Faster emulation?

[wmspider]

Hi,
I don't really know how an emulator works, but i think it just "translates" the code, right?
Could it be possible to make a program that does this "translation" outside the psp, in the computer, so the psp just needs to run the translated game? That should speed up the emulation...

[Accordion]

as far as i know that is illegal

you cant alter copyrighted products

[GeEkPiE]

the whole point of an n64 emu on psp is that you hav a protable n64 not to play it hooked up to the computer

you wouldnt be able to take it on the road unless you had a laptop

[carrotman97]

the whole point of an n64 emu on psp is that you hav a protable n64 not to play it hooked up to the computer

you wouldnt be able to take it on the road unless you had a laptop

i think he means convert the games into a specific language other than the n64 i.e. lua (all i could thing of:p ) ad then play it, but like said before that could breach copyright laws (i think;) )

[SSaxdude]

Emulating games in any form is probably illegal. But yes, if a game was written in PSP language it would be definately faster. I think Sony's Playstation "emulator" is just the games but written in PSP code.

[MonoLoco]

God forbid you do something illegal with a copyrighted rom >.>. You do realize even possessing it is illegal?

Now, AFAIK, there are some problems (or at least serious difficulties) with what you're describing (static recompilation) which is why most devs looking for optimization go the dynarec (dynamic recompilation) route, like StrmnNrmn and PSMonkey. Basically, any time there's an opcode that signals a "jump" to another part of the binary, parts of the code are optimized in real time for the system the emulator is running on.

This process in itself has some overhead though (StrmnNrmn's dynarec engine was originally slower than the translated method, but with more and more optimizations it quickly becomes faster).

Anyway, I don't see how static recompilation, if it did work, would affect portability. You download most of the roms from the computer anyway, do you not? What's the difference if you add another step?

[BALL_SAC]

The actual emulaters are not illegal at all... But roms on the other hand, are. Roms are not illegal if you own the actuall game, and/or delete them off your harddrive (or memory unit of some type).

The translation... I cant say much about, but altering any type of copyright product is indeed illegal. Thats when people get in trouble with the law when they get caught doing illegal acts like that. I have never seen an actual alternated version of any type of N64 rom.... So I dont think anybody will take the time to create a "translater" of any type.

[itaintmefoo]

no i thought he ment that like the emulater runs on the comptuer and u play it on the psp with a usb cord or something like the pmp thing ware u do it wireless or am i jsut baballing

[PSmonkey]

closest thing doable is a static recompiled rom at run time. Yet this does not work for a large section of the n64 library.

Best bet for speed up is
1) keep 64bit ops to a minimul
2) a recompiler (preferably dynamic).

[MonoLoco]

Roms are illegal regardless of whether you own the game or not; those disclaimers you see at the top of rom sites saying that ownership makes it legal are just to keep you coming back. That being said, you would probably never get caught, and pirating a game you already own isn't exactly something anyone's going to care about.

The thing is, using that line of logic, what's the difference if you're stealing intellectual property or modifying it...both are illegal, and you likely wouldn't get caught doing either. If you've ever been to a rom site, you'd see there are tons of hacks of pretty much every major commercial release, and I don't see Nintendo showing up at their doors with cease-and-desist letters.

[PSmonkey]

Roms are illegal regardless of whether you own the game or not; those disclaimers you see at the top of rom sites saying that ownership makes it legal are just to keep you coming back. That being said, you would probably never get caught, and pirating a game you already own isn't exactly something anyone's going to care about.

The thing is, using that line of logic, what's the difference if you're stealing intellectual property or modifying it...both are illegal, and you likely wouldn't get caught doing either. If you've ever been to a rom site, you'd see there are tons of hacks of pretty much every major commercial release, and I don't see Nintendo showing up at their doors with cease-and-desist letters.

You're half correct. Rom sites are illegal. Yet Title 17 of the copyright laws allows you to make a backup of your stuff for archive purpose. If you actualy rip the rom your self from your own cart then you are legal. Yet if you download the rom you are illegal since you are downloading someone else rip of their game. Thus it's not a personal backup.

[MonoLoco]

Ok, I guess you have a point, but AFAIK (I was never a part of the N64 homebrew scene, if it even existed), you need special hardware (that expensive dex drive crap?) to extract the data from an N64 cartridge, right? Chances are most of us have no ability to do that, so any roms we'd have would've been attained illegally.