Recompiling PCSX2 for ARM devices

[mattiamonari]

Hi!
I would like to know exactly which should be the process in order to bring PCSX2 compatibility for ARM architecture. I know this is an incredibily large amount of work to do, and I'm not planning to do it in the near future, but it intrigues me a lot.
Feel free to share any documents/link that could help me.

[seta-san]

The emulator uses x86 assembly. I don’t think it’s possible.

[mattiamonari]

Hi @seta-san, Thanks for the answer.

Surfing the web I found this (among many others forum talking about the difficulty of porting pcsx2 to ARM devices) :

Holy butts. Porting PCSX2 will be quite an undertaking. PCSX2 is one of the most x86 dependent abominations I've ever looked at.
So the first step would be abstracting away as much x86 mess as possible so you can build the core project without an sort of x86 dependency. [...]
The dynamic recompiler isn't "ported" to ARM, I had to generate a new one with some basic ideas taken from the existing JIT64. You'll have to do the same thing with PCSX2's. Of course the first step would be just getting their interpreter running on a ARM host. [...]
To make your life easier in the porting process to ARM, I'd recommend getting a ARM development board that supports OpenGL ES 3.0 and runs Linux. HardKernel should be releasing one in a month or two that does and is a 8 core machine so compiling won't take decades.

It's dated 2014, but I think the process explained in the discussion could be still valid. The problem is that it's a little bit generic, if anyone could help me in a more precise way, i would appreciate that.

[seta-san]

If you have to ask then you can’t do it. It would require a full rewrite of the most complicated parts of the emulator. You would have to have a complete deep understanding of the ps2, x86, and arm architectures as well as C/C++. There is probably under a dozen, if not under a half dozen people on earth qualified right now to do it and it’s not a priority to them afaik. A much smaller undertaking, moving to x64, has been extremely slow going.

[Magimagilo]

[F0bes]

This has nothing to do with the original post.
Custom resolution has been removed because it caused problems due to people not knowing how to use it and the fact that we provide proper upscaling resolutions.
Go to forums or discord for support please and don't fill random topics with junk.

[seta-san]

I think this discussion is basically done

[mattiamonari]

Hi @seta-san.
If think that there are many people out there that could give me more information about how porting PCSX2 to arm work. I never said i could do it, nor i would. I'm currently waiting for a valid answer, but it's if you consider this discussion done i'm gonna try to make this question in PCSX2's forum, where it probably is more appropriate.

[MrCK1]

I assume he was referring to the recent news article regarding AetherSX2, but regardless the discussion should stay open for the time being.

[Spidy123222]

I assume he was referring to the recent news article regarding AetherSX2, but regardless the discussion should stay open for the time being.

Yeah I agree should be still open especially if arm based machines continue to strive how m1 macs are now a thing and possible more Linux and windows devices follow along too.

[F0bes]

Closing as we don't use discussions for this purpose.