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PS2 Emulation with PCSX2 - share your game configs!

Kadin

Member
the textures look good, but its the edges of polygons that is really strange.
I did try Dragons Quest and that one looked much better.

I remember in the youth that some PS2 had problems with its interlace (like those super-jaggy screenshots of Ridge Racer V) so I guess some games have more problems than others.

Thanks, will try both dx9 and some filtering to see what can be done =)
Does it look like the first picture in my post at the top of this page? I'm still trying to fix this myself with no luck. I've tried all the various dx9, OpenGL settings with no luck.
 

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
Are there recommended settings to make Ico look/run as best as possible? For example, one thing that seems to be missing no matter what I try, is the strong haze effect that's visible in many places in the game, but notably on the title screen where it says ICO, while the camera pulls back to show a lot of the castle. This has been the problem since I remember first trying the game on the emulator, but I'm wondering if the newer versions have made it work?
 

chrislowe

Member
Does it look like the first picture in my post at the top of this page? I'm still trying to fix this myself with no luck. I've tried all the various dx9, OpenGL settings with no luck.

yes, it reminds of that one actually. Too bad to hear that you had no luck.
I will try to fiddle around aswell, but then I have no highes hope fixing it, which is too bad since the emulator seems like a good one otherwise.
 
I've been a Windows user ever since I can think, but I'm considering making the jump to mac. How well does pcsx2 run on a let's say 2015 or 2016 Macbook pro?
 
I've been a Windows user ever since I can think, but I'm considering making the jump to mac. How well does pcsx2 run on a let's say 2015 or 2016 Macbook pro?

Not well, pcsx2 hasn't been updated since 2012 for macOS, I remember giving up on trying to make things work -- but I remember that it's still doable.
 
Not well, pcsx2 hasn't been updated since 2012 for macOS, I remember giving up on trying to make things work -- but I remember that it's still doable.

Thanks :) After posting on here, I also did some more research and came to the same conclusion - it's possible but not nearly as good as on a windows machine/ just windows.
 

CmdBash

Member
Using the latest nightly. It gives me an error in plugin selection when I try to use GSdx32-AVX2, but the other GS plugins work. Anyone know what I'm missing to get that one running? Or should I just use SSE4?
 

Fou-Lu

Member
I'm thinking of using PCSX2 to play through the Xenosaga series, but I have heard that same save points in the first episode crash the game and that possibility freaks me out. Is that still the case in newer builds?
 

Rufus

Member
I don't know (searched their forums or the wiki?), but you can always just use save states instead. Just don't update the emulator for as long as you're playing the game, as the save states will become incompatible from one version to the next.
 
Hey, I'm trying to run Persona 3 on a mid range 2011 laptop right now and while I've got it running fullspeed most of the time some areas tank the framerate. Any hacks to speed it up other than the ones included in the app or should I just try overclocking higher? Really tempted to just buy a PS3 now to be honest.
 

Jacobson

Member
Hey, I'm trying to run Persona 3 on a mid range 2011 laptop right now and while I've got it running fullspeed most of the time some areas tank the framerate. Any hacks to speed it up other than the ones included in the app or should I just try overclocking higher? Really tempted to just buy a PS3 now to be honest.

If you just want to play Persona 3 get a cheap used PSP instead. Or use a PSP emulator.
 
I'm thinking of using PCSX2 to play through the Xenosaga series, but I have heard that same save points in the first episode crash the game and that possibility freaks me out. Is that still the case in newer builds?

I believe that's still true, but iirc it's just 2 or 3 specific save points (I think they're listed in the wiki page for the game). It's pretty easy to work around it, just make a save state before using a save point.
 

Zareka

Member
Is it possible to run Persona 3 FES at 60fps? I know my PC can handle it, but no matter what I do it's locked at 30fps. It seems people have already played it at 60 so it's really irritating me.
 

DocSeuss

Member
I'm trying to run Yakuza 2 right now. Sure, I could play it on my PS3, but that's no fun, and I hate having to use the Dualshock.

Right now, I'm getting lots of slowdown and trying to figure out what's causing it.
 
GTX 1070, DDR4 RAM, i7-6700k. I tend to play a lot of pre-alpha games for work, so I run a pretty beefy machine.

Haven't touched any of the default speedhacks. Was using OpenGL Hardware mode because SSX kept making my people disappear otherwise. 4x Native.

hmmm, the only thing i can suggest is to make sure you are on max power in the nvidia control panel forcthe application and to perhaps lower the internal resolition to 3x. opengl is better than dx11 but also slower, may be worth the switch. it deffinately wont be a cpu problem as you have room to spare there.

personally i would play it on the ps3, pcsx2 has real problems with the bloom on anything above native resolution, i couldnt stand it so ran it in software mode, personal preference of course.
 

DocSeuss

Member
hmmm, the only thing i can suggest is to make sure you are on max power in the nvidia control panel forcthe application and to perhaps lower the internal resolition to 3x. opengl is better than dx11 but also slower, may be worth the switch. it deffinately wont be a cpu problem as you have room to spare there.

personally i would play it on the ps3, pcsx2 has real problems with the bloom on anything above native resolution, i couldnt stand it so ran it in software mode, personal preference of course.

