psx emu

[mann75]

is their a psx emulater that is made availible. if sooo why is it easy to find atari all the way to psp but there is no mention of the psx emu's. does it exist?

[dlanor]

is their a psx emulater that is made availible. if sooo why is it easy to find atari all the way to psp but there is no mention of the psx emu's. does it exist?

If you mean for the PS2, then NO, there is no PS1 emulator available.

Best regards: dlanor

[mann75]

why would they make everything else and not that? the encoding cant be that far off if they can make atari work on the ps2. or no developers wanted to do it?

[Perseid]

I doubt the PS2 is powerful enough to actually emulate a PS1. Besides, the few advantages you'd get would be outweighed by performance issues and compatibility concerns.

[mann75]

so you are telling that the ps2 can only emulate basic video graphics??? i t hink if it can play psx games it should be able to emulate it. especially if you can run neogeo and snes emu's.

[dlanor]

so you are telling that the ps2 can only emulate basic video graphics??? i t hink if it can play psx games it should be able to emulate it. especially if you can run neogeo and snes emu's.

It would definitely be *possible* to make a PS1 emulator for PS2, which could run at realtime speed if programmed in an optimized manner.

But what you completely fail to realize is the magnitude of the task.

None of the existing PS1 emulator projects for the PC can be ported to the PS2 and achieve sufficient speed. It will have to be a brand new design, making use of the IOP as main PS1 processor (like the normal PS1Driver), but controlled by an active program for the EE processor (impossible with normal PS1Driver), which effectively replaces all normal BIOS functionality with custom designed software to help the emulation.

All-in-all, I guess that the design complexity of such an emulator is on a par with the total complexity of the PS2 itself. And I expect it would take a couple of years of dedicated work to produce useful results for a homebrew project of this kind. I'd love to see it myself too, but I don't expect to have that pleasure...

Best regards: dlanor

[Drakonite]

A PS1 emu on PS2 would be quite possible, and no you don't need to do any goofiness with the IOP or virtualization or any of that. Cpu emulation on the EE, an rpc layer to hand sound commands virtually unmodified to the SPU2 (as it's essentially 2 SPUs glued together) and a VU prog to mangle PS1 gpu access into GS chains. PS1 on PS2 would be substantially easier than, say, N64 on PS2.

How can I be so confident that it'd work? Because it's already been done -- by Sony.

The main limiting factor is not technical feasability, but that no one cares to do the work involved when the PS2 can already play PS1 games.

[dlanor]

A PS1 emu on PS2 would be quite possible, and no you don't need to do any goofiness with the IOP or virtualization or any of that. Cpu emulation on the EE,

Interesting. I've heard over and over from lots of people that the existing PS1Driver by Sony uses the IOP as PS1 processor, and that the EE is basically off in PS1 mode. I never tried to dig into it myself, but merely took their word for it. But according to you that is completely false then, IOP still serves as IO processor, while the EE performs as PS1 Processor.

Well, it does make some sense, I guess. I just wonder why so many others describe it so differently. Are they just misinformed on the subject ?

an rpc layer to hand sound commands virtually unmodified to the SPU2 (as it's essentially 2 SPUs glued together) and a VU prog to mangle PS1 gpu access into GS chains. PS1 on PS2 would be substantially easier than, say, N64 on PS2.

As you describe it, the PS1Driver works more or less like any other PS2 program (unlike what others say). I hope this is true as that opens the possibility of using homebrew programs to modify the emulation.

How can I be so confident that it'd work? Because it's already been done -- by Sony.

In a way it has been, of course, but not in a way satisfactory compared to how such emulators work on PCs. The main improvement one expects in an emulator for a CD-based console is to eliminate load delays by using a hard disk, which the PS1Driver by Sony obviously won't allow.

The main limiting factor is not technical feasability, but that no one cares to do the work involved when the PS2 can already play PS1 games.

That was the main point of my own post too, but it does look a bit differently if the PS1Driver works like you say, more like a normal PS2 program. Then it may be possible to modify its operation by homebrew patches, and who knows where that may lead. The ability to run games without load delays would be worth quite a lot of effort, if it could be achieved.

I still don't think much will happen on this front, but I find some of the possibilities intriguing.

Best regards: dlanor

[Drakonite]

No, no, I wasn't referring to PS1DRV. You were indeed told correctly that PS1DRV 'emulates' the PS1 by using the IOP as the PS1s CPU. The IOP, mechacon, and GS are all put into a PS1 compat mode actually, and IIRC the EE fills in some of the gaps of the graphics emulation.

What I'm talking about is something different, and is not public in any manor AFAIK. While I've been told it was used as an emu on certain PS2s, I have never located any examples of it so I am fairly sure the idea of it being used as such on retail PS2s is BS...

[dlanor]

No, no, I wasn't referring to PS1DRV. You were indeed told correctly that PS1DRV 'emulates' the PS1 by using the IOP as the PS1s CPU. The IOP, mechacon, and GS are all put into a PS1 compat mode actually, and IIRC the EE fills in some of the gaps of the graphics emulation.

Ok, then. I'm glad you straightened that out as I was getting a bit confused.

What I'm talking about is something different, and is not public in any manor AFAIK. While I've been told it was used as an emu on certain PS2s, I have never located any examples of it so I am fairly sure the idea of it being used as such on retail PS2s is BS...

Oh, I think I see. So what you really meant was some kind of in-house emu development that Sony made, but kept to themselves, and possibly some PS1 game developers. That really would make a lot of sense, for two separate reasons.

1: Game developers can lose a lot of time (more than a player would) to CD delays, and in this context time really is money, quite literally. This means they would be prepared to pay a lot for something like this.

2: Quite a lot of games appear to have been designed with a total disregard for the huge load delays, almost as if the game designers never saw that flaw, which may indeed have been the case.

Best regards: dlanor