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[adamsapple]

Only 1 noted PS2 game now that doesn't boot on the emulator at all.

It has added a lot of modern functionality ala Dolphin.

Texture replacement, retro achievements, per game settings, better compressed ISO reading support, automatic controller configs, plenty of fixes in blending or ghosting reduction, Vulkan etc.

Introducing PCSX2 2.0! | PCSX2

PCSX2 2.0 Release Blog Post

pcsx2.net

 

[Dorfdad]

Nice finally some major improvements in that scene!!

 

[Dirk Benedict]

Downloading now. Excited!!
Also, thank you for the headsup!

 

[AGRacing]

I wonder if emudeck will update this to 2.0?
I’ll have to look tonight.

Edit : Yes!

 

[YCoCg]

Bit of a jump! Been using the nightly 1.7.xxxx builds for quite a while now, they were night and day when compared to 1.6 public release so I guess they wanted to stamp it as a bit of a rebirth.

 

[MrRibeye]

Pour one out for all the Mac boys

 

[CamHostage]

Pour one out for all the Mac boys

Mac is back. Its old-timey windows that is out.

 

[amigastar]

Awesome news. I love me some good emulation on good ol' pc.

 

[Tarin02543]

Excellent, been playing Raiden V lately

 

[CamHostage]

Wow, not only are the features even deeper than AdamsApple detailed so far in the summary (audio improvements, UX, pre-tested recommended profiles per game per profile, and on and on...) but the Update Log reads like a 101 class in understanding emulator development challenges.

Good stuff from this team, salute!

 

[00_Zer0]

With most of the AAA game scene becoming a bore lately it has driven me back to games I missed in the past. I recently got into PS2 and PS3 gaming again to play some of those long lost games. I just purchased Gauntlet Dark Legacy on eBay for dirt cheap. I don't even own a PS2.

With how good PCSX2 is, I just ripped the game, and got the PS2 bios files from the readily available PS3 firmware that Sony provides online, downloaded an HD texture pack and now I'm enjoying this long lost gem on PC in High Definition.

I plan on grabbing a ton more long lost PS2 games on the cheap to experience on PC with this awesome emulator. It's a great way to spend your time and money instead of feeling like your stuck in today's mostly boring AAA hellscape.

 

[Panajev2001a]

Only 1 noted PS2 game now that doesn't boot on the emulator at all.

It has added a lot of modern functionality ala Dolphin.

Texture replacement, retro achievements, per game settings, better compressed ISO reading support, automatic controller configs, plenty of fixes in blending or ghosting reduction, Vulkan etc.

Introducing PCSX2 2.0! | PCSX2

PCSX2 2.0 Release Blog Post

pcsx2.net

This is a great changelog and update.

It does show how more lenient the community is with this very very long standing project vs the expectations they have for Sony’s emulator:

On the left is how Burnout games looked so far, broken sky, but discussions about emulation of PS2 are usually at the level of “Sony bad, PS2 emulation is a solved science with minimal issues”… yeah… right… This does not even include up scaling breaking games that did framebuffer downscaling for effects adding ghosting/smearing the picture which they are only able to fix recently (attempting would be best as they are trying to detect when the game does it, I think Sony’s up rendering method is more robust but might have other limitations in terms of enhancements).

 

[Panajev2001a]

I just purchased Gauntlet Dark Legacy on eBay for dirt cheap.

Oh… you will have lots of fun with this one .

 

[Optimus Lime]

I highly recommend running Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 or 4 at 8k. Absolutely phenomenal. Just sit back and enjoy an actual video game.

 

[YCoCg]

It does show how more lenient the community is with this very very long standing project vs the expectations they have for Sony’s emulator

One of these has all the source code and information about how the system works, the other does not, and yes it's not even community vs Sony, it's Sony vs Sony, their emulators for the PSP and Vita were leagues ahead compared to what's being done now in terms of the same effort.

 

[Black_Stride]

This is a great changelog and update.

