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RPCS3 PS3 Emulator – January 2019 Progress Report

181 points by pplonski86 8y ago

afraca 8y ago
These reports are amazing, even though it's hardly understandable if you're not on the project. I recommend the Dolphin emulator blog as well. The last one: https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2019/02/01/dolphin-progress-report-dec-2018-and-jan-2019/ https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2019/02/01/dolphin-progress-rep... I remember vaguely something about them using a visual difference tool as a regression test, really cool!
- monocasa 8y ago
  > I remember vaguely something about them using a visual difference tool as a regression test, really cool! FifoCI! One of the coolest ideas to come out of that project. https://fifoci.dolphin-emu.org/about/ https://fifoci.dolphin-emu.org/about/
saagarjha 8y ago
> threads relating to RSX, SPU and PPU have higher priority, audio threads are delayed during bottlenecks leading to crackling or complete loss of sound This is an interesting choice, given that almost everywhere else it seems like audio is given the high priority to prevent stutters like these. As an aside, the font size is a bit small on my iPad (nothing Reader mode couldn’t fix, though).
- edoceo 8y ago
  In Dolphin for example, if games are not smooth I disable the audio (not mute, disable) and games are a very smooth (looking at you Mario Kart Wii)
- PorterDuff 8y ago
  Not just that, but it's common to sync video to audio. Obviously it's a lot purtier to lose a frame of video than a chunk of audio.
petermcneeley 8y ago
What is the legality of emulating proprietary hardware like this?
- ipnon 8y ago
  It's a simulation, not a reproduction.
  - saagarjha 8y ago
    I don’t think the MPAA would look kindly upon your attempt to “simulate” a movie…
    - _Reo 8y ago
      But video players are legal.
      - saagarjha 8y ago
        Yes, as long as the media you put in it was legally acquired.
        djschnei 8y ago
        the video player stays legal no matter where the files it plays came from...
        saagarjha 8y ago
        Yes, the video player is legal. What you’re doing with it is not legal.
        sjwright 8y ago
        What you or the video player is doing is not in itself illegal. The "illegal" part, if you want to use that terminology, is the purchasing and/or possession of an illegal copy of copyrighted material. The fact of copyright infringement doesn't magically emerge through the process of playing it. There are not—as far as I'm aware—any laws against watching copyright infringing materials; intentional possession is the entirety of crime.
sergiotapia 8y ago
Please donate if you can afford it: https://www.patreon.com/Nekotekina https://www.patreon.com/Nekotekina This project is very important to preserve one of the largest console of the past generation.
- ss248 8y ago
  To be honest, i think $3k per month is already pretty generous, considering the amount of work the lead dev does. I followed the project closely couple of years ago and even back then it obvious for anyone who studied the codebase, that nekotekina lost all enthusiasm about the project a long time ago. They should consider switching to per-task payment model, so maybe some other talented people can participate, because nowadays devs supported by that patreon page do just enough work to put at least something in the monthly changelog.
  - idonotknowwhy 8y ago
    2 lead devs now (kd-11) and they're making amazing progress every month.
    - ss248 8y ago
      kd-11 was fine, the criticisms is mostly directed at "the main dev" nekotekina. Go through the git history of the last 4~ years. It's not amazing or impressive by any stretch of the imagination.
      - dmix 8y ago
        hmm, the Patreon claims ($4k/m) is to support both of those developers "full-time". I have to agree the commit history (for both) seems a bit thin. Although not to the point it's alarming or anything, as work is being done. I'm also well aware that's not always the best measure of contributions to software. Especially given the high-quality work going into documentation on this blog...
        8y ago
Asooka 8y ago
Can we please not have news about software that supports piracy and disrespects authors' rights on the front page? Why isn't this banned outright? I wonder how Stallman would feel if Apple were to take GCC's source, add support for e.g. Swift and keep it closed source while violating the GPL and then post blog posts about what great engineers they are.
- staticassertion 8y ago
  We also have posts about hackers and all sorts of shit. It's here because it's technically interesting. Projects like this are also critical - tons of media running on proprietary hardware/software will be lost without projects like this. Think about DOSBox, or even just Flashplayer games, or how rare an n64 is. All of the art produced on these platforms will be lost unless we build software to run it. Emulators are also, generally, ~5-10 years behind the consoles. At that point the consoles themselves are likely deprecated in favor of the next platform. PS3 has been out for 13 years. Do you really believe this code will negatively impact sales of games, when it's usable nearly 2 decades after release? *edit And a side note - I believe PCSX2 was the first program I ever compiled, as a teenager. It was at least some part of what interested me in computers - I wanted to know why some games were slow or fast, or what role the GPU played. Emulators are some of the coolest projects out there, I think, and posts about their implementation seem very fitting for HN.
  - pedrocx486 8y ago
    > or how rare an n64 is I may be reading this completely wrong, but are you implying the N64 console is rare?
    - staticassertion 8y ago
      They're no longer manufactured, and therefor the numbers are only decreasing. A quick look at amazon prices one at ~100 dollars. What do you think that'll be in a decade? Certainly some games are already quite pricey as there are fewer and fewer copies out there (check out prices for SSBM).
- 8y ago
Causality1 8y ago
Good to hear that emulation development is still alive and well, for so many reasons. As consoles became more locked-down emulation seemed to stall, what with the unusually long generational span of the 360/ps3 era. Someday it will be outrageously expensive to find a working ps3 or Xbox 360, and when that day comes emulation will be the only way to enjoy the titles from your childhood, especially for non-blockbuster titles with little chance of remakes. Scanning preserves our photographic history, digitalization preserves our film history, and emulation is how we preserve our gaming history.
- ariwilson 8y ago
  Microsoft's proprietary emulator for Xbox 360 provides access to 551 out of 2100 released games on the Xbox One. One of the main reasons I bought one (pretty amazing I can LAN party Halo Reach between my 360/One X). I can't see any reason they wouldn't keep improving the emulator and bringing it to their next consoles (which are very likely to be AMD machines and thus have near native backwards compatibility with Xbox One).
  - Causality1 8y ago
    They would stop the very moment it ceased being profitable.
visualstudio 8y ago
How's the game that shall not be named running these days?
- d33 8y ago
  Which game is that?
  - idonotknowwhy 8y ago
    It'll be this one: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/09/atlus-wants-to-cut-off-a-ps3-emulator-because-it-runs-persona-5/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/09/atlus-wants-to-cut-of...
- idonotknowwhy 8y ago
  If you mean MGS4, it doesn't run. It uses a ps3 feature which no other game uses, so it hasn't been prioritized. Or if you meant TLOU, 12fps on a very high end system, give it more time.
  - monocasa 8y ago
    Which feature?
    - idonotknowwhy 8y ago
      sys_overlay > sys_overlay, a special way for games to load external code. While it is very much a work in progress, it shows real promise because Metal Gear Solid 4 needs it to run https://rpcs3.net/blog/2018/01/03/progress-report-december-2017/ https://rpcs3.net/blog/2018/01/03/progress-report-december-2... I don't think that PR ever got merged. It was barely in-game anyway.
- idonotknowwhy 8y ago
  Also check here: https://rpcs3.net/compatibility https://rpcs3.net/compatibility
- 8y ago
PorterDuff 8y ago
How interesting. So they actually emulate the whole deal? Cell, GPU, peripherals? Cool. I had one of those running Linux and got one of the lights of death. Bummer. Into the trash.
- idonotknowwhy 8y ago
  If you still have it, keep it. They can be repaired pretty easily and you can use it to dump your games for emulation. Yes, they emulate the whole deal (DS3 support isn't there yet) but RSX and Cell, yeah. You can even run PS1 classics (emulating an emulator!)

