Bug#137355: RFP: PCSX -- Playstation emulator
[CC'ed to Matthew Dempsky, who's apparently working on PCSX]
On Thu, Feb 19, 2004 at 11:39:58PM +0100, Robert Millan wrote:
> > The main problem I see with including PCSX in Debian is that it requires
> > a copy of the Sony PlayStation BIOS. (It might be theoretically
> > possible to use the free BIOS from ePSXe, but I doubt anyone would do
> > that.)
My bad; it's actually PCSX that comes with a free BIOS.
> That's not much of a problem. Does the free BIOS work at all? If it doesn't,
Well, it works in that I can successfully boot and run a PSX game (until
I eventually get PCSX to crash or freeze <g>). Maybe Matthew has more
information on how well the included BIOS performs, compared to the
real thing.
> > Furthermore, you can't run PCSX w/o plugins, and while some of them
> > (mostly those from P.E.Op.S.) are open-source, many others (including
> > Pete's MesaGL/XGL2 video plugins) come w/o source, if not w/o any
> > license whatsoever.
>
> What do the plugins do?
The PSEmu plugins (named after an obsolete emulator from which they are
derived) emulate either the GPU (video), SPU (audio), CD drive or input
controller. (Think of them as device drivers.) The emulator then
provides the "glue" that binds them, and emulates the CPU as well. Most
PSX emulators (including PCSX and ePSXe) follow this design, allowing
for plugins to be shared between them.
> Is the minimal set of plugins necessary to use PCSX all free software?
Now that I look at it, yes. P.E.Op.S. have a GPL'ed plugin for both
video and audio, although the video plugin is plain X11. (Doing 3D in
this matter sucks badly on my Duron.) There's also at least one GPL'ed
plugin for each of the rest, and even Pete's plugins would probably be
acceptable if he can clarify what he means by "The Plugin is free source
code".
> For any of the non-free plugins, and specialy those who come without license,
> we can try to convince the author of re-licensing them.
It's Pete's MesaGL plugin that's sorely lacking; I'll try asking him
what his licensing terms are, and if he'd be willing to GPL/BSD/whatever
them.
> > And there's also the fact that upstream has now ceased development;
> > others seem to have picked up the pieces, but PCSX is still
> > "upstream-less" AFAIK.
>
> Uhm.. what do you mean by others picking up the pieces?
Matthew has posted a few times on the NGemu PCSX forum
(http://www.ngemu.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=57), indicating that he
was working on PCSX:
As I am sure you all know, Linuzappz posted about a month ago to
PCSX.net that he's given up on maintaining the project in favour of
being able to work on PCSX2. I contacted him via IRC and he approved
of letting me work on the project.
However, there's never been any indication (AFAIK) about whether Matthew
was taking over development, and if so, why Linuzappz didn't mention
this on pcsx.net (which appears to have fallen into oblivion). Hence my
considering PCSX "upstream-less" at the time being.
I'm sure Matthew will be able to shed some light on this matter.
> > (If anyone's interested, I maintain my own homebrew packages for PCSX,
> > plugins and such at <http://www.fbriere.net/debian/>. Feel free to
> > install them if you're a user, or to adopt them if you're a DM.)
>
> I could sponsor them if we sort out all the above problems first :>
>
> Btw, please retitle this to ITP and set yourself as owner
> (see http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/)
Given that I've yet to get PCSX to run w/o crashing or freezing, often
before I get the chance to reach the first save point, I'd be reluctant
to package it officially just yet. (I'm not knocking down PCSX; I've
never taken the time to fully investigate the problem. If Matthew's
still working on PCSX, I'd be glad to lend a hand in debugging.)
--
Frederic Briere <*> fbriere@fbriere.net
=> <fbriere@abacom.com> IS NO MORE: <http://www.abacomsucks.com> <=
Reply to: