Another public beta from the PCSX2 team. Following the earlier IPU update announcement, a new build with significantly improved compatibility has been uploaded, with a number of games advancing to playable status.
Notable changes in revision 351:
- FFX Videos work again
Including the fixes from 349:
- Massive compatability increase on videos, many should now work without
freezing, skipping or macroblocking, as mentioned in the recent news
post.
A quick update on the status of PCSX2. This time, video playback has been improved, and thus, the compatibility for a number of games has improved to playable status.
From Refraction:
"Yes the IPU (video side of PCSX2) has been updated by none other than Saqib!
You might be asking what this will bring to the table? Well im sure as
many of you know, videos in PCSX2 suffered from Macroblocking (Corrupt
squares appearing all over the place) or videos freezing randomly. Well
thanks to Saqib for his marvelous work, many games no longer suffer
from these symptoms. Here is a quick rundown of some of the games fixed.
Atelier Iris - Grand Phantasm
Ayumi Hamasaki - A Visual Mix
Bully
Graffiti Kingdom
Many Growlanser games
Monster Hunter
Resident Evil 4
Simple Series Videos
Soul Calibur 3
The Simpsons
and many more...
In light of these changes a lot of games have been improved to a playable status or had their stability increased!
The code is in SVN, do NOT ask for help on the forums. If you guys are
lucky, i might be nice enough to compile a new beta very soon."
»
Check out PCSX2's homepage
»
Discuss this update in this thread on our forum.
New beta update from the PCSX2 team. This update features the following changes (since revision 277). Soo, does it run games faster? Well, try and see ;)
Fix for neopets/tenchu problems introduced recently
GT4 crashes might be reduced now when using ZeroGS (GSDX will still crash)
Some aging rec bugs have been fixed, not sure what games it effects
Few counter changes effecting DMC1 and Mojo Ribbon, possibly others.
Fixed a small bug in Tokyo road race
Quickie update (revision 302)
Fix for other DMC1 versions
» Download the latest PCSX2 Beta build from here
» Check out PCSX2's homepage. You know you want to ;)
CDVDGigaherz is a fairly new CD plugin for PS2 emulators such as PCSX2. This plugin is considered to be in the early alpha stage, and is still being actively developed. The developer, Gigaherz, has a few things to say:
A few days ago I started to code a CDVD plugin using IOCtl raw reading as the access method.
The main reasons I started this plugin were:
1. To have the ability to start the emulator without a disk in the drive, and to be able to swap discs anytime.
2. To be able to keep some kind of "cache" or maybe a file with "hints" about what is the game gonna read next.
At the moment, the plugin will start without a disc, and will detect when the disc is removed or inserted, but sometimes it fails to detect the disc correctly and it will report the disc as being illegal (making the bios show that annoying red screen).
» Download CDVDGigaherz 0.6 here
» Visit CDVDGigaherz's active forum thread here
A new beta of PCSX2 has been posted. Noteable changes in this beta based on revision 275 include:
FF7 Dirge Of Cerberus crash fixed.
Couple of Vif stall fixes (chessmasters goes 1 screen further, woo!!) brings a tiny speedboost for Guitar Hero too.
VU Skip reverted to the old version to fix those games which had black screen problems when using it
There was previously a compatibility issue between savestates from 0.9.4 not loading correctly in the 0.9.5 beta. This had been fixed since svn revision 258.
UPDATE: A newer beta has been posted with a few fixes. New in the beta based on revision 277:
Reverted a Scratchpad change which stopped Tekken 4 working in 275.
Fixed the corrupt block in the corner of the psychonauts videos
GiGaHeRz and Gabest are working hard on our forums to bring you accurate GPU and SPU emulation for PCSX2, taking in bugfix requests like sponges and throwing out releases faster than we can post them. Here are the changes for their latest plugin releases:
New in SPU2ghz b1.4:
[-] completely removed the remains of the "async mixer" mode. It was meaningless without threading, and didn't work.
[*] Fixed the waveOut output module.
[*] Fixed a bug where the ASIO output system was using the defaulf ASIO device sample rate, regardless of the config value.
[*] Changed the min. buffer size allowed in the config dialog to 512 isntead of 2400.
