cuzebox runs great on my TV box

The Uzebox now have a fully functional emulator! Download and discuss it here.
User avatar
Artcfox
Posts: 1382
Joined: Thu Jun 04, 2015 5:35 pm
Contact:

Re: cuzebox runs great on my TV box

Post by Artcfox »

It is not a well behaved Android app, needs force quitting to quit, and breaks if you switch tasks, so I would rather not. It really is just a very crude proof of concept from someone (me) who knows nothing about Android development. If someone who actually knows Android dev wants to run with it and polish it up, that would be awesome. I think I wrote down all of the steps I used to get it where it is in my GitHub repo for the project.

Cuzebox is designed to drop video frames if it can't keep up, but maintain proper emulation speed, so I think it comes down to what a user is willing to tolerate. With all the optimizations I described (totally unnecessary, but I was curious) I can get it to run at 1050% speed (when hitting F4 to disable vsync) on my 10 year old desktop machine.
User avatar
danboid
Posts: 1937
Joined: Sun Jun 14, 2020 12:14 am

Re: cuzebox runs great on my TV box

Post by danboid »

I borrowed a friends RPi 3 to test cuzebox under the latest 64 bit version of RPi OS. The RPi 3 is not fast enough run cuzebox at 100%, it seems to average at about 60% speed.

I have added Requirements and Display options bits to the cuzebox section of the Emulator wiki page:

https://uzebox.org/wiki/Emulator#CUzebox

For x86, I've just said any modern x86 CPU should be fast enough to run cuzebox but if you know exactly what the slowest x86 CPU than can emulate the Uzebox at full speed is then please let us know.
User avatar
Artcfox
Posts: 1382
Joined: Thu Jun 04, 2015 5:35 pm
Contact:

Re: cuzebox runs great on my TV box

Post by Artcfox »

Thanks for adding that.

I believe it should run on a Core 2, since Uzem did back in 2016, but I would have to dig one up and test it to know for sure. I have a bunch of old saved-from-the-dumpster laptops, the question is can I find the power cords for them? :lol:

Changing Cuzebox over to use SDL_RENDERER_SOFTWARE (I should make a proper patch with a compile time config, because you need to comment out the next line and also remove the fake scanlines) it barely eeks out full speed on my Acer C740:

Code: Select all

cpu family: 6
model: 61
model name: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 3215U @ 1.70GHz
stepping: 4
cache size: 2048 KB
As it stands currently, without those changes it drops every other display frame, and it took me months to even realize that it was dropping frames at all, so I would say it degrades pretty gracefully on underpowered hardware.
User avatar
danboid
Posts: 1937
Joined: Sun Jun 14, 2020 12:14 am

Re: cuzebox runs great on my TV box

Post by danboid »

Thanks Artcfox. It now reads:

"Any modern Intel or AMD CPU should be fast enough to run cuzebox full speed. Anything faster than a Core 2 class CPU should suffice."
User avatar
Artcfox
Posts: 1382
Joined: Thu Jun 04, 2015 5:35 pm
Contact:

Re: cuzebox runs great on my TV box

Post by Artcfox »

It runs on my PineBook Pro, and a from-scratch Emscripten compiled web version runs at full speed on my phone, so I would add ARM to the list.
User avatar
danboid
Posts: 1937
Joined: Sun Jun 14, 2020 12:14 am

Re: cuzebox runs great on my TV box

Post by danboid »

I have written this for the requirements section:

"For ARM machines, cuzebox requires a Raspberry Pi 4 or an equivalent CPU to run at full speed. If you can't afford a RPi 4, the AMLogic S905X3 based TV boxes such as the X96 Air and the X96 Max+ can also run cuzebox at full speed when running Armbian.

Any modern Intel or AMD CPU should be fast enough to run cuzebox full speed. Anything faster than a Core 2 class CPU should suffice. "

There are many different ARM CPU's out there but the RPi has to be the most popular budget ARM platform so it makes more sense to use the RPi line as the benchmark rather than a Chromebook (or Pinebook, or Odroid, or M1/M2 etc) to me. I thought I'd mention the TV boxes as the likely cheapest viable option that offers full speed emulation.

I've also added a link to the forum post with the Windows build.
User avatar
Artcfox
Posts: 1382
Joined: Thu Jun 04, 2015 5:35 pm
Contact:

Re: cuzebox runs great on my TV box

Post by Artcfox »

danboid wrote: Fri Feb 17, 2023 12:42 am I have written this for the requirements section:

"For ARM machines, cuzebox requires a Raspberry Pi 4 or an equivalent CPU to run at full speed. If you can't afford a RPi 4, the AMLogic S905X3 based TV boxes such as the X96 Air and the X96 Max+ can also run cuzebox at full speed when running Armbian.

Any modern Intel or AMD CPU should be fast enough to run cuzebox full speed. Anything faster than a Core 2 class CPU should suffice. "

There are many different ARM CPU's out there but the RPi has to be the most popular budget ARM platform so it makes more sense to use the RPi line as the benchmark rather than a Chromebook (or Pinebook, or Odroid, or M1/M2 etc) to me. I thought I'd mention the TV boxes as the likely cheapest viable option that offers full speed emulation.

I've also added a link to the forum post with the Windows build.
Nice. I probably wouldn't put the "If you can't afford a RPi 4" part though. I think the problem with using the RPi4 as a benchmark is the complete lack of supply. I've been trying for years now to get a newer Raspberry Pi, but they have been completely out of stock everywhere.

The 6-core PineBook Pro however, is in stock now for $219: https://pine64.com/product/14%e2%80%b3- ... -keyboard/
User avatar
danboid
Posts: 1937
Joined: Sun Jun 14, 2020 12:14 am

Re: cuzebox runs great on my TV box

Post by danboid »

Yes I agree that could've been worded better so it now reads:

"A more affordable ARM platform is AMLogic based TV boxes such as the X96 Air and the X96 Max+ which can also run cuzebox at full speed when running Armbian or Manjaro ARM"

I've also added a link to the repo of your expermental Android port.

Is there not a macOS package for CUzebox?
User avatar
Artcfox
Posts: 1382
Joined: Thu Jun 04, 2015 5:35 pm
Contact:

Re: cuzebox runs great on my TV box

Post by Artcfox »

danboid wrote: Fri Feb 17, 2023 10:14 am Yes I agree that could've been worded better so it now reads:

"A more affordable ARM platform is AMLogic based TV boxes such as the X96 Air and the X96 Max+ which can also run cuzebox at full speed when running Armbian or Manjaro ARM"

I've also added a link to the repo of your expermental Android port.

Is there not a macOS package for CUzebox?
That sounds a lot better. Did you add a link to the repo, or the .apk file, or both?

A long time ago I did cross-compile an OS X binary for Cuzebox, but it hasn't been updated in a while, and I'm not even sure if that process will still work on modern Apple computers, given that they switched architectures. Here is a link to that post: https://uzebox.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=27568#p27568

If someone is compiling a game on their Mac, it's likely they can just compile Cuzebox as well. Otherwise they can just use the online player. Unless someone here has a Mac that they can compile it on.
User avatar
danboid
Posts: 1937
Joined: Sun Jun 14, 2020 12:14 am

Re: cuzebox runs great on my TV box

Post by danboid »

" Did you add a link to the repo, or the .apk file, or both?"

apk file? I thought you said you hadn't uploaded an apk anywhere because you didn't think your port worked well enough? Is there one?

The new ARM Macs can still run x86 Mac binaries.
Post Reply