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    by Published on February 24th, 2009 19:57

    Zodttd posted a great newspost detailing why emulation is at this time slower on the iphone/ipod touch

    Here’s a little editorial by me… Today I was asked why the iPhone & iPod Touch runs emulators slower than the GP2X. This is an excellent question which I’d like to address. Many of the emulators I port over to the iPhone come from the GP2X. The GP2X is a 200MHz ARM920T processor based homebrew-friendly handheld. The iPhone for instance, has an ARM11 processor running at about 412MHz. You’d think if I were to take the same code from the GP2X and get it running on the iPhone, it would run faster. Sadly that’s wrong. It seems there’s quite a few factors in the way of getting certain types of applications such as emulators running to their full potential on the iPhone.

    Take for example snes4iphone. In this case there were many optimizations done in tightly written ARM assembly for the assorted chipsets the SNES uses within the PocketSNES software being ported. The sad fact was I was unable to use most of that assembly code as it would take major rewrites and time to get it to work on the iPhone. The reason for this is the iPhone & iPod Touch’s operating system keeps a register globally allocated. This register, R9, can not be used in the majority of ARM assembly code out there for emulators (there are instances where you can save and restore this register to use it). So I have to drop back to a slower C/C++ interpreter for emulation. The same holds true for dynarecs used in gpSPhone and psx4iphone. Losing a register in a dynarec tends to bring performance down. Basically, existing ARM assembly (fast) can’t be used, dynarecs lose a register making them slower, and we’re left with generally the slowest form of interpreters.

    Next we have the fact we are dependant on touch controls. I’ve noticed, and others have too, that touching the screen at more than one point at the same time (multitouch) and moving a bit will slow down my emulators. In fact it should slow down anything hogging the CPU. PocketPC’s also tend to have this issue come up. There’s not much that can be done to get around it except make the program you use fast enough to handle the extra load multitouch equates to. This is difficult when we’re already being slowed down by other factors. Then add a translucent screen overlay for landscape play and your emulator gets an instant and large performance hit. This too is noticed when the emulator is question can’t handle the extra load placed on it by the feature.

    Another factor is the operating system itself. It keeps background processes going which can suck up RAM, chew up precious CPU time, or both. What else you find out is there is no way to directly access the framebuffer (though I’ve tried and got close) to simply blit pre-rendered frames to the screen. The iPhone & iPod Touch didn’t seem to be designed with the thought in mind that some games, and especially emulators will pre-render a frame to display in memory, then copy that memory to the screen X times a second to get it’s X FPS. Instead we’re left with two options. For jailbroken devices we have the Private Framework CoreSurface. CoreSurface lets us write directly to a CALayer of a view. But this is not the same as writing to a framebuffer, and you have the overhead of calling setNeedsDisplay which lands up drawing other views and generally slowing things down where it not need be.Then you have CoreGraphics which lets you do something similar to CoreSurface during the drawRect portion of setNeedsDisplay, and also takes longer in the process. Why not OpenGL? Well we’re stuck with Open GL ES 1.1, and 1.1 doesn’t include the functionality needed for doing this any faster than what we have already. In fact it’s usually slower, and some have benchmarked blitting a frame to the 320×480 screen as 15FPS slow

    Speaking of frameworks, we have AudioToolbox. This framework works great for streaming music, but when you want to stream audio being generated at specific intervals, you land up getting a very touchy timing situation. When dealing with OSS for Linux then coming to AudioToolbox, there will be some stress involved seeing how many buffers in your ring to use. Then tweaking that alongside the best buffer size to get by with decent audio is a pain. Change the audio rate and it all goes out of whack. It would be nice to have more control of the callbacks and their intervals when it comes to AudioToolbox, but this is what we deal with.

    And finally we have the simple premise of writing more pixels to the screen and adding (even hardware based) scaling and rotation for things like landscape mode just plain ole slow things down. The GP2X has a 320×240 screen. The iPhone & iPod Touch have twice that, at 320×480. When you have a higher resolution screen and, for instance, no hardware to handle rendering at a lower resolution…you’re left with slowdowns.

    Part of what I enjoy about working on these emulators for systems like
    ...
    by Published on February 24th, 2009 19:08

    via Kotaku


    Upcoming black, white and red Wii title MadWorld is a unique looking game. It runs, however, in 480i and not the more HD-kosher 480p.

    Surprised? IGN's Matt Casamassina noticed the game was running in 480i while capturing MadWorld videos. "Usually, lack of 480p support can be credited to developer laziness," writes Casamassina. "No way such a claim can be leveled at Platinum Games or MadWorld... I'm wondering, then, if the studio simply wasn't aware that 480p is 'kind of a big deal' for a chunk of Wii owners."

    But is it? Really?! ...
    by Published on February 24th, 2009 19:04

    via Gamedaily


    With the Nintendo DSi set to officially launch on April 5, Walmart is already preparing to cash in on yet another popular Nintendo product. Walmart.com today announced that "tens of thousands" of units of the DSi handheld are now available for pre-order.

    The online offer is around only "while supplies last." The DSi can be ordered in either black or blue for $169.

    "Walmart.com has made tens of thousands of Nintendo DSi units available for preorder, giving more customers the chance to enjoy one of the most sought-after handheld consoles in history," said Kelly Thompson, Walmart.com's chief merchant. "Customers continue to choose Walmart.com to find the best online selection and strongest values in video games, especially for popular releases like the Nintendo DSi."

