XBOX 360 backwards compatibility

[gamer2]

In an interview with Web site bit-tech.net, ATI Developer Relations Manager Richard Huddy waxed technical about Microsoft's upcoming Xbox 360 and ATI's role in the machine. The 360 will be using ATI's Xenos graphics processor, and Huddy's job is to chat with potential developers and help them develop the tools that best use Xenos' capabilities.

With regards to the console's architecture, Huddy says, "It's way better than I would have expected at this point in the history of 3D graphics." He sees the unified pipeline, rather than segregated pixel and vertex engines, giving the 360 a huge a huge advantage in accessible processing power.

Huddy goes on to shed some light on backwards compatibility. Each Xbox game is written with specific Xbox hardware in mind, and the 360's move to PowerPCs and ATI graphics doesn't jibe with the Xbox's Intel chips and Nvidia graphics processors. To add to the difficulty, the 360 wasn't designed for backward-compatibility early on in development.

To solve this, Microsoft has implemented the use of emulator programs that will allow the Xbox 360 to play Xbox games. According to Huddy, "emulating the CPU isn't really a difficult task. ...the real bottlenecks in the emulation are GPU calls--calls made specifically by games to the Nvidia hardware in a certain way. General GPU instructions are easy to convert--an instruction to draw a triangle in a certain way will be pretty generic. However, it’s the odd cases, the proprietary routines, that will cause hassle.â€

[vb_master]

Probably...




NOT!

[gamer2]

Hey We do not know that yet

[Jeff]

It'll prolly run Halo, Halo 2, and another game and thats it

[gamer2]

i hope that isnt true about only playing Halo, halo 2 and couple others

[soundwave]

Virtual Boy Advance doesnt make my Gameboy roms any nicer, neither do other emulators Ive used, this is any different, there's not chance of the games being upgraded besides faster/smoother runtimes.

[Jeff]

Virtual Boy Advance doesnt make my Gameboy roms any nicer, neither do other emulators Ive used, this is any different, there's not chance of the games being upgraded besides faster/smoother runtimes.

Actually Bleemcast (a few PS1 games for Dreamcast) improved the graphics.

[gamer2]

and it ran the actual PSone CD

[Jeff]

Yep

[gamer2]

i own the Bleemcast MGS1 disc

[Jeff]

Cool. Plus, I have the 28888th post in F42

[gamer2]

Rock on
BIG NUMBERS ROCK
except when they deal with Math

[soundwave]

The bigger the better.

[gamer2]

it is not about the amount of posts it is about the motion of the forum [/really bad joke]

[Black Six]

EMULATION.......LEGAL EMULATION

Legal emulation is nothing new, back when Apple made the switch to Power PCs, they used emulation to maintain compatibility with older 680x0 apps. VirtualPC, a Windows emulator for Mac, has been around for years and is completely legal as well. I'm sure there are a bunch of other examples as well; not to mention the fact that most emulators aren't illegal so to speak, it's just the copyright-protected ROMs that are illegal to distribute.