Rolo01 wrote on 30.12.09 at 23:48:38:I like the idea.
Let us know in case anybody could be of any help.
What is the current status of your project ?
It's in the very early stages. I'm currently trying to learn how to use Intel VMX or possibly using an existing Pentium emulator.
ps47 wrote on 30.12.09 at 23:48:51:a virtual voodoo card? hell yeah,but this will be a ton of work.
So far, the older 3Dfx Voodoo cards have a simple register set and documentation is abundant. It's the NVIDIA part that will be more difficult.
exxe wrote on 30.12.09 at 23:57:40:sounds not so efficient, to emulate a hardware like a v1 you will need at least 2GHz CPU power
Not really. Since The Voodoo1 (SST-1) only supports 3D HAL (not T&L), that makes things much easier than let's say for instance a GeForce 256. So far, texturing appears to be the biggest challenge. Also since the SST-1 uses a linear frame buffer, that makes things much easier as well.
RaverX wrote on 31.12.09 at 00:54:14:Hmm, it's interesting, but... under what OS will this work ? It's no use to emulate something in Windows XP and the game needs to run in DOS, I bet that the game won't run.
How skilled are you and how you plan to do this emulator ? High level language ? (aka C++, Delphi ?) DotNetFX ? Or rather go ASM ?
I wanted to use Direct3D 9.0b so that it can be run even on Windows 98. Depending on the implementation and what other hardware is emulated besides the 3Dfx/NVIDIA part, the requirements can be as high or a low as you need them to be. I'm sure it will run fine on a Pentium IV, and I wouldn't recommend anything under a Pentium III (1 GHz). I also wanted to make the amount of RAM, CPU speed and other things configurable to the user's liking. Since this is going to [technically] be a PC emulator, you can run the guest OS in another window so you won't have to worry about your game requiring DOS to run. Think of it as VirtualPC with a Voodoo inside.
So far, MVCE is primarily written in C/C++ and I do plan to use a bit of ASM here and there. I've been programming in C++ since 2003 and I'm also experienced (but not the best) with Direct3D and OpenGL. For this, I prefer Direct3D. I'm also an active contributor to the Cxbx project (
http://www.caustik.com/cxbx).
I can't guarantee I can finish the project since I'm a busy man IRL, but I really want to give this a go. So if you all like the idea, I'll continue working on it.
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