181 points by pplonski86 8y ago

These reports are amazing, even though it's hardly understandable if you're not on the project. I recommend the Dolphin emulator blog as well. The last one: https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2019/02/01/dolphin-progress-report-dec-2018-and-jan-2019/ https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2019/02/01/dolphin-progress-rep... I remember vaguely something about them using a visual difference tool as a regression test, really cool!

monocasa 8y ago
> I remember vaguely something about them using a visual difference tool as a regression test, really cool! FifoCI! One of the coolest ideas to come out of that project. https://fifoci.dolphin-emu.org/about/ https://fifoci.dolphin-emu.org/about/

saagarjha 8y ago

> threads relating to RSX, SPU and PPU have higher priority, audio threads are delayed during bottlenecks leading to crackling or complete loss of sound This is an interesting choice, given that almost everywhere else it seems like audio is given the high priority to prevent stutters like these. As an aside, the font size is a bit small on my iPad (nothing Reader mode couldn’t fix, though).

edoceo 8y ago
In Dolphin for example, if games are not smooth I disable the audio (not mute, disable) and games are a very smooth (looking at you Mario Kart Wii)
PorterDuff 8y ago
Not just that, but it's common to sync video to audio. Obviously it's a lot purtier to lose a frame of video than a chunk of audio.

petermcneeley 8y ago

What is the legality of emulating proprietary hardware like this?

ipnon 8y ago
It's a simulation, not a reproduction.
- saagarjha 8y ago
  I don’t think the MPAA would look kindly upon your attempt to “simulate” a movie…
  - _Reo 8y ago
    But video players are legal.
    - saagarjha 8y ago
      Yes, as long as the media you put in it was legally acquired.
      - djschnei 8y ago
        the video player stays legal no matter where the files it plays came from...
        saagarjha 8y ago
        Yes, the video player is legal. What you’re doing with it is not legal.
        sjwright 8y ago
        What you or the video player is doing is not in itself illegal. The "illegal" part, if you want to use that terminology, is the purchasing and/or possession of an illegal copy of copyrighted material. The fact of copyright infringement doesn't magically emerge through the process of playing it. There are not—as far as I'm aware—any laws against watching copyright infringing materials; intentional possession is the entirety of crime.

sergiotapia 8y ago

Please donate if you can afford it: https://www.patreon.com/Nekotekina https://www.patreon.com/Nekotekina This project is very important to preserve one of the largest console of the past generation.

