Author Topic: pcsx4all 2.4 UPDATE 2017-01-05  (Read 62894 times)

MrCroa

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Re: pcsx4all 2.3
« Reply #180 on: July 11, 2016, 09:36:21 am »
Hi, first of all thanks for the emulator, i'm already having a blast playing Dino Crisis and Resident Evil Series !

I also tried Metal Gear Solid, the game runs quite well but seems to be playing at a slower speed, the cutscenes look ok, so don't know if it's performance related...

Anyway, I found a way to run it full speed by disabling audio sync. The only set back is that there's some audio quality issue (lots of crackling noise). Is there a way to fix this ?

Thanks :)
« Last Edit: July 11, 2016, 09:38:02 am by MrCroa »
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ruffnutts

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Re: pcsx4all 2.3
« Reply #181 on: July 11, 2016, 05:29:56 pm »
Looking forward to the next release ;D
« Last Edit: July 11, 2016, 08:09:12 pm by ruffnutts »
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Nebuleon

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Re: pcsx4all 2.3
« Reply #182 on: July 11, 2016, 07:04:24 pm »
Quote from: MrCroa on July 11, 2016, 09:36:21 am
Anyway, I found a way to run it full speed by disabling audio sync. The only set back is that there's some audio quality issue (lots of crackling noise). Is there a way to fix this ?
Yes, there is a way: you can re-enable audio sync.

This kind of option in emulators is meant to optimise the video or audio rendering when both are reasonably expensive. By disabling it, you are telling the emulator to prefer video over audio, which is why the video seems better while the audio seems worse.
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Senor Quack

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Re: pcsx4all 2.3
« Reply #183 on: July 11, 2016, 07:22:29 pm »
Quote from: MrCroa on July 11, 2016, 09:36:21 am
I also tried Metal Gear Solid, the game runs quite well but seems to be playing at a slower speed, the cutscenes look ok, so don't know if it's performance related...

Hi, I sent you a PM so you can help me reproduce the problem and give more information.

Quote from: MrCroa on July 11, 2016, 09:36:21 am
Anyway, I found a way to run it full speed by disabling audio sync. The only set back is that there's some audio quality issue (lots of crackling noise). Is there a way to fix this ?

Enabling the 'Frame Limit' setting might help reduce the audio crackling a bit, but it won't be perfect. I'd be curious if the slowdown problem comes back with that setting
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TimeDevouncer

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Re: pcsx4all 2.3
« Reply #184 on: July 11, 2016, 07:50:31 pm »
Chrono Cross CD1 finished, now i'm with CD2 and runs well too.

I try Dr.Slump (J) and seems to work very well. Tomba and Klonoa a bit slow, I need to try with other options.
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MrCroa

  • Posts: 2
Re: pcsx4all 2.3
« Reply #185 on: July 11, 2016, 10:08:27 pm »
Quote from: Senor Quack on July 11, 2016, 07:22:29 pm
Quote from: MrCroa on July 11, 2016, 09:36:21 am
I also tried Metal Gear Solid, the game runs quite well but seems to be playing at a slower speed, the cutscenes look ok, so don't know if it's performance related...

Hi, I sent you a PM so you can help me reproduce the problem and give more information.

Quote from: MrCroa on July 11, 2016, 09:36:21 am
Anyway, I found a way to run it full speed by disabling audio sync. The only set back is that there's some audio quality issue (lots of crackling noise). Is there a way to fix this ?

Enabling the 'Frame Limit' setting might help reduce the audio crackling a bit, but it won't be perfect. I'd be curious if the slowdown problem comes back with that setting

If I disable audio sync and enable framerate limit, the audio is better, but the game speed is as slow as before. Metal Gear is probably the most demanding psx game, so maybe the zero is lacking a bit of raw power for this one.
« Last Edit: July 11, 2016, 10:14:37 pm by MrCroa »
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TimeDevouncer

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Re: pcsx4all 2.3
« Reply #186 on: July 12, 2016, 01:15:20 pm »
Sh?%!! Chrono Cross returns to gcw zero menu after defeat a boss of CD2, I can't believe it! :'(

This night I try with another clean ISO (mine is with spanish fan-translation)

EDIT

Ufff! Ok, with the clean ISO works ;D ;D
« Last Edit: July 12, 2016, 04:03:15 pm by TimeDevouncer »
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TimeDevouncer

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Re: pcsx4all 2.3
« Reply #187 on: July 16, 2016, 07:38:42 pm »
Chrono cross finished. Any news about the next version of this fantastic emulator? I want to try Xenogears :).

Meanwhile I started Parasite Eve and Heart of Darkness.
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dreamesper

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Re: pcsx4all 2.3
« Reply #188 on: July 19, 2016, 03:57:28 am »
oh, u HAVE to play XENOGEARS... it's one of the best RPG's out there, period.
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Senor Quack

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Re: pcsx4all 2.3
« Reply #189 on: July 19, 2016, 06:48:47 am »
Quote from: TimeDevouncer on July 16, 2016, 07:38:42 pm
Chrono cross finished. Any news about the next version of this fantastic emulator? I want to try Xenogears :).

It won't be for a couple weeks, at least.. Dmitry just started his vacation so no releases til he gets back. Good news is it will be even more time to add improvements. I've been able to speed things up a bit using a new event scheduler. After that is done, I'll continue working on graphics plugin improvements, possibly more.
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TimeDevouncer

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Re: pcsx4all 2.3
« Reply #190 on: July 19, 2016, 09:36:00 am »
Quote from: Senor Quack on July 19, 2016, 06:48:47 am
Quote from: TimeDevouncer on July 16, 2016, 07:38:42 pm
Chrono cross finished. Any news about the next version of this fantastic emulator? I want to try Xenogears :).

