Emulation central - recommendations in 1st post

[Puukko]

Texture dumping got merged a while back too, I only just noticed. Time to get fiddling.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Automatic GS Fixes have been added to the GameDB on PCSX2. Theoretically this should avoid the need to configure each game (For example to fix upscaling problems) when playing them on the emulator. Hunting for settings has been one of the biggest gripes with PCSX2.

https://github.com/PCSX2/pcsx2/pull/5593

The only exception are Texture Offset settings, which still have to be done manually. (Since these are different depending on the internal resolution you play a game at). Thankfully since the advent of Half-Pixel Offset option this has become less of a need when upscaling PS2 games.

Of course, this will still need a bit of time until the database is filled. But by the time the new QT UI is finished it will hopefully be somewhat robust.

Huge year for PS2 emulation in terms of usability.

I saw that it was merged. However it is not clear how can I add my personal settings to the db. In other words, how can I save my settings on a per game basis? Is there some file I need to manually edit?

 

[Duraframe300]

I saw that it was merged. However it is not clear how can I add my personal settings to the db. In other words, how can I save my settings on a per game basis? Is there some file I need to manually edit?

This PR is not meant for your own per game settings. Those will be coming when the new UI is finished.

 

[Puukko]

I managed to dump textures from Nocturne and work on them but couldn't get PCSX2 to load the custom textures afterwards. My upscaling tool also only spat out half as many textures as I put in and I only noticed it afterwards. Might have something to do with the default 50% alpha? More research required.

 

[Puukko]

Some very quick and dirty upscales. I just ran everything through one model, the point being to test the functionality.

With Reshade, since I run that by default these days.

Spoiler

 

[Duraframe300]

Automatic GS Fixes have been added to the GameDB on PCSX2. Theoretically this should avoid the need to configure each game (For example to fix upscaling problems) when playing them on the emulator. Hunting for settings has been one of the biggest gripes with PCSX2.

https://github.com/PCSX2/pcsx2/pull/5593

The only exception are Texture Offset settings, which still have to be done manually. (Since these are different depending on the internal resolution you play a game at). Thankfully since the advent of Half-Pixel Offset option this has become less of a need when upscaling PS2 games.

Of course, this will still need a bit of time until the database is filled. But by the time the new QT UI is finished it will hopefully be somewhat robust.

Huge year for PS2 emulation in terms of usability.

I saw that it was merged. However it is not clear how can I add my personal settings to the db. In other words, how can I save my settings on a per game basis? Is there some file I need to manually edit?

Little late on this, but if you still wanna do it, the file is gameindex.yaml under the resources folder and documentation for it is under the folder docs, the file is gameindex.pdf.

 

[Duraframe300]

32 bit builds are now dropped for PCSX2 (Well, the code-path itself still exists, but its gonna be ripped out in the coming times) as 64 bit has been freed of its bugs.
Future versions of the emulator are gonna be 64 bit only.

This is the final 32 bit build if you need it for some reason.

https://github.com/PCSX2/pcsx2/releases/tag/v1.7.2484

 

[Great Deceiver]

Been playing 3D Dot Game Heroes, a pretty charming Zelda clone published by From Software for the PS3 in 2010 or so. It's a very basic game, but it works and has little bullshit, which is always a positive for me. Apparently the game was developed in under a year.

In any case, RPCS3 had some problems with this in the past, random freezes and the like, but it had been a few months since I'd last tried it and now it seems to be working flawlessly.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Been playing Ninja Gaiden Black on xemu and it was working pretty well until the tentacle boss in the Temple District of the city. Everytime I kill it, the emulator crashes with this message:

Too bad. Did anyone encounter this problem?

edit: xemu doesn't read full dumps ("redumps") of double layer discs. I had used XDVD mulleter to pare down the size of NGB by excluding some unnecessary files (or so I thought) and rebuild a 4.7gb ISO, but I messed something up apparently, even if the game played fine up until that point. Maybe I deleted a movie file I shouldn't have.

In any case, this time I used a tool (extract-xiso) to extract the second partition of the original ISO and that fixed it.
For more info: https://xemu.app/docs/disc-images/

NGB is amazing, even with all its flaws (and there are many, especially regarding controls during the platforming sections and the camera). I could play the Sigma version in the recently released collection, but Sigma is gay.

 

[Mustawd]

Took an SFF Optiplex 3040, removed the PSU from the case to fit in a GT 1030, and installed Batocera OS along with a ton of Gamecube, SNES, Genesis, GBA, and N64 games. It took some fiddling to get the settings right, and every once in a while there are minor hiccups (like not being able to scrape Gamecube boxart or controllers sometimes losing the ability to exit to main screen), but overall I'm very pleased with how it works.

I've been mostly been playing emulated games for the last 3 months or so, and now I can do so from the comfort of my couch. There are still some things I'm trying to figure out. Like how to save and load save states and fix the scraping issue above. But otherwise, I definitely recommend for anyone wanting to turn an old PC into an easy to use emulation machine. The bonus here is that my son can play without having to worry about having access to the internet and accidentally logging on to the codex and interacting with Fluent.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Emulation is a kind of prophylaxis.

 

[Duraframe300]

PCSX2 texture pack dumping ground

https://gbatemp.net/forums/pcsx2-hd-texture-pack-group.549/

 

[Great Deceiver]

Ninja Gaiden 2 running on Xenia with all DLC enabled. Xenia now has some upscaling options like AMD FSR, which when used together with Nvidia FXAA cleans up the image pretty well.

