[Vaelor]

Hi guys..

As much as I hate to post on a forum for the first time sounding like some ignorant n00b, sometimes you just have to accept that you don't know anything about something, and hope that somebody with more experience than you can show you what to do... =)

I am a complete and total newbie to emulators in general, and I recently bought a copy of Silent Hill for PlayStation and installed ePSXe v1.6.0. I then acquired a BIOS, several video plugins, audio plugins, CD-ROM plugins, and set to work trying to configure the whole mess.

Problem is, I don't know one end of an emulator from the other, so I don't know what half the options mean and hence what they should be set at for optimum performance.

At the moment, I've got the game working, playable, but glitchy. I'm using Pete's OpenGL Driver 1.75 for video, P.E.Op.S. DSound Audio Driver 1.9 for audio, and P.E.Op.S. CDR Driver 1.4 for CD-ROM. The game runs, but the graphics are awkward, blotchy, and tend to shimmer and vibrate in some places, and the audio skips, jumps, and has bassy little pops throughout it. Overall, the game is playable, but for a game that relies so heavily on atmosphere like Silent Hill, it really ruins it.

I'm running an AMD Athlon XP 2400+, with 512Mb RAM, a 128Mb NVIDIA GeForce4 TI4200-8X video card, and a SB Live 5.1 SE audio card. This box is running Windows 2000 Pro SP4, with DirectX 9.0c.

Could somebody please tell me, in detail, which settings (and plugins, if the ones I'm using currently aren't ideal!) I should use for peak optimal peformance to run Silent Hill on this machine using ePSXe?

I've searched the forums already, but my problem is, most threads here only address a specific issue about the game, and even those I don't really understand the answer. I just need a dot point response - set this to that, change that to this, check this, uncheck that, and boom, it'll be perfect. =)

Can anybody help me out here please? Any assistance would really be hugely appreciated. I'm dying to get back into Silent Hill here! =)

(If you need more information on my setup or configuration to be able to advise accurately, please just let me know what I've forgotten to mention and I'll fill in the blanks!)

Thanks in advance.

- Vaelor

 

[Dark Watcher]

Hmm..
Pete's OGL has a nice feature that allows youthe ability to copy and paste your plugin settings for folks to be able to help.

One thing we know for sure about Silent Hill is that you need the "Masked Bit" option checked in order to get rid of the blocky graphics that show up.

As far as sounds we suggest enabling SPUAsync in P.E.Ops SPU, and make sure that you DON'T have SPU IRQ Hack checked in ePSXe's sound settings

The best way for folks to assist is if you include your computer specs to include your graphics card make and model, CPU speed, etc. Then list the plugin settings you have set. Some folks simply take a print screen of the plugin menu in order to show what you have enabled. Or you can simply use the "Copy Settings" feature of Pete's plugins

Good Luck

 

[Vaelor]

Hey Dark Watcher, thanks for your fast reply!

Unfortunately, I already have Masked Bit checked, SPUAsync set on, and SPU IRQ hack turned off. =(

On your advice about the copy settings feature in Pete's OpenGL, I've got my current settings here:-

Plugin: Pete's OpenGL Driver 1.1.75
Author: Pete Bernert
Card vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
GFX card: GeForce4 Ti 4200 with AGP8X/AGP/SSE/3DNOW!

Resolution/Color:
- 1280x1024 Fullscreen - NO desktop changing [32 Bit]
- Keep psx aspect ratio: off

Textures:
- R8G8B8A8
- Filtering: 5
- Hi-Res textures: 2
- VRam size: 128 MBytes

Framerate:
- FPS limitation: on
- Frame skipping: off
- FPS limit: Auto

Compatibility:
- Offscreen drawing: 3
- Framebuffer texture: 3
- Framebuffer access: 3
- Alpha multipass: on
- Mask bit: on
- Advanced blending: on

Misc:
- Scanlines: off
- Line mode: off
- Unfiltered FB: off
- 15 bit FB: off
- Dithering: off
- Screen smoothing: on
- Screen cushion: off
- Game fixes: off [00000000]

As to my hardware specs, I detailed them in the middle of my initial post - my video card is an NVIDIA GeForce4 TI4200-8X 128Mb (ASUS V9280 VideoSuite), and I'm running an Athlon XP 2400+ with 512Mb RAM. If I'm not wrong, this machine should be more than sufficient to emulate a game like Silent Hill with absolutely optimal visual/audio settings and not suffer any lag/glitches - so long as somebody can help me configure my emulator/plugins correctly! =)

Any advice you can give me?

 

[fireblaster_lyz]

Create an image for your disc.
Seems like you got a *bad* disc.

