PS Vita Powerful enough to emulate PS2 games?

[RNB_PSP]

Advertising

To sum up for all TL;DRs:
- Vita has a different architecture, which makes emulating PS2 more difficult
- Vita lacks the Emotion Engine of the PS2, and emulating it on a software level will be too slow.
Therefore, don't expect it.

I'm not sure but since cortex-a9 can only do 1gflops(with neon@1ghz, based on benchmarks i've seen), maybe vita's gpu can be used to emulate the vpu? Says's here it can do 7.2 gflops(per core@200mhz) and the emotion engine does 6.2 glops. Besides we don't know yet what the "+" means in sgx543mp4+. Of course, there's overhead in translating vpu microcodes to USSE(last I checked, some group is reverse engineering this to provide open source drivers for powervr gpus*) so I'm guessing speed might be the same as how daedalusx64 is on the PSP. Though, I wonder why the PS3 can't do it and why they have to put an actual emotion engine in there.

EDIT: *It's FSF and it's a high priority. (Source)

[rog]

Advertising

Though, I wonder why the PS3 can't do it and why they have to put an actual emotion engine in there.

Because emulation always requires way more power than the original hardware. The ps2 is especially difficult to emulate, for various reasons.

[bo0m!!!!]

well i hope they port ps3 games ... to be honest ... i don't ness. think im asking for alot sony should of worked out these kinks to make this possible and i will continue to expect this from them considering its as much as a ps3

[aaronindhouse]

If it can, I think it would absolutely kill the battery and probably not full speed. Heck, even with amazing hardware in your computer, games still dont run amazingly well on a ps2 emulator because emulation still isn't perfect with it yet. That aside, sony has already said that they will not be releasing the ps2 games on the psn for the vita. I think the best we will get is "HD Remakes" like FFX which is coming out on a date still tba.

I think gamecube and to some extent wii emulation will work much more nicely and play full speed should they be ported to the vita. SSBM with online, or at least with adhoc or whatever its called would be killer.

[Youkosnake]

If it can, I think it would absolutely kill the battery and probably not full speed. Heck, even with amazing hardware in your computer, games still dont run amazingly well on a ps2 emulator because emulation still isn't perfect with it yet. That aside, sony has already said that they will not be releasing the ps2 games on the psn for the vita. I think the best we will get is "HD Remaster" like FFX which is coming out on a date still tba.

I think gamecube and to some extent wii emulation will work much more nicely and play full speed should they be ported to the vita. SSBM with online, or at least with adhoc or whatever its called would be killer.

Fixed. And to stay on topic, honestly, it is entirely possible for Sony to emulate PS2 on the Vita. If anyone could do it, Sony can, considering it is THEIR system. They know the hardware and software inside and out on both systems and I believe they could make it work. Whether they will or not, thats a different story

[rog]

I think gamecube and to some extent wii emulation will work much more nicely and play full speed

Nope. While not as difficult to emulate as ps2 games, the vita is still nowhere near powerful enough to emulate even the least resource intensive wii/gc games. Some wii/gc games require the absolute top of the line to run at full speed on consumer pc hardware, and even lighter 2d games require hardware that is several times faster than a vita.

The ps3 should actually be able to handle wii+gc emulation, but good luck porting dolphin to its cell cpu.

honestly, it is entirely possible for Sony to emulate PS2 on the Vita. If anyone could do it, Sony can, considering it is THEIR system. They know the hardware and software inside and out on both systems and I believe they could make it work. Whether they will or not, thats a different story

No, not even given an infinite amount of programmers, money, and time to work on it, they still could not produce a vita ps2 emulator that could run any games at full speed. No amount of knowledge, time, or money can make the impossible possible.

For perspective, vita's cpu can do ~4 gflops using 4 cores (which i want to say ps2 emulation can use, but it may be only 3). The ps3's cell can do 230 gflops, and sony still couldn't get a working ps2 emulator for it. The idea of a ps2 emulator for the vita is beyond absurd.

edit: do note that flops is a terrible way to compare performance. The cell architecture is extremely good at floating point operations, but otherwise is not particularly great. In addition, the ps3 also has 6 SPEs, which cannot all be used for emulation. Still, 4 gflops is absolutely pathetic.

[Codestorm]

I think gamecube and to some extent wii emulation will work much more nicely and play full speed

Nope. While not as difficult to emulate as ps2 games, the vita is still nowhere near powerful enough to emulate even the least resource intensive wii/gc games. Some wii/gc games require the absolute top of the line to run at full speed on consumer pc hardware, and even lighter 2d games require hardware that is several times faster than a vita.

The ps3 should actually be able to handle wii+gc emulation, but good luck porting dolphin to its cell cpu.

honestly, it is entirely possible for Sony to emulate PS2 on the Vita. If anyone could do it, Sony can, considering it is THEIR system. They know the hardware and software inside and out on both systems and I believe they could make it work. Whether they will or not, thats a different story

No, not even given an infinite amount of programmers, money, and time to work on it, they still could not produce a vita ps2 emulator that could run any games at full speed. No amount of knowledge, time, or money can make the impossible possible.

For perspective, vita's cpu can do ~4 gflops using 4 cores (which i want to say ps2 emulation can use, but it may be only 3). The ps3's cell can do 230 gflops, and sony still couldn't get a working ps2 emulator for it. The idea of a ps2 emulator for the vita is beyond absurd.

edit: do note that flops is a terrible way to compare performance. The cell architecture is extremely good at floating point operations, but otherwise is not particularly great. In addition, the ps3 also has 6 SPEs, which cannot all be used for emulation. Still, 4 gflops is absolutely pathetic.

I'll just leave this here...


EDIT: And there ARE ps2 emulatorsfor ps3... but $ony removed it.

[rog]

I'll just leave this here...

That's not running in an emulator.

EDIT: And there ARE ps2 emulatorsfor ps3... but $ony removed it.

Uh...that's used to allow the hdd to work for ps2 games that require it, such as ffxi. It's not an emulator. It works with the emulator that the original backwards compatible ps3s had, thanks to their EE chip.

[Xian Nox]

I'll just leave this here...

I'm not going to argue whether the PSV has good graphics or not, but I don't think a cutscene is a good demonstration of them. If prerendered, the quality can be great, even on a PSP.

EDIT: And there ARE ps2 emulatorsfor ps3... but $ony removed it.

Quite right. But the fact remains that the EE is missing, and a software implementation will be too costly. This means that PS2/PS3 emulation is off-limits, and brings us to where the last thread was. Technically feasible, but practically unusable.
No PS2/PS3 emulation doesn't mean no PS2/PS3 games. If the original authors decide to spend the time and money remaking/porting them, they will be available.

[aaronindhouse]

there's a big difference between emulation, and running mgs4. For one, sony designed the vita hardware to be compatible with ps3 development. Also you can bet that the engine running mgs4 is optimizing the hell out of the assets being drawn on screen. The Vita is certainly a powerhouse, but its nowhere near the ps3 in terms of power. The vita wasn't built to handle the poly counts and texture sizes that the ps3 deals with.