NOTE 1: Sizes too small can increase the CPU usage and might cause audio problems.
NOTE 2: FMOD and waveOut have this limit increased to 2048.
[*] Changed some code handling voice looping. I don't know if it will fix or break anything.
[+] Added partial support for log levels to the register logging system, to remove the basic channel attributes from the log files (makes logs more readable and less bloated).
[+] Added experimental XAudio2 output module. Seems to sound well.
[+] Added a hidden option to change the AutoDMA sample rate for each core.
Useful only in some games where the FMVs hang.
[+] Added a check to the Effects processor to avoid crashes when the effects start address is after the effects end address.
[+] Added /delayload:fmod.dll switch to the linker, so the fmod dll is only needed while using the fmod output module.
Notes: As of version 1.4, fmod.dll is no longer required to use the plugin, but it is still required to use the FMOD output system.
If anyone is interested, the code can be downloaded from the SVN server in SourceForge.
SPU2ghz b1.3 included these changes
[*] Fixed the sync in pre-svn265 pcsx2 builds. Might help with some games.
SPU2ghz b1.2 included these changes :
[*] Fixed the speed limit dialog setting (it wasn't being handled correctly).
[*] Changed the way I handle AutoDMA transfers:
For some reason the data for core 1 was being replaced with 0s,
so I added a separate temporary buffer to store the data chunks.
This fixes many FMVs with stuttering audio.
[-] Commented out some lines that were changing the ATTR register.
I don't know if this will break anything, but none of the games I tried worked worse.
[-] Removed a BAD hack that was breaking thigns instead of fixing.
» Download SPU2ghz b1.4 plugin right here on NGEmu!
» Download fmod.dll an copy it to the PCSX2 folder.
» Discuss this release over in this thread.
GSdx 0.1.4
No real changelog here, lots of bugfixes that may affect quite a few games. Some noticeable ones are FFX-2, FFXII and KH2.
If you're using GSdx, you should definitly get the latest release and be up-to-date!
GiGaHeRz, a long time member of our forums, has release a new version of his sound plugin for PCSX2. Here's what he had to say about this release and for things to come:
It has been more than 4 years since I started this plugin. Back then pcsx2 didn't have any sound plugin except for spu2null. I remember getting into the pcsx2 IRC channel (#pcsx2 on efnet) and asking for help to make a sound plugin. One of the pcsx2 developers kindly gave me some documents and wished me luck, and I promised I would do my best.
After some days, or weeks, I had enough registers implemented that the bios would start to play sounds. It was a revolution. First sounds ever to come from pcsx2!!
Too bad the sounds were completely wrong, as I had misunderstood the ADPCM algorithm. I kept working on it after that, but not regularly at all: I can spend a few days working on something, but once I'm stuck debugging for too long, I get bored.
After me, there were a few other attempts at doing spu2 pugins. One of them, ps2sp, was a bit more successful than mine. These attempts caught pete's attention, so he decided to hack up a spu2 plugin too.
For some time, pete's plugin has been the best choice to many, and recently Zerofrog, annoyed by the relatively bad results of our plugins, also decided to code his own.
With so much competition, it has been hard for me to get my plugin to have acceptable results, and even if I'm releasing, it still fails to compare with zero's in most games. But on the other side, my plugin has always been coded with compatibility in mind, so even if it's few, there's some games where it gives better results.
I want to make clear there's some known problems with the plugin:
If the game runs slow, the plugin will be all loopy. This is the expected result given the way I coded it. I might improve the output system someday if I get better ideas.
Some games seem to have "clicks" and noises while playing music, videos and speech. I'm clueless as what coudl cause it.
Some games seem to have robotized sound. I don't know why yet, but I will look at it if I get reports of games doing it.
Some games don't like to work with the plugin. I'm specially interested in knowing about them, so I can fix the problem(s).
Some people seem to get problems with audio output. Make sure you are using FMOD, and your sound card supports 48000hz output correctly.
When the emulator crashes, there's some chances that the ASIO output plugin will not have the chance to shut itself down. In those cases it will leave the device used, and a reboot is required in order to "unlock" it.