It does show how more lenient the community is with this very very long standing project vs the expectations they have for Sony’s emulator:

On the left is how Burnout games looked so far, broken sky, but discussions about emulation of PS2 are usually at the level of “Sony bad, PS2 emulation is a solved science with minimal issues”… yeah… right… This does not even include up scaling breaking games that did framebuffer downscaling for effects adding ghosting/smearing the picture which they are only able to fix recently (attempting would be best as they are trying to detect when the game does it, I think Sony’s up rendering method is more robust but might have other limitations in terms of enhancements).

BlackSky bug could be fixed by changing renderer back and forth, literally during the start race animation you can switch renderers back and forth quickly enough to not impede your race.
You could also restart the race after the sky loads in if you want.

But yes BlackSky was a problem.....also the underside of cars would always render incorrectly.

 

[Esppiral]

This is a great changelog and update.

It does show how more lenient the community is with this very very long standing project vs the expectations they have for Sony’s emulator:

On the left is how Burnout games looked so far, broken sky, but discussions about emulation of PS2 are usually at the level of “Sony bad, PS2 emulation is a solved science with minimal issues”… yeah… right… This does not even include up scaling breaking games that did framebuffer downscaling for effects adding ghosting/smearing the picture which they are only able to fix recently (attempting would be best as they are trying to detect when the game does it, I think Sony’s up rendering method is more robust but might have other limitations in terms of enhancements).

The sky has been fixed for ages, hope the uptade the Xbox version soon.

 

[Panajev2001a]

BlackSky bug could be fixed by changing renderer back and forth, literally during the start race animation you can switch renderers back and forth quickly enough to not impede your race.

Does this sound like a professional polished package which is what you all know Sony has to offer? Maybe it is a generational difference and I understand why my QA gets upset at a lot of “dev done” stuff thrown their way lately .

Edit: this is in the latest release notes, I did not dig around for old bugs that have been “fixed”.

The issue with ghosting and blurring when up scaling games is also quite curious, but understandable. I am not saying it is trivial to fix, but not enough credit is given to the devs that came up with their uprendering technique (essentially run the PS2 graphics pipeline 4x with very very tiny view matrix offsets and then merge the results to boost resolution… this is a great way to increase resolution while maintaining compatibility).

 

[Panajev2001a]

One of these has all the source code and information about how the system works, the other does not, and yes it's not even community vs Sony, it's Sony vs Sony,

98% or so of the official PS2 docs went open source when Sony released the PS2Linux kit. That means 100% of the EE and GS btw.

I get that, but also I would appreciate why Sony does what they do at the speed they do too.

 

[Kupfer]

Since I'm lazy I'm waiting for the flatpak update to try it on the Deck. Just looked it up, it's still @ 1.7xx something

 

[KuraiShidosha]

It's amazing. Every year that passes, I update this emulator and load up Katamari Damacy and to my utter shock and surprise (sarcasm) the exact same bugs are present as they were years ago. Stars in space look all messed up and the sound occasional breaks with screeching spam that doesn't stop until you exit emulation. Why does this emulator suck so bad and get so little progress in accuracy compared to other emulators? You'd think if PS2 really was this golden desired system like all the Europeans and Asians said it was back in that era, that we'd have multiple amazing emulators to choose from with great compatibility. But nope, this is basically it and it hasn't changed on eons.

 

[CherryFalls]

I highly recommend getting the getaway and the getaway 2 for this
La noire devs before la noire

 

[Prekk]

You'd think if PS2 really was this golden desired system like all the Europeans and Asians said it was back in that era,...

What? Because pcsx2 sucks the PS2 was overrated?
But yeah. These godamn Europeans and Asians!

 

[RoboFu]

run great on OSX, highly impressed.

 

[adamsapple]

Hoping this gets ported to the Xbox Dev mode shortly as well. My ageing laptop can also play PCSX2 fairly reasonably but I can't exactly push it beyond 1080p~ or thereabout.

