[Judge Penance]

Greetings. This is my first post, and it is placed after 8 hours of searching to no avail.

I have a realtivelly good pc:

CPU: Intel QX9650 clocked at 4GHz
GPU: Ati 4870x2
RAM: 2x2GB Mushkin @ 800MHz (4-4-4-10)

I am running a dual-boot system with both Win XP and Win 7 installed.

I am trying to setup pcsx2 for Final Fantasy X and I have bunped into some hiccups:

My configuration is done following the official guide with Gsdx 890 plugin running with SSD4.1

I have the loop hack enabled, as well as logarithmic z and the alpha tweak (can't remember the name).

1) If I run the game in Win 7 and choose DX10 hardware mode, everything runs perfect (sometimes), but there is a line at the center of peoples' faces. Is there any way to eliminate it?

2) Should this problem gets fixed, I sometimes (75% chance) experience another issue. The game starts to "ghost" previous frames. For example, in the opening sequence whn you start a new game, right at the time when Kimahri appears on screen, everything gets garbled, like it is keeping the previous frames on screen. This ONLY happens in Fullscreen mode, never in Windowed mode. Any explanation?

Due to the above two reasons, I chose to run the game under Win XP in DX9 hardware mode. However, there are two minor issues I am experiencing as well:

1) If I render with an internal resolution other than the native one, I see garbage around the menu fonts and the letters in battle. I tried almost every possible reolution combinations, including scaling 2x or 3x of the native one (512x416) to no avail. Any suggestions?

2) Even at the lowest settings, while everything runs super smooth, when I enter menus which contain lots of data (basic menu with all characters, item menu), fps drop dramatically. This happens regardless of settings, speedhacks, etc. Is this a know issue, or it can be avoided?

I thank you very much for any information that you can share with me.

I tried everything I could find in this forum, as well as numerous youtube guides, to no avail. Just to clarify, I did search for similar issues in the forum, and either I found nothing at all, or unanswered/unresolved old threats.

At any rate, thank you again in advance.

Edit: I have pcsx2 0.9.6 installed, I don't know if things work better in older versions, but I cannot run the game at all in the latest (r1736) beta.

Also, I do own the original game. I run an ISO made with ImgBurn at 2x speed from the original (PAL) version of FFX (SCES 50490)(Platinum Edition).

 

[rama2]

Hmm, use the latest GSdx from the beta package, and stay with dx10 mode.
It's more compatible overall. For the minor problems: Bear with them!

 

[Judge Penance]

...
I quote myself:
"but I cannot run the game at all in the latest (r1736) beta."

The cd plugin in the latest beta isn't working for me, and pete's requires a drive, which I cannot specify (no virual ones, daemon is not working with Win 7, gizmo drives are giving me an error). Also, "run ISO" fails with every plugin, so I repeat: I cannot run the game at all in the latest (r1736) beta.

If i simply copy the latest Gsdx to pcsx2 0.9.6, it gives me a black screen.

As a side note, The NLOOP hack has dissapeared and I cannot find it anywhere in any option.

For the minor problems: Bear with them!

Now if I wanted to do that, would I post anything in the first place? The whole point of the post is to eliminate them, hence asking the people who have done so. If it isn't possible, I would understand, but I would want this to come from a source that actually knows that it isn't possible (known unresolved issue).

Thank you again.

 

[Judge Penance]

OK, a small update:

I tried everything with ZeroGS 97.1 as well.

Speedwise, everything is perfect, even in the menus, where with Gsdx (any version) fps drop to 30. That means that the issue lies in the GPU plugin (Gsdx) and not in the emulator itself.

However, with ZeroGS, I cannot have fullscreen. Its definition of fullscreen is a maximized window. If I press at+enter, the screen does indeed go fullscreen, however it stays black. Is there anything one can do for that?

If not, is there anyone out there who has a fast pc, who has managed to play this game at full (50) fps with Gsdx (the menu lag eliminated, since everything else runs full speed)?

I own the game and a PS2, so the only reason for me to play it on a emulator is to enhance it comparing to the original. Any suggestions are more than welcome.

