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Bleemcast hacked?

Agent21KGB - Mar 11, 2003

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ExCyber

Apr 27, 2003

	
	
		
		
			I was just thinking, since Bleemcast seems to emulate some games better then expected, would it be possable to create a similiar PSX emulator for the DC using ePSXe as the base?

ePSXe is not open-source, and probably has a lot of PC-specific code. Even if it could be ported/rewritten, I doubt it would result in a very good emulator compared to writing one specifically for Dreamcast (bleemcast is NOT a port of the PC version of bleem, it was written from scratch for Dreamcast's hardware). Take a look at the Dreamcast port of PCSX to get a general idea of the performance problem that exists with straight porting of applications written for (relatively) high-performance PCs.

	
	
		
		
			i'll second that......and while there at it....can some one look into a gens port?

Gens uses a lot of assembly language, so it can't really be ported as-is.

		Gear		Apr 27, 2003
			There are some spanish guys trying to get the assembler code of this bleemcast beta. delete this, if it has forbidden topics (spanish s...

		THL		Apr 27, 2003
			If my Spanish isn't toally out of hand (and the bablefish didn't translate complete crap ) I think they finally got the sourcecode out of it. If anyone feels up to the task, a donkey-link can be found on the page, that belongs to the board which Gear posted.

Gaz_2_k

Apr 28, 2003

	
	
		
		
			Originally posted by ExCyber@Apr 27, 2003 @ 03:05 PM



 Gens uses a lot of assembly language, so it can't really be ported as-is.

thats no fair!!!!

		AntiPasta		Apr 30, 2003
			assembly is good but all DC devvers are spoiled C++ kids so they can't cope with it

Gaz_2_k

Apr 30, 2003

	
	
		
		
			Originally posted by AntiPasta@Apr 30, 2003 @ 07:28 PM



 assembly is good  



but all DC devvers are spoiled C++ kids so they can't cope with it

so.....your saying if someone comes along with good assembly know-how, it can be ported?

(or is that just wishfull thinking?)

ExCyber

May 1, 2003

	
	
		
		
			all DC devvers are spoiled C++ kids

I'd put forth that Marcus Comstedt and Dan Potter aren't, even if they are providing tools for the "spoiled C++ kids". In general I think the problem isn't a language one, but an innovation one; nobody wants to code something new because there's so much stuff that can just be ported. Porting isn't, in and of itself, a bad thing, but the relative ease has led to a porting-centric DC development scene, which is kind of disappointing. People will go off on tangents about things like translating the assembly source to ZSNES in order to "port" it to Dreamcast, but the idea of actually sitting down and coding a new emulator doesn't even seem to enter their minds (granted, I'm talking about users here, but the whole mindset has kind of infected developers a bit also).

	
	
		
		
			if someone comes along with good assembly know-how, it can be ported?

"Port" is kind of a fuzzy word. Basically what would be needed would be to write replacements for the functions that are in IA-32 assembly language to either SuperH assembly language or some high-level language such as C. Whether or not this counts as "porting" depends on the program you're looking at (i.e. how much of it needs to be replaced, and how important those parts are to the effect of the program) and the bias of those you talk to about it.

		Alexvrb		May 3, 2003
			PCSX has source. Also there's an alpha of it running slowly on the DC (but it is using a software GPU plugin). If someone wanted to pick up a project like that, it would be interesting. But I doubt it'll happen.

		DBOY		May 22, 2003
			The problem with porting is just that, it's porting. These aren't applications written specifically for a Dreamcast, that's why they don't run to the full potential of a Dreamcast.

		Alexvrb		May 24, 2003
			I think that was already established. But most coders who might port something would NOT write it from scratch, not something that complicated. You can rewrite/modify code as needed, but a lot of it can be kept to save you massive amounts of time and give you a starting point. Further, I'm saying that "PcsxDC" was an existing project to port Pcsx to the DC, and even just straight porting it with an open-source software GPU plugin actually met with some success. Creating a PVR-specific GPU plugin would probably help a whole lot. http://www.pcsx.net/files.shtml... - near the bottom. There's an old alpha port by Mark Grilenkov (the one i was referring to above), and a new (?) one with a dead/not yet created link.

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