    The DSi has been topping the charts in Japan where some feel the DS Lite market is already mostly saturated. In North America, however, the DS Lite continues to be purchased at a rapid rate, so it'll be interesting to see how quickly Americans flock to the more expensive DSi. ...
    by Published on February 24th, 2009 18:53

    via Computer and Video Games


    Over half of the Xbox 360's online userbase pays a Gold subscription to play online, claim statistics from the Seattle PI.

    Citing an internal Microsoft document dating between February and June 2008, the report claims that 56 percent of worldwide Xbox Live members paid a Gold subscription at the beginning of last year.

    The figure is apparently down from 60% at the same time the year before, which isn't bad if you expect the number of people with Xbox 360s has undoubtedly gone up.

    While the figures don't reach into 2009 - or even go past the launch of the New Xbox Experience - the percentage of paying Xbox Live members apparently stayed steady up until its announcement in June 2008.

    Expectedly, the highest percentage of Gold subscribers is in the US, where the number stays flat at around 60%.

    Speaking in an e-mail statement, Microsoft said: "We've said before that Xbox Live is experiencing incredible growth; in January we had more new Live members join than any other month in the history of Xbox Live.

    "With more than 17 million active members, a majority of whom are paying members, Live is a rich social entertainment and gaming experience that is unmatched in the industry."
    ...
    by Published on February 24th, 2009 18:48

    via Computer and Video Games


    Microsoft has officially lifted the lid on a new red Xbox 360, which will come as part of a limited edition Resident Evil 5 bundle pack.

    The new bundle will hit shelves in the US and UK on Resi 5's launch day. There's no offial word on price yet, but Game's listing the pack for £229. Not bad.

    Here's the official word:

    In celebration of the landmark Resident Evil franchise coming to Xbox 360 for the first time, Microsoft unveiled today an Xbox 360 Resident Evil Limited Edition Console Bundle.

    Available the same day Resident Evil 5 ships to store shelves, Friday, 13th March, Xbox 360 fans will be able to pick up the bundle featuring an exclusive red Xbox 360 from select retailers.

    Fans will enjoy the same premium Xbox 360 Elite experience at an even greater value with a copy of Resident Evil 5, matching Limited Edition red Wireless Controller, black Xbox 360 Headset, a 120 GB Hard Drive and exclusive premium Resident Evil 5 theme (download via Xbox Live)."

    MS says supplies "are very limited" (of course it would) and you'll also get a bonus card to download Super Street Fighter ll Turbo HD Remix.


    Red Xbox and hardware package images right here ...
    by Published on February 24th, 2009 01:01

    News/release from albinofrenchy

    First, on the PDF compatibility side, I've managed to solve the issue of non-embedded fonts not displaying. The program now uses a set of built-in fonts; so it might not always display exactly how the author wanted it to if the font is something obscure. Or dingbats, which I stripped out because it was simply too big to include.


    Please please be sure to message me if PDF's don't work now, I have no test pdf's that break that don't have large images at this point.


    On the features side, I've added a 'preview' button that displays a 'mini' view of the document. The button is the only filled in icon on the small status bar at the bottom; it looks like a bulls-eye. I'll change the icon later to something that makes sense.


    If you just tap the mini-image, it will pan to put the point you clicked in the upper-left corner.


    If you draw a line with the stylus, it will adjust the zoom on the document to fill the screens with the size of the line you drew. Hopefully this is more intuitive in practice than it is in description. For instance, if you draw a line from the left to right of the document, it will zoom to fit the width of the document to the screen. If you draw a line from the top to the bottom of the document, it will zoom out to fit the height of the document to the screen.


    I'd really like comments on the GUI functionality. Does it do what you expect? Especially if it doesn't, tell me why and what you expect it to do. Ideally I'd have it so the user can not read any instructions and be up and running with this.


    I've also provided the ability to change files. This hasn't been extensively tested, and there may be memory leaks in it, so beware of that. If you hit 'start', it should pop up with the file browser.


    Another new tool is the console, which you can layer over the screen with the 'Select' button. This should make the 'debug' builds not necessary so I will not release anymore of those.


    Lastly, rendering should be signifigantly quicker now. Still could be better, but for now it seems usable.

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    by Published on February 24th, 2009 00:58

    News via nintendomax

    RatLoop was developed in 2006 an adaptation of their PC "Gearhead Garage" for the GBA "Gearhead Garage Adventure" The game was never completed or published for marketing reasons, we can nevertheless benefit from the trial version limited to 30-45 minutes . With this game you can repair, modify, build entirely on the car in a garage in 3D.

    Download and Give Feedback Via Comments ...
    by Published on February 24th, 2009 00:58

    News via nintendomax

    RatLoop was developed in 2006 an adaptation of their PC "Gearhead Garage" for the GBA "Gearhead Garage Adventure" The game was never completed or published for marketing reasons, we can nevertheless benefit from the trial version limited to 30-45 minutes . With this game you can repair, modify, build entirely on the car in a garage in 3D.

    Download and Give Feedback Via Comments ...
    by Published on February 24th, 2009 00:55

    News via nintendomax

    Flash and HeadKaze directed a remake of the Commodore 64 (1986) from Shoot em Up / V-scrolling "Warhawk" for our beloved DS.

    Download and Give Feedback Via Comments ...
    by Published on February 24th, 2009 00:53

    BossK has released a new version of his port of scummvm for the Wii:

    - Remapped keys: Home=F5, Up=GMM.
    - Predictive input enabled (hold right) for AGI.

    Download and Give Feedback Via Comments ...
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