Nintendo Switch emulator yuzu gets a huge performance boost

Quoting: damarrinI think initially PCs may have been too slow to play DVDs in software. I had a hardware DVD video decoder for that. It must have been around 97-98?

Side note: it wasn't about CPU power but about memory bandwidth. DVD videos used Mpeg2 as codec, which use a big bitrate in order to keep quality good enough. We couldn't reproduce DVDs with the CPU until the release of CPUs with 133 Mhz FSB (almost sure that PIII was the first one). So, in the beginnings we relied on specific hardware to do the job, but when CPUs had the necessary bandwidth the software DVD players became a thing and that's when the encryption keys got leaked (iirc).

Fun fact: you could reproduce a similar DVD video quality with Xvid/DivX on a Celeron 300 Mhz while you couldn't reproduce the original DVD in that same computer... wild days.

Quoting: jarhead_h

Quoting: mr-victory

Quoting: Cybolicwhen it became possible to play DVD films on PC DVD drives

Wait, it wasn't possible initially?

If you bought a capable drive with legal software it was. I bought mine at a CompUSA so that I could play the DVD version of Wing Commander IV.

It would be a few years before DVD John cracked the DVD copy protection, which is the reason all the media software these days can play it all.

I used to rip copies of movies off of the DVD specifically to have a copy without the unskippable commercials and stupid menus. Thanks to DVD John.

Precisely. I was already on Linux when I got my first DVD drive in 2000, which meant I was sort-of technically a pirate for playing my legally purchased DVD on my computer (and double the pirate when I played my imported region-locked ones that weren't even available for purchase in my home country of Denmark, the import of which was actually illegal).
The law (at least in Denmark) quickly changed so that any tinkering needed to be done to enjoy legally purchased media, was covered by consumer rights. Looping back to the main topic, I would expect this to also cover playing a purchased Nintendo game on the hardware the consumer has available - at least in theory.

Side-question: Could any of the people against emulation, explain to me how I'm hurting Nintendo when I play the Wii U games that I physically have on my shelf, on my Steam Deck instead of dragging the console out of storage?

Quoting: Cybolichow I'm hurting Nintendo when I play the Wii U games that I physically have on my shelf, on my Steam Deck instead of dragging the console out of storage?

Simple. You don't.
PS: You may wish to drag the console out of the storage, Wii U's may self destruct if unused for a long time.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/8/23630417/wii-u-system-error-160-0103-bricking-nand-memory


Last edited by mr-victory on 15 May 2023 at 6:41 pm UTC

Quoting: scaineYou certainly appear to care, as your various replies attest.

How about reading & understanding what I'm complaining about? To quote myself: "Do whatever you want to do, I don't care."

Quoting: scaineGood luck with your "arguments". Please remember that you're trying to convince free and open source advocates of the legitimacy of anti-consumerism from a company valued at over $50B. I'm not here to tell you to stop, but think about how that's going to land, please.

We're talking about proprietary games on a site mostly promoting a proprietary service for proprietary games requiring a proprietary client. "But I run Linux" is a really shallow argument (for what actually?).

Quoting: tuubiHah! Somehow I knew you'd cite this. I don't see how that bears any legal or ethical relevance. You're still running a game on an unsupported operating system, using software other than what the game was made for, and possibly even on a different hardware platform. What difference does it make if the game was originally made for Windows or for the Switch?

Nintendo sees a violation, everyone else is not. With Proton it's even easier: Any developer on Steam, believing in a violation, will report directly to Valve as responsible entity.

Quoting: tuubiI think I saw Roblox mentioned in the title of a GOL article, so I'm guessing it's a game. But what sort of "concerns about the usage" of some Mario game should Nintendo have if someone wants to run it on a PC in the privacy of their own home? Or maybe you mean they might be concerned about the existence of software that makes it possible?

Nintendo is a for profit company, any concerns will probably be about losing profits (they are losing hardware sales). Hacking is another concern.

Quoting: tuubiThe developer is the car maker. I'm simply trying to explain why this analogy does not work. There's no equivalence, because driving in traffic without a permit is clearly illegal. Emulating a game is not, to my knowledge.

It doesn't work because you changed the analogy. There is no car maker in the analogy, the analogy is about means (owning a car or a system capable of running the game) & permission (driving without permit, licensing of the software).

And at no point did I ever claim anything was illegal. I'm strictly talking about "pirating" (emphasis on the quotes) & license violations.

Quoting: tuubiThat's probably true in your average corporate dystopia. In the slightly less dystopic environment I happen to reside in, I am free to ignore license terms if they conflict with laws and regulations. An agreement or contract is binding only as far as it is legal. For example, it's safe to disregard the fairly common EULA clause prohibiting personal backups if you live in the EU. I think it's actually considered "fair use" even in the (considerably more corporate) US. It's not my decision, but neither is it the licensor's. I don't have to sue to exercise my rights as a consumer.

Here's a couple of sources that seem to support my points. There are probably better sources, but it's late and these are what DDG picked for me.

Whether you actually own a game you paid for is neither here nor there, because you're not sharing unauthorized copies or whatever if all you do is play them on different hardware.

Maybe it's allowed. But there is still no clarification. Obviously the whole argument is a biased interpretation, e.g.:

Quote[…] These circumstances are effectively the same we saw for dumping BIOS, except that
they are more easily satisfied in the case of dumping ROMs, because there are no problems now with
potential availability of the information necessary to achieve interoperability according to article 6
(1) (b) – videogames are usually not supplied with this kind of information and no problems usually
arise with usage of such information to develop, produce or market a computer program substantially
similar in its expression in accordance with article 6 (2) (c) – emulator developers are usually not
game developers. […]

I'm missing the interpretation of article 6 (3):

QuoteIn accordance with the provisions of the Berne Convention for the protection of Literary and Artistic Works, the provisions of this Article may not be interpreted in such a way as to allow its application to be used in a manner which unreasonably prejudices the right holder's legitimate interests or conflicts with a normal exploitation of the computer program.

Quoting: tuubiSeems like you're still arguing against piracy, not emulation.

I'm not arguing against or for either. I'm arguing against the notion people act in "self-defence". There is no reason to play Nintendo games. If you consider them anti-consumer then ignore them. Vote with you wallet.

Quoting: tuubiYou don't get to write a paragraph in support of a weak analogy and then tell others to ignore it. You walk away first!

It's not my fault that you put words into my mouth.