n64 on ps2

[pietrak90]

Is emulation for the N64 on PS2 possible? If not, why not?

[TehJawknee]

Is emulation for the N64 on PS2 possible? If not, why not?

This has been asked many times and the answer is simply that the PS2 cannot handle emulating the n64 hardware.
Hell, it can barely handle emulating the PS1 hardware. When playing PS1 games on a PS2, it's because the PS2 has PS1 hardware on it.

[zin0099]

n64 would be nice but everyone knows that since ps2 has 30mb of ram and psp had 32mb for the original but the slim model of the psp has 64mb of ram.

but the reason i bring up psp verus the ps2 is even the psp has a hard time running legend of zelda ocarina of time/majora's mask
very slow and most likely any the psp can do the ps2 can't!

[dlanor]

n64 would be nice but everyone knows that since ps2 has 30mb of ram and psp had 32mb for the original but the slim model of the psp has 64mb of ram.

This information is incorrect for the PS2, which does have 32MB in the main RAM block used by the EE, plus additional specialized RAM for both GS and IOP.

But the crucial problem, both for PSP and PS2 is that the main RAM block of an n64 is appx twice as large as the largest block on these Sony consoles, and of that smaller block not all is free for application use in emulation. Parts of that RAM must be reserved for BIOS operability while additional parts are needed to house the application itself and its runtime data. So the biggest 'binary-power-sized' block that can be used for emulation is then 16MB, which is just a quarter of the needed space for emulating the main block of an n64.

The dynamic memory swapping required to handle that would be pure hell, and without a fast-access storage drive (which most PS2 consoles lack) it simply cannot work fast enough for satisfactory operation.

but the reason i bring up psp verus the ps2 is even the psp has a hard time running legend of zelda ocarina of time/majora's mask
very slow and most likely any the psp can do the ps2 can't!

I disagree. Of course the PS2 can do the emulation, but it would need either more RAM or much faster storage devices in order to do it fast enough to be useful.

And since it can not be done at useful speed, no one is going to invest the hard work needed to do it at all.

Best regards: dlanor

[zin0099]

This information is incorrect for the PS2, which does have 32MB in the main RAM block used by the EE, plus additional specialized RAM for both GS and IOP.

But the crucial problem, both for PSP and PS2 is that the main RAM block of an n64 is appx twice as large as the largest block on these Sony consoles, and of that smaller block not all is free for application use in emulation. Parts of that RAM must be reserved for BIOS operability while additional parts are needed to house the application itself and its runtime data. So the biggest 'binary-power-sized' block that can be used for emulation is then 16MB, which is just a quarter of the needed space for emulating the main block of an n64.

The dynamic memory swapping required to handle that would be pure hell, and without a fast-access storage drive (which most PS2 consoles lack) it simply cannot work fast enough for satisfactory operation.

I disagree. Of course the PS2 can do the emulation, but it would need either more RAM or much faster storage devices in order to do it fast enough to be useful.

And since it can not be done at useful speed, no one is going to invest the hard work needed to do it at all.

Best regards: dlanor

so how much ram does the ps2 have altogether than
ee-32mb
gs-??mb

[kevstah2004]

How would that compare with the Mupen64 port aka Cube64 does the NGC really out power the PS2 by that much? it doesn't support the expansion pak though due to memory limitations. With a lot of emulator's i've noticed disabling audio support left/right channels vastly improves emulation speed maybe it could be possible to do this for the PS2 also making it possible to run it in the limited ram available due to all the audio ram being unused thus freeing up the extra ram it'd need to emulate it
Also CubeSX suffers from major audio stutter so I don't know how the ps2 ps1 emulator is going to cope.

[zin0099]

maybe if we used the ps2 and psp that is hacked and hook it up usb it would provide 64mb altogether like the ds with gba slot!

most stupid answer maybe!!??

[Peppers]

usb 1.1 is not fast enough.... also thats not really how RAM works, its a go between for the storage device and the processors.

[dlanor]

so how much ram does the ps2 have altogether than
ee-32mb
gs-??mb

EE:32MB, GS:4MB, IOP:4MB

I think there are dedicated RAM blocks in some other sub-processors too, but this is irrelevant to the issue at hand, since those RAM blocks ARE dedicated to other purposes, just like the GS RAM (which is dedicated for display purposes only).

The only RAM blocks intended for generic application use are the 32MB of the EE processor and the 4MB of of the IOP processor, and much of each will be used also for bios functions and other system needs (for the IOP mainly device drivers and some other system modules).

does the NGC really out power the PS2 by that much?

It is not a case of processing power as such, but a question of extreme efficiency loss due to the need to emulate a larger memory block than that which is physically implemented on the host console. Virtual memory implementations of this kind can only reach sufficient efficiency if the host processor is significantly more powerful and faster than the processors of the target system to be emulated. And that is not the case here.

That is what makes a decent-speed n64 emulator impossible on the PS2.

With a lot of emulator's i've noticed disabling audio support left/right channels vastly improves emulation speed maybe it could be possible to do this for the PS2 also making it possible to run it in the limited ram available due to all the audio ram being unused thus freeing up the extra ram it'd need to emulate it

There is no "Audio RAM" on the PS2.

Any RAM used for audio purposes will be part of either the 32MB EE RAM or of the 4MB IOP RAM. Reducing the audio RAM usage would merely free a small portion of those RAM blocks, but could never increase their total size. So that always remains too small for efficient emulation of n64, or of any other console that does not have smaller main memory size than the PS2 does.

suffers from major audio stutter so I don't know how the ps2 ps1 emulator is going to cope.

Since the only PS1 emulator under development now has ffgriever as its author, I think it will cope quite well...

Best regards: dlanor

[flo]

I thought PS2 is more powerful than PSP . Are they so different in architecture ?
I hate how PSP has emulators for N64 , Neo Geo MVS ,CPS1 ,CPS2, Mame4All etc.. and PS2 has almost nothing !
Would it be so hard to port these emus to PS2 ?