 

[nkarafo]

It's not a major release, it's a rebranding. Other than that it's just another small daily commit like v1.7.5980 was before it. The emulator is getting daily updates for years now, none of the fixes in the article are new.

Dolphin also got a rebranding about a week ago btw so nice timing.

 

[YCoCg]

It's amazing. Every year that passes, I update this emulator and load up Katamari Damacy and to my utter shock and surprise (sarcasm) the exact same bugs are present as they were years ago. Stars in space look all messed up and the sound occasional breaks with screeching spam that doesn't stop until you exit emulation. Why does this emulator suck so bad and get so little progress in accuracy compared to other emulators? You'd think if PS2 really was this golden desired system like all the Europeans and Asians said it was back in that era, that we'd have multiple amazing emulators to choose from with great compatibility. But nope, this is basically it and it hasn't changed on eons.

Usually fixes are done on a per game basis for tricky stuff, it sounds like the game you mentioned might be one of those doing some tricky rendering stuff so the only option is to either post on their forums/discords about it and hope someone picks it up and looks into it or just run that specific game in Software Mode which you can do since games now have a profile and settings each.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Hopefully Okage: Shadow King runs well now. Tried it a long while ago, there was always slowdown. Then in the first underwater dungeon the battles slowed down horribly and I died without even knowing what killed me or how.

Hoping this gets ported to the Xbox Dev mode shortly as well. My ageing laptop can also play PCSX2 fairly reasonably but I can't exactly push it beyond 1080p~ or thereabout.

Y'all are really flirting with that TOS banhammer

 

[adamsapple]

Y'all are really flirting with that TOS banhammer

They already axed the retail mode, they can't do that for Dev Mode as it's designed to be its own sandbox.

People were sharing screenshots and videos on XBL for those emulators, which is probably what caused MS to take action. Nintendo probably didn't like their game media being shared over XBL.

 

[Corporal.Hicks]

I still have a SD CRT and real PS2 hardware for sentimental reasons, but these old PS2 games run and look better on the PCSX2 emulator and modern display. I played "black" at 60fps on the PCSX2 emulator and it was a much better experience (aiming at 30fps on the real PS2 feels laggy).

PCSX2 allows you to run PS2 games at much higher resolutions, but I recommend playing at native resolution because at higher resolutions low poly counts, pop-in and poor quality textures are 10x more noticeable, ruining the immersion.

I upscale 480i/480p using integer scaling method + bilinear sharp in the PCSX2 display settings, then I just use guestHD CRT reshade shader (with my settings). For many years I've only played PS2 games on my SD CRT, but thanks to this shader I'm so happy with the image quality that I no longer feel the need to play on a real CRT because now I get even better clarity on my PC monitor. This shader is optimized for 1440p but you can set your own resolution (just in 4/3 format) in guesthd parameters. I'm also including my "Tonemap" shader settings, because I tried to balance green tint a little bit with it (HDR CRT shaders do not change colors, but SDR CRT shaders do, so they always require some tweaking).

Home

ReShade - Advanced post-processing everywhere.

reshade.me

GuestHD (CRT shader)

GitHub - HelelSingh/CRT-Guest-ReShade

Contribute to HelelSingh/CRT-Guest-ReShade development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Paste these lines into the reshadepreset.ini file.

