Console to PC Emulation

[Wicky_42]

What is it stopping us running console games on our pcs? If you think about it, an xbox 360 is exactly like a budget, poorly built pc (I say poorly because none of my pc's CPUs got loose after 12 months). They have a motherboard, graphics card, CPU, harddrive, disk drive, ram - and none of them are particularly advanced components compared to the current market. So why is it not possible to create a programme to emulate the console's software and allow you to run any console game on your PC?

As far as I can see, thus far there are only two emulators - CXBX and Xeon, and neither of them did well, managing to get little parts of various games working. Now, as you could probably gather, I don't have much by way of programming skills or any such, so if there's a definite reason why this is so difficult then feel free to enlighten me. My point is, in an age where computer games are cracked before they are released, surely there are dedicated people out there with the skills to hack and reverse engineer, for example, the xbox OS.

Two obvious technical problems with this are the PS3's 7 core processor, which, having caused developers headaches, would likely render emulators impossible, and the Wii's use of motion tracking technology, which would require some hardware re-jigging to make compatible. Despite all that though, it would be awesome to be able to play a wider range of games from one system, without the costs of purchasing multiple consoles. But then, perhaps I'm just living in the realms of fantasy here.

 

[sirdanrhodes]

Because it's so incredibly complicated? It's not like people aren't trying as we speak.

When did the escapist get voice chat? More serious, there is even a XBOX emulator... That supports one game. Different platforms are designed specifically.

 

[Insomniactk]

It takes a while. There's already a working PS2 emulator though.

How do i know when they release it? And will i be able to play without extra hardware, if not, what will i need?

*edit*

Apart from the controller of course.

 

[Grampy_bone]

Well, emulating adds an extra layer of computing processes on top of running the game so you will always need a more powerful system than the one being emulated.

That said, the 360 OS is very windows-like at a basic level, and many 360 games are released on PC simultaneously, and run great with a dual-core proccessor (GTA4 notwithstanding).
So sthere you go.

 

[Art Axiv]

Some things first:

- Wiimotes can be worked out to work with PC's. Been done, google it.
- They are working on a PS3 emu: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pcsx3 , I read about it some time ago, in a galaxy far far away, even saw screenshots.

Because it's so incredibly complicated? It's not like people aren't trying as we speak.

More then complicated actually, since you have to recreate an evnironment inside an environment, which uses different ( I believe? ) CPU instructions, hardware, and firmware on top of it, which uses more then a PC can handle. PS2 is currently emulable at 25fps+ as far as I know, and they keep working at it - while the before mentioned 300 Mhz CPU, but its acting in a dedicated environment, and doesn't use additional software to process what's written for the consoles environment exclusively. Sort of.

I recommend zophar.net for emulation news.

 

[Theo Samaritan]

The issue with console emulation is that not only does the PC have to emulate the CPU, it has to emulate EVERYTHING exactly as the console managed it.

One example you mention is the original xBox. Unlike what you may think the xBox is increadibly hard to emulate because it uses a different (and larger) number of values in its application package launchers than windows (or something similar to that), thus windows struggles to read them (struggles = doesn't at all).

The PS2 emulators that have arrived recently suse 100% of a core 2 e6600 because the thing needs to emulate the Emotion Engine, graphics engine and so forth all on the CPU.

Even today, it is not as clear cut. The closest thing to an emulated 360 game I can think of is GTAIV, which uses 3 CPU cores when it has them to almost max capacity but leaves a forth on its own. This pretty much matches the 360. However because all the games are tuned specifically for the 360 on that console, you need a mother of a graphics card and alot of ram to run it at xbox-quality graphics (known as medium on the settings).

GTAIV is a performance hog and that was emulated using the source code of the game. Emulating a console means it has to run the source code from as many games as possible. Not easy.

 

[Zeromaxx]

Its all money, the 3 console companies want console specific titles more than anything to get people to look at them and make sure that pc users can't get them. If you watched a game for a couple years hoping for a pc version and it only came out on ps3 that could very well be the tipping point of buying a ps3. If companies didn't think they could cheat you out of $300-$500 they would just produce all games for pc instead of waste time on consoles.

 

[KaZZaP]

PS2 emulators just started working within the last year or two. All it takes is time and hardware, but emulation will allways be a console behind.