 

[Vaelor]

Create an image for your disc.
Seems like you got a *bad* disc.

Actually, already tried that also. Tried running the game as both an .ISO and an .IMG burned directly from the original disk, when I suspected that the emulator accessing the CD-ROM drive might have had something to do with the delays, but it ran literally exactly the same when I did it that way instead of playing off the CD... =(

 

[Dark Watcher]

Maybe this lil guide can help --> http://www.emufanatics.com/guides/5/4/

Also from what we notice on your plugin settings:
Turn Hi Res Textures off "0" - This makes 2D games look better but is pointless for Silent Hill. It also takes some processing which may result in the sound stutter

Framebuffer Texture try use 'gfx card buffer & software'

Framebuffer Access try bumping the level up 1 or two levels...FVP is a total cpu DRAINER

Screen Smoothing off - actually better for 2D games to reduce pixellation, but some folks like to use it in some 3D games. This is a judgement call on your part but for the sake of smooth gameplay you might try it off.

 

[Vaelor]

Excellent, thanks for your advice Dark Watcher. I'll implement these changes and see if it makes any difference. Will let you know how it goes.

 

[Vaelor]

Sorry to gravedig this thread, but I've just started trying to play Silent Hill again after a year or so, and since I'm having the same problems with it that were never resolved last time, I thought it better nettiquette to revive this thread than to start another one from scratch and rehash over everything again.

I'm trying to play Silent Hill with ePSXe, but I'm getting a lot of audio pops and visual flickers. My system specs are the same as they were last year (see root post of this thread) except that I have double the RAM now, and my Pete's OpenGL settings are as follows:-

Plugin: Pete's OpenGL Driver 1.1.75
Author: Pete Bernert
Card vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
GFX card: GeForce4 Ti 4200 with AGP8X/AGP/SSE/3DNOW!

Resolution/Color:
- 1600x1200 Fullscreen - NO desktop changing [32 Bit]
- Keep psx aspect ratio: off

Textures:
- R8G8B8A8
- Filtering: 5
- Hi-Res textures: 0
- VRam size: 128 MBytes

Framerate:
- FPS limitation: on
- Frame skipping: off
- FPS limit: Auto

Compatibility:
- Offscreen drawing: 3
- Framebuffer texture: 3
- Framebuffer access: 4
- Alpha multipass: on
- Mask bit: on
- Advanced blending: on

Misc:
- Scanlines: off
- Line mode: off
- Unfiltered FB: off
- 15 bit FB: off
- Dithering: off
- Screen smoothing: on
- Screen cushion: off
- Game fixes: off [00000000]

I'm using P.E.Op.S. DSound PSX SPU Audio for my sound plugin, and my current settings are:-

Mode: 1 - High
Volume: 3 - Loudest
Reverb: 2 - PSX Reverb
Interpolation: 3 - Cubic

Enable XA Playing - ON
Change XA Speed - ON

All Misc. options are OFF.

The sound crackle and pops I can live with (had to tweak it a lot to even get the sound to not sound like a cat being tortured - perfect would be nice, but I'm not one to push my luck!), but the sporadic flashes of white mess in my video just totally ruins gameplay - especially for a game like Silent Hill where the environment is half the game.

Can anybody please help solve my several year-spanning problem of getting this game to run properly via emulation?! =(

=============================================================================================================

{The Next Day...} (Merged Doublepost)

Okay, please disregard my previous post. This problem has been inadvertently resolved when I solved another problem I was discussing in another thread, about running Silent Hill using "Run ISO" from an image on the HDD, rather than from disc or a mounted image on a virtual drive.

Previously I was running off an Alcohol 120% .MDF file, mounted in Alcohol to a virtual CD-ROM. Now, I'm just loading a CloneCD .IMG straight from ePSXe's "Run ISO" option, and for no reason I can explain, all the audio and visual glitches I was experiencing are now completely cleared up, and the game plays as smooth as I've ever seen it.

So, if anybody happens to read this thread as an archive some day - the above graphics and sound settings ARE the perfect ones for Silent Hill on ePSXe! Just make sure you play from an ISO and not from CD-ROM if you have any problems! =)

Thanks to everybody for your help anyway.

 

[HandsomeDEAD]

I've been havin' some goofy problems with SH too. The whole game runs fast, it sounds funny and freaky sometimes. There is also a transparent white box around Harry, leaves, etc.

 

[smartynko]

I know this thread is quite old but I would like to suggest to use the Daemon Tools SCSI drive to mount the image and then use the option Run CD-ROM in ePSXe. This method solves almost every sound issue. It fixed my issues with Resident Evil 3 and Metal Gear Solid. I am using the same method for Silent Hill and I never experienced such a good sound in this game on ePSXe.