• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

PS2 Emulation with PCSX2 - share your game configs!

Matchew

Member
Just got this setup and the first game I tried was FF12 and....WOW! This is amazing, but one question the text is blurry is there anyway to fix this? Or is the increase resolution the problem and there really is no work around?
 

akaoni

Banned
Update on SMT Nocturne.

Using extremely recent PCSX2 release (r5839) with latest Gsdx plug-in:


Using same release with a Gsdx plug-in from PCSX2 9.6.0:


The latter looks so much better in motion despite re-introducing the bugged shadow, the latest Gsdx plug-in gives Nocturne a weird ghosting effect. I assume the second shot is more faithful to an actual PS2 colour-wise?

More people need to know about this problem. I wondered why I couldn't bring myself to try the game for more than 15 minutes at a time, the difference is night and day for my eyes. The case might be similar for other Atlus games like Digital Devil Saga or even Devil Summoner if they have similar visual effects implemented?
 

Yasae

Banned
FF XII - 1024x896 (aka 2x scaling) with FXAA

kmT519E.jpg


eEv6NpY.jpg


FRKDfXZ.jpg


Even at low resolutions it looks pretty good, even moreso with FXAA. I could've done up to 4x res, but my video card's a tad loud. About the only thing I couldn't get to show up in FF XII were some of the real-time character shadows:

JGDPwzJ.jpg
 

cerulily

Member
Update on SMT Nocturne.

Using extremely recent PCSX2 release (r5839) with latest Gsdx plug-in:


Using same release with a Gsdx plug-in from PCSX2 9.6.0:


The latter looks so much better in motion despite re-introducing the bugged shadow, the latest Gsdx plug-in gives Nocturne a weird ghosting effect. I assume the second shot is more faithful to an actual PS2 colour-wise?

The top one looks closer to the game i remember.
 
The top one looks closer to the game i remember.

Usually if one wants to know how the game should look on the original hardware, software rendering is the answer (press F9 to switch between the two). It displays all the effects correctly that the hardware renderer misses/gets wrong.
 

Fractal

Banned
A long time ago, I tried to emulate a few games on my old I5 750 CPU, stock settings. Didn't turn out so well.

But I'm curious, how would the emulator perform on a I7 2600K @ 4.4Ghz and a 670 GTX?
There are a few older games I wouldn't mind replaying.
 
A long time ago, I tried to emulate a few games on my old I5 750 CPU, stock settings. Didn't turn out so well.

But I'm curious, how would the emulator perform on a I7 2600K @ 4.4Ghz and a 670 GTX?
There are a few older games I wouldn't mind replaying.

Is that an honest question? Your CPU is as fast as the fastest stock CPU on the market. ;)
Yes, it should play most games at full speed 100% of the time.

Of course the emulator isn't perfectably compatible with all PS2 games, so you could consult the compatibility list or just try your games out.
 

coopolon

Member
A long time ago, I tried to emulate a few games on my old I5 750 CPU, stock settings. Didn't turn out so well.

But I'm curious, how would the emulator perform on a I7 2600K @ 4.4Ghz and a 670 GTX?
There are a few older games I wouldn't mind replaying.

What games were you having problems with on the old i5?
 

Tomodachi

Member
Is there a way to play fps games with a keyboard and mouse?
You can try experimenting on the game you're interested in with special mappings, joy2key and such but I doubt the mouse look would be as smooth and natural as in an original pc fps. No universal solution here, I'm afraid.
 

Kandinsky

Member
Been trying to run DQVIII using the config in the OP w'o luck, it only runs at 15fps. Maybe the info is outdated? or maybe my PC is weak?, please help.

Specs

OS: Windows 8 (64b)
CPU: Intel i7-4770 at 3.4GHz
GPU: 1GB nVidia GeForce GT 635
RAM: 12GB

PCSX2 1.2.1 (r5875)

Thanks.
 
Been trying to run DQVIII using the config in the OP w'o luck, it only runs at 15fps. Maybe the info is outdated? or maybe my PC is weak?, please help.

Specs

OS: Windows 8 (64b)
CPU: Intel i7-4770 at 3.4GHz
GPU: 1GB nVidia GeForce GT 635
RAM: 12GB

PCSX2 1.2.1 (r5875)

Thanks.

Your graphics card is really slow, especially in relation to your high-end CPU. Lowering the internal rendering resolution should help.
 

Kandinsky

Member
Your graphics card is really slow, especially in relation to your high-end CPU. Lowering the internal rendering resolution should help.

Figured as much, oh well it runs kinda fine at x2, but that's it (at x3 it all goes to hell haha), time to check some graphic cards I guess!.

tyvm.
 

drizzle

Axel Hertz
Some games run in Progressive Mode on PCSX2 (Persona 3 is one that comes to mind) but some games don't (Drakengard). The ones that don't, even if I chose a proper deinterlace method (BOB TFF), it still looks blurry (and I'm not talking about the textures, i'm talking about the models and the edge between them and whatever is behind them). Progressive games, obviously, don't.

I know that there's no way to force Progressive mode on PCSX2 itself (even though you can do it with a couple gameshark codes on a real PS2). Is there any way to improve the image quality on non-progressive games?

