What is Nucleus?

Hello everyone,

I wasn't able to keep track of PS3 emulation development for some time, so if my question sounds stupid, I apologize in advance.

I've noticed a project called Nucleus by AlexAltea, and I don't really want to bother anyone with questions, but I'm simply curious what is it? I haven't found any information about it here yet.

Is it somehow related to existing rpcs3 project or maybe a standalone project, perhaps another approach of PS3 emulation?

Thanks in advance!

Hello everyone,

I wasn't able to keep track of PS3 emulation development for some time, so if my question sounds stupid, I apologize in advance.

I've noticed a project called Nucleus by AlexAltea, and I don't really want to bother anyone with questions, but I'm simply curious what is it? I haven't found any information about it here yet.

Is it somehow related to existing rpcs3 project or maybe a standalone project, perhaps another approach of PS3 emulation?

Thanks in advance!

Nucleus is AlexAltea's own project, which aims to have perfect RSX emulation. AFAIK, the RSX emulation is meant to be somewhat ported over to RPCS3 at a later date. (I already ported a small part - RSX DMA support, which doesn't work right now, though)

Hello everyone,

I wasn't able to keep track of PS3 emulation development for some time, so if my question sounds stupid, I apologize in advance.

I've noticed a project called Nucleus by AlexAltea, and I don't really want to bother anyone with questions, but I'm simply curious what is it? I haven't found any information about it here yet.

Is it somehow related to existing rpcs3 project or maybe a standalone project, perhaps another approach of PS3 emulation?

Thanks in advance!

Nucleus is AlexAltea's own project, which aims to have perfect RSX emulation. AFAIK, the RSX emulation is meant to be somewhat ported over to RPCS3 at a later date. (I already ported a small part - RSX DMA support, which doesn't work right now, though)

With DX9 render, support OpenGL dont need?

OpenGL is necessary since not every user has a Windows OS on their computer.

Hello everyone,

I wasn't able to keep track of PS3 emulation development for some time, so if my question sounds stupid, I apologize in advance.

I've noticed a project called Nucleus by AlexAltea, and I don't really want to bother anyone with questions, but I'm simply curious what is it? I haven't found any information about it here yet.

Is it somehow related to existing rpcs3 project or maybe a standalone project, perhaps another approach of PS3 emulation?

Thanks in advance!

Nucleus is AlexAltea's own project, which aims to have perfect RSX emulation. AFAIK, the RSX emulation is meant to be somewhat ported over to RPCS3 at a later date. (I already ported a small part - RSX DMA support, which doesn't work right now, though)

With DX9 render, support OpenGL dont need?

I see no reason why we should move to an older and subjectivily worse renderer. DX11/DX12 might make sense. DH kinda explained his reasons, but it seems he might hold off on writing a new renderer until Vulkan is released.

i hope he fixes everything on his rsx branch, for some reason, all psgl samples render offscreen and gcm samples are broken, only cube samples work, other have rendering issues.

i hope he fixes everything on his rsx branch, for some reason, all psgl samples render offscreen and gcm samples are broken, only cube samples work, other have rendering issues.

i just can't compile his "rsx" thread

i got message "internal compiler error"
(Correct: An internal error in the file compiler)

Just a personal project. A few quickly/badly written key-points about existing/planned features are:

• System libraries are LLE'd, except the ones that rely on IPC (e.g. cellSysutil) or performance critical modules (e.g. A/V decoding).
  
• As a result of the previous, I've put more effort some reversing LV2 syscalls which would have been otherwise wrapped and never accessed directly (e.g. sys_rsx*).
  
• Because of that, accurately emulating RSX contexts (e.g. actually mapping and using the dma_control, driver_info, report areas) is a must. What concerns rendering: OpenGL 4.3 for now, moving to 4.5 (AZDO stuff) atm. Vulkan once it's out.
  
• Debugging: Each instance of Nucleus can optionally create an HTTP server that offers a RESTful API to control the emulator. The client can be run online from: http://alexaltea.github.io/nerve/ (old version). Docs: http://docs.nerve.apiary.io/ + Screenshot: http://embed.gyazo.com/2b3bdec14e73c35e7c17d70cea30a9a3.png
  
• (Somewhat) documented: https://github.com/AlexAltea/nucleus/tree/master/docs and (integration) tested: https://github.com/AlexAltea/ps3autotests code. Extreme boredom may result in unit tests for PPU/SPU instructions but I am not making any promises, hehe.
  
• A few lines platform-dependant code just to set up a DC and render the UI on it from one OpenGL context (sort of what PPSSPP does). Another thread for RSX emulation (all gets rendering to texture), allowing for fancy postprocessing and a smooth UI/overlay info even if the RSX renders at 2 FPS.
  
• PPU recompiler will work AOT, not JIT. Should be faster, nicer (and harder). No idea about SPUs yet. LLVM as it's well tested and with plenty of backends. Not 100% happy with it though, but I can't think of anything better for now.
  
• Targetting mobile platforms: iOS/Android. Something trivial once the Vulkan (=> GLES 3.1+ compatible hw, iirc) backend is running.
  

Again, there won't be any promises, forum, website or news about it in the near future. Just writing this here as answer to OP's question and media-whoring a bit on Emunewz It's just some personal project that I want to feel free to abandon at any time. It's open-source just in case someone finds it useful, for whatever reason. :-)

TL;DR: Random experiments that doesn't deserve too much attention.

EDIT: Should this thread be moved to some other forum area? This thread is kinda off-topic here (and I feel some guilt about spamming Nucleus links in this particular sub-forum).

Wow, thanks for so much in-depth information! Now, honestly most of it is something I don't understand but then again observers don't need to understand how did a magician do his tricks, but the parts I did understand sound quite exciting! Like the UI that you compared to PPSSPP, that is something I totally love about PPSSPP so if you thought of making such thing for ps3 emulator, that would be just amazing! Also targetting mobile platforms, well I don't own any iOS nor Android device myself, but I can imagine if you manage to run a ps3 emulator there, it would be just insanely awesome, like portable ps3 and phone in one device! Also, if there is an idea that such thing like ps3 emulator could run on a mobile platform, it gives me a hope that average current generation pc could handle it too, perhaps Vulkan coming out could be an answer to current performance issues of the emulator?

i hope he fixes everything on his rsx branch, for some reason, all psgl samples render offscreen and gcm samples are broken, only cube samples work, other have rendering issues.

i just can't compile his "rsx" thread

i got message "internal compiler error"
(Correct: An internal error in the file compiler)

You shouldn't expect rsx branch to work. It's DH's development branch and you should expect it to not work.

i hope he fixes everything on his rsx branch, for some reason, all psgl samples render offscreen and gcm samples are broken, only cube samples work, other have rendering issues.

i just can't compile his "rsx" thread

i got message "internal compiler error"
(Correct: An internal error in the file compiler)

You shouldn't expect rsx branch to work. It's DH's development branch and you should expect it to not work.

ooh, maybe i do not understood correctly ekaseo, but he said what he could test his branch