I am aiming at a similar experience with Final Fantasy VII-IX on the epsxe 1.52 with pete's ogl2 2.8 plugins (everything perfectly emulated and D3D enhanced, no glitches at all). Unfortunatelly Pete is not developing a similar plugin for this emulator (no offence to the developers of the other plugins, but truth to be said, they are still far from perfect, judging from what I experience. This should sound as a motive, not an insult.)...

 

[Kaizen]

OK, a small update:

I tried everything with ZeroGS 97.1 as well.

Speedwise, everything is perfect, even in the menus, where with Gsdx (any version) fps drop to 30. That means that the issue lies in the GPU plugin (Gsdx) and not in the emulator itself.

However, with ZeroGS, I cannot have fullscreen. Its definition of fullscreen is a maximized window. If I press at+enter, the screen does indeed go fullscreen, however it stays black. Is there anything one can do for that?

If not, is there anyone out there who has a fast pc, who has managed to play this game at full (50) fps with Gsdx (the menu lag eliminated, since everything else runs full speed)?

I own the game and a PS2, so the only reason for me to play it on a emulator is to enhance it comparing to the original. Any suggestions are more than welcome.

I am aiming at a similar experience with Final Fantasy VII-IX on the epsxe 1.52 with pete's ogl2 2.8 plugins (everything perfectly emulated and D3D enhanced, no glitches at all). Unfortunatelly Pete is not developing a similar plugin for this emulator (no offence to the developers of the other plugins, but truth to be said, they are still far from perfect, judging from what I experience. This should sound as a motive, not an insult.)...

use the software renderer and god you're picky

I'd love to watch your obsessive compulsive behaviours. I wonder if you arrange everytthing symetrically and wash your hands 40 times a day

do you fap timing it on even strokes?
do you flip out if everything isn't analtastic in bed?
If your pillow isn't perfectly aligned in the pillowsheets do you spasm in agony?

 

[drwhojan]

Its weard i am using windows 7, And on PCSX2 r1736 and can get 27fps in fmv on a pentium4 2.4 ghz with 2gb of ram... No cores

Also 75-100% on boot of a iso

With help from speed hacks,

Have to tryed deisableing hidden programs that starup with your pc?,

Your Uninstaller might help!

Your Uninstaller! 2008 FREE Download, Fix uninstall problems, completely remove programs.

PCSX2 r1736 now has its own ISO starter!

What is your video card?, this may also help, Any onbord card are not good like intel!.

 

[nanaya]

Its weard i am using windows 7, And on PCSX2 r1736 and can get 27fps in fmv on a pentium4 2.4 ghz with 2gb of ram... No cores

Also 75-100% on boot of a iso

With help from speed hacks,

Have to tryed deisableing hidden programs that starup with your pc?,

Your Uninstaller might help!

Your Uninstaller! 2008 FREE Download, Fix uninstall problems, completely remove programs.

PCSX2 r1736 now has its own ISO starter!

What is your video card?, this may also help, Any onbord card are not good like intel!.

Wow, I need to re-learn my english, yours seem so advanced, I guess over there the language keeps evolving eh? :lol:

to OP, not sure why you can't use the new beta but try messing with plugins, you can found the (rather) official plugin svn here PCSX2 plugins
There's a branch of zerogs which is more updated, search around zzogl on pcsx2 official forum.
btw, daemon works fine here using Win 7 RTM 64 bit, are you sure you're using the latest version? ignore the warning, it works fine.

 

[Squall-Leonhart]

use the software renderer and god you're picky

I'd love to watch your obsessive compulsive behaviours. I wonder if you arrange everytthing symetrically and wash your hands 40 times a day

do you fap timing it on even strokes?
do you flip out if everything isn't analtastic in bed?
If your pillow isn't perfectly aligned in the pillowsheets do you spasm in agony?

i crushed most of my OCD with sheer will!

but NITB!

 

[rama2]

I quote myself as well:

Hmm, use the latest GSdx from the beta package, and stay with dx10 mode.

I just tested 0.9.6 with the latest GSdx rev, its working fine.
There is no line on peoples faces with that one.

The remark about the quality of emulation:
Well, let's just say that the psx is a LOT easier to get right..

 

[Air]

I am aiming at a similar experience with Final Fantasy VII-IX on the epsxe 1.52 with pete's ogl2 2.8 plugins (everything perfectly emulated and D3D enhanced, no glitches at all). Unfortunatelly Pete is not developing a similar plugin for this emulator

And if he did develop a "similar" plugin, you'd be sorely disappointed since the GPU of the PSX has in common with the GS of the PS2 about this much stuff, in ordered list:

* ...