Here's how the games look on my setup (3x internal resolution)

Persona 3:

Drakengard:


Edit: and here are my settings:
 
I'm having a weird problem in Budokai 3. The game runs perfect but for some reason in the story segments and the opening movie, the camera zooms all the way in at like 1000% or something, for a couple of seconds.

Anyone ran into this problem?
 
I'm having a weird problem in Budokai 3. The game runs perfect but for some reason in the story segments and the opening movie, the camera zooms all the way in at like 1000% or something, for a couple of seconds.

Anyone ran into this problem?

Nope. I played DBZ Budokai 3 just fine when I tried about a month ago. The only major problem I remember is that some of the cel shading was weird when it came to showing texture/model seams.

w75WuDG.png


Like on Goku's pants, there.
 
I managed to fix that weird white lines problem. Not sure what I did though. It seems like I am getting this zoom in problem on other games as well though..
 

Ermac

Proudly debt free. If you need a couple bucks, just ask.
I'm new to the world of PCSX2 and currently reading up on it. I understand running it is quite CPU intensive. Would I be able to run FFXII with a Quad Core i7 @ 2.93? My card is a GTX460.
 
I'm new to the world of PCSX2 and currently reading up on it. I understand running it is quite CPU intensive. Would I be able to run FFXII with a Quad Core i7 @ 2.93? My card is a GTX460.

More than likely. Final Fantasy games are apparently extremely optimized.

I can't actually run most games especially well, but Final Fantasy 10, Kingdom Hearts, etc. all run smooth as silk and my system's only a Core 2 Duo with 2gb of RAM and a Radeon 5670 HD.
 
I'm thinking of getting a PS4 controller for the pcsx2. Is it suggestable I use the driver converter from the 360 pad? I've heard it has some issues running on Win 7. I'd use motioninjoy but it doesn't seem to work no more.
 

Rufus

Member
How come there isn't a similar thread for epsxe/ps1 games? Is it because emulation is generally easier?
It's just not as big of a deal any more and I don't think it was as difficult of a problem to solve.
Also I imagine a lot of people here are the 'right' age now, where they want to go back and check out some of their favourites from their formative age in higher resolutions and such. That's my reason, anyway. The PS2 is still my favourite console and it's got a bunch of games I still haven't played but want to. Might as well clean up the visuals somewhat.
 
I tried playing Drakengard on this, and the game lags almost to the point that it's nearly unplayable when multiple enemies are on the screen. Played around with the config, and couldn't get it back. Definitely subbing to learn how to fix this.
 

Murtrod

Member
Can someone help me understand what's going on with my MGS2 and 3 iso's? Neither of them work properly.

I can boot in and all. That functions just fine. However...

1. MGS2, square does not work for my tranquilizer gun. That is the only weapon that seizes to function. Even chaff grenades on Tanker mission work fine. It's just the tranq that doesn't seem to work with X on my Xbox controller (formatted for square).

2. All buttons on MGS3 do not work. I can only press start and get to the main menu and after that, the buttons seize to function. Can't even play.

Does anyone know what the issue could be? Everything is configured properly, and I use the SSSPSX Pad Pressure Mod for my controller. Most other games I have work minus these two.
 

benzy

Member
Are these specs pretty good at running most games at max settings with at least 30fps? I'm mostly looking forward to FFXII.

Intel Core i7 4500U
8GB DDR3
1TB HDD
2GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 745M
Windows 8
 

Rufus

Member
Are these specs pretty good at running most games at max settings with at least 30fps? I'm mostly looking forward to FFXII.

Intel Core i7 4500U
8GB DDR3
1TB HDD
2GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 745M
Windows 8
The clock rate of your CPU is pretty low, but it's a modern one, so I'm not sure if it will hamper you or not. I would just try it out. You can rip your games easily with any DVD drive. Check the compatibility list on pcsx2.net beforehand, just so you don't waste your time. You'll need a PS2 bios, but those are easy enough to acquire if you can't dump it yourself (which you can with FreeMcBoot, look for tutorials on Youtube), just look around a bit.

As an aside, games will be emulated at 100% speed or not. Their framerates are internal, so sometimes they are locked (or targeting) to 30, sometimes to 60 or 50 in case of PAL games. So long as you can emulate the game at full speed it will run at its intended resolution. I wouldn't aim for 30fps on a 60fps game, it would run at half speed, including the audio.
 

benzy

Member
The clock rate of your CPU is pretty low, but it's a modern one, so I'm not sure if it will hamper you or not. I would just try it out. You can rip your games easily with any DVD drive. Check the compatibility list on pcsx2.net beforehand, just so you don't waste your time. You'll need a PS2 bios, but those are easy enough to acquire if you can't dump it yourself (which you can with FreeMcBoot, look for tutorials on Youtube), just look around a bit.

As an aside, games will be emulated at 100% speed or not. Their framerates are internal, so sometimes they are locked (or targeting) to 30, sometimes to 60 or 50 in case of PAL games. So long as you can emulate the game at full speed it will run at its intended resolution. I wouldn't aim for 30fps on a 60fps game, it would run at half speed, including the audio.