Hmm, I'll try 3X and maybe mess with DX11 later. I don't necessarily need the resolution to be high; I just couldn't figure out how to get rid of jaggies any other way.

Anything to adjust the bloom at all? The Dualshock causes me physical pain, so I don't use it unless I have to.
 
Hmm, I'll try 3X and maybe mess with DX11 later. I don't necessarily need the resolution to be high; I just couldn't figure out how to get rid of jaggies any other way.

Anything to adjust the bloom at all? The Dualshock causes me physical pain, so I don't use it unless I have to.

Unfortunately offset bloom is a problem with the technique on loads of pcsx2 games, the higher the native res, the worse it gets. Just took a look on the pcsx2 wiki for Yakuza 2 and saw the below though....

"Go to Config > Video (GS) > Plugin Settings, set Renderer to "OpenGL (Hardware)", click on Configure and enable "FXAA" in the top right corner. Make sure "MSAA" in the Configure Hacks submenu is disabled. Using "FXAA" does not eliminate the issue, but does manage to soften the effect."
 

dogen

Member
GTX 1070, DDR4 RAM, i7-6700k. I tend to play a lot of pre-alpha games for work, so I run a pretty beefy machine.

Haven't touched any of the default speedhacks. Was using OpenGL Hardware mode because SSX kept making my people disappear otherwise. 4x Native.

What are the EE and GS percentages when you're getting slowdown?

Also, yeah 2-4x internal resolution + FXAA is the best way to reduce jaggies. It uses a good FXAA implementation, minimal blur.
 

DocSeuss

Member
What are the EE and GS percentages when you're getting slowdown?

Also, yeah 2-4x internal resolution + FXAA is the best way to reduce jaggies. It uses a good FXAA implementation, minimal blur.

68% every time.

Tried 1.5.0, and performance is better, but I'm getting the weird transparent bars; the fix is software rendering, apparently, which seems to work fine, but has awful image quality.
 

DocSeuss

Member
EE and GS are both 68%?

It was showing that for one of them before, if I understand how to read this. I'm fairly new to emulation. It's now not showing me ANYTHING now (possibly because I'm doing the latest 1.5.0 version and I'm not sure how to make it visible.

S07pv6V.png

This is what it looks like now. SEEMS to be running okay? But has the weird glitches.
 
It was showing that for one of them before, if I understand how to read this. I'm fairly new to emulation. It's now not showing me ANYTHING now (possibly because I'm doing the latest 1.5.0 version and I'm not sure how to make it visible.



This is what it looks like now. SEEMS to be running okay? But has the weird glitches.

The stats are always displayed at the top of the window in windowed mode (Alt+Enter two switch between windowed and fullscreen). There's also an OSD that can be configured in the video plugin settings.

Basically, the "Speed" always has to be at 100% to match actual PS2 performance, which is equal to the "fps" being at 60 for NTSC games (which are not the actual rendering fps though, just the refresh rate).
If the speed is at 100% and you still experience slowdowns, those slowdowns would most likely be the same on an actual PS2. The emulator does not provide higher framerates than the actual hardware without speed or fps hacks.
 

DocSeuss

Member
The stats are always displayed at the top of the window in windowed mode (Alt+Enter two switch between windowed and fullscreen). There's also an OSD that can be configured in the video plugin settings.

Basically, the "Speed" always has to be at 100% to match actual PS2 performance, which is equal to the "fps" being at 60 for NTSC games (which are not the actual rendering fps though, just the refresh rate).
If the speed is at 100% and you still experience slowdowns, those slowdowns would most likely be the same on an actual PS2. The emulator does not provide higher framerates than the actual hardware without speed or fps hacks.

I'm not getting it to show up in 1.5.0.

What's weird is that when I saw the slowdown to 68% in 1.4.0, the framerate would drop to ~40, where it's normally a 60. At 100%, it's always 60, at 68%, it's ~40. The way the audio starts stretching and distorting indicates to me it's not typical slowdown of games that era as well.

Whatever the case is, it seems to be running great in 1.5.0, other than the weird graphics glitches, but I guess I can put up with that. Much better using my X1 Elite controller than my Dualshock 3, that's for sure.
 

dogen

Member
I'm not getting it to show up in 1.5.0.

What's weird is that when I saw the slowdown to 68% in 1.4.0, the framerate would drop to ~40, where it's normally a 60. At 100%, it's always 60, at 68%, it's ~40. The way the audio starts stretching and distorting indicates to me it's not typical slowdown of games that era as well.

Whatever the case is, it seems to be running great in 1.5.0, other than the weird graphics glitches, but I guess I can put up with that. Much better using my X1 Elite controller than my Dualshock 3, that's for sure.

Ok, I was asking about the EE% and GS% percentage during slowdown which are on the far right of the window bar. Speed percentage being around 60% when you're at 40 fps isn't very informative. The emulator needs to run at 60 fps to stay at 100% speed.