Note: The plugin requires fmod.dll to work, even if you are not using fmod as the output system. I have attached it for convenience. Extract it to the folder where you have pcsx2.exe, or to system32(syswow64 in xp64/vista64).
» Download SPU2ghz beta1 plugin right here on NGEmu!
» Download fmod.dll an copy it to the PCSX2 folder.
» Discuss this release over in this thread.
Gabest released yet another updated version of his GSdx plugin for PCSX2. From now on, GSdx is available as a single dll, integrating directx9 and directx10-specific functionalty.
Feel free to try it and post feedback in this new thread. A separate directX dll is also required, to be present in the same folder as pcsx2.exe
The latest GSDx9 versions require an additional DirectX DLL, which can be downloaded from here. The uncompressed DLL would need to go in the same folder as pcsx2.exe
GSdx10 is a new GPU plugin for PCSX2, brought to us by Gabest.
This plugin requires Windows Vista and leverages a number of rendering techniques specific to DirectX10 graphic cards only. Feedback and updates can be viewed in this thread.
Note: the public PCSX2 Beta builds are completely untested and possibly unstable.
Games could be broken, others could be fixed. Support for Betas is NOT provided in the forums.
If you're not interested in trying the latest code, it's recommended you use the official stable PCSX2 releases instead.
A new public Beta of PCSX2 has been posted. Revision 227 sports the following changes:
Timing fixes, addressing freezes in games like Kingdom Hearts (eye issue), Grandia 3, Shadow Hearts
VU NaN handling off by default, can be enabled and disabled for testing
by making a patch for your game containing "vunanmode=0" or
"vunanmode=1" respectively
Note: the public PCSX2 Beta builds are completely untested and possibly unstable.
Games could be broken, others could be fixed. Support for Betas is NOT provided in the forums.
If you're not interested in trying the latest code, it's recommended you use the official stable PCSX2 releases instead.
After much outcry over the release cycle, the PCSX2 team decided to regularly make public betas of PCSX2 available to those eager to try the latest stuff implemented. Of course, these shouldn't be expected to perform as reliably as the stable releases. There's always the official stable PCSX2 releases anyway, which you can download from NGemu.
From Refraction:
""I hope everybody out there is
enjoying 0.9.4 and trying our new online functionality, but for those
of you who just managed to get some clean underwear on after the
excitement, we have some more news for you, so underwear draw on
standby.
From today we will be doing occasional public beta releases! Meaning
whatever is on the SVN, you will not have to wait for a year for us to
release it. But i will make one note *prepares bold, large text for the
few idiots who manage to miss it*
WE WILL *NOT* BE SUPPORTING BETA BUILDS ON THE FORUM!
I hope everybody can read that, we will not tolerate it, any threads relating to it will be closed and unanswered.
That aside i hope you enjoy your new builds, but be sure to check back occasionally as i won't be informing you of any updates
Together with the recent release of PCSX2, lots of updates for the PS2 plugins have been released over at our forums - here is a quick summary of all important releases so far (hope I missed none!):
ZeroGS 0.97.1 This is just a minor update to ZeroGS by zerofrog, which solves the issues in Xenogears where you have been unable to see any text. To use this included fix, make sure that on the advanced options, you enable "Relaxed depth". Feel free to discuss this plugin over in this thread.
GSdx9 v0.10-7 This update has already been released a while ago but we missed it because of our downtime some weeks ago. Anyway, gabest isn't really providing a change list for this release, but it seems many graphic bugs in games such as FFX have been fixed, the ability to change the internal resolution being used has been added and speed has been improved. Should run across an issue with the ZeroGS plugin, this one is certainly one to give a try. To learn more about this plugin, point your browser here.
LilyPad v0.8.1 (the plugin with the lame name)
Last but not least, there has also been an update to this fairly advanced PAD plugin! This time, there is even a proper change log to provide you with:
Fixed newly bound force feedback devices initially displaying 0 sensitivity.
Added "Test FF" button.
Added option to allow multiple bindings to a single direct input object (Doesn't work with windows messaging or raw input. Does allow you to configure multiple force feedback axes independently).