 

[Gormers1]

Currently you can play emulations from the N64 and PSone generation on most pcs out there. But go to any younger generation and you will probably have problems. Not to mention that this is illegal (as you probably have to use pirated versions as games).

 

[SilentHunter7]

The main reason is that consoles have their own instruction sets and hardware that are different than the architecture that PCs use (It's the same reason MAC programs are incompatible with PCs, and vice-versa). An emulator has to translate the Console machine code into something a PC can understand and work with, and do it efficiently enough to leave enough system resources to actually run the game at a decent framerate. No small task.

Imagine trying to write a program that replicates a computer running other programs, and it itself has to be run inside a program.

 

[Fightgarr]

And Wii homebrews are awesome, wish I had the money to make the Wiimote work with my computer T_T

I'd be fine with a Wiimote that worked at all.

 

[Theo Samaritan]

The emulators themselves are not illegal. But in order to get them to work you need a bios dump from the console in question, and ISO's of games. Game ISO's are perfectly leagle if you own the game (at least in the UK) and the Bios is leagle if you dump it from your own console.

 

[xitel]

And Wii homebrews are awesome, wish I had the money to make the Wiimote work with my computer T_T

I'd be fine with a Wiimote that worked at all.

Wiimotes work fine if you tune it properly and get rid of any extraneous infrared sources near your TV, not really a complaint

Not if you chuck it through your TV. Then they're both buggered.

 

[Fightgarr]

I was under the impression that they were still having trouble emulating PSX games. Meh, if I like a game and I own the console, I prefer to look for a real copy of it.

 

[Art Axiv]

And Wii homebrews are awesome, wish I had the money to make the Wiimote work with my computer T_T

I'd be fine with a Wiimote that worked at all.

Wiimotes work fine if you tune it properly and get rid of any extraneous infrared sources near your TV, not really a complaint

Not if you chuck it through your TV. Then they're both buggered.

We are OT'ing, let's get back to emulation. Now they have rubber condom-things for wiis so nothing happens when you chuck them at the telly.

I already said, what most people wrote after me -

Environment = Hardware + Software.

To run an emu, You need

PC Environment recreating the Console Environment, which means in an ideally effecient written emu of a console the Emu won't affect the speed (No resources taken by the whole Enviornment conversion), it still won't be enough to get a PS3/Xbox360 running since you still have to load up the firmware and provide the machine with the equivalent of hardware the console uses. That is, we are talking about an ideal emu. Alpha emu's are riddled with memory leaks, glitches, and incompatibility bugs. Should I keep going?

 

[geldonyetich]

Console to PC Emulation is hardly anything new, when you consider that there's a ton of effective SNES/Gameboy/Genesis/Apple][e/C64/Arcade/ect emulators out there. There's no such thing as hardware too proprietary to emulate, it's just a matter of time.

There's basically three hurdles involve:

1. Computer hardware needs to become sufficiently powerful to pretend to be the hardware that is being emulated. (Inevitable - computers are getting more powerful all the time.)

2. Somebody with the necessary technical skills to reverse engineer the hardware into a software emulation (usually doing a lot of ROM downloading) has to be bored enough to invest the necessary time and effort into doing this largely thankless work.

3. The company that owns the rights to create the hardware needs to slack off enough on the copyright protection to not sue into the stone age all people involved in phase 2.

So, you're going to have to put your desire to rape everything of value for those interested in selling that console on hold until conditions 1, 2, and 3 are satisfied. Considering our past history of emulators, it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that it will happen eventually.

 

[Danny Ocean]

Step 1: Buy the awesomesauce parts you want for your Xbox.
Step 2: Find the Drivers and the OS for your PC of your choice.
Step 3: Get a PC engineer to install Windows as a secondary OS for your Xbox hard drive (yes it's possible, and probably not very expensive. some people switch between 98 and XP at startup).
Step 4: Plug that shit in.
Step 5: Immerse in liquid nitrogen.
Step 6: Let 'er rip

You could always get a big PC case and just install all the components of the consoles inside it. Then liquid cool it. Seriously. I was thinking about doing this with my PC and the 360 until I realised that opening a 360 screwed up it's game playing ability, right?

If not then I'll make one when I have my own money. And some more tools...

hmm... runs off to plan.