Emulator Streaming

Niemann

Mucx wrote:
As an alternative thread, if you could fire up an emulator and stream your gameplay easily with TwitchTV style features... would people here watch that? (it would require no peripherals like Elgato, just emulator software and a good net connection).

Actually think this is a worthy topic on it's own. Speaking for myself I would definitely be interested in stream watching of classic video games. I've spoken highly of OnLive lately, and they have a truly unique interface when joining their system. You see a grid of hundreds of people playing and you can watch in on any of them. At first I had thought this was completely useless and simply a cool tech demo. The more I used OnLive the more I found myself hopping in to watch people play parts of games I was stuck at, or just curious about the best way to approach.

I could see a similar hub being used for classic gaming, or even PC gaming (some of which already exists). Using emulators we would be able to provide high quality streams (pixel perfect NES for instance) and then apply video filters locally. This means you could hypothetically watch a player play through Ocarina of Time in high quality. It would definitely add an intensely retro feel to an emulator's interface.

Mucx

From the emulator side I'm thinking that as you start playing there is an option to 'broadcast' the gameplay... as simple as that. (so it doesn't require a PVR device or anything, just an emulator and a rom). Of course, there could be text / audio discussion etc happening at the same time but you know.

That video stream goes to a central website where, tons of other streams are coming in and you can watch them of course, OnLive or TwitchTV style. You can tune into a friends list to see what they are playing, or have played etc.

So essentially it is TwitchTV but... broadcasting is super simple via an emulator rather than the hoops you jump through and equipment you need to buy.

seanstar

Hm... something kinda like the Netplay option in Richard's lineup, only explicitly single-player? I wonder what kind of performance improvements could be made if the watching end didn't need to stay completely in-sync, just keep its state up periodically?

HDL

I hoped for a long time that emulators would gain this capability eventually. As it stands there are lots of things that get in the way for people that just want to broadcast a video game. We have to worry about hardware devices, compatibility, splitters, screen capture, audio routing, upload speeds, video encoding and computer specs, etc.

If there were some way to simply play on the emulator, enable the broadcast to an account on a dedicated site, and have others see what you're doing without worrying about your CPU getting sad or buying all sorts of expensive soft/hardware, it would be infinitely more accessible, not to mention intuitive. It's hard for me to imagine emulator authors getting together on this, but who knows. I would certainly be on it if it were executed well.

Mucx

I would like to make this happen in OpenEmu someday, it is just about finding the right developer(s) as there is a lot of other stuff the guys want to do first with the app. Getting the updated interface out first, adding more systems it can emulate etc are a higher priority.

Anyway, in reference to NetPlay, I cam across this today. It is called MAMEHub and by all accounts it is pretty good (at least on Windows...dont see much comment about the Mac version): https://sites.google.com/site/mamehub/

Here is a video of some guys playing a game and chatting while doing so. I wouldn't have designed it so that the chat appears ontop of the gameplay window like that, and it seems restricted to only people who are playing (so it isn't OnLive or TwitchTV-like public streams). It also definitely needs Mic chat (maybe it has?) as typing and playing is... well, not really an option for most games.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHtkvSZwUO4

IUG

Mucx wrote:
Anyway, in reference to NetPlay, I cam across this today. It is called MAMEHub and by all accounts it is pretty good (at least on Windows...dont see much comment about the Mac version): https://sites.google.com/site/mamehub/

Yeah, I was dissapointed last night when I tried to use SNES9X to play Secret of Mana with a friend, only to have her crash whenever she tried to connect to me as a server. With her as the server, I could never see her online. Really too bad as she's never played the game, and I want to go through it again now.

Mucx

Did NetPlay in SNES9x ever work? I remember trying it out with a friend before a few times over the years and it would either crash or just... no work.

Squirrel

Yes, NetPlay in SNES9x did work. I've done it before. It was ridiculously laggy over an internet connection.

seanstar

I seem to recall trying NetPlay once in undergrad across the campus network. I don't recall it crashing, but it wasn't very playable either. I should really try it locally in my apartment over my gigabit switch just to see how it runs optimally...

seanstar

Alright- across my apartment network, there's latency at Medium latency, I can connect, it seems stable unless one end or the other loses focus/quits/etc., but... player 2 controls (on both BSNES and Nestopia, at least) are still routed exclusively from the host machine...? Maybe both machines work both controls and I just need to use the P2 controls on the P2 system... yeah... that would make sense :P

Mucx

seanstar wrote:
Alright- across my apartment network, there's latency at Medium latency, I can connect, it seems stable unless one end or the other loses focus/quits/etc., but...

Was that an attempt with NetPlay in SNES9x or using MAMEHub?
I haven't found the time this week to try out MAMEHub. (downloaded it though... massive 188mb).

seanstar

It was Richard's Netplay in most of his emulators. Specifically, BSNES and Nestopia. Also, as a follow-up question to him, I learned that the game server/host always uses port 4850- a good bit of knowledge to squirrel away in case you need to e.g. set up port-forwarding so you can host a game from behind your own router.