Post subject: Mac TASing?
Joined: 11/11/2010
Posts: 18
Im having problems with my PC laptop, I want to get back to TASing though, I still have to do a No sword child segment for LoZ- OoT and the first level of Doom64 >.> so does anyone have any sort of n64 emulator with rerecord? I would greatly appreciate it. =)
Former player
Joined: 11/13/2005
Posts: 1587
Mupen is the only rerecording N64 emulator and as far as I know, there is unfortunately no Mac OS X version of it. I might be wrong though, so if anyone could confirm this, it would be nice.
Joined: 11/11/2010
Posts: 18
Is there anyway to run .exe files on a mac then that you know?
Joined: 1/3/2006
Posts: 334
for nes, gameboy and snes emulators, crossover works pretty decent on my 2009 macbook. speed is not very fast, so only for tasing not for enjoyable playback or encoding. I havent tested mupen with crossover lately but it should work though I have no idea at what speed. The best option probably is to install WinXP via bootcamp. Ive got 32gb reserved for Windows stuff and it comes in really handy.
MESHUGGAH
Other
Skilled player (1918)
Joined: 11/14/2009
Posts: 1353
Location: 𝔐𝔞𝔤𝑦𝔞𝔯
chiefsizzlechest wrote:
Is there anyway to run .exe files on a mac then that you know?
There's an open source software that emulates Windows applications: http://appdb.winehq.org/ However I don't recommend it for TASing (TAS results may vary!). You should first test existing N64 tases that syncs perfectly. But even after this I wouldn't try it. edit: http://wiki.winehq.org/MacOSX
PhD in TASing 🎓 speedrun enthusiast ❤🚷🔥 white hat hacker ▓ black box tester ░ censorships and rules...
Joined: 11/11/2010
Posts: 18
and the bootcamp would definately be enough to TAS and encode? If so, how much will it cost? or can I just Torrent the sucker?
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
There's also VirtualBox, which allows you to run virtual computers which can have other OSes from your primary OS. So you could install Windows on a virtual computer and run emulators in it. VirtualBox doesn't provide a very good "graphics card", though. It should work fine for 8- and 16-bit consoles.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Joined: 1/3/2006
Posts: 334
Derakon wrote:
There's also VirtualBox, which allows you to run virtual computers which can have other OSes from your primary OS. So you could install Windows on a virtual computer and run emulators in it. VirtualBox doesn't provide a very good "graphics card", though. It should work fine for 8- and 16-bit consoles.
Yeah you could do that, but youd still need a "valid" Windows key to install it. All in all thers no difference spacewise between VirtualBox (or other software like this) and a clean installation via Bootcamp. Plus Bootcamp has better support for graphic card and such.
chiefsizzlechest wrote:
and the bootcamp would definately be enough to TAS and encode? If so, how much will it cost? or can I just Torrent the sucker?
It would definetly be enough for TASing, not sure about encoding mainly because of the limited harddrive space you give Bootcamp. Bootcamp comes with every OSX instalation disk. You need a WinXP disk and a key. It will be installed as a seperat OS and you can chose while booting up, but OS X will still boot up by standard. For more infos regarding Bootcamp I suggest your Macs manual or google. Its very easy to set up, believe me.
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
The difference between Bootcamp and VirtualBox is that VirtualBox runs a virtual machine within your main OS, so you don't have to reboot. But as you noted, it's not as capable as running the main OS directly.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Active player (428)
Joined: 9/7/2007
Posts: 329
Just having an emulator open in VirtualBox takes lots of CPU on the Mac side. It isn't that big of a deal for a box, but on a laptop, it makes the fan come on which is annoying. I did a test and it seems to sync for FCUEX and SNES9X, but I wouldn't trust it enough to make TASes. As for 3D platforms, I doubt it will work well enough. Bootcamp would be a better choice.
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
I've made a ~4 minute TAS in FCEU that synced just fine. I don't see why they wouldn't sync, to be quite honest; the emulators are running on the same operating system as they always do. It's just not as fast as usual. 3D might be a different matter, but only because of the horrible graphics card that VirtualBox sets you up with. Basically, if your program uses software rendering, then VirtualBox should be fine; if you need hardware acceleration, then it probably won't be. Even then, though, it's a matter of performance, not sync.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
Given that the emulator runs the game in a completely deterministic way, it cannot desync no matter how slow the computer (or virtual environment). If the computer (or environment) is way too slow, it might be unable to emulate the game at full speed (ie. at the same speed as the original console), but that doesn't affect syncing. It just means that the emulation runs slowly.
Joined: 11/11/2010
Posts: 18
Warp wrote:
Given that the emulator runs the game in a completely deterministic way, it cannot desync no matter how slow the computer (or virtual environment). If the computer (or environment) is way too slow, it might be unable to emulate the game at full speed (ie. at the same speed as the original console), but that doesn't affect syncing. It just means that the emulation runs slowly.
and even that shouldn't matter when TASing since your frame by framing it. but is it widely considered that bootcamp is the best? assuming the open source thing that MESHUGGAH posted doesn't work for TASing?
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Bootcamp and some kind of VM solution like VirtualBox are basically your best bets, the one for getting high-speed emulation (should only be an issue for the more advanced consoles), the other for saving you from having to reboot your computer when you want to TAS. In both cases you will need a valid Windows install to work from.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Joined: 11/11/2010
Posts: 18