Playstation 3 emulator?

[marcella]

I was just wondering. I know you would have to have double of what a ps3 comes with to even run it. but i dont think they can make one myself.

[gibmonster]

I was just wondering. I know you would have to have double of what a ps3 comes with to even run it. but i dont think they can make one myself.

Hmm. We don't even have good emulation for PS2 games on PC and we must have more than double the power of PS2 now.

A PS3 one would take forever. By the time it happens you'd save money and time by buying a ps3 lol.

I had a friend who refused to buy a gamecube at 100AUD and wasted money trying to get an emulator to work only to run games at a few frames per second. With each generation, emulation becomes less and less worth it.

[Delirious]

Its not gonna happen, just like you'll never see a Wii emulator, for obviously different reasons of course. But on the PS3 side of things, if you want to play ps3 games just buy a ps3.

[frosty]

actually for some of the same resons, no sixaxis.

[Viper]

A PS2 emulator will probably become viable in 2-3 years. Intel keeps dropping these insanely killer CPU's on the market.

[Delirious]

actually for some of the same resons, no sixaxis.

Yeah, for some games I guess. Are there any games that actually require the sixaxis though?

[Viper]

Yeah, for some games I guess. Are there any games that actually require the sixaxis though?

Lair

[makeitlookreal]

I think it is possible to emulate the PS3. But you would probably need a very powerful computer. You would probably need a CPU with perhaps 16 cores.

[Viper]

Emulate the PS3???? Maybe NASA can.

[makeitlookreal]

I'm certain someone with a super computer and enough manpower to port over the code could emulate the PS3.

[Smokey]

why is it so hard to emulate Ps2?? its seven yrs old

[GodMachine_Iridius_Dio]

Hardware quirks are what make it difficult - Some things simply can not be emulated, like bandwidth, memory space, etcetera. Anyway, as for a PS3 emulator, maybe another ten years.

[gibmonster]

Hardware quirks are what make it difficult - Some things simply can not be emulated, like bandwidth, memory space, etcetera. Anyway, as for a PS3 emulator, maybe another ten years.

Yeah. But in 10 years why bother? You'll probably be able to get one in the 100-150 US price range....if they're still around.

[curryking1]

why is it so hard to emulate Ps2?? its seven yrs old

EDRAM, and other hardware issues. Bandwidth the PC CPUs just don't have. Not because they are weaker, just they are made with different ideas in mind.

I bet PS3 emulation will happen in a shorter time period from it's launch than the PS2 from it's launch by a long shot though. Maybe 1 or 2 years less time?

Yeah. But in 10 years why bother? You'll probably be able to get one in the 100-150 US price range....if they're still around.

Because I STILL play FF VII, VIII, and IX? And Chrono Cross? And yada yada yada? It's been more than ten years for some games I play :D

I can see myself easily having fun playing an emulated Kingdom Hearts or God of War on my PC in the future. Hawtness. Even PSP, Crisis Core and Dissidia and stuff like that. Those are keepers I bet.

[VG Aficionado]

EDRAM, and other hardware issues. Bandwidth the PC CPUs just don't have. Not because they are weaker, just they are made with different ideas in mind.Not to mention the Emotion Engine is pretty much the only 128 bits CPU in the market.

I bet PS3 emulation will happen in a shorter time period from it's launch than the PS2 from it's launch by a long shot though. Maybe 1 or 2 years less time?Mr. Cell says that there's no way it'll be emulated in the foreseeable future.

[Smokey]

Mr. Cell says that there's no way it'll be emulated in the foreseeable future.
is that like the 8 ball?

[Passive]

^ sorta smokes.

its alot smaller though. and not a ball. and about an infinite number times smarter.

[Smokey]

nice change Passive :)

[Passive]

Thanks Smokey :) we should play warhawk together soon! lol im yet to see anyone in that game from psi yet :(

[Segitz]

There won't be an emulator in the near future (and by near, I mean by 2010 or 2012). There is a pretty competent PS2 emulator (PCSX2), which runs most games of mine mostly playable (I have a 3800 X2 and 2GB RAM, the GPU doesnt matter much) with some FPS problems et al.

I think, hardwarewise, the PS3 is MUCH easier to emulate than the other two consoles, as the PS3 is very much PC like and both, the GPU and the CPU are very well documented. The problem WILL be the firmware, as it is crypted like hell (thats also why there's no good PSP emulator still).

The Sixaxis is NO problem at all. It already has a usable driver in the official Linux Kernel! Never tried it myself yet, but I have seen videos and docs, which say it does.

