Current State of Xeon: Read before posting!

**blueshogun96** · February 21st, 2010, 18:56

Even though it isn't posted too often these days, these questions still pop up alot.

Questions:
1. Is Xeon still being worked on?
2. Where is _SF_?
3. Can Xeon play Halo2 or Halo3?

Answers:
1. We don't know. See below.
2. Once again, we don't know. No one has seen or heard from _SF_ since 2006! Yeah, I know it sucks, but for all we know he may be too busy IRL, married with kids, or worse yet maybe he died (which I certainly hope isn't true). So the state of status of Xeon and the whereabouts of _SF_ will remain unknown until he decides to come back and say something about it.
3. I get a rediculous amount of questions here on ngemu and youtube for that matter. No! Xeon CANNOT play Halo 2 or Halo 3. Read the docs and you'll see it only plays Halo 1. Furthermore, Halo 3 is for Xbox 360, so I fail to understand why people keep asking me this personally.

There you have it, and that's about all I can say for now.

__________________

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ElijahTW · April 11th, 2010, 04:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by blueshogun96

maybe he died, or worse yet maybe he got married

I'm sorry for ruining your thread, but I had to edit this to fit your personality more.

__________________

"I used to think gas was expensive, then I realized we're buying liquid exploding dinosaurs."

**blueshogun96** · April 11th, 2010, 07:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigIg

I'm sorry for ruining your thread, but I had to edit this to fit your personality more.

__________________

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Shock120 · April 11th, 2010, 08:34

I heard he got into music business.

tabai · May 18th, 2010, 00:07

It would be great if _SF_ popped back in here and dropped the source for his emu :P

ElijahTW · June 1st, 2010, 00:28

Unlikely to happen, if the rumors that Xeon uses stolen Cxbx code is true.

__________________

"I used to think gas was expensive, then I realized we're buying liquid exploding dinosaurs."

**patrickvl** · June 14th, 2010, 08:13

@BigIg : I consider that rumor to be bullocks, actually.

The commonality is that both Xeon and Cxbx have to patch the same code in Halo in order to run it. (This fact seems to be the reason people assume Xeon is a Cxbx rip-off, which I don't believe.)
Also, both Xeon and Cxbx run the remaining code natively. (This doesn't mean anything about their respective codebases).

The difference however, is that Xeon doesn't have an automated function detection algorithm. This necessitated Xeon to use manually constructed .ini files, telling the engine where to place it's patches. Cxbx on the other hand does sport such a detection engine (look up the OOVPA structure in the Cxbx code), which removes a lot of manual labor, but also bears the risk of incorrect detection (many games crash because of this).

On the other hand, in it's day, Xeon was ahead in a few areas :
- the TLS/FS issues that Cxbx tries hard to fix (using LDT - a technique that doesn't work on 64 bit Windows), where circumvented (or solved differently?) somehow in Xeon.
- it had enough patching for Halo to make that game actually run, while Cxbx is still not supporting that game fully

People have tried to reverse engineer Xeon, but even though it's only a few megs in size, it's still a big undertaking. And there's not all that much to gain from it; The main things we can learn from it, is how it realized the Xbe-loading at address $10000 (something I did independently for Dxbx too), how it fixes the FS-related issues and last (but not least) how the Xeon patches work.

I hope this puts the issue at rest, finally.

Regards,
Patrickvl - Dxbx developer.

PS: Oh, and read this too : http://forums.ngemu.com/xeon-officia...tml#post713744

Last edited by patrickvl; June 14th, 2010 at 10:29..

**blueshogun96** · June 16th, 2010, 20:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigIg

Unlikely to happen, if the rumors that Xeon uses stolen Cxbx code is true.

Xeon isn't a Cxbx rip-off. I know patrick already stated why, but one thing he forgot to mention is that part of Xeon's source was released to prove this. It takes a fair bit of searching, but you can still find it on the net. The only thing _SF_ used was Caustik's .xbe documentation (as all other Xbox emu authors have done).

__________________

Official Website of Shogun3D's RyuAwai!

Shogun3D Game Development Blog

Zengjük a Dalt: Manliest Song Ever!

February 21st, 2010, 18:56	#1
blueshogun96 Last Xbox Emu Author Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Seattle, WA, USA Posts: 5,843	Current State of Xeon: Read before posting! Even though it isn't posted too often these days, these questions still pop up alot. Questions: 1. Is Xeon still being worked on? 2. Where is _SF_? 3. Can Xeon play Halo2 or Halo3? Answers: 1. We don't know. See below. 2. Once again, we don't know. No one has seen or heard from _SF_ since 2006! Yeah, I know it sucks, but for all we know he may be too busy IRL, married with kids, or worse yet maybe he died (which I certainly hope isn't true). So the state of status of Xeon and the whereabouts of _SF_ will remain unknown until he decides to come back and say something about it. 3. I get a rediculous amount of questions here on ngemu and youtube for that matter. No! Xeon CANNOT play Halo 2 or Halo 3. Read the docs and you'll see it only plays Halo 1. Furthermore, Halo 3 is for Xbox 360, so I fail to understand why people keep asking me this personally. There you have it, and that's about all I can say for now. __________________ Official Website of Shogun3D's RyuAwai! Shogun3D Game Development Blog Zengjük a Dalt: Manliest Song Ever!

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April 11th, 2010, 08:34	#4
Shock120 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 58	I heard he got into music business.

May 18th, 2010, 00:07	#5
tabai Emu Tinkerer Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: GT Posts: 75	It would be great if _SF_ popped back in here and dropped the source for his emu :P

June 1st, 2010, 00:28	#6
ElijahTW Need more coffee. Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Ohio Posts: 5,086	Unlikely to happen, if the rumors that Xeon uses stolen Cxbx code is true. __________________ "I used to think gas was expensive, then I realized we're buying liquid exploding dinosaurs."

June 14th, 2010, 08:13	#7
patrickvl Emu author Join Date: May 2008 Location: Netherlands (GMT+1) Posts: 414	@BigIg : I consider that rumor to be bullocks, actually. The commonality is that both Xeon and Cxbx have to patch the same code in Halo in order to run it. (This fact seems to be the reason people assume Xeon is a Cxbx rip-off, which I don't believe.) Also, both Xeon and Cxbx run the remaining code natively. (This doesn't mean anything about their respective codebases). The difference however, is that Xeon doesn't have an automated function detection algorithm. This necessitated Xeon to use manually constructed .ini files, telling the engine where to place it's patches. Cxbx on the other hand does sport such a detection engine (look up the OOVPA structure in the Cxbx code), which removes a lot of manual labor, but also bears the risk of incorrect detection (many games crash because of this). On the other hand, in it's day, Xeon was ahead in a few areas : - the TLS/FS issues that Cxbx tries hard to fix (using LDT - a technique that doesn't work on 64 bit Windows), where circumvented (or solved differently?) somehow in Xeon. - it had enough patching for Halo to make that game actually run, while Cxbx is still not supporting that game fully People have tried to reverse engineer Xeon, but even though it's only a few megs in size, it's still a big undertaking. And there's not all that much to gain from it; The main things we can learn from it, is how it realized the Xbe-loading at address $10000 (something I did independently for Dxbx too), how it fixes the FS-related issues and last (but not least) how the Xeon patches work. I hope this puts the issue at rest, finally. Regards, Patrickvl - Dxbx developer. PS: Oh, and read this too : http://forums.ngemu.com/xeon-officia...tml#post713744 Last edited by patrickvl; June 14th, 2010 at 10:29..