Now I don't have to play gay nerfed Sigma 2 anymore. To me, NG2 is a lot better than NG1/Black. The first game is more of an action adventure game, with some backtracking and lots of breaks in the action. NG2 is just balls to the wall slaying all the time.

 

[Duraframe300]

New PCSX2 website is ready

https://pcsx2.net/

For a myriad of reasons, we’ve migrated to a new website. It should be much easier to maintain and edit – so hopefully this translates into more interesting articles, quicker progress-reports and eventually a more streamlined experience for finding game compatibility issues.

Old blog posts and articles will slowly be moved over to this site with the old URL formats being preserved. This means that in the long-term, there should be no dead links.

No migration is complete without some small hiccups though, and there will likely be some rough edges that need to be smoothed out, so bear with us!

 

[flyingjohn]

New PCSX2 website is ready

https://pcsx2.net/

For a myriad of reasons, we’ve migrated to a new website. It should be much easier to maintain and edit – so hopefully this translates into more interesting articles, quicker progress-reports and eventually a more streamlined experience for finding game compatibility issues.

Old blog posts and articles will slowly be moved over to this site with the old URL formats being preserved. This means that in the long-term, there should be no dead links.

No migration is complete without some small hiccups though, and there will likely be some rough edges that need to be smoothed out, so bear with us!

The animated banner maxes out my gpu.
Stenzek,that is one hell of a emulation joke you bastard.

 

[Great Deceiver]

There's really been some great progress with Xenia since the last time I tried it:

https://xenia.jp/updates/2022/01/29...n-update-amd-fidelityfx-fsr-fxaa-cas-vrr.html

In addition to the upscaling stuff, which is all great, they've implemented variable rate refresh internally:

"VRR-compatible monitor will try to display the image as quickly as possible to reduce the latency and to stabilize the visible frame pacing even if its frame rate is below the refresh rate of the monitor."

This must shave an extra frame off of the already very snappy ports of Mushi Futari, etc. It's awesome.

I decided to test Lost Odyssey, a JRPG I remember liking a lot when it came out (it was the last game I completed on my 360 before it 3LOD'd for the last time).

Still looks really good, especially for a game that came out in 2008 on a console. I'll probably keep playing.

edit: polygons will glitch out (especially in cutscenes) but you can fix it by adding:

render_target_path_d3d12 = "rov"

in the emulator's config file. This forces an alternate render path that is slower, but more accurate for Lost Odyssey.

 

[Duraframe300]

Stenzek unarchived Duckstation and has added some commits to it.

Could be that it was just a one time maintenance update. Could be he finally managed to simply say *Fuck you Twin Aphex* in his mind and move on. Let's hope its the latter.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Stenzek unarchived Duckstation and has added some commits to it.

Could be that it was just a one time maintenance update. Could be he finally managed to simply say *Fuck you Twin Aphex* in his mind and move on. Let's hope its the latter.

It seems he removed some specific options for the libretro core compilation...
What was the problem with Twin Aphex?

 

[Duraframe300]

Stenzek unarchived Duckstation and has added some commits to it.

Could be that it was just a one time maintenance update. Could be he finally managed to simply say *Fuck you Twin Aphex* in his mind and move on. Let's hope its the latter.

It seems he removed some specific options for the libretro core compilation...
What was the problem with Twin Aphex?

The usual stuff when it comes to TA. Just kind of a weasel in general, flip flopper, manipulative. It's not something you notice on first attempt since he has *nice guy speak* down to a pat (except when the facade breaks and he throws all kind of shit around), but when you follow this stuff for a while (and you know the type in real life) you do notice.

That said it usually ends up in stupid drama by both sides. It's the emulation scene after all.

 

[abnaxus]

Lost Odyssey always crashes for me in one of the first battles after pirate gurl joins.

 

[Abu Antar]

Lost Odyssey always crashes for me in one of the first battles after pirate gurl joins.

That's where I got my first Red Ring of Death on Xbox 360.

 

[Great Deceiver]

I've been away from home on a trip, so I haven't had the chance to play more of Lost Odyssey, but I'll report about the crash point after pirate joins.

Funny you should mention the 3LOD Abu Antar , I think mine also started dying with Lost Odyssey. I can't remember exactly because it was so many years ago, but I definitely played through the game fighting with 3LOD issues, I'd open it up and do the eraser trick etc., it kept stumbling along just enough for me to complete it.

 

[Duraframe300]

Stenzek unarchived Duckstation and has added some commits to it.

Could be that it was just a one time maintenance update. Could be he finally managed to simply say *Fuck you Twin Aphex* in his mind and move on. Let's hope its the latter.

So yeah, Stenzek is back on Duckstation (While still contributing to PCSX2 and so on). He also removed the leftover Libretro stuff and Libretro/Retroarch removed the Duckstation core (But kept their own fork *Swanstation*). So I guess the matter is settled.

Also means (among else) his attempt at Texture Replacement for PS1 is moving forward. Good thing too since BeetlePSX's is still crashy and barely usable.

 

[Puukko]

And I just had started moving from Beetle to Duckstation on RA. Have you tried Swanstation, how does it differ?

 

[Nifft Batuff]

A bit late but:...