[VG Aficionado]

There won't be an emulator in the near future (and by near, I mean by 2010 or 2012). There is a pretty competent PS2 emulator (PCSX2), which runs most games of mine mostly playable (I have a 3800 X2 and 2GB RAM, the GPU doesnt matter much) with some FPS problems et al.

I think, hardwarewise, the PS3 is MUCH easier to emulate than the other two consoles, as the PS3 is very much PC like and both, the GPU and the CPU are very well documented. The problem WILL be the firmware, as it is crypted like hell (thats also why there's no good PSP emulator still).But there's no foreseeable way to emulate Cell at full speed. How are you supposed to replicate the SPEs, their local stores and their bandwidths? And how would you emulate the FlexIO bridge?

The Sixaxis is NO problem at all. It already has a usable driver in the official Linux Kernel! Never tried it myself yet, but I have seen videos and docs, which say it does.But it defeats the purpose of not having to buy PS3 hardware, or third party motion sensing controllers.

[Smokey]

Thanks Smokey :) we should play warhawk together soon! lol im yet to see anyone in that game from psi yet :(

ya ive played it a few times & seen psi'ers on but couldnt join :( i will be on soon!!

[Segitz]

But there's no foreseeable way to emulate Cell at full speed. How are you supposed to replicate the SPEs, their local stores and their bandwidths? And how would you emulate the FlexIO bridge?

But it defeats the purpose of not having to buy PS3 hardware, or third party motion sensing controllers.

How does one emulate the PS2s eDRAM efficiently? Or the very fast RDRAM? On PCSX2 they (interestingly) use low level emulation (i.e. they emulate the hardware, not the games) and it works quite well. About three/four years ago, the first version of PCSX2 was released, which had the PS2s OS running, albeit freakishly slow (less than 5fps). Back then, dual core CPUs were nowhere to be seen, and the AMD 64s were the top of the line (consumerwise). This was 4 years into the PS2s lifecycle. Extrapolated from there on, the first PS3 emulators should appear in 2010 or 11. In 3 to 4 years, we will have access to 8 or even 16 core setups and maybe also CELL cpus for consumer hardware.

But back to "how do you emulate that". The PS1 also had very fast RAM for its time. The framebuffer effects even bring todays Intel "GPUs" to their knees. There are always ways and means to do so. On a PC, the high end (which is mostly needed for such work) GPU bandwidth is already twice or thrice of what the PS3 can (a 8800GTS with a 320bit wide bus and 1200Mhz RAM does 64GBit/s compare to the RSXs 22,4 plus 35 flexio). The CPU otoh will be a much harder nut to crack, not only because the CELL is so fast, but because emulating a CPU is a very demanding task. (The PS1s CPU with 33Mhz demands a ~200Mhz Pentium MMX to be emulated (without graphics)) So, we are talking of a "theoretical" 12Ghz 8 core, which can emulate the CELL :D.

I also depends on how well written the emulator is. If it is 100% compatible, it will be slow as hell, but dropping some "unnecessary stuff" can speed it up quite a bit. So, we will see. I don't doubt a ("working", i.e. XMB) PS3 emulator by 2010 or 11.

[lips]

How does one emulate the PS2s eDRAM efficiently? Or the very fast RDRAM? On PCSX2 they (interestingly) use low level emulation (i.e. they emulate the hardware, not the games) and it works quite well. About three/four years ago, the first version of PCSX2 was released, which had the PS2s OS running, albeit freakishly slow (less than 5fps). Back then, dual core CPUs were nowhere to be seen, and the AMD 64s were the top of the line (consumerwise). This was 4 years into the PS2s lifecycle. Extrapolated from there on, the first PS3 emulators should appear in 2010 or 11. In 3 to 4 years, we will have access to 8 or even 16 core setups and maybe also CELL cpus for consumer hardware.

But back to "how do you emulate that". The PS1 also had very fast RAM for its time. The framebuffer effects even bring todays Intel "GPUs" to their knees. There are always ways and means to do so. On a PC, the high end (which is mostly needed for such work) GPU bandwidth is already twice or thrice of what the PS3 can (a 8800GTS with a 320bit wide bus and 1200Mhz RAM does 64GBit/s compare to the RSXs 22,4 plus 35 flexio). The CPU otoh will be a much harder nut to crack, not only because the CELL is so fast, but because emulating a CPU is a very demanding task. (The PS1s CPU with 33Mhz demands a ~200Mhz Pentium MMX to be emulated (without graphics)) So, we are talking of a "theoretical" 12Ghz 8 core, which can emulate the CELL :D.

