulators updated to run the special chips that were only used in one or two games, so why not this game for the MD emu?

I guess supporting 2-6+ games is 2-6 times better than supporting one game.
Well SNES chips are also a little different because they have already been emulated on the PC, so presumably porting/rewriting the code for those chips is easier than starting from scratch for the SVP. Not to mention that some of those SNES special chips produced 2 or 3 outstanding titles. By any objective account, Virtua Racing features some pretty forgettable gameplay.

Either way, it appears that Notaz will go ahead with this, in which case I look forward to the results.

 

[thumpgun]

even if notaz cant get this too work ,the emu engine might be able to run other sega cd games...

 

[Twinbee]

This, right here, is truly amazing and i'd be willing to donate for a playable GP2X emulator for this.

 

[notaz]

Well, I have some good news about this.
I've got my dynarec working, and VR is running near fullspeed, jumps around 50-65 fps, this is @ 240MHz and without sound. The dynarec is not fully completed, it does lookups when jumping between blocks (this can be removed) and doesn't generate code as good as it could, so there is some space for improvement. Also, I'm going to use HLE for the inner loops, so I have hopes to get it running fullspeed with sound with a bit of overclock.

 

[Twinbee]

You're a legend good sir.

 

[Tobriand]

Very very impressive news. Can't wait, I must say - will look forward to playing VR on the 2x, then .

 

[sbock]

Insanity! I never thought about such a quick and good result...
Good work!

Regards,
Stephan