And sound stretching is actually typical of games back then. Go to config ->audio->plugin settings and set synchronization mode to async mix to work around it.

Visual glitches might be fixed by using opengl and some of it's newer options, or by using one of the offset hacks.

You might also try the advice in the known issue section here.
http://wiki.pcsx2.net/index.php/Yakuza_2
 
So after upgrading to a GTX 1060, I can finally use join the fray! I can run Itadaki Street Special at 6x res and stream it with Steam no problem. My only issue is the audio hiccups every other minute or so usually just before the game loads an animation or model. Even on native res it does this. Any ideas?
 

dogen

Member
So after upgrading to a GTX 1060, I can finally use join the fray! I can run Itadaki Street Special at 6x res and stream it with Steam no problem. My only issue is the audio hiccups every other minute or so usually just before the game loads an animation or model. Even on native res it does this. Any ideas?

Try using an iso instead of a disc if you aren't already. If that doesn't help, and I'm guessing it won't, try changing SPU2 synchronizing mode to async mix.
 

Hux1ey

Banned
Does anyone know why GT3 gets so blurry at 8x native res?

This is at 6x native res running at full speed 60, nice and clean looking

1vvss2.jpg


This is at 8x and while it's still at full 60fps, it has an awful blur.


2bts0v.jpg


I tried changing around the interlacing but it didn't seem to help.
 

dogen

Member
Does anyone know why GT3 gets so blurry at 8x native res?

This is at 6x native res running at full speed 60, nice and clean looking

1vvss2.jpg


This is at 8x and while it's still at full 60fps, it has an awful blur.


2bts0v.jpg


I tried changing around the interlacing but it didn't seem to help.

Idk, but the benefit of going past 4 or 5x is pretty minimal. Try FXAA. PCSX2's is blur free.
 

MrToast

Member
So I have to ask, since I really want to play some PS2 classics out of my library on PC:

https://ark.intel.com/products/3392...ocessor-Q9550-12M-Cache-2_83-GHz-1333-MHz-FSB

I have slowdown and lag issues on a lot of the games on it, and I've done the setup for PCSX2 with the bios and all that etc so that shouldn't be anything to do with it, I have GTX 960 and the Q9550 to demonstrate from the link above (pretty much a bottleneck). My question is, is the cpu adequate enough for emulation or is it too weak, or could the bottle-necking be a possible issue? I've tried tweaking stuff, and I'd rather not do software mode as it looks pretty bad then. So, is it my system or is there possibly something else?
 

evilalien

Member
So I have to ask, since I really want to play some PS2 classics out of my library on PC:

https://ark.intel.com/products/3392...ocessor-Q9550-12M-Cache-2_83-GHz-1333-MHz-FSB

I have slowdown and lag issues on a lot of the games on it, and I've done the setup for PCSX2 with the bios and all that etc so that shouldn't be anything to do with it, I have GTX 960 and the Q9550 to demonstrate from the link above (pretty much a bottleneck). My question is, is the cpu adequate enough for emulation or is it too weak, or could the bottle-necking be a possible issue? I've tried tweaking stuff, and I'd rather not do software mode as it looks pretty bad then. So, is it my system or is there possibly something else?

That CPU is not adequate for emulating most PS2 games.
 
So I have to ask, since I really want to play some PS2 classics out of my library on PC:

https://ark.intel.com/products/3392...ocessor-Q9550-12M-Cache-2_83-GHz-1333-MHz-FSB

I have slowdown and lag issues on a lot of the games on it, and I've done the setup for PCSX2 with the bios and all that etc so that shouldn't be anything to do with it, I have GTX 960 and the Q9550 to demonstrate from the link above (pretty much a bottleneck). My question is, is the cpu adequate enough for emulation or is it too weak, or could the bottle-necking be a possible issue? I've tried tweaking stuff, and I'd rather not do software mode as it looks pretty bad then. So, is it my system or is there possibly something else?

That's a nearly 10 year old cpu, there will be some lower and even mid tier games you can get full speed... But yeah it's not magic.
 

KyleCross

Member
Just tried out Software mode on my new PC that has an i7-7700K and was disappointed that it still can't run games well. Was hoping I would finally be able to pack away my PS2, I'm so out of space in the entertainment center...
 

DonMigs85

Member
I think the minimum decent CPU for both Dolphin and PCSX2 is something like an i3-4170. Or the Pentium Anniversary Edition if you overclock it high enough
 

KyleCross

Member
Why software mode? Unless you're trying to play Shadow Hearts 1

Accuracy. Software mode is basically an actual PS2, so games retain their exact look, whereas hardware mode often has visual glitches and none of the post-processing effects. While games being in high resolution look great, it isn't worth it if a lot of its artstyle is lost and there's immersion breaking glitches.

EDIT: Tho it looks like PCSX2 has come far in the past year or so! I just tried out Haunting Ground on Hardware mode and it actually has its post-processing effects and correct shadows now. It still isn't perfect, but a huge step in the right direction!
 
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