Xbox exec: Xbox 360 emulation planned for the Xbox One

qwertywarrior · April 7, 2014

Sorry, I shouldn't be writing things on a few hours of sleep, so I would like to clarify my thoughts on this. While a WINE approach wouldn't be perfect, given the differences between PowerPC and x86 there is still merit to what I said (which btw MS might have hidden a few extra instruction sets that might make it easier if they chose such a method). There are likely many calls made that would be to internal API functionality, which is why things such as PS2 emulators need a bios (they emulate the bios) and those functions are called a lot and given that MS has the actual source code of the bios there wouldn't be much need to emulate that portion. In terms of the game code, I was thinking more of a recompiler concept. Considering that MS would have access to all their source code (of their published games) and having the source can make it a lot easier to implement a recompiler (especially when you have the original code for the compiler). So what MS could do is start a program where the "emulation" is basically not an emulation but rather a recompiled version of 360. While not all titles would get support, if MS opened up and allowed game devs to submit the code/release a compiler program that will create such a file, then they could build up quite a large library of games with a lot less effort.

would that mean that they will end up making ports of games ?

devs will end up doing the work and reselling them just like what they are doing with the last of us

WanderingFool · April 7, 2014

would that mean that they will end up making ports of games ?

devs will end up doing the work and reselling them just like what they are doing with the last of us

Well making ports would mean using all the new API calls in xbox one as well as conforming to the new standards. While the suggestion that I was proposing would be to just set a different compiler in the project file and then sending MS the new compiled version (not the resource files, though would still be on the disc, but rather the new "xbox one instructions"...so the size should be relative small...maybe 20-30mb pre-compressed). Yes it wouldn't be ideal, but it would effectively allow playing 360 games on the One for those developers who participated...and due to the complexities of it, there would be games where it won't work. The concept though would be that if MS pushed all their games that they owned, then many others would hopefully follow suite.

So effectively, yes you could consider it a port, but I personally wouldn't, as a port would involve more work and be more effective (ie games might gain a few glitches from being moved using this method)

rici · April 7, 2014

Back in 2006, Apple did something somewhat similar, with the transition from powerPC to X86. They called it "Rosetta". Whilst they did say it wasn't really suitable for applications with high computational needs (games, for example), they did get it to work. And this was at a time when the mac's were using the first-gen Intel core duo processors.

Whilst I'm not too sure how the CPU cores compare between the Xbox one and the first Intel IMacs, a guess would say they would be fairly equal. Given the 360 has 3 cores, and Xbox one has 8, they could in theory assign 2 x86 cores to each powerPC core.

If Microsoft do want to emulate the Xbox 360 on the Xbox One, I think they should be able to do it. If they did, I wonder if they would include original Xbox support with it, as that would be a much easier task.

Now, if only they would release an emulator for windows.....

LAwLz · April 7, 2014

Whilst I'm not too sure how the CPU cores compare between the Xbox one and the first Intel IMacs, a guess would say they would be fairly equal. Given the 360 has 3 cores, and Xbox one has 8, they could in theory assign 2 x86 cores to each powerPC core.

The only problem there is that emulating 1 powerful core using two weak cores is pretty much impossible.

The Xbone's CPU quite frankly sucks. It's worse than the Xbox 360 core for core. It's like trying to emulate a motorcycle by taping eight unicycles together.

Kamina · April 8, 2014

Emulating 360 games at native 720p.

See what I did there?

Giddyguy · April 8, 2014

Um no. He is a realist. If Sony was doing the same thing (and they have already said it will be cloud based), we would say the same thing.

I wasn't talked about this specific incident, and I wasn't talking about Sony vs Microsoft here. I was just saying in general whenever there is a post about Microsoft, good or bad news, he has some dirt to say against the company.