Fixed key release event. Thought event=0 was key up, 1 was key down, but 2 is actually key down. Only seems to matter when navigating through save states.
Right shift sent to PCSX2 as a generic shift when using an input mode that distinguishes between the two shift keys.
Fixed bug that would cause LilyPad to ignore slight movements of analog axes.
64-bit dll fixed. No longer fails to load, complaining about being unable to find MSVCR80.dll.
Removed a couple older pretty ineffective hacks that had been aimed at increasing stability when pausing emulation. Note that there are not the hacks listed on the first configuration screen.
Changed center for analog sticks from 127 to 128. Not sure which is correct, or if it's actually in between, but other pads plugins all seem to use 128. Shouldn't make any noticeable difference.
Modified handling of some PS2 pad configuration commands. May now work in some games that didn't recognize it as a dualshock 2 controller (Or as any controller).
Fixed issue with not saving some settings on the general screen to file.
Added simple but nasty hack to prevent potential crash when quitting by closing the command window while the emulator is still running. Issue was that I was trying to cleanup my DirectInput objects when the dll unloaded, and (Apparently) the DirectInput dlls had already been unloaded.
Added PADupdate() support. If the emulator supports it, DirectInput controller state is only checked when it's called. Note that this may reduces responsiveness when frame rate drops to almost nothing. Or it may not. Could also introduce some threading issues (In particular with vibration), though I haven't run into any yet.
Added option for monitoring game devices when in the background. Mostly added because I always forget to refocus the emulator window after changing to another window.
Fixed handling of mouse buttons 4 and 5 under Windows messaging.
Escape will now always cause emulator to stop (Even when keyboard mode is disabled). Wasn't working under Windows messaging mode.
Raw input keyboard mode should no longer cause it to crash.
Mouse cursor not being hidden in Windows messaging mode fixed.
Dropped SIO support. Even if the PAD functions are supposedly depricated, doesn't look like SIO will be used by PCSX2 any time soon.
Will save general settings for pads 1 and 2 even when no controls are configured for that pad.
DirectInput devices are a bit more responsive when binding them in the config screen.
So as you can see, it's a great time now to update your plugins and give this great new version another try! I've also updated these versions over on our PS2 plugins page, feel free to give it a visit if you are looking for all the plugins.
From Refraction at the official PCSX2 site (show 'em some love, check their site)
"Well ladys and gents, here it is, the brand spanking new PCSX2 0.9.4. We have lots of new stuff for you people to try out, some of the major features included in this release are:
- ZeroSPU2 - new SPU2 plugin from zerofrog. It is the most stable SPU2 plugin. Also has a time-scaling feature which slows down sound when the frame rate is too low (instead of hearing popping sounds). The time-scaling feature works best under Windows, but is also implemented in Linux. This new plugin also fixes the voices on the Japanese release of Final Fantasy X
- VU recompilers - games like Kingdom Hearts II, Metal Gear Solid III, and Katamari Damacy are now playable.
- ZeroGS 0.97 - ZeroGS DirectX has gone open source! You can download it from sourceforge. A lot of bug fixes in this release and the added support of AA modes up to x16! One new feature is the ability to tweak ZeroGS options, which were internal up to these release. Read more about this feature in the help guide for how to patch up games.
- Path3 GS fixes - Fixes corrupting textures on many games.
- Memory Card Fixes - Now you can save your games in games like Resident Evil 4 and others which refused to see memorycards!
- Dual Layer DVD reading support for games like Xenosaga.
- Windows x64 and Linux x86-64 support - The recompilers are not optimized yet, so don't expect major speed improvements. However, pcsx2 can now natively run on these platforms as well as the x86 platforms. For Windows, we recommend you stick to the 32bit build rather than the 64bit one.
- Real Time Clock - Silly as it may seem, this actually makes Metal Gear Solid 3 and Katamari Damacy work, plus your ps2 says the actual time!
If you get a d3dx9_36.dll not found error, you need to update your directx from here.
Enjoy!
EDIT: There was a slight bug in the ZeroGS plugin. We've updated the binary and setup files. If you have a graphics that supports pixel shader 3.0, and zerogs reports it as 2.0, then grab the new files.
