Wii graphics architecture info

[pyromuffin]

Hi there,
I'm currently in the process of hacking the new nvx raytracing extensions into the vulkan backend, and I'm looking for info on the wii hardware, specifically the graphics architecture.
Googling for this info doesn't get me very far, so I am wondering where I can find details on how the hardware works, and how you guys emulate it. I mean, I can look at the code all day, but it would be better to know the rationale.

Thanks!

[argadelfinen]

You are unlikely to have much luck trying to hack implicit raytracing into an interface built for rasterisation.

[MayImilae]

We talked about the possibility of raytracing in detail in this thread - https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-possibilities-for-future-ray-tracing

The short answer is that it is impossible for an emulator to add raytracing.

As for GC/Wii GPU information, we talked about it on the blog.

https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2013/10/12/d3d9-why-its-not-part-dolphins-future/
https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2014/03/15/pixel-processing-problems/
https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2017/07/30/ubershaders/#the-problem

[pyromuffin]

(10-15-2018, 08:16 AM)MayImilae Wrote: We talked about the possibility of raytracing in detail in this thread - https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-possibilities-for-future-ray-tracing

The short answer is that it is impossible for an emulator to add raytracing.

As for GC/Wii GPU information, we talked about it on the blog.

https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2013/10/12/d3d9-why-its-not-part-dolphins-future/
https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2014/03/15/pixel-processing-problems/
https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2017/07/30/ubershaders/#the-problem

Hey thanks for the response and links. 


I think I'm going to try anyways. It seems to me, to not be impossible, and actually some of the fixed function bits of the HW makes its easier than doing it on other more flexible architectures (like being able to extract transform matrices from fixed locations in memory). Of course it wont work for everything, but I'm not trying to get EVERYTHING to work.

Re gfx arch: I'm curious where you guys learned in the first place. I'm a pretty experienced graphics engineer, and (current gen) console dev, so I am no stranger to stuff like this, but knowing how you guys arrived at the implementation would be very useful. If this isn't documented anywhere, then maybe the best way is to dig through the code after all.

Thanks!