eli5 If video game consoles are essentially just weaker computers, why did it take so long for PCs to get 7th gen console emulators, why are we only just getting 8th gen emulators, and how long until we see 9th gen emulators?
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people are saying it’s because the performance gap isn’t that big but it really is. the overhead of running a general-purpose OS isn’t that big either with new consoles because they ALSO run a general-purpose OS. one with a lot of restrictions sure, but it’s not like all they do is run games anymore. if the games weren’t proprietary they could not only be ported to current PCs, but get a graphics upgrade on the way. but they’re not, so you have to effectively run an OS on top of an OS to play them
the problem with that has always been architecture. PCs are almost all x86, while consoles are MIPS or POWER or something totally custom. so you can’t just rip the software and put it in a container on your PC, you have to create a virtual MIPS processor to run it. and with how little documentation consoles publish it can take a long time to reverse-engineer
consoles switching to x86 doesn’t eliminate this problem either. the processor may match, but the GPU doesn’t. the games expect one specific GPU with its own way of addressing it, so that has to be reverse-engineered too. and the more complex hardware is, the longer that takes
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