Spoiler: GUESTHD parameters

[CRT-Guest-HD.fx]
addnoised=0.000000
AS=0.230000
bardir=0.000000
barintensity=0.000000
barspeed=50.000000
beam_max=1.000000
beam_min=1.200000
beam_size=0.600000
bloom=0.000000
BLOOMCUT_X=0.000000
BLOOMCUT_Y=0.000000
bloom_dist=0.000000
BP=0.000000
brightboost1=1.400000
brightboost2=1.100000
bsize1=0.010000
contr=0.000000
CP=0.000000
CS=0.000000
csize=0.000000
c_shape=0.250000
dctypex=0.000000
dctypey=0.000000
deconbx=0.000000
deconby=0.000000
decongx=0.000000
decongy=0.000000
deconrx=0.000000
deconry=0.000000
decons=1.000000
double_slot=4.000000
gamma_c=1.000000
gamma_i=1.800000
gamma_o=1.750000
glow=0.080000
gsl=0.000000
halation=0.000000
HARNG=0.200000
HSHARP=1.200000
HSHARPNESS=1.000000
inter=400.000000
interm=4.000000
internal_res=1.000000
intres=0.000000
IOS=0.000000
iscan=0.200000
iscans=0.250000
LUTBR=1.000000
LUTLOW=5.000000
maskboost=1.000000
masksize=1.000000
maskstr=0.300000
mask_bloom=0.000000
mask_drk=0.500000
mask_gamma=2.400000
mask_layout=0.000000
mask_lgt=1.500000
mask_zoom=0.000000
MAXS=0.200000
mclip=0.000000
mcut=1.100000
mshift=0.000000
m_glow=0.000000
m_glow_cutoff=0.120000
m_glow_dist=1.000000
m_glow_high=5.000000
m_glow_low=0.350000
m_glow_mask=1.000000
noiseresd=1.000000
noisetype=0.000000
no_scanlines=0.000000
overscanx=0.000000
overscany=0.000000
PB=0.320000
PG=0.320000
post_br=1.040000
PR=0.320000
PreprocessorDefinitions=Resolution_Y=1440,Resolution_X=1920
pre_bb=1.000000
ResolutionX=1920.000000
ResolutionY=1440.000000
sat=0.550000
sborder=0.750000
scangamma=2.400000
scanline1=6.000000
scanline2=8.000000
scans=0.500000
scan_falloff=1.000000
sega_fix=0.000000
shadow_msk=10.000000
SIGMA_H=1.200000
SIGMA_HOR=0.500000
SIGMA_V=1.200000
SIGMA_VER=0.500000
SIGMA_X=1.000000
SIGMA_Y=1.000000
SIZEH=6.000000
SIZEV=6.000000
SIZEX=4.000000
SIZEY=4.000000
slotmask=0.000000
slotmask1=0.000000
slotms=1.000000
slotwidth=0.000000
smask_mit=0.000000
smoothmask=0.000000
spike=1.000000
S_SHARPH=1.000000
S_SHARPV=1.000000
TNTC=0.000000
VARNG=0.400000
vigdef=1.000000
vigstr=0.000000
VSHARP=1.400000
VSHARPNESS=1.000000
warpx=0.000000
warpy=0.000000
WP=0.000000
wp_saturation=1.000000

[Tonemap.fx]
Bleach=0.000000
Defog=0.011000
Exposure=0.000000
FogColor=0.206988,0.578431,0.217912
Gamma=1.000000
Saturation=0.000000

 

[Fret Runner]

Can I play Stuntman now without the AI getting stuck?

 

[Dorfdad]

Does anybody have a site with HD textures like a list of games and links to the downloads? I don’t believe those are Illegal on here.

 

[adamsapple]

Does anybody have a site with HD textures like a list of games and links to the downloads? I don’t believe those are Illegal on here.

There's no big repository and there only seems to be a handful of games with textures like that.

This is the best I can find in a quick google search:

PCSX2 HD texture pack group on GBAtemp

Since PCSX2 got support for texture dumping and replacement a few weeks ago, there's been a flood of HD texture packs being produced by the community. Unfortunately, unlike other emulators such as Dolphin and PPSSPP, PCSX2 doesn't have a centralized location on its website for these and, with...

gbatemp.net

 

[RaduN]

The only way to play MGS2 and 3 with all gfx effects intact.

 

[El Muerto]

The Getaway has always been difficult to emulate but it's now much more stable with this new release. At first i was lucky to get 30fps at 1x res on my htpc (i5-7500/RX6400), now i can easily get 60fps at 2x resolution with fxaa on.

