For example, command lists going to the emulated system’s GPU can be intercepted and turned into DirectX or OpenGL commands for the host’s video card to process.Īn example of an HLE is the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). The emulator can intercept the command list and turn it into something the host computer can process on a similar co-processor. These are a series of instructions that tell the co-processor what to do. Lists interception: Co-processors, like the GPU and audio chip, that have enough hardware abstraction require the main processor to send command lists.This is opposed to running each instruction one by one, which usually results in lookup overhead penalties. Dynamic Recompiling: The emulator looks at chunks of the application’s processor instructions and sees if it can optimize them to run better on the host computer’s processor.Interpreting: The emulator executes the application’s code line by line, by mimicking what each instruction is supposed to do.HLE has three primary methods of simulating functions of the hardware. An HLE takes advantage of hardware abstraction by figuring out what the command(s) are intended to do in the emulated environment, and letting the host hardware do the rest. With hardware abstraction, the developer commands “I want to read at this place” and the firmware on the drive takes care of the rest. Originally, if a developer wanted to read data from a drive, they had to command the drive to spin up, position the read/write head, and get the timing down to read the data, pull the data, then transfer it over. An example is how storage drive interfaces came about. Instead, it provides a set of actions that a developer commonly uses and does all the little details automatically. Hardware abstraction is a way of hiding the intricate details of controlling hardware. This allowed for ease of programming as now developers didn’t have to invent and reinvent the wheel. In the mid-'90s, hardware abstraction was spreading to more computer systems, including video game consoles. Instead of trying to simulate the hardware, it simulates the functions of the hardware.

High-level emulation (HLE) takes a different approach to simulating a system. In high-level emulation, the PC provides software hooks so the game can run on its hardware.

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