This emulator was great but always felt dated and clunky compared to things like RPCS3 and Dolphin. After their reboot using QT framework, it become so much smoother and easier to use. It's wonderful! It's really plug and play.
Unfortunately even with a 12900k and a literal RTX 4090, Shadow of The Colossus still lags below 60fps in many situations. That's my "white whale" for PS2, like Metal Gear Solid 4 is for PS3. That game also doesn't work perfectly in it's PS3 emulator.
To be fair shadow of the Colossus has pretty bad frame rates even on the original hardware, averaging 15-20 fps. So I'd say if anything that's an accurate recreation of the original experience :)
> Well, SOTC is a game whose frame rate can increase and decrease
> wildly. Actually, we have incorporate the variable frame rate
> in the design - it increases and decreases with load balancing.
> Although there are cases when it reaches 60 fps, there are also
> times when it falls to the 15 fps range, but the motion blur helps
> to smooth over this, and the player's sensation of frame rate
> changes is held down to a minimum.
Unlike the PS3 remaster - the PS4 remake is built on a completely different engine and doesn't share any assets (except maybe some audio) with the original.
I'm on a pretty old version of pcsx2 but for Shadows of the Colossus I've had good luck enabling speedhacks, setting EE cyclerate to -1 and VU Cycle Stealing to 1. With these settings I'm getting a rock solid 60fps in the temple. Removing frame rate limit gets me between 100-120fps in game. This is with a old Ryzen 5 and an old R9 Fury.
You know what else? You probably first played it on a CRT, which was brighter with a far better gamut than a plasma or LCD TV, so it looked a lot brighter and clearer.
GTA:SA looks like a sad and dull imitation of itself on a modern TV.
* Plays original copies from your computer's DVD drive (which may be a bit slower to respond than original hardware though)
* Plays Grandia III very well on my 2012 laptop (3rd-gen i5 and integrated GPU) (needed to change some interlacing settings to get rid of some flashing). Also obviously allows you to save anywhere you want. The original game doesn't have any save points in dungeons! Possibly only playable on an emulator? :p
* PS3 and USB-HID controller support
* Didn't play my Taiko no Tatsujin copy very well, but maybe my system isn't quite up to the task
I don't see this mentioned often enough - it's like a superpower for emulators. You just select the save state and it loads instantly, exactly where you left off.
Only problem of being able to save at any time is that it breaks the intended experience. For example in FF8 during the final arc the save point ( along with other features, like be able to use magic ) is taken away from you and you need to kill some strong bosses to get it back, because each boss after being defeated let's you restore a functionality of your choice, restoring the save point becomes part of your strategy
Something like rg35xx or miyoo mini are also good for playing emulators as an adult. Eg. Take it with you on errands. Grind on JRPGs in the doctor's waiting room. Shut it off and it has a save state.
Just got myself a miyoo mini plus. Plays Tony hawk for the ps1 at 60fps which I find amazing. It's perhaps a tad small but that makes it very portable, there are similar devices if you want something bigger.
Yea, works like a charm when you have to leave and forget about the console.
Save points were invented because of a lack of space for proper saves and because yes, coding a full state save is hard. But with today's hardware there is no excuse. And if it's an AAA they can just take 0.001% off the marketing budget and pay a team to do proper saves.
There were a handful of successful online PS2 games. SOCOM and FinalFantasy were 2 but there was another called EverQuest Online Adventures (EQOA). That game was shut down in 2013 and there’s a group of former players that are trying to resurrect it. The main way to play what is left post-end of life is using PCSX2.
I remember the headaches I used to get after long sessions of God of War on PCSX2 v0.9.6 at 5-10 fps on a pentium dual core. Can't believe it's been over a decade.
Similar to this, you should know that with a network adapter and a hacked memory card, it's possible to play backup PS2 games from a NAS. However, you will have to downgrade your NAS's security to allow SMBv1. And not all games run smoothly over the network (nor do all games run smoothly off hard drives, solid state drives, USBs, or SD cards, which are also options). If you have the architecture and want to future proof your PS2 (lasers are dying fast), it's worth an afternoon getting it running. Keywords to get your started: OPL; FreeMcBoot.
I set up my PS2 with a 1TB hard drive and a SATA adapter. There's a disk image floating around that lets you install an English-modded version of Browser 2.x[0], which can load applications from the hard disk. Along with a bunch of custom application icons I made for all my games, I have the closest thing to "what if Sony sold PS2 games as downloads."
It's really great, except for the fact that Browser 2.x becomes hilariously slow to scroll through after around 40 games on the drive. Furthermore the PS2 stores applications as disk partitions, so removing applications creates Mac OS9 style heap fragmentation until you compact everything. Practically speaking this didn't matter at the time, since the PS2 HDD was only ever used for game installs[1] and the firmware was locked to one Sony-blessed model of 40GB HDD.
The NAS route is the only option if you have a Slim PS2. Some of the slim models can be modded to add IDE back in, but not all.
