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gregf
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another MAME FAQ entry material?
10/26/17 04:01 PM




With some minor editing of the post, this is probably worthy of being an FAQ entry material on MAMEdev site sometime later since there will be future users wondering how this [recompiler feature] works. There probably is something there already, but this post also provides some useful examples.



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The recompiler buys us some extra CPU cycles to work with.

Accurately emulating the blitter speed will require more calculations during rendering, which costs CPU cycles.

The recompiler potentially gives us breathing space to improve the accuracy without making the whole driver run badly.

I say potentially because the blitter and CPU run on different threads, and while the recompiler gets rid of the SH3 bottleneck in some places (especially noticeable on Pink Sweets and MM Pork when it's decompressing stuff ingame) it doesn't change the weight of the blitter thread which can still be heavy in places (although not as heavy as the SH3 was before this as the blitter was already extensively optimized)

A better way to thread the blitter to make use of the cycles freed up on the main core might also be needed however, currently it just makes use of a 2nd core because it's important that all blits are processed in order. It might be possible to split the blitting of each object by scanline, assuming blits aren't relying on reading data written by the same blit.

If the games however slowdown because the original SH3 CPU is not fast enough rather than the blitter, then yes, the recompiler could cause problems as the recompiler isn't really going to allow us to emulate 100% accurate memory access timings for the CPU, doing so would be incredibly slow and require a much more accurate interpretor that likely no PC will be able to run. To the best of my knowledge the limits come from the blitter, not the SH3 tho.

However, as I've said before, I've really little interest in trying to accurately model the blitter timings until all the games are dumped so I know exactly what I'm working with, so that could be a good 10 years yet. It doesn't really bother me at this stage. I'm not going to stop anybody else from doing it, but I'm not in a rush and would prefer to have all possible evidence to work with before I commit to something like that.

For now just enjoy the performance improvements, MAME needed somebody to look into building an SH3/4 recompiler and if you're lucky somebody else will build on what's been done here and make the recompiler work properly for Naomi-AW-SP-DC / Hikaru / Gaelco / Aristocrat Mk6 etc. too, at which point things get a lot more interesting. This is more about trying to help unlock some of MAME's potential, the Cave stuff was just a nice simple test bed.
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Entire thread
Subject Posted by Posted on
* MAME 0.191 Vas Crabb 10/25/17 06:08 AM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 MKFAN  11/05/17 10:44 PM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 Shoegazr  11/07/17 12:07 AM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 Solstar  10/30/17 01:12 PM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 CiroConsentino  10/30/17 10:56 PM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 RobbbertModerator  11/01/17 02:08 AM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 Vas Crabb  10/30/17 01:42 PM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 Dullaron  10/30/17 03:03 PM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 gregf  10/25/17 06:50 PM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 Asure  10/25/17 03:52 PM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 Shoegazr  10/26/17 12:57 AM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 Haze  10/26/17 08:04 AM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 Shoegazr  10/27/17 01:24 AM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 R. Belmont  10/29/17 03:45 AM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 Shoegazr  10/29/17 05:16 PM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 Diet Go Go Fan  10/29/17 05:10 PM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 MooglyGuy  10/31/17 07:15 PM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 jonwil  10/31/17 11:12 PM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 Diet Go Go Fan  10/31/17 10:56 PM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 MooglyGuy  11/01/17 09:06 PM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 Osso1  11/02/17 02:16 PM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 MooglyGuy  11/04/17 09:55 PM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 Osso1  11/05/17 08:51 AM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 Diet Go Go Fan  11/02/17 12:13 AM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 MooglyGuy  11/02/17 09:48 AM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 Diet Go Go Fan  11/01/17 10:58 PM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 MooglyGuy  11/01/17 12:10 AM
. * another MAME FAQ entry material? gregf  10/26/17 04:01 PM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 SmitdoggAdministrator  10/26/17 01:10 AM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 Shoegazr  10/26/17 06:41 AM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 SmitdoggAdministrator  10/26/17 06:46 AM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 Asure  11/01/17 11:34 PM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 Haze  10/25/17 02:01 PM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 Vas Crabb  10/25/17 02:06 PM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 Haze  10/25/17 02:48 PM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 MooglyGuy  10/25/17 07:43 PM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 Haze  10/25/17 08:20 PM
. * Re: MAME 0.191 DarkMoe  10/26/17 02:16 AM
. * why? Jason  10/25/17 08:59 PM
. * Re: why? Haze  10/25/17 09:14 PM
. * Re: why? MooglyGuy  10/26/17 05:51 PM

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