I also depends on how well written the emulator is. If it is 100% compatible, it will be slow as hell, but dropping some "unnecessary stuff" can speed it up quite a bit. So, we will see. I don't doubt a ("working", i.e. XMB) PS3 emulator by 2010 or 11.

why not just pop 8 freescale chips in a box, add a 7800, and voila, you have a ps3. ofcourse, obtaining rdram would be criminal, and, like you said, the only thing that matches flexio is flexio, I'm sure a really clever person with lots of money (not me) could have some (limited) success.

oh on the other hand, using ps3 to cluster as super cheap simd farms is actually happening as experiments in universities.

[Hisham]

Dreamcast emulation is near perfect, and the last time I checked, the PS2 emulation scene was pretty good.

I think 10 years down to the line we will get a functional emulator. 5 years after that, I think there will actually be playable emulators then. But keep in mind, this is 15 years in the future. Your just better off buying a PS3 right now.

[Khaos]

Emulation certainly is a possibility, but not now or anytime soon, in my opinion. Everyone else has said the same thing, emulating the effects and usage of hardware just takes alot of processing power itself.

[Segitz]

Dreamcast emulation is near perfect, and the last time I checked, the PS2 emulation scene was pretty good.

I think 10 years down to the line we will get a functional emulator. 5 years after that, I think there will actually be playable emulators then. But keep in mind, this is 15 years in the future. Your just better off buying a PS3 right now.

Perfect PS1 emulation took about 9 years (I am not exactly sure, but PCSX is nearly perfect). Dunno bout DC, but PS2 still needs at least 1-2 years and better PCs to be called good emulation.

As I said above, I guess, we will see XMB emulation in 2010 or 11. Running games... well, when PS4 is out (it usually follows this course, was the same for PS1 and PS2, the PS3 being the easiest to emulate, because it has "standard" hardware inside compared to the other two).


Even now, PS2 emulation isn't what I would call playable (maybe on one of the newest shiniest dual cores AMD and Intel have in store (afaik the emu does not support more than two cores atm)), so buying one is still the option to go (even more for a PS3, as it does all 3 consoles in one :D, sadly for 3.5x the price of a PS2). Only the PS1 as "as good as it gets" in terms of emulation.

Btw, the PCSX crew managed to go online with Monster Hunter last week. Pretty impressive I might add.

[venomv]

Give it time, plenty of time....

[marcella]

Yeah, a PS3 emulator is atleast 5-7 years away, assuming someone can be bothered to make one and the console doesn't bomb.
The deciding factor will probably be the games over the next few years, as that is what drives demand for emulators.

[Segitz]

Yeah, a PS3 emulator is atleast 5-7 years away, assuming someone can be bothered to make one and the console doesn't bomb.
The deciding factor will probably be the games over the next few years, as that is what drives demand for emulators.

There are even emulators for the Jaguar, that abominaly Virtua Nes (or whatever that blindness causing device was called), Dreamcast (well, "bombing" is a moot point)...

Even freaking calculators from TI get emulated!

[gnznroses]

what i don't understand is why emulation ON ps3 hasn't gone very far at all. there's an SNES emu that runs on ps3 linux, but it's slow. you should be able to run an NES one at full speed tho, i imagine. with 10 gazillion NES emulators out there, many for linux, and most open-source, i don't see why there isn't even ONE nes emulator compatible with linux on ps3.

[Smokey]

maybe because you cant touch the RSX with Linux?

[gnznroses]

if it can run an SNES emu at half speed or so, without RSX, it should be able to run an NES emu at full. hell, PS1 plays NES games at full speed, and i'm sure the Cell is more powerful than PS1's CPU and GPU combined.

[venomv]

It would have to be programmed to run without a GPU though, I don't doubt for a second it could be done, but it still has to be done.

[Smokey]

if it can run an SNES emu at half speed or so, without RSX, it should be able to run an NES emu at full. hell, PS1 plays NES games at full speed, and i'm sure the Cell is more powerful than PS1's CPU and GPU combined.

ok ok just a theory i dont know about these things :(

[Segitz]

Hmmm...

if VLC in PS3 linux can decode videos at high bitrate and resolutions, I doubt the NES and SNES emus have a hard time being fast at all. My laptop on battery mode (800Mhz) runs SNES emus at full speed and filtered. I didn't try it yet on the PS3 though. I think, compiling is a bit of a problem. I even think a PS1 emu should run at full speed on the PS3.

[Passive]

give it years....