2016

>2016
>still no original Xbox emulator

Why?

Other urls found in this thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=e34TzC6P4Xo
ngemu.com/threads/why-is-xbox-emulation-premature.132032/
sourceforge.net/projects/cxbx/
gamasutra.com/blogs/BrianSchmidt/20111117/8911/Designing_the_Boot_Sound_for_the_Original_Xbox.php
jetsetradio.live/
xenia.jp/
rpcs3.net/
github.com/espes/xqemu
twitter.com/NSFWRedditGif

Weird cpu

No one cares about the 2 exclusives that weren't on pc.

/thread
The xbox just isn't worth emulating.

>no design documents for the gpu

People like to mod the machine itself.

>tfw you will never play JSRF in 1080p widescreen in your lifetime

Poorly documented custom Nvidya graphics and the audio subsystem is wonky.

Is a really complex platform that requires a lot of reverse engineer research.

Wrong board. Fuck off newfags.

>inb4 but it is just a custom Pentium III PC!

emulation is Sup Forums, can you kindly fuck off to your reddit /r/WeAreNerdssxD ?


it's due to complex architecture and lack of exclusive titles to make it worthy to be emulated.

;_;

Because the hardware is weird and there's basically no documentation for it. That's insanely hard to reverse-engineer and accurately recreate.

The nvidia GPU is ultra turbo proprietary.

Also there's no exclusives for it.

only games I've ever given a shit on the xbox are fucked in some way

>Conker: Reloaded
better graphics but outside of that much worse than the original and censored about as flagrantly hard as possible and online is long past dead

>Dino Crisis 3
I know this one is cat shit but I loved 1 and 2 and want to just end it with this one

youtube.com/watch?v=e34TzC6P4Xo
>Video footage is 8x speed from whence it was recorded

Otogi 1 & 2
Panzer Dragoon Orta
Ninja Gaiden Black
Jade Empire
JSRF
Phantom Crash

Probably a few others I don't remember, also all the games that also came out on PS2 but had better assets on Xbox due to the faster hardware.

The reason I heard was that no emulator is due to the fact that it was so similar to a PC. How do you emulate a PC?

PS3 emulator is actually making a decent amount of progress and I'm excited for that. I've played so many PS3 games but I want some higher texture resolutions and framerate damn it.

>The reason I heard was that no emulator is due to the fact that it was so similar to a PC. How do you emulate a PC?

This is complete gibberish. The x86 instruction set is absolutely huge and without knowing exactly that the fuck the hardware is trying to do building a working emulator isn't going to happen.

There was Fable, but that got ported to PC later on, and it's aged horribly and riddled with bugs.

because they are a dime a dozen... i got mine for $30 at a retro store with a controller and the hook ups. they are much more fun to mod - got mine with XBMC4Xbox as the dashboard (softmod) and plugged into my flatpanel doing 1080i. good for emulators and a spare DVD player (without that fucking kit Micro$oft made you pay for).

I'm more concerned about no decent Dreamcast emulators. There are some and they even play some games as "at least it can turn on and turn off", but the graphics are very poor. Last time I've tried some of them maybe 4 or 5 years ago, pretty sure nothing has changes since then and the latest versions are still

Jade Empire is on PC and JSRF is coming

To be honest the only game I'd actually want to try out is Panzer Dragoon Orta

>How do you emulate a PC?
With a hypervisor. The CPU part is easy. It's a 733MHz Intel Coppermine.

As I heard it the big problem is the NV2A GPU. Even Microsoft didn't actually get full documentation for the GPU, as ridiculous as that sounds. Parts involving the cache subsystem and the shared memory are particularly troublesome (because some of the documentation that does exist is wrong).

The sound is also a bitch, because MCPX is essentially an early nForce SoundStorm - full of errata, very few of which are documented.

That said, a lot of things were successfully coded for it using the proprietary SDK. It had a thriving mod scene and was both easy to chip and the first console that was possible to permanently mod purely in software - and the home theatre players now known as Plex and Kodi have their roots in XBMC, which was formerly called Xbox Media Center. Lots of the debug kits have survived intact.

