Emulation is something you've probably heard a lot about over the years – we've even covered plenty of emulators here on Make Tech Easier. But what is emulation? If you have any questions on this subject, read this article and I will explain to you what emulation is, what are its advantages and disadvantages.
ContentsWhat is emulation?Advantages and uses of emulationDisadvantages and concerns of emulationClosingSimply put, emulation is when a computer behaves like another device. An emulator is software that allows the host computer to behave like another. Devices that can be emulated include older operating systems, video game consoles, and some programs.
In short, emulation allows your computer to pretend to be something else.
The image above shows Xenoblade Chronicles, a Wii title, running at full 1080p with anti-aliasing and custom HD textures added, on a Windows PC.
An emulator also allows hardware powerful enough to emulate older hardware for backward compatibility – the Xbox 360 and PS3 are very different, hardware-wise, from their successors, but 360 emulation is progressing on the Xbox One. The Wii U, however, shares the architecture with the Wii, so games are backwards compatible without the need for emulation.
Apart from games, emulation is also used in developer circles. An emulator is useful for developers working on Android devices, for example, because an Android emulator is included in the Google one. Android SDK.
It should be noted that emulation and virtualization are not the same. Emulation uses complete hardware and software imitation, while virtualization only imitates parts of the required hardware, and even so, the virtual machine must still have the same architecture (like x86) to work properly, that's why you can run Windows/Linux in virtualization on x86 PCs but not on other devices.
The image above shows a comparison of Weapons of War running on the original Xbox 360 and then the title emulated on the Xbox One. Why would the emulated game be worse on the more powerful console?
This is because emulation has high performance costs . Successful emulation may be technically possible on the Xbox One, but the Xbox One just isn't powerful enough to emulate 360 titles at full graphics settings while maintaining good performance. Even in optimized titles like this, performance is even worse on the Xbox One than the original 360 – and in the case of games capped at 30 FPS, this kind of performance hit can sometimes be unplayable. /P>
From a programming point of view, emulation is also very difficult to do. Due to the weirdness of the original Xbox, no successful Xbox emulator has been released yet. Even PCSX2, the first PS2 emulator, still faces many compatibility issues with major PS2 titles, despite being in development for thirteen years as of December 2015.
Emulation is also a delicate area, legally speaking, at least for video games and other licensed software. You are technically allowed to have your own archival copies in the United States, but you are not allowed to create them yourself. However, lawsuits for possessing video game saves usually only happen if you sell or distribute them, in which case all sorts of copyright lawyers will be after your blood in the water.
Emulation can be a tricky and difficult situation to understand, but hopefully this article will explain it to you. Emulation can be used for gaming, development and more. If you have any other questions, please let us know in the comments.