[0] An updated version of the PS2 dashboard - YES, it was updatable - intended to support an online service called Broadband Navigator. It supported e-mail and downloadable demos, including one PS1 game demo that wound up being the basis for the PSP's PS1 support.
[1] Most of which were actually disabled in the US releases
After tinkering for months with a setup like this, I vouch that the best way to play is with a big external drive over usb. Nowadays OPL supports exFat and the occasional FMV stuttering is a small price to pay for the simplicity. It Just Works.
I have this setup, it's pretty awesome. Afaik you can't put a HDD bigger than 1TB in a PS2 so it's the only way to go if you want the set and forget experience of just having the entire PS2 library available to you.
You can load games from an external drive over the USB port too but the transfer speeds are much slower than the disc drive so most games have issues. MC2SIO recently came out though, which uses the memory card interface to access games on a microsd card - my understanding is that the transfer speeds over that are much better so it's also a good option.
I have it as well. PS2 softmods are getting better and better - you can now use PS4 controllers over Bluetooth. Ps1 games all can be launched from OPL since they are not run via emulation.
> Ps1 games all can be launched from OPL since they are not run via emulation.
I think you've got this backwards - the only way to run ps1 games from OPL is via POPstarter, which is an emulator. Speed/compatibility is not great for a lot of titles either.
The reason for this is that when you put an actual PS1 disc into a PS2 the system uses the PS1 CPU inside as the main CPU (it's used as an audio co-processor when in PS2 mode), and there's no way for OPL to trigger this while still loading from the ISO in the background.
The 1TB limit was removed lately by software update, also you can nowadays use exfat filesystem which removes that slow game install process with that one tool.
If you have network adapter and FAT PS2 the best option is to play games from hard drive (or SSD).
Though nowadays it's possible to even play games through the SD -> memory card adapter (which is faster than the USB on the system) or even hw mod that enables internal HD on slim PS2.
>However, you will have to downgrade your NAS's security to allow SMBv1.
Would it be possible to just run a Docker container with SMBv1 that only has access to your game ISOs and nothing else? Feels like that'd be better from a safety viewpoint.
It's honestly easier just to use an SSD now. You can literally fit every PS2 game onto one these days. I did do the nas for the better part of a decade though and it works pretty well.
I still have a working PS2 but no decent controller to use with it. Is it still possible to buy original ones in a decent condition, or is there some way to use PS4 or newer controllers?
The most reliable solution are the Brook adapters [1]. Just make sure you get one in the correct direction. The process is very simple - just connect the PS4 controller with a USB cable once, then it will pair by Bluetooth.
I designed the icons for the Mac OS X port many years ago.
FWIW, don't let the "alpha" label fool you, AetherSX2 (https://www.aethersx2.com/archive/) works like a charm on this M1 Mac. Admittedly, I only tested a couple of games, but it has been much better than PCSX2 in every possible way so far.
> AetherSX2 development is indefinitely suspended. Due to neverending impersonating, complaints, demands, and now death threats, I'm done.
> Update 2023/01/10: I no longer have any active online presence in any community. Anyone claiming to be Tahlreth, or represent AetherSX2, is impersonating and scamming you. I hope the threats and hate will stop now.
You can find it in every small scene that lives at the fringe of legality. These tend to attract a very specific kind of weirdo with extreme personalities and when those weirdos also happen to have the chops necessary for translating obscure Super Famicom games and building passable emulators you immediately have ego issues and the dramas that come with them.
Sure, there are lots of people who load their translated roms into emulators without any drama, but they are just as part of the emulation scene as torrent users are part of the warez scene. It is how much you are involved.
I use this to play the Ace Combat games on my PC using a high-end flight simulation HOTAS. It's like having a home arcade cabinet and a lot of fun! I ripped the DVDs myself using a standard DVD drive, and you can use FreeMCBoot to legally rip a BIOS from a PS2.
I remember forever ago I was trying to play DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 3 on this emulator which was at version 0.9.4 at the time. The game lagged on my weak PC and I was fiddling with the settings on a daily basis trying to make it run better. I got to learn all of the settings and what they do. I finished the game even if it was laggy. What a great time.
Hm? A cabal of AIs named after dead presidents gets infected by a virus written by Otacon's sister, and call you repeating corrupted nonsense (I need scissors! 61!) while you sneak naked through Arsenal Gear. Snake shows up and gives you your gear and a katana. You then fight 100 dudes, then have to fight 30 Metal Gear Rays on the deck of Arsenal Gear. AG crashes into Wall Street (they removed that cutscene because of 9/11), then you fight Snake's long-lost brother/clone who happens to be the former President of the United States and attacks you with mechanical octopus arms. The AIs call you and tell you that you performed perfectly, because the whole game was a simulation they devised to find the perfect Solid Snake alternative to infiltrate and kill the President, because the President was going to kill their plans to control the Internet and selectively bias information dispersal to control humanity and promote order, and Snake wasn't going along with their plans. Then you find your girlfriend in lower Manhattan where everyone is just walking around like a 3000-ton mechanized warship didn't just take out the entire neighborhood.
