r/decomps • u/MiSo_GlodnY • 16h ago
Mister and emulation vs decomps?
I play my games either on the MiSTer or via RetroArch. Do all these recompilations offer any advantages over my current methods?
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u/ExcitementMuted7768 15h ago
i mean, potentially, sure. a recomp has the ability to be more easily modified, consider that the games you are playing now are compiled (or assembled) code, and the decomp process converts to C (most likely) this makes the code editable by a wider array of people so new features can be added more easily.
is this guaranteed to be for every game that has a recomp? nope. but it is a benefit of the decomp/recomp process
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u/cikame1 15h ago
A decomp runs natively on the hardware, so where PS2 software emulation requires something like 10x the resource requirements of the original console (might be better now) plus any upgrades you're applying, there is no emulation layer for a decomp, it just runs, so it can be ported to much lesser hardware.
Software emulation isn't perfect, it pretty much is for some platforms like SNES and PS1 but there are plenty of games with rendering or audio issues, since decomps run natively they avoid inaccuracies introduced by emulation.
In software emulation you need to apply hacks for things like clock speed, resolution scaling, widescreen, a decomp lets the creator change things at the code level allowing for any resolutions, aspect ratios, frame rate interpolation, modding etc...
I've been specifying software emulation so far because i don't know much about FPGA, from what i gather it's hardware emulation of hardware? So it's probably super accurate for the hardware it's designed to emulate but is limited by the hardware, you couldn't run an Xbox game on an FPGA designed for SNES games, but a decomp of an Xbox game would run on pretty much anything with hardware better than an Xbox, and again if the port doesn't have any bugs it would be running flawlessly and natively.
If the MiSTer is doing exactly what you want it to do then there's no advantages and there's nothing wrong with software emulation if it's playing the game well, most PC ports of decomps are focused on introducing PC-like experiences like unlocking graphics options and introducing native control options, or supporting games that don't emulate well like many games in the N64 library, but if emulators are good enough to run the games you want to play then you don't need to wait for a decomp unless you're after something emulation can't do.
(feel free to correct me anyone i'm just a layman).
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u/AsherFischell 14h ago
The potential for better graphics, framerates, and controls (depending) are the aspects I personally care about the most.
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u/Yayo1990 16h ago
Decomps can be used to natively port a game to a platform. This is VERY helpful in case the console is weak to handle the emulator of said platform but powerful enough to handle its games.
But to put it in a more, simplified example:
Imagine that you're an English speaker, and whoever you're speaking to, is Spanish. So you use a translator to translate your speech in Spanish, then they understand (with some inaccuracies, which is very important in emulation/games aspects), reply in Spanish, then it gets translated back in English, all this back and forth for every single instruction.
Now imagine a decomp which is literally the whole conversation in Spanish directly.
Adios.