Bootable Emulators (Discussion)

[+TwentySixHundred]

Edit: Actually i retract my statement, just had a look at PC builds and for the same price i can have something that's near double the speed. Im going one step further and spending double the amount for something that will play anything i can throw at it. I understand the VCS could be a viable option for some, but really after looking around im finding alot more power for cheaper.

Edited February 22, 2021 by TwentySixHundred

[leech]

5 hours ago, TwentySixHundred said:

Edit: Actually i retract my statement, just had a look at PC builds and for the same price i can have something that's near double the speed. Im going one step further and spending double the amount for something that will play anything i can throw at it. I understand the VCS could be a viable option for some, but really after looking around im finding alot more power for cheaper.

I spent probably half the price of the VCS on fan replacements to get my PC quiet enough to hook up for a console...

I use Linux on mine as I am a Linux user, but emulators run fine, though obviously it depends on which systems you want to emulate.  PS2 / Gamecube level ones seem to run quite well.  Something the Pi would completely choke on.

[+TwentySixHundred]

42 minutes ago, leech said:

I spent probably half the price of the VCS on fan replacements to get my PC quiet enough to hook up for a console...

I use Linux on mine as I am a Linux user, but emulators run fine, though obviously it depends on which systems you want to emulate.  PS2 / Gamecube level ones seem to run quite well.  Something the Pi would completely choke on.

Bought a Pi4 and with everything for a full setup was $200, not a bad price however they're no powerhouse. They choke when it comes to N64 and PS1 not only that i can notice SNES and Genesis emulation isn't the most consistent either. Framerates are a bit all over the place and it doesn't really like to render full screen 1080P as it just doesn't have the raw grunt to do so. Good idea as a gift for someone to play around on, but not really ideal for those who take emulation seriously.

 

I really don't want anything past N64-PS1 and the real killer is BSNES to be honest. Is Snes9x good enough? Well yes and no... Once you use BSNES for a long time it's really easy to notice the difference in emulation accuracy. I have an 12 yeah old tower PC rigged up to the TV and she served well over the years. It was lightening fast when i built it but starting to age compared to the current market.

 

So where im at is got a new 4k TV but the dinosaur PC is starting to become the weak link. My laptop is fast and does whatever i want in it's sleep but not ideal for the setup i want. Having said all that for double the price of the VCS ($650AUD) i can buy a new rig for the TV. It will run BSNES along with any of my other emulators without even a stutter at full screen and consistent frames. It will also run basically any new AAA titles if i wish to do so. Even though it's double the cost, i will probably be better off in the long run and i know it will run all my emulators without an issue whatsoever.

[leech]

9 minutes ago, TwentySixHundred said:

Bought a Pi4 and with everything for a full setup was $200, not a bad price however they're no powerhouse. They choke when it comes to N64 and PS1 not only that i can notice SNES and Genesis emulation isn't the most consistent either. Framerates are a bit all over the place and it doesn't really like to render full screen 1080P as it just doesn't have the raw grunt to do so. Good idea as a gift for someone to play around on, but not really ideal for those who take emulation seriously.

 

I really don't want anything past N64-PS1 and the real killer is BSNES to be honest. Is Snes9x good enough? Well yes and no... Once you use BSNES for a long time it's really easy to notice the difference in emulation accuracy. I have an 12 yeah old tower PC rigged up to the TV and she served well over the years. It was lightening fast when i built it but starting to age compared to the current market.

 

So where im at is got a new 4k TV but the dinosaur PC is starting to become the weak link. My laptop is fast and does whatever i want in it's sleep but not ideal for the setup i want. Having said all that for double the price of the VCS ($650AUD) i can buy a new rig for the TV. It will run BSNES along with any of my other emulators without even a stutter at full screen and consistent frames. It will also run basically any new AAA titles if i wish to do so. Even though it's double the cost, i will probably be better off in the long run and i know it will run all my emulators without an issue whatsoever.

Didn't BSNES get replaced by Higan? 

Computer prices have become stupid, so building even a basic machine seems pretty pricey.

[+TwentySixHundred]

10 minutes ago, leech said:

Didn't BSNES get replaced by Higan? 

Computer prices have become stupid, so building even a basic machine seems pretty pricey.

No Byuu started developing BSNES again as many in the community started to complain about performance issues with Higan. For one it's a stand alone SNES emulator which sacrifices some accuracy for performance. Byuu had mentioned the areas that are sacrificed are minor to the front end user but more essential to Higan's progression towards perfect emulation. Having said that BSNES is still no slouch, it's by far still arguably one of if not the best SNES emulators second to Higan. So running on slow hardware still isn't desirable.

 

His mission with Higan was not only to become a multi system emulator but to focus on accuracy without holding back. Many emulators sacrifice some degree of accuracy for performance so users can still run them on older hardware. Byuu never wanted that constraint as he always said it's holding back the quality of emulation. You will notice with the later builds that performance and balanced cores were dropped from Higan in favor of the BSNES fork.

 

I also believe he only has one last piece of the puzzle to emulate with cycle accurate LLE and that's the PPUs. It's actually a hurdle he is stuck on and has asked for help if anyone can provide information to help reverse engineer the PPU's. However who knows as he stated he was leaving the emulation scene. No one knows if it's a hiatus or not.