Programming Discussion Thread

[Shonumi]

Probably software rendering when you get down to it. I assume the Virtual Consoles compute pixel data and store it to a buffer using the Wii's CPU, then that data is put somewhere the Wii can draw it (External Frame Buffer aka XFB?). Please understand that "rendering" 2D things like that refers to calculating what the pixel's color and position should be, and this requires pulling information about the tiles, palettes, and other 2D attributes. Rendering like that isn't something you can just pass off to a GPU unless it's built or forced to understand the tiling system you want to use. In the case of Dolphin's VC support for these 2D systems, I'd guess the only thing your GPU helps with is drawing/blitting the final contents of the XFB or something to that effect. A Dolphin dev would be more familiar with this than I am, however.