Subject: Re: [stella] The future of emulation From: Julian Squires <tek@xxxxxxx> Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2000 16:44:06 -0230 |
On Sat, Aug 26, 2000 at 07:29:08PM -0700, Glenn Saunders wrote: > The problem with Java is that it would be two layers of emulation. Java is > a virtual machine, which in and of itself is like an emulator, running an > emulator for the 2600. You'd probably need at least a 1GHZ machine to get > it to 1:1 throughput. Arcade emus are a different story. You can precook > the audio for that individual game with sample triggers, and the > architectures tend to be more straightforward bitmap-based systems. Plus I > think Phoenix and Space Invaders both use Z80/8080 chips which is the core > of the x86 lineage and is probably simpler to emulate than the 6502. Plus, > I don't thinK Java's 2D Graphics engine is as robust as DirectX. Java runs > as fast as it can. Implementing system timing functions and intelligent > frame skipping is tricky in Java. I saw a fairly good Java emulation of > Battlezone at E3, but I think vector graphics are easier to do because it's > just drawing lines, not refreshing the entire bitmap. While I don't completely disagree, there are a few important points about java I'd like to bring up before it gets dismissed completely: JIT emulation provides much better performance than the pure-interpretive style of emulation used by most of the default JVMs for browsers of which I know (iirc). A lot of implementors of java I've seen (particularly wrt applets) make no effort what-so-ever to optimize the code. There is quite frequently a large amount of improvement possible - when implementing a real-time video games in java, i discovered that there are huge optimizations available. (see any of the n webpages on the subject) I was also surprised to find that even my old 486/66 could pull off a reasonable framerate after some optimization. Also, until PCs are ready to handle the generic code, JNI is wonderful for the speed-critical portions of the code. At least with JNI, it's likely it wouldn't be too difficult to port the speed-critical portions between different systems. If you lock yourself into some disgusting proprietary thing, you're shutting a lot of people out at the same time. Not that I'm a big fan of java, actually, but java bytecode is pretty open compared to the alternatives. (Plus, you don't have to code in java - there are plenty of languages which compile into java bytecode these days) -- -/ |/| Julian Squires <tek@xxxxxxx> /- -- Archives (includes files) at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/archives/ Unsub & more at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/
Current Thread |
---|
|
<- Previous | Index | Next -> |
---|---|---|
Re: [stella] The future of emulatio, Glenn Saunders | Thread | RE: [stella] Stella @ 20, G. E. Maser |
[stella] Activision: Then Vs. Now, Glenn Saunders | Date | Re: [stella] Activision: Then Vs. N, Rob |
Month |