 

[near]

How does this compare to using original hardware with an OSSC? Because that what I have my PS2 set up with and was thinking of either getting a Retrotink 5x or modding it with the RetroGem. Never been too fond of emulation but if it's actually leaps and bounds better I might make the switch. I'm not really too fussed about the graphical improvements because even tho an OSSC isn't an optimal way to play the PS2 it still looks good to me.

 

[Dacvak]

With most of the AAA game scene becoming a bore lately it has driven me back to games I missed in the past. I recently got into PS2 and PS3 gaming again to play some of those long lost games. I just purchased Gauntlet Dark Legacy on eBay for dirt cheap. I don't even own a PS2.

With how good PCSX2 is, I just ripped the game, and got the PS2 bios files from the readily available PS3 firmware that Sony provides online, downloaded an HD texture pack and now I'm enjoying this long lost gem on PC in High Definition.

I plan on grabbing a ton more long lost PS2 games on the cheap to experience on PC with this awesome emulator. It's a great way to spend your time and money instead of feeling like your stuck in today's mostly boring AAA hellscape.

That’s the move right there. I’ve been so jaded by the same old games coming out over the last five years, but that’s had the surprise benefit of making me go through a lot of retro classics I never played.

Never had a Saturn or PSX as a kid, so I’ve been going through a lot on those. Got myself a nice CRT too. It’s been rad.

 

[BennyBlanco]

Might be time to play Shaolin Monks again

 

[StereoVsn]

Only 1 noted PS2 game now that doesn't boot on the emulator at all.

It has added a lot of modern functionality ala Dolphin.

Texture replacement, retro achievements, per game settings, better compressed ISO reading support, automatic controller configs, plenty of fixes in blending or ghosting reduction, Vulkan etc.

Introducing PCSX2 2.0! | PCSX2

PCSX2 2.0 Release Blog Post

pcsx2.net

That’s awesome. A lot of that stuff was in dev branch but it’s good to finally have official release to have the capability.

Emulation quality has greatly improved on some of the games having shadows and rendering issues over last couple years so props to devs.

The Mac ARM builds also money! Now I can use my MBPro as an awesome emulation machine.

 

[WoJ]

This is cool. I've played a few PS2 games via emulation Xbox series dev mode, but I recently discovered mini-PC emulation is a thing. I have a huge library of dumped/ripped PS1, PS2, Wii, Wii U, and Gamecube games I am interested in revisiting for the same reason as the OP (lameness of modern AAA scene).

Any recommendations on a mini-PC that could emulate PS2 up to 1440/60 and/or Wii U up to the same? I'd really like to set up a nice emu-box since most modern stuff is lame and the emulation scene just keeps getting better.

 

[StereoVsn]

That’s the move right there. I’ve been so jaded by the same old games coming out over the last five years, but that’s had the surprise benefit of making me go through a lot of retro classics I never played.

Never had a Saturn or PSX as a kid, so I’ve been going through a lot on those. Got myself a nice CRT too. It’s been rad.

Yeah, I have been getting back into Saturn and Dreamcast, both Japanese and English (or English patched) titles. And it’s been great.

Haven’t sprung for a full on CRT yet, but Retrotink 5X does a respectable job for old hardware. And large CRT TVs are a bear to move and maintain.

Although I do want to get a nice 20-24” CRT monitor that I can use with bunch of different stuff, but that’s hard to source.

 

[StereoVsn]

This is cool. I've played a few PS2 games via emulation Xbox series dev mode, but I recently discovered mini-PC emulation is a thing. I have a huge library of dumped/ripped PS1, PS2, Wii, Wii U, and Gamecube games I am interested in revisiting for the same reason as the OP (lameness of modern AAA scene).

Any recommendations on a mini-PC that could emulate PS2 up to 1440/60 and/or Wii U up to the same? I'd really like to set up a nice emu-box since most modern stuff is lame and the emulation scene just keeps getting better.