The main reason is probably just that there isn't enough demand. Even Microsoft's own emulator, for the Xbox 360, wasn't completed for a long time, is replete with serious bugs, and requires extensive patches to the code.

I liked the custom OST support in xbox games

Not enough free time, knowledge or interest.

Great post, user. Highly informative. This shit right here is why I still bother with Sup Forums at all.

>Jsrf is coming
[Citation needed]

It's literally a Pentium iii

Because it's a shit console and nobody would want to emulate it

>Phantom Crash
Mah nigga

So many PS fags...

3. Emulating any hardware by NVIDIA is not a walk in the park! The Xbox's GPU, the NV2A is often assumed just a GeForce 3. It's not! It's similar but not identical. It has some GeForce 4 capabilities too, so it's more of a cross between an NV20 and NV25. This is by no means easy to emulate either. NVIDIA's GPUs have very large register sets and afaik not even half of them have been discovered, and a large portion of known registers have unknown purposes. There is little to no documentation on how NVIDIA GPUs work. The best thing to do is to look at similar GPUs such as RIVA, TNT, and older GeForce cards. Some registers are similar, but not identical. The best place to look for information is in open source drivers available on the net. Adding to the dificulty is that no one has ever discovered how pixel shaders work on NV2x cards, vertex shaders yes though. The Xbox GPU also has exclusive registers that are not found in other GeForce cards. Information on the NV2A's GPU registers are just now beginning to be discovered a few months ago. And yet, there's still a long way to go. The GeForce 3 series is the most mysterious of all NVIDIA GPUs (G7x and G8x aside) and the NV2A is alot worse. "But can't you just directly execute the NV2A instructions on another NVIDIA card?". No, I get alot of questions concerning this, and it is impossible. It's MMIO addresses are different and the exclusive registers must be emulated. Plus, in windows, we don't have ring 0 access anyway, so you all can scratch that idea now. Then comes the NForce 2 chipset. This is where it get easier. The NVIDIA MCPX is the control center for things such as audio, USB for input, Network adapters, PCI, AGP, etc. These things are not really that difficult to emulate IMO except for the audio.
ngemu.com/threads/why-is-xbox-emulation-premature.132032/

4. The Audio system is rather complex. Xbox's audio consists of at least 4 DSPs, and audio codec (AC '97) and an NVIDIA SoundStorm APU. The DSPs shouldn't be a problem (just figuring out what they all are is) nor should the AC '97 but the NVIDIA SoundStorm APU is the really difficult part. So far I haven't found any information on this thing, but right now, it's relevance is low.

5. The Xbox BIOS isn't fully understood. The basic execution process of the BIOS is understood, but details on the process are at a loss. What we do know gives us hints, but before the BIOS can be emulated, we'll need a better understanding of the Xbox hardware layout because the BIOS does some unknown hardware initialization at boot time and writes to the hardware directly without using any XDK stuff. It will take some time, and effort, but I'll eventually get it working.

6. Video Encoder "Hell". Instead of using a RAMDAC for video output, the Xbox uses a Video Encoder. What makes this suck a pain? Microsoft sought the need to change the video encoder every other Xbox version (there are seven in all, 1.0 - 1.6). Why, I dunno, it's a Microsoft thing, they always tend to try to "fix" things that aren't broken >.> AFAIK, there are at least 3 different Video Encoders used: Conexant CX25871, Focus FS454, and Xcalibur. For more information in Xbox video encoders, click here. Emulating all three video encoders is only less than half the battle, the real problem is that BIOSes can be specifically tied to a specific encoder depending on it's version (don't quote me on this though). Like PS2, every Xbox model revision has a updated BIOS and has different expectations. This is a potential problem, but not exactly major.

Basically, I'm trying to get this "Xbox should be easy to emulate because it's just like a PC" crap out of your heads. I'm sure that most of you will disagree with me on this, but for these reasons and more, on a low level, Xbox is harder to emulate than PS2.

Phantom Motherfucking Dust
Gun Valkyrie
Steel Battalion
Mech Assault
Blood Wake
DOAX

Obvious troll is obvious.

