Porting OpenEmu

[xboxown]

EmuFan...thank you so much for porting SDDApple and thank you so much for going all your way and taking your time and tackling out LineApple and kegs

We couldn't have gotten it without you and your skills and intellect, thank you so much! I have one question to ask...how hard is it to port OpenEmu for Amiga 68k? What we are lacking to be honest an up to date NES emulator..but if you can tackle OpenEmu you can hit many birds with one stone with it.

[Samurai_Crow]

Written in Objective C for Mac. Not designed to be ported by the looks of it.

[xboxown]

Are you serious? Isn't it open source project?

[Samurai_Crow]

I have never seen an Objective C program run on an Amiga. It's BSD licensed so it is open source but only runs on systems with an Objective C compiler and runtime library.

It also needs OpenGL. Possibly a newer version than the Mesa versions for Amiga.

[Amiga1992]

Probably Retroarch+Libretro are a better option for a multiplatform emulator.

[Samurai_Crow]

True, but it still needs shader support for libRetro. Once the Vampire gets a better GPU then maybe.

[Amiga1992]

You don't "need" shaders to enjoy libretro. The Wii port is just great with none of that fancy stuff.
Retroarch displays using SDL just as fine.

[xboxown]

Guys do you think this is possible to port to Amiga?

https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch

[Samurai_Crow]

Originally Posted by xboxown

Guys do you think this is possible to port to Amiga?

https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch

Akira thinks so but we might need to offload a bunch of stuff to the second thread on the Vampire to make it fast enough. It barely runs on a Raspberry Pi 2 as it is.

[xboxown]

What are waiting for then! Let us tackle it

[Samurai_Crow]

First, let's get a 68080 backend for a C compiler like GCC because we're going to need all the power we can get.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Samurai_Crow

It barely runs on a Raspberry Pi 2 as it is.

What are you basing these claims on? Have you ever used RetroArch on a Raspberry Pi? Hnest question, because I have, extensively, and even on a RPi1, performance is very good for a majority of emulators!
Some arcade games stall, yes, PSX emulation is slow, but most if not all of the old computers and consoles run just great.

Of course 68k is a radically different platform to those where Retroarch is currently available, but since you can use SDL, it is wort ha look at least. You never know what a coding wizard might be able to do.

The main problem seems to be, as you say, the coding tools necessary that support the instruction set of the new thing.

[Samurai_Crow]

After I noticed that the Retro Pie distribution uses libRetro, I think it will work better than I initially thought. We still need to have a C++ compiler for this project though.

[xboxown]

Originally Posted by Samurai_Crow

After I noticed that the Retro Pie distribution uses libRetro, I think it will work better than I initially thought. We still need to have a C++ compiler for this project though.

Can't you use AmiDev++ to use C++ to compile it into amiga 68k binary?

[Samurai_Crow]

Originally Posted by xboxown

Can't you use AmiDev++ to use C++ to compile it into amiga 68k binary?

Only if you don't use AMMX or registers B0-B7. We need both.

[xboxown]

How about we start porting it now to work in WinUAE and see at least if it can be ported period. If it is even possible. if even possible to port without stripping all the features that make it great. If it can be ported and if it can run, then we just wait for the C++ for the Amiga you mentioned which take advantage of the new technology and resume there. At least we didn't waste all the time waiting for such technology and starting from there...we have done 80% of the road already and then resume it when the time comes with just code optimization and stuff.

I find waiting for such technology (if it will ever show up) is not only waste of time but we may discover then that it can't even be ported.

What do you think?

[Samurai_Crow]

Fair enough, although I would like to try Bebbo's GCC 6.3 because the one you mentioned is an ancient version 2 derivative.

[xboxown]

Originally Posted by Samurai_Crow

Fair enough, although I would like to try Bebbo's GCC 6.3 because the one you mentioned is an ancient version 2 derivative.

Let the party begin

[emufan]

Originally Posted by xboxown

Can't you use AmiDev++ to use C++ to compile it into amiga 68k binary?

with AmiDevCpp i get the best results, building those older sdl based emulators,
it uses gcc 3.40. I have 2.95.3 and 6.3 too - one to "old" the other too restrictive and allways problems when it comes to linking.

another example: dgen sdl, build with AmiDevCpp (ADC) on the commandline (cmd.exe)
you just export the PATH to the ADC binaries, so you can use a ./configure
which comes with the emulator source.

just minor problem with glob.h some undefined things (GLOB_MARK | GLOB_NOESCAPE). just added them.
a tool which converts pbm to cpp code didnt work, i had to rebuild it in a more recent cygwin shell.
dunno yet if any game will work, but commandline optiosn are accepted

[xboxown]

Heheh I am looking forward for that emulator!!