You should be able to get basically any mini PC with AMD 780M GPU. They to get one that will let you put in a bit more power as it can allow CPU cores to run at higher clock which is good for emulation.

Checkout Amazon they have a ton of them and there is prime sale kicking off Monday I think.

 

[CherryFalls]

Any recommendations on a mini-PC that could emulate PS2 up to 1440/60 and/or Wii U up to the same? I'd really like to set up a nice emu-box since most modern stuff is lame and the emulation scene just keeps getting better.

My recommendation:

Minisforum UM773 Lite/SE/ME

Minisforum UM773 Lite AMD Ryzen™ 7 7735HS & AMD Radeon™ 680M MINI PC

store.minisforum.uk

Eta prime showing emulation on it:
:

 

[StereoVsn]

My recommendation:

Minisforum UM773 Lite/SE/ME

Minisforum UM773 Lite AMD Ryzen™ 7 7735HS & AMD Radeon™ 680M MINI PC

store.minisforum.uk

Eta prime showing emulation on it:
:

That one has older GPU. Now days it’s not too much more to get 780M va 680M.

 

[phant0m]

This is cool. I've played a few PS2 games via emulation Xbox series dev mode, but I recently discovered mini-PC emulation is a thing. I have a huge library of dumped/ripped PS1, PS2, Wii, Wii U, and Gamecube games I am interested in revisiting for the same reason as the OP (lameness of modern AAA scene).

Any recommendations on a mini-PC that could emulate PS2 up to 1440/60 and/or Wii U up to the same? I'd really like to set up a nice emu-box since most modern stuff is lame and the emulation scene just keeps getting better.

If you can find an old Skull Canyon NUC it should do the trick.

I would also recommend using Batocera unless you absolutely need Windows. Their wiki has some performance specs: https://wiki.batocera.org/usff_nuc_mini_pcs

The only way to play MGS2 and 3 with all gfx effects intact.

Pretty sure real hardware works too

 

[Sidney Prescott]

This emulator is really awesome these days. I often play a lot of PS2 games through it and most of them run beautifully and look great. One of my big reasons for upgrading my PC was to emulate more games and it has proven to be so worth it. I have had such a blast replaying some of my favourite games growing up. I just recently have been going through Midnight Club 3 again.

 

[sachos]

A lot of this stuff was already on the nightly builds but its nice they finally do a full release, i've seen too many people using 1.6 when 1.7 was much better already. Amazing job by the devs immortalizing the console forever.
I've been experimenting with native graphics while disabling the bilinear filtering for the output, you get crispy sharp pixels looks amazing too.

 

[nkarafo]

A lot of this stuff was already on the nightly builds but its nice they finally do a full release, i've seen too many people using 1.6 when 1.7 was much better already.

Yeah, as someone who was using the nightly releases and updating them regularly, i didn't understand what's all the fuss about. The difference between this new 2.0.x version and the last 1.7.xxxxx was literally just a single commit. So basically, just a brand/name change.

I suppose it's a HUGE update for whoever was still using the 1.6. stable. But why would anyone still use that?

It's also curious how this brand/name change happens shortly after Dolphin's own changes. They too had a ridiculously obsolete "stable" version for many years and now it's gone from the downloads page while the version naming has changed. I suppose they finally had enough of people downloading such old versions of the emulators and filling the bug report pages with issues that were fixed long ago. So that's good.

 

[ZehDon]

This is a great changelog and update.

It does show how more lenient the community is with this very very long standing project vs the expectations they have for Sony’s emulator:...

One of these two groups is a collection of fans working largely for free to reverse engineer a complex and bespoke hardware and software stack. The other is the multi-billion dollar corporation who literally build said hardware and software stack and has access to literally everything. I feel expectations are set accordingly.

 

[NeverYouMind]

I am impressed by better performance and sound quality. I am still a bit ticked off about audio cutting off sometimes. Most other emulators fix that disconnect with Async but without Time-Stretching audio PCSX2 sounds really bad.