ss248 8y ago
To be honest, i think $3k per month is already pretty generous, considering the amount of work the lead dev does. I followed the project closely couple of years ago and even back then it obvious for anyone who studied the codebase, that nekotekina lost all enthusiasm about the project a long time ago. They should consider switching to per-task payment model, so maybe some other talented people can participate, because nowadays devs supported by that patreon page do just enough work to put at least something in the monthly changelog.
- idonotknowwhy 8y ago
  2 lead devs now (kd-11) and they're making amazing progress every month.
  - ss248 8y ago
    kd-11 was fine, the criticisms is mostly directed at "the main dev" nekotekina. Go through the git history of the last 4~ years. It's not amazing or impressive by any stretch of the imagination.
    - dmix 8y ago
      hmm, the Patreon claims ($4k/m) is to support both of those developers "full-time". I have to agree the commit history (for both) seems a bit thin. Although not to the point it's alarming or anything, as work is being done. I'm also well aware that's not always the best measure of contributions to software. Especially given the high-quality work going into documentation on this blog...
      - 8y ago

Asooka 8y ago

Can we please not have news about software that supports piracy and disrespects authors' rights on the front page? Why isn't this banned outright? I wonder how Stallman would feel if Apple were to take GCC's source, add support for e.g. Swift and keep it closed source while violating the GPL and then post blog posts about what great engineers they are.

staticassertion 8y ago
We also have posts about hackers and all sorts of shit. It's here because it's technically interesting. Projects like this are also critical - tons of media running on proprietary hardware/software will be lost without projects like this. Think about DOSBox, or even just Flashplayer games, or how rare an n64 is. All of the art produced on these platforms will be lost unless we build software to run it. Emulators are also, generally, ~5-10 years behind the consoles. At that point the consoles themselves are likely deprecated in favor of the next platform. PS3 has been out for 13 years. Do you really believe this code will negatively impact sales of games, when it's usable nearly 2 decades after release? *edit And a side note - I believe PCSX2 was the first program I ever compiled, as a teenager. It was at least some part of what interested me in computers - I wanted to know why some games were slow or fast, or what role the GPU played. Emulators are some of the coolest projects out there, I think, and posts about their implementation seem very fitting for HN.
- pedrocx486 8y ago
  > or how rare an n64 is I may be reading this completely wrong, but are you implying the N64 console is rare?
  - staticassertion 8y ago
    They're no longer manufactured, and therefor the numbers are only decreasing. A quick look at amazon prices one at ~100 dollars. What do you think that'll be in a decade? Certainly some games are already quite pricey as there are fewer and fewer copies out there (check out prices for SSBM).
8y ago

Causality1 8y ago

Good to hear that emulation development is still alive and well, for so many reasons. As consoles became more locked-down emulation seemed to stall, what with the unusually long generational span of the 360/ps3 era. Someday it will be outrageously expensive to find a working ps3 or Xbox 360, and when that day comes emulation will be the only way to enjoy the titles from your childhood, especially for non-blockbuster titles with little chance of remakes. Scanning preserves our photographic history, digitalization preserves our film history, and emulation is how we preserve our gaming history.

ariwilson 8y ago
Microsoft's proprietary emulator for Xbox 360 provides access to 551 out of 2100 released games on the Xbox One. One of the main reasons I bought one (pretty amazing I can LAN party Halo Reach between my 360/One X). I can't see any reason they wouldn't keep improving the emulator and bringing it to their next consoles (which are very likely to be AMD machines and thus have near native backwards compatibility with Xbox One).
- Causality1 8y ago
  They would stop the very moment it ceased being profitable.

visualstudio 8y ago

How's the game that shall not be named running these days?

d33 8y ago
Which game is that?
- idonotknowwhy 8y ago
  It'll be this one: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/09/atlus-wants-to-cut-off-a-ps3-emulator-because-it-runs-persona-5/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/09/atlus-wants-to-cut-of...
idonotknowwhy 8y ago
If you mean MGS4, it doesn't run. It uses a ps3 feature which no other game uses, so it hasn't been prioritized. Or if you meant TLOU, 12fps on a very high end system, give it more time.
- monocasa 8y ago
  Which feature?
  - idonotknowwhy 8y ago
    sys_overlay > sys_overlay, a special way for games to load external code. While it is very much a work in progress, it shows real promise because Metal Gear Solid 4 needs it to run https://rpcs3.net/blog/2018/01/03/progress-report-december-2017/ https://rpcs3.net/blog/2018/01/03/progress-report-december-2... I don't think that PR ever got merged. It was barely in-game anyway.
idonotknowwhy 8y ago
Also check here: https://rpcs3.net/compatibility https://rpcs3.net/compatibility
8y ago

PorterDuff 8y ago

How interesting. So they actually emulate the whole deal? Cell, GPU, peripherals? Cool. I had one of those running Linux and got one of the lights of death. Bummer. Into the trash.

idonotknowwhy 8y ago
If you still have it, keep it. They can be repaired pretty easily and you can use it to dump your games for emulation. Yes, they emulate the whole deal (DS3 support isn't there yet) but RSX and Cell, yeah. You can even run PS1 classics (emulating an emulator!)