It won't be for a couple weeks, at least.. Dmitry just started his vacation so no releases til he gets back. Good news is it will be even more time to add improvements. I've been able to speed things up a bit using a new event scheduler. After that is done, I'll continue working on graphics plugin improvements, possibly more.

Good news!! Thanks for your hard work :)
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dreamesper

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Re: pcsx4all 2.3
« Reply #191 on: July 19, 2016, 11:57:40 am »
Did you enjoy Chrono Cross?
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toto

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Re: pcsx4all 2.3
« Reply #192 on: July 19, 2016, 07:00:33 pm »
Great! Any chance for CTR to be fixed in next realease?
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Mar8

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Re: pcsx4all 2.3
« Reply #193 on: July 20, 2016, 12:15:43 am »
Quote from: toto on July 19, 2016, 07:00:33 pm
Great! Any chance for CTR to be fixed in next realease?

@toto wait,  so I'm not the only one having  trouble getting crash team racing to load?? What happens when you try to run CTR?

 the menus are impossible to navigate, but as an alternative I downloaded the Japanese version of crash team racing. It's called, crash bandicoot racing. And it runs perfect.
So if you don't  mind everything being in Japanese, and you just want to try it out, then there is this option. But I hope the US version gets working as well.
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toto

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Re: pcsx4all 2.3
« Reply #194 on: July 20, 2016, 06:47:00 am »
In my my case they both run full speed but are very, very glitchy.
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TimeDevouncer

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Re: pcsx4all 2.3
« Reply #195 on: August 01, 2016, 09:42:56 am »
Quote from: dreamesper on July 19, 2016, 11:57:40 am
Did you enjoy Chrono Cross?

Of course, is one of my favourite games ;D

Now i'm with Parasite Eve, another great game ;)
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hi-ban

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Re: pcsx4all 2.3
« Reply #196 on: August 02, 2016, 12:21:59 am »
Hi! i'm really impressed by this emulator. It works great!

Could i suggest a feature?
Since the PSX resolution is sometimes higher than the GCW screen resolution, i have noticed that it downscales the screen. This downscaling is especially noticeable in 2D games, as you can see missing pixel columns in texts, which makes them quite unreadable sometimes.
Why not having an option to use the IPU for downscaling? This is a clear example of an emulator which would definitely benefit from it. You wouldnt need to use software for upscaling/downscaling the image, saving whatever amount of CPU cycles, and the IPU would downscale it in a smooth way, so the downscaled image will be much better quality and wont miss any pixel columns. Plus, you would be able to switch between aspect ratio or stretch to fullscreen.

Greetings!
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Senor Quack

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Re: pcsx4all 2.3
« Reply #197 on: August 02, 2016, 12:43:22 am »
Quote from: hi-ban on August 02, 2016, 12:21:59 am
... Why not having an option to use the IPU for downscaling?  You wouldnt need to use software for upscaling/downscaling the image, saving whatever amount of CPU cycles,  ....

Hey, Hiban. Don't worry, it's already on our TODO list. Yes, it would look better, but it would not save any CPU cycles, in fact it would cost quite a few. The only exception would be if using the IPU to upscale horizontal resolutions of 256, like Castlevania SOTN, but it'd only be a very negligable speedup in that one case.

When a frame is done rendering it must be converted from PSX pixel format to our native framebuffer format.  When doing this, the current downscaler (of gpu_unai plugin)  simply skips over a certain number of pixels per line, entirely skipping every other line if in interlaced 480-height mode. The trouble is that the PSX framebuffer is not in a native format, it is 15-bit format with a reverse pixel ordering than GCW framebuffer, with the MSB holding blend/mask metadata. So, every frame is first rendered in 15bpp native format, and then must be converted pixel-by-pixel and copied to SDL framebuffer. If you were to enable downscaling, more pixels would need to be converted and copied than already are. So, it can only improve image quality, but not speed. If a game is using merely a 384x240 resolution, the speed hit wouldn't be bad at all, but a width of 512 or 640, especially combined with an interlaced height of 480, would cost quite a few more CPU cycles.

What is worse, the gpu_unai plugin is currently rendering only whatever pixels actually end up displayed on a 320x240 screen. If you enable downscaling, let's say for a 640x480 game as an example, it will be rendering at minimum 4x the number of pixels (actually quite a few more since there are always layers of polys/sprites), in addition to 4x the color conversion and 4x the number of pixels to copy to to SDL framebuffer, each frame.
« Last Edit: August 02, 2016, 03:15:00 am by Senor Quack »
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dmitry_smagin (OP)

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Re: pcsx4all 2.3
« Reply #198 on: August 15, 2016, 09:40:57 pm »
Hi.

While everybody was chilling down enjoying summer, Senor Quack did a hell of a work and contributed a series of patches for pcsx4all. Here's the new update (see first post, download link is the same).

What's new:
- fix: Loading savestates restores original resolution (no more broken gfx)
- implemented a new event/interrupt scheduler queue
- mips recompiler is improved and optimized (delay slots are used where possible, cycle stalls are avoided where possible, calls to psxBranchTest() are reduced etc)

Two last improvements allowed to reduce cpu load (approx 15%)  and this gave overall 15-20 fps improvement depending on each particular game. For example, Need For Speed 2 is much less choppy.

For more smooth experience it's recommended to switch off fps limiter and switch on audio sync (fps calculator shows wrong values then, but no worry :)

NOTE: gpu improvements Senior Quack was talking about in some posts are still not included as they are not completely ready. Next time...
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Mar8

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Re: pcsx4all 2.3 UPDATE 2016-08-15
« Reply #199 on: August 16, 2016, 01:49:25 am »
THANKS YOU GUYS!!!!
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