NES plugin - a proposal

[TheNewMinistry]

Also it was originally written for Windows, which means we'd be porting the port to Linux (since linux is closer to Rockbox than windows is API wise), which means there'd be more room for problems.

There's already a Linux port of Nestopia -

http://rbelmont.mameworld.info/?page_id=200

[LambdaCalculus]

Like GodEater said before, it's written in C++, and is going to be a big pain in the ass to port over.

And while I agree that Nestopia is an excellent emulator, it's not a feasable project to port over.

FCE Ultra is GPL'd, is cross-platform, has some excellent mapper support, and (I believe) meets the prerequisite of being written in C. (I have to check again at home, however.)

[ComposerDude]

Yes FCE Ultra is written in C. I've emailed the developers with some questions about it's portability and how native it is for windows (since it was originally written for DOS and Windows). For now i'll continue examining TuxNES, and hopefully over the next couple of weeks actually decide which emulator to use.

[ComposerDude]

I was sitting here getting a head-ache from all the code when I had a moment of feature brilliancy... I know, get it working and then do features, but hey! I wondered about this for Rockboy, too.

Since Rockboy is a one-cpu-thread operation (I'm assuming here , couldn't it be default no-sound and continue to music playback? I thought it would be great, and it came to me while playing Jewels on my H320 and listening to Ben Folds. I know there are plenty of games that I wouldn't mind hearing my mp3s while I played 'em.

Anybody?

[linuxstb]

There are three resources large plugins like Rockboy need which conflict with music playback (the Gigabeat is an exception):

1) IRAM - this is the fast internal ram.  48KB of this is available to either plugins or codecs, but not both at the same time. (plugins and codecs on the Gigabeat don't use IRAM)

2) RAM - plugins normally only have 512KB of RAM.  If they need more, then need to stop audio playback and grab the main audio buffer (around 29MB).

3) CPU - Rockboy is already too slow on all targets apart from the Gigabeat, and it would be even slower if music was being decoded at the same time.

So the short answer is no - you can't play Rockboy and listen to music at the same time.

[Llorean]

Though this can partially be resolved on the iPods by making use of both cores, but this first means clearing up the remaining dual core issues for music playback. Otherwise there's a decent chance how you decided to divvy up threads between the cores in Rockboy would not align with choices made for normal playback.

[ComposerDude]

Out of curiosity, do most plugins take advantage of the complete set of hardware available to them, or are they ported once and then simply maintained? I would imagine that if I were to port TuxNES to rockbox, that I would simply maintain and continue to bugfix at that point. However, in order for the port to actually avail themselves of available hardware, there would need to be different versions...

That sounds foolish, though, because that is exactly why there are different ports of Rockbox to their supported players. Then, the question really is:

Does Rockbox take advantage of every available bit of hardware on their respective ports yet?

[Llorean]

Depends on the target. Most of the time, there's not much hardware to take advantage of beyond processor, sound hardware, input, screen, etc. I mean most MP3 players have the same requirements so are built with semi-similar ideals in mind.

The biggest things not taken advantage of are USB hardware on PortalPlayer targets, and the second core the PP targets offer, as well as the USB On the Go capabilities of some other players, I'd say.

[brarei200]

Good Luck! Keep us informed on how it goes. (I hope this is as fast as iDarcNES)

[ComposerDude]

Good Luck! Keep us informed on how it goes. (I hope this is as fast as iDarcNES)

With my little experience, this project will only go as fast as there are people to assist. But I am working on it daily... thanks, brarei200

[brarei200]

Yup...

[Mad Cow]

I hope you get somewhere, having another emulator in my Gigabeat will almost completely cure boredom.

[Chronon]

Have you decided on using TuxNES then?  I told my brother about this porting attempt.  He's got most of his experience in C++, but he said he would check out the source and take a look to see if it's something he could help out with.  

[ComposerDude]

Chronon: Yes, I'm going ahead with TuxNES. FCE Ultra is really massive! My friends here at college advised against trying to port FCEU.

I've started reading the code and and re-reading my C book. So far, it's been hard, but last night I ran across http://fms.komkon.org/EMUL8/NES.html , and found it really helping in finding my way around the emulator code.

tata for now!
ComposerDude

[Chronon]

Okay.  I emailed him with some info. . .   Hopefully more people take interest.