EDIT2: Support for the 64bit builds have been drop. Original thread by zerofrog. You can still grab the builds from NGEmu's download section but we will not give any support.
Screenshot of games running in version 0.9.4 are available in this thread. Check it and post yours too ;)
New update from Gabest. GSdx is a GPU plugin for PCSX2.
GSdx9 v10 fixed a few things like
shaking/interlacing, MT crash, seems tweaked for faster rendering, with software rendering reaching about 10-20% higher framerate.
Minimum GPU requirements: Pixel Shader 2.0, SSE2.
The uncompressed dll files have to be in PCSX2's plugins folder.
Download GSdx9 plugin (most recent version) from NGemu
Updates and feedback can be checked in this thread ;)
UPDATE: quick fix release
====================
Gabest updated his GPU plugin to GSdx9 v10-2. As Nloop0 seemed permanently on, some games crash at game booting.
NLOOP option is back, FFX intro is fixed, fullscreen still isn't.
New plugin update from Nherve, who rolled out a new version of his pad plugin for PCSX2. The 1.2.0 update sports the following changes.
Changed GUI, you can now bind keys or buttons to axes.
Key values are replaced by key names (ie : "Key #65" -> "A") to make GUI more understandable.
Implemented analog switching ("analog" button on PS2 pad).
Rewritten input detection, now more light and should work better.
Improved mouse support. Works very well.
Rewritten config loading & saving, conf struct more light but you will need to re-map your buttons, different config struct in config file.
Implemented complete support for POV diagonal directions :
-You can bind any control to a diagonal pov direction (ie : right-up)
-if you press a diagonal direction, the buttons matching the 2 directions will be pressed. (ie : you bind Right to right pov direction, up to up pov direction, press right-up, right and up will both be pressed.)
This pad plugin
uses the SDL library, and the required DLL is included in the package. To make sure the system can find this, you might want to put it
directly into the system32 directory.
It's quite interresting what you can find while browsing our boards: Over in this thread, NHervé announced a new PS2 PAD plugin with some great features. Here is a list of some and the features and options which come with this plugin:
Supports up to 5 gamepads with all buttons and axes
Bind axes as pressure-sensitive buttons.
Bind buttons to buttons.
Bind axes to axes.
Bind keys to buttons.
Mouse support (based on the GS window, works better than padwinkeyb mouse support, but could not work very well, it's experimental and it was quite hard to implement), ssspsxpad does not allow you to map another thing than axes to axes, so if you want to use the analogs with ssspsxpad you must have a gamepad, with padwinkeyb you can only use joystick buttons. With my plugin press any key while mapping an axis and the mouse will be bound to the selected axis.
Axis sensitivity for the joystick axes.
The author has already released a first update for this plugin which fixes some errors, so the current version is v1.1.0! This plugin uses the SDL library, but the required DLL is included in the package; to make sure the system can find this, you might want to put it directly into your system32 directory.
Over on the PCSX2 site (a PlayStation 2 emulator), work in progress news has been posted regarding Online Netplay Support!
GiGaHeRz did it!! *hic* *wobble*...erm, oh I'd best explain I suppose!
DEV9 is a section of the PS2 which handles a variety of things; HDD, USB and ethernet. GiGaHeRz has been working on one aspect of DEV9, ethernet! PCSX2 now supports PS2 ethernet, so what does that mean? ONLINE PLAY BABY. On August 30th 2007 GiGaHeRz successfully logged on to the official Capcom Monster Hunter servers and entered a town, briefly after his success I to logged in and joined him! Subsequently most of the betatesting and development team have logged onto Monster Hunter, interacted with people playing on their real PS2's and even gone questing with each other; including other Monster Hunter players. This is a significant moment for PCSX2, as we are perhaps one of the first emulation projects to ever let the emulator user connect to a real live official server and play their game online.
(...) So here for your pleasure is a video of us just saying hello, and 80 (both general and online) screenshots!...now if you don't mind, we've got alcohol to consume *hic*
Online Shots (Big group photo session, oh boy did this take some arranging!) (Everyone in the tavern, drunk and horny! Note drkIIRaziel in the second tavern shot, thats the drkIIRaziel from nullDC!)
