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Looking for help with RCPS3 emulating MGS4

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I wouldn't come here for this but I've had trouble finding much content on this question elsewhere. There's MGS 4 stuff out there but very little seems to take the build I'm about to reference into account.

There's a video on YouTube showing a really smooth emulation of MGS4.



The guy spends ages talking about how great it is but does nothing to guide the configuration besides linking the build and firmware in his video information.

I have recently played through all of the other games on my Vita/PC in a fit of enthusiasm, and i really wanted to go back to this game, which i haven't played since i sold my ps3 back in 2010.

The problem is i have no idea how to configure it to work smoothly. My computer is adequately powerful.

I went to the link in the above video and it lead to a Reddit with a latest build and a link to download a RCPS3 client. I downloaded the rar and extracted it to my RCPS3 directory, allowing it to replace any file it had to (i assumed that was the way to do it) then i did some configuration according to the (confusing) directions in the Reddit and some other sources i found via Google.

It's not working right. At first attempt texture popped in, additional sound layers (a jet flying above the opening scene, general background battle hubub) caused all the sound to short out entirely, I've tried some further tweaks to get it working but my latest attempt froze at the start menu.

Can anyone help me out? I just plainly want some screenshots of the settings of someone who can play it like the above video.
 
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PhoenixTank

Member
Try a fresh RPCS3 folder.
Last I knew this build was preconfigured to work without much tweaking.
What is your GPU & your CPU?
 
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Try a fresh RPCS3 folder.
Last I knew this build was preconfigured to work without much tweaking.
What is your GPU & your CPU?
it's an Alienware Intel core i7-7700HQ CPU @ 2.80 GHz, i'm not overclocking it
the graphics card issss a GTX 1060
32 GB of Ram though i know that's not particularly relevant

understand the realities of emulating ,a laptop that can play hitman 2 or RDR2 quite easily might not be able to play ps3, but i'm optimistic enough.
 
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the only real problem with the emulation at this moment is audio, basically anything not in a cutscene is completely chopped up if not entirely hung... i recently stopped the alienware audio thing 'volute' from booting at startup to stop it continuously prompting me for permissions, maybe that's a cause? maybe i'm not using an audio driver atm ?
 
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PhoenixTank

Member
it's an Alienware Intel core i7-7700HQ CPU @ 2.80 GHz, i'm not overclocking it
the graphics card issss a GTX 1060
32 GB of Ram though i know that's not particularly relevant

understand the realities of emulating ,a laptop that can play hitman 2 or RDR2 quite easily might not be able to play ps3, but i'm optimistic enough.
Cell was a crazy architecture and MGS4 being "playable" is a relatively new development.
Have a look at the release notes on the github page: https://github.com/rajkosto/rpcs3/releases
Might help you check over the config you're running? For audio it might be a case of increasing the audio buffer, but unsure how that behaves.
 

Shifty1897

Member
it's an Alienware Intel core i7-7700HQ CPU @ 2.80 GHz, i'm not overclocking it
the graphics card issss a GTX 1060
32 GB of Ram though i know that's not particularly relevant

understand the realities of emulating ,a laptop that can play hitman 2 or RDR2 quite easily might not be able to play ps3, but i'm optimistic enough.
You're trying to get near perfect PS3 emulation on a 2.8 Ghz processor?

...I have bad news, friend.
 
Cell was a crazy architecture and MGS4 being "playable" is a relatively new development.
Have a look at the release notes on the github page: https://github.com/rajkosto/rpcs3/releases
Might help you check over the config you're running? For audio it might be a case of increasing the audio buffer, but unsure how that behaves.
Okay, i tried to follow those instructions before but couldn't understand most, hence my desire for some screenshots :p but what you say about the build coming ready to play sounds like something i may have messed up...

Btw, are super long load scenes with "compiling ppu modules" progressing for ages something I'll just have to live with?
 
You're trying to get near perfect PS3 emulation on a 2.8 Ghz processor?

...I have bad news, friend.
I'm not unaware of how that looks but I've got a suspicion it's not so simple, i play contemporary games on high settings smoothly on this thing despite that number, and anyway the emulation is smooth enough, the problem is sound atm

I was glad that the other guy responding here resisted the temptation to trash my rig :)
 
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PhoenixTank

Member
Okay, i tried to follow those instructions before but couldn't understand most, hence my desire for some screenshots :p but what you say about the build coming ready to play sounds like something i may have messed up...

Btw, are super long load scenes with "compiling ppu modules" progressing for ages something I'll just have to live with?
Yeah, the instructions are a little incoherent as presented. You're using "Change Custom Configuration", rather than the global config right? Vulkan is very important.
Next part of the list refers to the advanced tab. There is a "Maximum Number of SPURS Threads" option on the left hand side. It was set to 3 for me when I just checked.
Zcull occlusion seems to require editing a config file :messenger_tears_of_joy:

Perhaps dropping down to 16bit audio on the audio tab will help?

And yeah, I have uhm... 4 times more threads to throw at the PPU thing so I can imagine that being a bit slow.
 

