Since the feasibility of emulating a tri-core system is so low, could the next generation of the project be a linux distro that just runs Dolphin and the necessary IO rather than running on top of Windows, Mac, or another linux?
So you want them to create an OS? I lol'd
(02-21-2012, 10:39 AM)Fennecat Wrote: [ -> ]Since the feasibility of emulating a tri-core system is so low, could the next generation of the project be a linux distro that just runs Dolphin and the necessary IO rather than running on top of Windows, Mac, or another linux?
Why not take an existing Linux distro and pare it down to the bare essentials needed to run Dolphin? It's not that hard to do a minimalist installation with Tiny Core or Arch. You can get a pretty thin system that're still capable of playing Dolphin (and other emus too).
But say that the next generation of Dolphin becomes a Linux distro, who would want to install yet another OS, no matter how slim it'd be, just to play games? Seems a bit convoluted, to put it lightly.
It'd only be a headache for the developers, since a new host of problems would be introduced. Right now, the forums deal mostly with Dolphin configs, game dumping, hardware choices, and game discussions. Imagine the explosion of bug reports because the Dolphin OS can't detect xyz hardware due to the lack of proper kernel modules, or the user has never partitioned an HDD and can't install the Dolphin OS, or the user has no idea how to dual boot a system and nukes their copy of Windows. I'm not trying to sound overly negative about your idea, just realistic, because these are common problems some people face with Linux distros, especially people new to them.
Compared to the smorgasbord of potential problems, I'd rather stick to what we have. Windows and Mac users download an executable and run it. Linux users compile from source. Leave OS level problems to the OS makers to sort out, and leave Dolphin's problems to the Dolphin devs. It's been working fine so far.
Shonumi Wrote: [ -> ]Compared to the smorgasbord of potential problems, I'd rather stick to what we have. Windows and Mac users download an executable and run it. Linux users compile from source. Leave OS level problems to the OS makers to sort out, and leave Dolphin's problems to the Dolphin devs. It's been working fine so far.
I may be wrong, but I recall the Dolphin devs clearly stating that Dolphin won't be able to emulate Wii U's processor until 2020, when CPU technology allows emulation of a 3 or 4 core system on just 2 cores. The goal of my concept isn't to run dolphin as it does now, emulating each chip, but to use the physical hardware in the PC natively to reduce overhead enough to play the games in this decade rather than the next one.
Shonumi Wrote: [ -> ]It'd only be a headache for the developers, since a new host of problems would be introduced. Right now, the forums deal mostly with Dolphin configs, game dumping, hardware choices, and game discussions. Imagine the explosion of bug reports because the Dolphin OS can't detect xyz hardware due to the lack of proper kernel modules, or the user has never partitioned an HDD and can't install the Dolphin OS, or the user has no idea how to dual boot a system and nukes their copy of Windows.
Then make it a live OS that requires no installation and contains all the necessary drivers and modules.
Shonumi Wrote: [ -> ]But say that the next generation of Dolphin becomes a Linux distro, who would want to install yet another OS, no matter how slim it'd be, just to play games?
Anybody who has a powerful PC and doesn't want to shell out for a new console.
*opens task manager, looks at CPU usage of Windows processes and sees a lot of 0's
You can safely kill explorer if must have every CPU cycle.
By the time hardware becomes good enough and a Wii U emulator happens to come around, the overhead of running an OS will be ridicolously small compared to the emulator's requirements, so the idea is pretty pointless.
...
But then again, killing off all kinds of weird windows processes (explorer etc) is already pointless with Dolphin. It just happens that people manage to cripple their systems enough that explorer.exe actually seems to be reducing performance, indeed.
(02-21-2012, 05:06 PM)Fennecat Wrote: [ -> ]Shonumi Wrote: [ -> ]Compared to the smorgasbord of potential problems, I'd rather stick to what we have. Windows and Mac users download an executable and run it. Linux users compile from source. Leave OS level problems to the OS makers to sort out, and leave Dolphin's problems to the Dolphin devs. It's been working fine so far.
I may be wrong, but I recall the Dolphin devs clearly stating that Dolphin won't be able to emulate Wii U's processor until 2020, when CPU technology allows emulation of a 3 or 4 core system on just 2 cores. The goal of my concept isn't to run dolphin as it does now, emulating each chip, but to use the physical hardware in the PC natively to reduce overhead enough to play the games in this decade rather than the next one.
I doubt the Dolphin devs have ever said such a thing. The Wii U isn't even out yet, and no one's had a thorough chance to examine the hardware or software it runs. One can guess when we'll have a working emulator for any given console, but at this point that's all anyone's doing. We won't know for sure until the Wii U is taken apart. Also, Dolphin won't emulate the Wii U, most likely.
Just as well, I doubt system overhead would be a significant enough barrier to justify making any emulator into an OS rather than a program run by an OS.
(02-21-2012, 05:06 PM)Fennecat Wrote: [ -> ]Shonumi Wrote: [ -> ]It'd only be a headache for the developers, since a new host of problems would be introduced. Right now, the forums deal mostly with Dolphin configs, game dumping, hardware choices, and game discussions. Imagine the explosion of bug reports because the Dolphin OS can't detect xyz hardware due to the lack of proper kernel modules, or the user has never partitioned an HDD and can't install the Dolphin OS, or the user has no idea how to dual boot a system and nukes their copy of Windows.
Then make it a live OS that requires no installation and contains all the necessary drivers and modules.
That resolves installation issues (some of them anyway) but it's still ignoring the overarching problem. You're asking the devs to make something that not only supports an emulator, but
your entire PC. A lot of Linux distros already think they include all of the necessary drivers users will need, but there are still plenty of people online asking for help on that subject. Like I said, I don't think the Dolphin devs should even concern themselves with OS level issues like that.
(02-21-2012, 05:06 PM)Fennecat Wrote: [ -> ]Shonumi Wrote: [ -> ]But say that the next generation of Dolphin becomes a Linux distro, who would want to install yet another OS, no matter how slim it'd be, just to play games?
Anybody who has a powerful PC and doesn't want to shell out for a new console.
I think you misunderstood the point I was driving at. Of course I know why people would want to emulate a (soon-to-be) current-gen system on their PCs. The question is, why would they want to install/use yet another OS just to do that? Running Dolphin as a program is far easier and more convenient for most users than having to boot up their computers with a Live CD/DVD. Dolphin as an OS is an extra, unnecessary step.
(02-22-2012, 12:58 AM)Shonumi Wrote: [ -> ]I doubt the Dolphin devs have ever said such a thing. The Wii U isn't even out yet, and no one's had a thorough chance to examine the hardware or software it runs. One can guess when we'll have a working emulator for any given console, but at this point that's all anyone's doing. We won't know for sure until the Wii U is taken apart. Also, Dolphin won't emulate the Wii U, most likely.
Wii U 'twice as powerful as Xbox 360'
http://www.develop-online.net/news/39593/Wii-U-twice-as-powerful-as-Xbox-360
guess what...
is there an xbox emulator?
is there an xbox360 emulator?
is there an xbox360*2 emulator?