Phantom dust is golden too. Mechs and cards, I'm down.

Troll meant for

because the ps3 and ps2's cpu isn't weird.

Emulation and video game engines and programming related to video games is Sup Forums. Talking about the xbox itself would belong on Sup Forums

NullDC works pretty well if you ask me - I used it to play vanishing point and demolition racer earlier this year.

Seriously just buy one. 25 bucks at a flea market, mod it, and play gameboy/snes/sega/ps1/xb1 games & movies on it.

Literally just an Intel Celeron.

The reason it's hard to emulate is because both the Nvidia GPU and Intel CPU have weak or non-existent documentation. A lot of it would have to be reverse engineered.

1. Is a PC easy to emulate? Well, I wouldn't say so myself. Take a look at the source code from bochs. A lot of source code/work isn't it?

2. Emulating an x86 CPU is a lot harder than it sounds. I don't know where this mindless assumption comes from. Yes, there's loads of documentation on how the x86 processor works, but that doesn't exactly make it easy. First of all, the x86 instruction set is M-A-S-S-I-V-E! There can be at least 20 different versions of one instruction (i.e. There are many different versions of the MOV instruction, as well as INC, DEC, ADD, SUB, SHR, SHL, AND, OR, XOR etc.) and it takes time to implement them all. Of course, that's not exactly difficult. The real problem is that any modern x86 processor including the Pentium III can execute multiple instructions at once. So it's not like emulating a Z80 doing one instruction at a time. The actual algorithm and how x86 does this is undocumented and still unknown. In short, the Xbox's CPU can be emulated, but not accurately.

You guys know that xqemu exist right?

Honestly I found DEMUL to be better, however, I didn't really test that many games.

I know the guy who did most of the software audio architecture on the OG Xbox, I wonder how many of the audio related emulation questions he could answer. He's not with Microsoft anymore but probably wants to remain on good terms with them, and I wouldn't even know where to begin when it comes to asking him about it.

Any chance you could get him in here, or at least show him this thread?

I'm dying to know more about how the OG Xbox was engineered.

Reicast on android is decent...the problem is it's development is focused on android

Midtown Madness 3
MechAssault

:)

You could just buy an original Xbox. The console is dirt cheap, as are most of the games.

The real hardware is just $20

Never heard about the gamecube spiders?

sourceforge.net/projects/cxbx/

>Last Update: 2013-04-22

>tfw all the best emulator projects are abandoned
>tfw drk||Raziel is dead

> tfw you only have the skill to make a chip8 emulator

There aren't enough people interested in making emulators for the original xbox.

Can I reminsce about Midtown Madness 3, user? So many childhood memories playing that game on Xbox Live.

The game, surprisingly, didn't have that many kids online, and I mostly hung-out with adults. I'm still humbled by how patient they were with my shit, and they taught me a thing or two about manners.

Games would look shitty on a modern TV, and before you mention the component cables...only a handful of games could do 720p.

Did you know Midtown Madness 3 was not made by Angel Studios?

weird GPU actually

You're welcome. This is Sup Forums, by the way - hence my answering about the technological challenges with emulation, rather than the digital culture you can save with it.

Fine for now. For the long term digital preservation of those few Xbox-exclusive titles, the real hardware won't last forever. It's one of the curses of emulation that frequently people don't really push to get it working until the last few boards are dying. But take a look at the MAME team's astounding work.

It would be really nice if he could talk to some of the people attempting Xbox emulation.

Or what the hell was going on with the default dash ambient audio. It's some creepy shit.

That - the huge disparity between resolutions and display technologies from the source architecture to the target - is something almost every emulator to date has tackled already, from displaying it directly, to upscaling techniques, to simply rendering in higher resolution, to exotic filters meant to partially simulate the old display technology. It's already an active area of continued research and that particular platform wouldn't bring anything new to the table.

>Even Microsoft's own emulator, for the Xbox 360
you mean the xbox emulator for xbox360? (just want to be sure i understood this correctly)

Always one guy who thinks a pure Sup Forums is just cell phone talk and home screens.

