4 ms·

So it takes a 14" 4:3 4k resolution OLED display (does such a thing even exist?) and a top-of-the-line GPU to emulate a 30+ year old 14" CRT monitor?

by rob74 3y ago

MenhirMike 3y ago
And even then it's probably still not perfect since you're sending to a framebuffer instead of controlling the beam directly, which adds at minimum 1 frame of latency. (Unless there is a "real-time" way to send a picture over HDMI)
- nyanpasu64 3y ago
  Super Mario World and many other SNES (and later) games spends two frames after a controller jump input sending unchanged frames on-screen, before showing a frame where the player is jumping (tested in slow-motion camera). Emulators (and possibly FPGAs) can use run-ahead to skip past one or more of these "no change" frames, reducing input latency to match or surpass console latency (https://github.com/higan-emu/emulation-articles/tree/master/input/run-ahead https://github.com/higan-emu/emulation-articles/tree/master/...). Another strategy is to delay polling input computing the next frame until the end of the previous frame being drawn (RetroArch frame delay). This does not rely on the game not responding immediately to controller input, but is more prone to dropping frames if your CPU gets occupied and can't run your emulator for a few milliseconds. It is possible to compute and display images in near-real-time over HDMI, but this technique is quite niche (https://blurbusters.com/blur-busters-lagless-raster-follower-algorithm-for-emulator-developers/ https://blurbusters.com/blur-busters-lagless-raster-follower...).
idonotknowwhy 3y ago
And it still won't work with light gun games, and the motion clarity isn't the yet.
- MenhirMike 3y ago
  Yeah, Light Gun games are always going to be an issue. Is it the latency (the white dot appearing too late, after the game code already checked), or the brightness that's the issue? I assume the former.
  - idonotknowwhy 3y ago
    Yeah, it's the latency. For simple ones like the NES, they've managed to add some lag in emulators to get it picked up on modern screens. Not for more advanced ones like on the Playstation/2, Xbox, Dreamcast though. Sometimes when people complain about a crt being "too dark", what I've found is it's when they have those 100hz/120hz tube lights on, it seems to interfere with them.

So it takes a 14" 4:3 4k resolution OLED display (does such a thing even exist?) and a top-of-the-line GPU to emulate a 30+ year old 14" CRT monitor?

by rob74 3y ago

So it takes a 14" 4:3 4k resolution OLED display (does such a thing even exist?) and a top-of-the-line GPU to emulate a 30+ year old 14" CRT monitor?

MenhirMike 3y ago

And even then it's probably still not perfect since you're sending to a framebuffer instead of controlling the beam directly, which adds at minimum 1 frame of latency. (Unless there is a "real-time" way to send a picture over HDMI)

nyanpasu64 3y ago
Super Mario World and many other SNES (and later) games spends two frames after a controller jump input sending unchanged frames on-screen, before showing a frame where the player is jumping (tested in slow-motion camera). Emulators (and possibly FPGAs) can use run-ahead to skip past one or more of these "no change" frames, reducing input latency to match or surpass console latency (https://github.com/higan-emu/emulation-articles/tree/master/input/run-ahead https://github.com/higan-emu/emulation-articles/tree/master/...). Another strategy is to delay polling input computing the next frame until the end of the previous frame being drawn (RetroArch frame delay). This does not rely on the game not responding immediately to controller input, but is more prone to dropping frames if your CPU gets occupied and can't run your emulator for a few milliseconds. It is possible to compute and display images in near-real-time over HDMI, but this technique is quite niche (https://blurbusters.com/blur-busters-lagless-raster-follower-algorithm-for-emulator-developers/ https://blurbusters.com/blur-busters-lagless-raster-follower...).

idonotknowwhy 3y ago

And it still won't work with light gun games, and the motion clarity isn't the yet.

MenhirMike 3y ago
Yeah, Light Gun games are always going to be an issue. Is it the latency (the white dot appearing too late, after the game code already checked), or the brightness that's the issue? I assume the former.
- idonotknowwhy 3y ago
  Yeah, it's the latency. For simple ones like the NES, they've managed to add some lag in emulators to get it picked up on modern screens. Not for more advanced ones like on the Playstation/2, Xbox, Dreamcast though. Sometimes when people complain about a crt being "too dark", what I've found is it's when they have those 100hz/120hz tube lights on, it seems to interfere with them.