Dolphin on Android?

[zxcvbad]

Hey, I wouldn't asked such question a year ago, but with news that Henrik started to work on PPSSPP (psp) emulator for Android, and upcoming Qualcomm's s4pro quadcore/adreno320 gpu it's again a point of my interest. I've searched and I haven't found any threads regarding this question, so it will be great to know sort of official opinion from Dolphin's team, will it be possible to run it smoothly on high-end android devices, or we would have wait another couple of years? What you guys thinking?

[AnyOldName3]

At least one of the Devs is thinking of working on an ARM port of dolphin, so it will happen at some point. However, the timeframe could be upwards of 3 years, and even then, the ARM processors found in phones won't be powerful enough to run the emulator at any decent speed.

[admin89]

@OP
First :
Most games won't run well on your computer without overclocking
Second :
It would take at least 20 years for phone/tablet hardware to catch up with your current desktop hardware
By that time , AMD and Intel might make some low power consumption - high performance CPU / GPU that can be placed on the phone , tablet
Btw , Current Quad Core Nvidia Tetra 3 < Intel Atom D525 . Most Android application don't support Quad Core (2 cores will be used)

[MayImilae]

Someone on the IRC said they ported Dolphin onto a Galaxy SIII, and actually got it to run. 1% speed (or less, as 1% is the worst it can show). Plus they could have always been joking around, you know how IRC is.

Quote:I've searched and I haven't found any threads regarding this question

You must not have searched very hard.

[NaturalViolence]

If I recall it was an extremely light weight game he (sonicadvance) tested and it was running at 25% speed if I recall. For most games it probably won't get higher than 5% but there is still a lot of optimization work to be done. His work can be found here: http://code.google.com/p/dolphin-emu/source/list?name=arm-support

Quote:It would take at least 20 years for phone/tablet hardware to catch up with your current desktop hardware

That's a gross exaggeration. Smartphones are about 7-8 years behind desktops in cpu performance right now.

Quote:By that time , AMD and Intel might make some low power consumption - high performance CPU / GPU that can be placed on the phone , tablet

That would require a much higher performance per watt than competing arm cpus, which is not possible as long as x86 is maintained.

Quote:Btw , Current Quad Core Nvidia Tetra 3 < Intel Atom D525 .

And the Exynos 5 (cortex-A15 based) is 40-60% faster than any atom cpu out there right now yet uses a fraction of the power.

[delroth]

(11-11-2012, 01:31 PM)NaturalViolence Wrote: If I recall it was an extremely light weight game he (sonicadvance) tested and it was running at 25% speed if I recall. For most games it probably won't get higher than 5% but there is still a lot of optimization work to be done. His work can be found here: http://code.google.com/p/dolphin-emu/source/list?name=arm-support

For the record, that's with about 10% of the JIT implemented and with the video software backend. An accelerated video backend for GLES3 could potentially run the game at 100% speed imho.

[admin89]

Quote:That's a gross exaggeration

"your(his) current desktop hardware" = Core 2 duo + Nvidia 8800GT (not mention about Ram)
Smartphone / Tablet CPU might catch up with Core 2 duo in the next few years but the smartphone / tablet graphic ? I don't think so

Quote:Smartphones are about 7-8 years behind desktops in cpu performance right now.

Basically , you're saying smartphone (ARM) CPU will be as fast as i5 3570k or i7 3770k in the next 8 years lol .
If it was Intel or AMD mobile CPU , i might believe that

Quote: That would require a much higher performance per watt than competing arm cpus, which is not possible as long as x86 is maintained.

It's possible with future AMD APU or future Intel Atom (integrated GPU)
Smartphone + Windows 7 x86 which is last year technology . Don't forget about the new AMD tablet - Z60 APU and next gen Quad Core Atom 22nm CPU + Ivy Bridge GPU . The Quad Core Atom will be used on smartphone (spring 2013 - Japan only) , tablet

[NaturalViolence]

Time to derail.

Quote:(not mention about Ram)

Doesn't matter as I'm sure you know. With a low memory OS 1GB is enough.

Quote:Smartphone / Tablet CPU might catch up with Core 2 duo in the next few years but the smartphone / tablet graphic ? I don't think so

Dolphin doesn't need much GPU horsepower for 1x IR anyways. They'll be caught up in a few years.

Quote:Core 2 duo

Smartphone cpus will be caught up to them in a few years.

Quote:Basically , you're saying smartphone (ARM) CPU will be as fast as i5 3570k or i7 3770k in the next 8 years lol .

Yes......it will. Have you not been paying attention to computer hardware for the last 10 years? This isn't exactly an unusual trend, it's the norm throughout the entire industry.

Quote:If it was Intel or AMD mobile CPU , i might believe that

Why would that make a significant difference? Their mobile cpus are only moderately slower.

Quote:It's possible with future AMD APU or future Intel Atom (integrated GPU)

Even with superior manufacturing technology they'll never be able to reach the same performance per watt as arm cpus. X86 support adds a huge amount of overhead of architectures that are that small. There is no evidence to indicate that this will ever change. Right now they're trying to throw more power at the problem but this will inevitably fail. This is an industry where battery life matters a lot.

Quote:Don't forget about the new AMD tablet - Z60 APU

It's crap compared to the arm alternatives.

Quote:next gen Quad Core Atom 22nm CPU + Ivy Bridge GPU . The Quad Core Atom will be used on smartphone (spring 2013 - Japan only) , tablet

An inferior cpu paired with a decent gpu.

[lamedude]

I don't think companies not named after fruit will be to afford those faster CPUs. Word is Apple is buying up 22nm wafers from TSMC but everyone else is stuck waiting for the GloFo's of the world to catch up.

[NaturalViolence]

What faster cpus? Surely you're not talking about 4-8 years in the future when we will be well beyond 22nm?