Thanks for the reply. I don't have the laptop yet but I was planning on getting it for around $590. I've read that the clockspeed seems low but it can overclocked to about 3.0ghz.
 

Jackpot

Banned
Downloaded the latest stable version and I'm getting no sound at all. It's the default spu-2 x plugin. Never had this problem before.
 

hateradio

The Most Dangerous Yes Man
Thanks for the reply. I don't have the laptop yet but I was planning on getting it for around $590. I've read that the clockspeed seems low but it can overclocked to about 3.0ghz.
Wouldn't that possibly cause your laptop to overheat though?
 

khaaan

Member
Is there a guide to ripping games? I thought it would be pretty straightforward using Alcohol 120 and I did successfully rip and play some of them but when I put in others they don't show up. I've managed to back up Final Fantasy XII, X2 and Mega Man Anniversary collection. Final Fantasy X and Dark Cloud 2 don't seem to be working, I'm going through the rest to see what works and what doesn't.

Seeing the results made me giddy though, I can't wait to finish up the games I was in the middle of before my PS2 died on me.

Edit: Must have been some freak thing, successfully backed up my entire collection :D
 

hateradio

The Most Dangerous Yes Man
Is there a guide to ripping games? I thought it would be pretty straightforward using Alcohol 120 and I did successfully rip and play some of them but when I put in others they don't show up. I've managed to back up Final Fantasy XII, X2 and Mega Man Anniversary collection. Final Fantasy X and Dark Cloud 2 don't seem to be working, I'm going through the rest to see what works and what doesn't.

Seeing the results made me giddy though, I can't wait to finish up the games I was in the middle of before my PS2 died on me.

Edit: Must have been some freak thing, successfully backed up my entire collection
You don't need something like Alcohol 120% at all. (It's funny that I hadn't heard of that program in years.) You can use ImgBurn (free) to create an ISO. Then you can compress them further with PCSX2 to save a few gigs.
 

Seik

Banned
Currently playing Ape Escape 3.

It looks gorgeous, only so-so thing is that the cutscenes appear all shadowy. The gameplay seems impeccable though.

ae3pzs3d.png
 
Why on earth are PS2 games so CPU intensive?

They aren't. The emulation of PS2 (or other console) games is CPU intensive, because all the machine code of this radically different architecture needs to be translated and adapted to be able to run on a PC.
 
They aren't. The emulation of PS2 (or other console) games is CPU intensive, because all the machine code of this radically different architecture needs to be translated and adapted to be able to run on a PC.

I actually wrote out a big post but while researching that I found this post from the PCSX2 forums that explains things:

Step 1: The 300mhz Emotion Engine is superscalar. It runs 2 instructions at a time, and rarely ever stalls both pipelines. This makes it unique from previous MIPS cpus such as the R4000 or R3000, which only run one instruction at a time, and stall quite often on loads, stores, and other instructions. So by being 300mhz it's actually closer to 600mhz in terms of instruction throughput, and closer to like 800mhz if you wanted to compare it to an R4000, and would be something equivalent to a 1.2ghz R3000.

Step 2: The Emotion Engine has its own built in set of MMI instructions which are special to it. No other MIPS cpu has them, and they are rather exceptionally complicated to implement. Most of the MMI instructions run in a single cycle (and thus a throughput of two per EE clock cycle!), but require between 3 and 6 ix86-SSE instructions to emulate (some instructions require over a dozen SSEs to perform!).

Step 3: The VU0 and VU1 are built the same way. They are superscalar and capable of running two instructions on every clock cycle. Both the VU0 and VU1 are 150mhz. 150x2, and then times 2 again since both chips run in parallel: That's another 600mhz of dedicated SIMD instruction processing, in addition to the EE's.

Step 4: The EE has 32 128-bit registers, and each VU has 32 128-bit registers and 32 32-bit registers. That's a grand total of 96 128-bit registers and 64 32-bit registers. Your fancy ix86 cpu has like 16 128-bit registers and 16 64-bit registers.

Step 5: And none of this even begins to address the inherent complexities of the PS2's memory bus and DMA controller, which require quite a lot of emulated management due to the number of concurrent processors all trying to share the bus at the same time, and still stay in sync. Indeed, emulating the PS2 is fun.

Short answer: Emulating game consoles is super difficult. You might think that the SNES can be easily emulated on a 400mhz machine, but those emulators cut a lot of corners. Higan, an emulator that replicates SNES output 1:1, requires at least a dual-core machine to be playable.

It'll be decades before that style of PS2 emulation is possible. Until then, it takes a lot of research and corner-cutting, which takes a lot of time and a lot of effort.
 

Seanbob11

Member
Hey guys. I know it's not exactly the same thing but I'm trying to run ePSXe on my Windows 7 machine with a 3770k. I'm having trouble running a game, it looks like it loads up but just hangs on a black screen indefinitely.

I assume it has something to do with which plugin I used?

http://www.pbernert.com/html/gpu.htm

I just don't know which one I should be using.

Any idea? Thanks.
 
Top Bottom