[Nadia-Bjorlin]

I've been playing games which I've played lots on my real PlayStation such as Tekken 1, Gradius Gaiden and Oshaberi Parodius, and the games are noticeably slowing down when run in epsxe - it's quite subtle but it's bad enough to spoil the games.

In every game I've played it seems to be just randomly occuring (roughly every 3-6 seconds).

Is there any video plug-in setting(s) that can eradicate this slowdown and allow games to run perfectly smooth (like they do in a real machine) or is it just bad emulation of games causing it?

I hope it's possible to correct this as I don't want to use my real machine and discs anymore (awful scart visuals versus HD sharpness, there should be no contest).

My machine is powerful enough - quadcore 2.4ghz, 4GB RAM, GeForce 9 1GB. (plus I used to run epsxe on a far worse machine and don't recall any slowdown)

I'm using pete's open gl 2.9 plug-in and my settings are attached in the GIF file. I have also tried lower settings/resolutions as well as the defaults.

 

[Squall-Leonhart]

force AA disabled, and set FBU to 2.

 

[Nadia-Bjorlin]

force AA disabled, and set FBU to 2.

I set Framebuffer upload to 2 and also turned off Nvidia's anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering and the problem still persists. Any other ideas?

 

[jonc2006]

what version of epsxe are you using?

 

[Princess Garnet]

awful scart visuals versus HD sharpness, there should be no contest.

Just to comment on this, but you won't be getting true HD from emulating Playstation games (unless the game is entirely 3-D, and even then the "textures" (which aren't real textures) won't be sharp or anything, so it won't look HD at all.

In fact, if you were to connect the Playstation (or any console minus the current ones) to a SDTV (an old CRT tube type) versus an HDTV (a flat panel LCD or plasma), it'd look much better on the SDTV, believe it or not. SD games are made for SD displays, and HD games are made for HD displays. It's really as simple as that. Too many people think HDTVs (or HD resolutions/displays) are going to make anything look better magically. DVDs may, yes, and some people think standard broadcasting does, but I can't stand that nor older consoles on my HDTV. It looks like garbage. The thing is, many of these older games were made with the fact in mind that it'd be shown on a smaller resolution, and the blurring CRT SDTVs did was also taken into account (it helped hide aliasing/blend things).

That being said, you can make things look very good on ePSXe, but if you go in cranking the resolution (double checks your settings) thinking it'll magically make it HD, you'll be sourly surprised. Remember, most 2-D in Playstation was a tiny 320x224. Even a tiny resolution by today's standards of 640x480 is twice that, and will pixelate like no tomorrow, without counter measures. I understand alot of people are afraid of such smaller resolutions, so stuff like 800x600 and 1024x768 would likely be okay, but I'd go no higher than the latter. For 3-D games, I guess you could crank it, but texturing won't look sharp or HD. It will look a bit worse the higher you go.

 

[Nadia-Bjorlin]

what version of epsxe are you using?

1.7.0

Just to comment on this, but you won't be getting true HD from emulating Playstation games (unless the game is entirely 3-D, and even then the "textures" (which aren't real textures) won't be sharp or anything, so it won't look HD at all.

In fact, if you were to connect the Playstation (or any console minus the current ones) to a SDTV (an old CRT tube type) versus an HDTV (a flat panel LCD or plasma), it'd look much better on the SDTV, believe it or not. SD games are made for SD displays, and HD games are made for HD displays. It's really as simple as that. Too many people think HDTVs (or HD resolutions/displays) are going to make anything look better magically. DVDs may, yes, and some people think standard broadcasting does, but I can't stand that nor older consoles on my HDTV. It looks like garbage. The thing is, many of these older games were made with the fact in mind that it'd be shown on a smaller resolution, and the blurring CRT SDTVs did was also taken into account (it helped hide aliasing/blend things).

That being said, you can make things look very good on ePSXe, but if you go in cranking the resolution (double checks your settings) thinking it'll magically make it HD, you'll be sourly surprised. Remember, most 2-D in Playstation was a tiny 320x224. Even a tiny resolution by today's standards of 640x480 is twice that, and will pixelate like no tomorrow, without counter measures. I understand alot of people are afraid of such smaller resolutions, so stuff like 800x600 and 1024x768 would likely be okay, but I'd go no higher than the latter. For 3-D games, I guess you could crank it, but texturing won't look sharp or HD. It will look a bit worse the higher you go.

I don't want the thread to go down the toilet, but I already know that putting an SD PS on an HD set would look worse, but this isn't what I am doing. The picture I get through ePSXe is HD resolution. That's all I want to say on the matter. Back on topic please.

 

[Squall-Leonhart]

The picture I get through ePSXe is HD resolution. That's all I want to say on the matter. Back on topic please.

no it isn't, nuff said.

what brand quad core?

 

[Nadia-Bjorlin]

no it isn't, nuff said.

what brand quad core?

Intel.

 

[jonc2006]

have you considered trying out different display drivers for your video card?

 

[Nadia-Bjorlin]

have you considered trying out different display drivers for your video card?

No, it's epsxe related - every other programs/applications work fine. Surely there's a setting wrong somewhere.

I am also using Mooby CD plugin and eternal SPU for sound.