Experiencing the late game plot is like riding on a train that derails with all the cars suddenly separating only to reconnect forming a giant unicorn which dives into the water and swims away.
Dumb Question: why can't these emulators be built on top of QEMU? That seems to support a crazy amount of "hardware" - different CPU, BIOS, Audio shit, etc.
Is it, in theory, possible to make, eg Atari 2600 (or NES, or Sega) emulator from QEMU?
Here is humble opinion of a person who is not QEMU developer, but looked at it's code more than once for purpose of debugging my gaming VMs with VFIO.
QEMU is a great project, but to begin with flexibility was not a primary design goal. Majority of QEMU targets are PC-like hardware and older consoles have unique or alien architecture. To emulate it using QEMU you'll have to patch it internals heavily. It's also written in C so you can't just integrate a lot of fancy libraries into it.
QEMU is also important infrastructure project playing crucial part in *nix virtualization stack. Which means getting any code upstreamed is hard. Emulation projects primary goal is to make games run both accurately and as fast as possible which means developers will use as many shortcuts as possible.
QEMU is a massive code base too. Getting into it will take a lot of time and it could be easier to maintain single-target emulator instead since it's easier for new contributors to start working on it. You'll have to fork QEMU anyway and won't be able to push your changes upstream then what the point to use it?
In addition to what tehbeard mentioned, Xemu at least (which is what i have experience with as i used it to do some homebrew development[0] with the open source nxdk[1] SDK) is far from accurate and largely just a means for playing OG Xbox games on modern hardware. However the GPU emulation does not take into account NV2A's performance at all and simply translates the calls to OpenGL (despite the "DirectXbox" name, the GPU is actually designed around OpenGL :-P) so it is much faster than the real one and depending on what is going on the CPU performance can also be quite faster. IIRC it doesn't even emulate the real CPU the OG Xbox has as you can accidentally use instructions in Xemu not available on the real hardware.
Of course if your goal is to just have games from OG Xbox playable on a PC that is fine (if anything for most games it is an improvement as they'd run smoother) but if you want cycle accurate emulation it doesn't fit the bill. In that case basing the emulator on something like 86box might be better as that has been designed with the goal of achieving cycle accurate PC hardware emulation.
The key part there is that the original xbox is a Pentium III PC with, iirc some northbridge/southbridge shenanigans.
And the PS4 uses a custom AMD x86-64 chip.
An Xbox 360 is slightly more difficult as that is a PowerPC architecture (RISC vs. CISC of x86)
Same for the PS3 except you also have those incredibly weird "SPE" cores to try and emulate as well.
Basically because of very precise hardware timings. One tick/cycle of the CPU must correspond to exactly X ticks of the GPU since the code runs very close to the hardware and depends on specific behaviors (e.g. a memory store to this bank takes 4 cycles while this other bank takes 6 cycles).
Qemu takes a higher level approach that basically guarantees that over a period of time, one tick of the CPU corresponds to X ticks of the GPU on average and does expose a fair amount of host memory performance characteristics such as TLB/L1/L2 cache misses. PS2 games weren’t built to account for pipeline flushes or memory stalls, for example.
Yep, Ps2 was a beast of interconnected timings, data transfer and cache oddities.
I still find it so funny that they figured the best way to run the GPU was to have 2560 bit wide data bus on 4MB of RAM. So you could go fill rate crazy but on a very limited data set.
It's basically what Xemu (and XQemu before it) are doing. They have a slightly more easy job though, as the entire OG Xbox architecture is basically a slightly hacked x86. Still, the console-specific stuff like the GPU does require very accurate emulation.
The USB adapter situation feels really messy atm; which is a shame cos the main things I want to play are weird peripheral things. Seems like that whole codebase needs to be rewritten?
Would love to patch it so Singstar worked with the official dongle 2 player (atm it treats the dongle like any other mic, which means both slots only provide one side of a stereo input source). Zero c++ experience but feels like it would be doable.
I remember playing Onimusha 4 with like 8x the internal resolution, god it was so fucking cool. PCSX2 is an amazing project that gave me tons of entertainment. It was also one of the first projects I interacted with in a technical way as a teenager - I would monitor the commits and, when something interesting got in, I'd build optimized versions of it that targeted different hardware.
There is also a libretro core for PCSX2, now renamed to LRPS2 to accentuate its independent development. It plays many games fine but the project doesn’t see close to the frequency of development and improvement as PCSX2.
I get update alerts just about every day when I open the emu. Haven't noticed any difference with the games I'm playing on it which all work seemingly fine, although shadow of the colossus is sometimes finicky.
Unfortunately even with a 12900k and a literal RTX 4090, Shadow of The Colossus still lags below 60fps in many situations. That's my "white whale" for PS2, like Metal Gear Solid 4 is for PS3. That game also doesn't work perfectly in it's PS3 emulator.
Here's what the update dialog looks like: https://files.catbox.moe/fky7br.png
Here's what the emulator itself looks like with real usage: https://files.catbox.moe/pa3m30.png