Which Handles Snes Better?

[worldwriter]

The day of me ordering my gp32 from jr2swiss is
getting closer and closer.... (7 days!!!) I'm really excited and can't wait but sometimes when I open ebay to see if anyone is selling theirs cheap... I also do a search for tapwave... can someone tell me if one handles snes better than the other? I don't want this to turn into a bashing thread or a thread about gp32 being open and having homebrew and lot of other ports to it...

I'm asking specifically about snes emulation... which system does it better? gp32 or tapwave zodiac? remember... snes specifically!!!

 

[toxibunny]

i'd guess the zodiac would handle snes better, due to it's slightly faster processor, 2d acceleration (enabling full-screen-stretch without CPU hit) and the fact that the same coder is working on the GP32 and Zod versions of opensnes9x...

but i'm willing to be proved wrong...

oh yeah, and the Zod's more RAM would surely make a difference, too...

 

[shinneri]

The Zodiac is more powerful (much more recent console, as well), so naturally it will handle SNES better than the GP32. Currently, SNES on GP32 is very playable but it is certainly not 100%. I don't know much of anything of the performance of LittleJohnz, but I would assume it runs faster merely because of the more powerful hardware.

I am confident that the GP32 is capable of emulating SNES nearly perfectly. We just need to wait for a coder to get an emulator to that point.

 

[Vimacs]

they are almost the same, expect that the Z one should be slightly faster and allow <4mb roms, but that isnt worth the extra money for a z, also the controles of the gp should be better. if you grab a 180mhz+gp you should be in fullspeed range with sound

 

[DaveC]

The Zodiac is more powerful (much more recent console, as well), so naturally it will handle SNES better than the GP32.  Currently, SNES on GP32 is very playable but it is certainly not 100%.  I don't know much of anything of the performance of LittleJohnz, but I would assume it runs faster merely because of the more powerful hardware.

I am confident that the GP32 is capable of emulating SNES nearly perfectly.  We just need to wait for a coder to get an emulator to that point.

​

I heard it was a bit faster on the Zodiac mostly due to the fact it is a more recent version of the emu. The extra hardware is used mostly for scaling up the screen as the resolution doesn't match real well (SNES screen would have a big border if 1:1). It still isn't perfect though even on the Zodiac, as it has speed or framerate degradation if transparencies are used, or sound is turned on. I don't quite care for the analog stick with emus either. The GP32 runs SNES good without sound but with it it takes a hit. PPcs can run SNES full speed but the controls are not real good. The quest for the perfect handheld SNES continues...

 

[toxibunny]

AFAIK we have the most recent version too (ie the one with the ASM enhancements...)

 

[Squidge]

If you have a GP32 that can overclock to Zodiac speeds (200Mhz - 230Mhz), then I'd have to say that the GP32 is capable of doing it faster simply because of less overhead - your talking directly to the hardware, which is not possible on the Zodiac.

 

[Quiest]

...The quest for the perfect handheld SNES continues...

​

I think, THIS is the perfect SNES handheld :lol:
(scroll down on the site)

 

[jonjandran]

If you have a GP32 that can overclock to Zodiac speeds (200Mhz - 230Mhz), then I'd have to say that the GP32 is capable of doing it faster simply because of less overhead - your talking directly to the hardware, which is not possible on the Zodiac.

​

I have a 200mhz GP32 running a 200mhz version of OpenSnes and a Zodiac which I overclock to 240mhz running LJZ.

The GP32 can play most games at FS0 nearly perfect whereas I have to set the Zodiac to FS1 or FS2 to get the same speed.

I personally think it's just because LJZ is not nearly as optimized on the Zodiac . I expect the next release will be much faster.

On a side note. I also run Drmd, Fgen , and Gigadrive at 166mhz on the GP32 and they are nearly perfectat FS0 but on the Zodiac at 240mhz with LJZ , I have to set the Genesis Emulator at FS2-FS3.

 

[DaveC]

AFAIK we have the most recent version too (ie the one with the ASM enhancements...)

​

The GP32 version has ASM CPU core, but never got the ASM sound mixing routeens which is why the emu takes such a hit w/sound on.

 

[aapje89]

AFAIK we have the most recent version too (ie the one with the ASM enhancements...)

​

The GP32 version has ASM CPU core, but never got the ASM sound mixing routeens which is why the emu takes such a hit w/sound on.

​

Is there still being worked on the snes emulator for gp32?

 

[DaveC]

I think it is dead unfortunately. After Yoyo won his Zodiac in the coding compo he went to that platform to develop and didn't have time to go back to the GP32 anymore. Hopefully someone else could finish it, but I wouldn't count on it. I think there was 1 GP32 update after the Zodiac version was complete, but it is not very good when the sound is on as it is too slow. I don't think it was done by Yoyo either, I think one of his partners did it.

 

[aapje89]

damn

 

[diablo2]

laxor3 made the asm cpu
but i still think yoyo did a lot with version 3
probably like asm sound rendering(which it has)

anyone up for making opensnes with asm sound mixing?

 

[Tobriand]

Actually, Laxor3 made about 2/3 of the ASM core - then had to stop due to other issues, and Yoyo finished it off. And I don't believe it was one of his compatriots who released 0.3 at last. Yoyo has clearly stated that he is still interested in the GP32, but simply that he no longer has enough time for it most of the time, so things move a LOT slower. He has said, I think, that 0.3 is likely to be the last version, simply because it has all the optimisations he'd intended to put into it, barring the sound mixing (which is what slows down many games when sound is on), and he doesn't have the time anymore to re-write that bit. So hopefully someone good with sound emulation will get that done sometime, but hey - as it is, its pretty good

Before anyone gets sound mixing to work, however, getting it to compile in the first place would be a great start - at the moment it uses a funny config of ADS which no-one's thus far been able to replicate.

 

[Squidge]

The best thing for OpenSnes9X would be an asm graphics core simply because it's the graphics that take up most of the processing power.

Yoyo has said repeatedly he has not left the scene, but if people keep saying this, he may well do. He has is no way moved over to exclusive Zodiac development.

If it'll make you feel any better, LJZ on the Zodiac hasn't had any updates for a good while either.

 

[diablo2]

yeah but it did have a major one pretty recently

whats left on his to do list with the gp32 version?

full screen would be nice
and the ability to overclock higher

 

[DaveC]

yeah but it did have a major one pretty recently

whats left on his to do list with the gp32 version?

full screen would be nice
and the ability to overclock higher

​

What is left? well ASM sound mixing is a big thing that is missing. This causes the speed of the emu to be quite poor with sound on. Emus with no sound are not very useable to many of us as sound was half of the experience. After that, it is probably pretty complete.