 

[Princess Garnet]

I don't want the thread to go down the toilet, but I already know that putting an SD PS on an HD set would look worse, but this isn't what I am doing. The picture I get through ePSXe is HD resolution. That's all I want to say on the matter. Back on topic please.

May I ask what made you think that my post was is any way intended to cause anything of the sorts? I'm aware I picked at one small comment and left the original post unanswered, but I didn't know the answer, and I just wanted to explain something, perhaps to your benefit, because you seemed a bit misinformed about it. I wouldn't waste my time doing such petty things (replying to cause the thread to go sour). Consider that if I posted, it was for a legit reason.

That being said, you still seem a bit confused as to what I was trying to say, so let me explain.

Technically, yes, it is HD. We need to understand though that all HD is is a certain resolution or greater though (you already seem aware of this), but not a certain quality level or greater. Your original statements seemed to imply to me that the HD visuals were better. This is where I took up my correction. Even though with ePSXe via what is technically HD resolutions, it's still not a simple matter of jumping into the plug-in, cranking the resolution, and having an HD and sharp display. It will technically be HD then, yes, as it's that high a resolution, but if the game has any sorts of 2-D (3-D textures themselves are 2-D, or games with 2-D backdrops that originate as usually a small 320x224!), those will actually get worse the higher you go with the resolution (and filters only do so much). I was just trying to inform you of this. You think that just because ePSXe let's you define a resolution, that you're actually going to make the game crisp HD, but this is not so. It will be a blurry pixelated mess that looks worse than any scart visuals if you don't adjust the options right.

Sorry to add all of this when the original post remains unanswered, but I was only trying to inform you of these things to give you a better understanding so you can use that information to choose your options more wisely. I'm kind of confused as to what made you think I was trying to make the thread "go down the toilet".

As for your original problems, here's all I can offer.

Try an older version of ePXSe. It never hurts to try.

Force the affinity of ePSXe to one core (this may be annoying, as you'll have to do it every time you launch the program).

Check Task Manager to see is something else is stealing cycles and/or to get clues as to what's happening when these slow instances hit.

Video drivers are a possibility. I've had/seen things only go bad in ePSXe that were driver related (ATi's Black triangles problem in ePSXe didn't happen in any other games, and some of my older nVidia hardware wanted certain driver versions to run right/at a certain speed for ePXSe). As said with my first option, it never hurts simply to try.

 

[jonc2006]

No, it's epsxe related - every other programs/applications work fine. Surely there's a setting wrong somewhere.

I am also using Mooby CD plugin and eternal SPU for sound.

its possible for drivers to break stability or performance in specific games/applications though, it might not happen to all of them but it isnt odd to see certain driver releases make themselves a factor in performance or other types of problems.

btw what is the model name of your video card from the 9 series?

 

[Nadia-Bjorlin]

To Lord Zedeck - I didn't bother reading all the HD bumf - I have it set to 1280x720 through HDMI on my 50 inch Bravia and it looks as crispo as anything on the PS3 (and more so than the blur fest that is the 360 frontend). I know it's not a real HD resolution, but it's as sharp as my desktop and my HD consoles - so I call it HD as it looks every bit as good.

I'll try an older version and see what's what.

its possible for drivers to break stability or performance in specific games/applications though, it might not happen to all of them but it isnt odd to see certain driver releases make themselves a factor in performance or other types of problems.

btw what is the model name of your video card from the 9 series?

GeForce 9600 GT.

I have been using the older version of Pete's Open GL plugin lately (1.68) and it is running better. How can that be? The intermittent slow down is still there but it's smooth 80% of the time - every 30 to 40 seconds it has a period of 3 or so seconds where the framerate drops. Before it was a shorter burst but happened every 3 or 4 secs.

Any ideas as to why? Surely there is a way to keep it smooth all the time with the correct settings.

 

[Princess Garnet]

Clearly you didn't read, as my point has nothing to do with resolution or even HD and that's all you keep mentioning (oh, and speaking of resolution, 1280x720 is HD).

Anyway, if it looks good to you, then yes, that's all that matters. I guess I'm done here since you keep attacking my postings. I know it's unrelated to your prime problem, but the least you could do is say you're not interested, not accuse me of trying to take the thread "down the toilet" and call my explanations "bumf".

 

[Nadia-Bjorlin]

(oh, and speaking of resolution, 1280x720 is HD).

So after all that, you're just confirming what I already said in my first post - PlayStation games scaled up to my HD desktop resolution...

Does anyone who doesn't want to discuss resolutions for all eternity have anything to contribute that is ON TOPIC? Sorry for being so blunt, but I'm tired of this happening on every forum topic that's ever been posted in the history of the Internet - some know-it-all has to go and make something out of an irrelevant side-comment that was made in the initial post...

Status so far -
I tried an older version of ePSXe and it is the same.
I also updated my GFX card drivers as suggested and it's not changed anything.
Plus, I also tried limiting the affinity of epsxe to one core as per someone's request, but it actually made it worse.

 

[Nadia-Bjorlin]

Just checked and when I put Tekken 2 on arranged music, it keeps jerking around as usual but it then slows down to a ridiculous crawl whenever the music changes (usually around 1.5 minutes in). What the hell is wrong with this crappy emulator?