I understand that emulators have to convert “console-language” to “emulator language” which causes stutters and otherwise poor performance.
But how can that same emulator play the game at 5-10x the speed using speed up features without sacrificing gameplay, loading screens, or resolution?
I just played through an emulated gamecube version of Twilight Princess with a 4K texture pack, which had its fair share of stutters. But I could also hold the speed-up button during loading zones and while saving my file and the game would handle it just fine.
If it requires extra processing power to emulate, how come emulators can speed the game up to such high speeds?
In: 15
Because old consoles’ original CPUs were much weaker than standard PC CPUs even back then, it just so happened that games were decently optimized (for the time). Example iirc the Nintendo 64 ran on around 1 core with 90 MHz. Compare that to today’s PCs running at 5 GHz up to 16 cores potentially. All the emulator does is make an environment sandbox to suit the game’s needs and adjusts accordingly. If you push the speed of it it will use more resources (not a lot for older systems)
I’ll try to give you an analogy.
You have 2 legs and you can adjust the speed of which you move from point A to point B adjusting many things. The start position and goal are irrelevant. How hard you push against the ground, how long or short your steps are, how much air you take and release are major factors to decide speed. Let’s say walking normally is 100% of the emulator’s speed, that’s the correct way to run it. And most optimized. You can also lower the speed of the emulator similarly to how you take a slow walk on an ocean coast. You may also decide to reach the other end faster, that’s when you start to jog or even sprint.
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