YOU GUYS ARE ROAST CHICKEN

would you go away? you're pretty newfag for thinking a talk on the complex issue of emulation of tech of a unique architecture that happens to be a video game console belongs in /vidya/. Aspies Flare Up, maybe?

Makes sense

>The real problem is that any modern x86 processor including the Pentium III can execute multiple instructions at once. So it's not like emulating a Z80 doing one instruction at a time. The actual algorithm and how x86 does this is undocumented and still unknown.
Emulating an x86 on an x86 would probably just be a matter of doing some JIT compilation and sandboxing the memory space. It would be a lot of work to implement all of the instructions but it wouldn't be impossible.

It's not like x86 hasn't been emulated before. I used to run Windows XP in an emulator

You know good games.
You forgot Phantom Dust tho

there's very few worthwhile games that aren't also on PS2/PC

>Ninja Gaiden Black
My gamefu

Like the audio that plays for the no disc menu? I think he did that. He made the startup sound. Here's an interview he did about it:
gamasutra.com/blogs/BrianSchmidt/20111117/8911/Designing_the_Boot_Sound_for_the_Original_Xbox.php

I'd love to show him the thread, but I only know him because he teaches audio design at my university, so I won't see him until the fall.

:(
jetsetradio.live/

I'm figuring disinterest. It's purely a hobby project and doesn't pay the bills and is also difficult for a hobby, thus no fucks to be had by anyone that could try.

>tfw i had that game but never played it because sega gt 2002 was on the same disc.

The days of emulation are over.
PS3 and PS4, Xbox, 360, XOne will never be emulatable.

Instead it's become more efficient to beg for ports.

>not understanding the concept of love
>future

Don't be so pessimistic. The XBone and PS4 are basically just off the shelf hardware, so it might not be too hard to write a compatibility layer ala Wine.

>MM3
My nigga

Because quite honestly, no one gives a shit for the Xbox. You can buy it 2nd hand for 10 bucks moded to play pirated games.

you could probably emulate the ps4 better tan the ps3 in afew years,the cell was a POS remember, now we got more pc like hardware.

They can be emulated.
But they never will be because the encryption they use now is unbeatable and most of the games can only be played if you're online anyway.

Hardware is not the problem.

xenia.jp/
rpcs3.net/

progress is way slower compared to previous generations, but newer consoles are also far more complex, so it can only be expected

I can't tell you how many PlayStation 2s I've bought for

I just want someone to emulate a 360 with PowerMac G5s like Microsoft did. I'd love to pick up a second PowerMac and play some Crackdown

>most of the games can only be played if you're online anyway
Really? I haven't been a console peasant for about ten years; has it really gotten this bad? My entire Steam collection is playable offline.

PS2 emulation was already perfect 4 years ago.
They're being worked on because someone is fucking bored.

In comparison the same someone could work on PS3 for 10 years and get nowhere. The hardware of last gen was a nightmare.

And the software lock of this gen pretty much makes Denuvo look like a 90s CD check.

>Crackdown
People played that game? It was just a ticket for the Halo 3 Beta.

github.com/espes/xqemu

Are you joking? Microsoft didn't even allow people to power on their consoles if the spy camera wasn't connected when they released X1.

>PS2 emulation was already perfect 4 years ago.
If it was perfect there wouldn't be a compatibility list.

It's the only 360 exclusive I give a shit about

There are already working PS3 and 360 emulators. Also a working Wii U emulator that's a lot further along, although it's possibly using stolen code and is closed source as a result. I still remember the days when people said NEVER EVER about the PS2, yet look where we are now.

>5 games out of 50000 can't be played
>it's not perfect yet

>the encryption they use now is unbeatable
I guess I need to buy a PS4 sometime to get the few Japanese waifus that won't be ported to steam.

You seem to misunderstand the word perfect.

I played it after using it for the beta. lotsa people did out of boredom or curiosity

>implying every PS2 could play every PS2 game ever made

The fact, you can play JP and NA titles on the same emulator is amazing already.

That isn't amazing at all.