Shifty1897

Member
I'm not unaware of how that looks but I've got a suspicion it's not so simple, i play contemporary games on high settings smoothly on this thing despite that number, and anyway the emulation is smooth enough, the problem is sound atm

I was glad that the other guy responding here resisted the temptation to trash my rig :)
Apologies if I came off as harassing you about your computer, and I'll admit I'm not as familiar with PS3 emulation as I am with Wii and PS2 emulation, but in my experience, emulation is always CPU bound, and these emulators are often programmed to only use a single core. It's not comparable to what modern games are doing to your processor.

Dolphin was notoriously CPU demanding in earlier builds, I had to OC my i7 to 4.4 Ghz just to run The Last Story on the Wii at 30 fps. And in my experience, any slowdown or dropped frames in emulation will garble your audio, as you described. I suspect you'll find the two are connected.
 

PhoenixTank

Member
And in my experience, any slowdown or dropped frames in emulation will garble your audio, as you described. I suspect you'll find the two are connected.
Typically yes, but I think that is for older and locked frame rate titles? Here, MGS4 swings from 60 -> 45 -> 30 -> 20ish and back again without any noticeable audio trouble.
 
Apologies if I came off as harassing you about your computer

Appreciate it mate!

Dolphin was notoriously CPU demanding in earlier builds, I had to OC my i7 to 4.4 Ghz just to run The Last Story on the Wii at 30 fps. And in my experience, any slowdown or dropped frames in emulation will garble your audio, as you described. I suspect you'll find the two are connected.

Yeah i use dolphin for GameCube games, very wacky for a long time. Bit better now~ I think this emulator might be able to use the CPU in more complex ways.

The frustrating thing is they're not connected.. framerate is really stable.. i straight up believe that the emulator just isn't properly streaming all of the audio channels, it really seems like it only supports one or two tracks of audio, and those tracks occasionally just give up altogether and wait for whatever complex sounds are streaming to play out before trickling back in~
 
Typically yes, but I think that is for older and locked frame rate titles? Here, MGS4 swings from 60 -> 45 -> 30 -> 20ish and back again without any noticeable audio trouble.
Like i said in the above post, it sounds like my audio driver/the emulator is just really incapable of playing lots of mixed sounds at once.. but obviously my audio driver works fine on pc games so i assume it must be an emulator problem

Your tip about buffering sadly didn't help

16 bit audio? I'll try it but I'd like to get some joy out of my $300 Sony headphones lawl
 
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Yeah, the game plays perfectly smoothly, but the audio is awful, i can only describe it as skin deep, like if you imagined all the sounds in the game as an ocean, all i seem to be getting are the peaks of a wave every now and then, sounds like that~ there's a pretty consistent atmospheric track in the background (though even that goes away occasionally) but a bomb explosion nearby, for example, is just a shake of my controller and a brief "pt" sound

16 bit didn't work
 
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PhoenixTank

Member
Yeah, the game plays perfectly smoothly, but the audio is awful, i can only describe it as skin deep, like if you imagined all the sounds in the game as an ocean, all i seem to be getting are the peaks of a wave every now and then, sounds like that~ there's a pretty consistent atmospheric track in the background (though even that goes away occasionally) but a bomb explosion nearby, for example, is just a shake of my controller and a brief "pt" sound

16 bit didn't work
Strange - I honestly have no idea how accurate audio emulation is in RPCS3. Are there any noticeable issues in the very early areas of the game that I could compare against? At least will be able to narrow down whether it is a "your system" issue or just the emulator. Maybe with a direct audio recording too?

Otherwise it might be a case of waiting for improvements to the emulator alongside better hardware a few years down the line.
 

kingbean

Member
I finished Ninja Gaiden sigma recently and just wish sigma 2 was playable. Game hardlocks for me on level 2.

I might one day replay mgs4, but I've beaten it so many times.
 
Do you all think Sony will figure out how to emulate this on PS5, or that Konami hired some chinese company to get it off ps3 and it will run like shit?
 

Drizzlehell

Banned
Do you all think Sony will figure out how to emulate this on PS5, or that Konami hired some chinese company to get it off ps3 and it will run like shit?
With Konami on the case it's pretty much guaranteed that they're gonna fuck it up somehow. You can take that to the bank.
 

Bojji

Member
Do you all think Sony will figure out how to emulate this on PS5, or that Konami hired some chinese company to get it off ps3 and it will run like shit?

With Konami on the case it's pretty much guaranteed that they're gonna fuck it up somehow. You can take that to the bank.

Yep, 100% guarantee it won't be what people want.

But this game is more modern than previous games it will be easier to port probably. They shouldn't have ANY problem running this 1440p/4K 60FPS on PS5, BUT they will fuck it up so expect 720p 30FPS.
 
So i found this thread.

MGS4 right now in official build runs like a dream.

5K on 4070ti, mostly 60FPS on 5800X3D:



No need to wait for shit port Konami will eventually release.

Have you seen the MGS Online revival project?
About the revival project:


You guys have been missing out on all the fun
Here, the latest update to the game:
 
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RagnarokIV

Member
Yeah RPCS3 has handled it great for a long while now. Online is working too, I've played it daily for over a year - only taking a break now for MWIII MP.
 
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