Thusly Pete would have had to make a very non-similar plugin, if he, in fact, wanted to emulate the PS2 anywhere near correctly. Yes it's hard to fathom, given how stagnant and slow technology moves and all, but there are some extraordinary differences between the fairly generic PSX GPU developed in 1993 and the mind-bindingly custom-fabricated GS developed in 1999 -- most notably in the "sheer complexity" department (that is, the PSX GPU lacks a "sheer complexity" department altogether).

(no offence to the developers of the other plugins, but truth to be said, they are still far from perfect, judging from what I experience. This should sound as a motive, not an insult.)...

No insults to us, but no motives either. We work to solve the riddles of emulation and to share our joy. We don't develop an emulator to prove people that we're somehow better than someone else.

 

[Judge Penance]

Update 2:
I finally managed to make the new beta working on Win 7 when I re-ripped my ISO with Alcohol 120%. Unfortunatelly, the ImgBurn image does not load correctly with the linuxiso plugin, giving an error.

Also, the DX11 option in the latest Gsdx results in a crash (I tried disabling Aero as well to eliminate the chance of incombatibilities).

Running the latest beta, however changed nothing at all. FFX plays exactly the same with 0.9.6 and the latest beta.

I tried different combinations, even changed the sound plugins to see if speed is affected. Judging from my task manager, in that the CPU usage remains around 50%-60% for the two cores the emulator uses, CPU is not really an issue here, the same goes for my GPU (measureed with GPU-Z). So it is not hardware related, or windows related (tasks running in the background).

My only conclusion points towards the GPU plugins.


About the various comments made from some users like Kaizen, regarding the level o quality I prefer things to be, no matter how many [email protected]$$ comments I receive, I still have not received a proper (actually productive) answer from you, so please accept my humble apologies for stepping on a sensitive spot. An no, Air, I do not care who's is better. frankly, I just want to enjoy a good game, that's all.

I merely pointed out what is what I seek in the emulator, and I am perfectly fine with the answer "what you ask has not yet done", so please, people, stop being so sensitive, no one is trying to hurt your feelings here.

I try to be thorough, providing as much iformation I can, that maybe will somehow benefit the developers, as well. Please stop being so defensive. To my understanding, as I gather from the various comments, those issues aren't considered issues for the majority of people, so unless someone has actually something productive to offer to the table, we are wasting time and board space.

By the way, I perfectly understand that PS1 emulation is far less complex than PS2, that is why I am asking for information, and not demand fixes.

I will continue trying different setups, including older versions of the emulator. In the meantime, if anyone has anything productive to add to the table, he or she is more than welcome. Should anyone else is interested in my findings, or would like additional information, please ask me.

rama2:
I will try to capture a picture of my issue so you can see where the problem lies in fullscreen. By the way, with the latest revision of th plugin, font artifacts are present in DX10 when the resolution is not native. They were eliminated in the previous version.

 

[Kaizen]

If it's that bad, use your ps2.

ps. You don't have a DX11 gpu so duh on that one.

 

[Judge Penance]

Update 3:
Actually, I tried something I didn't think earlier and surprisingly it worked!!!

The new Gsdx plugin (the one in the beta package) if used in pcsx2 0.9.6 works in the same way as the old one (however I cannot find the nLoop hack anywhere, if anybody knows more about it, please specify). In the new plugin, there is the option "allow 8 bit textures" enabled. If I disable that, no lag. Everything works full speed. That is only playable for me in DX9, though, so font artifacts on non-native resolutions remain.

Well, the major problem was solved in DX9 for me and I am OK with that. However I don't know what the effect of the missing nloop hack in the new plugin would be in the game. I will test tonight to see the ending results.

Kaizen:
Wat is your problem really? What part of "trying to find help" is not understandable? If you do not want to contribute, that's fine, but simply commenting without offering anything has no other use that starting a flame war. Please stop this.

PS: You are right about DX11, however 4XXX ati series are dx11 compatible (at least according to ati). I assume it is driver-related as the current drivers do not include dx11 libraries.

 

[rama2]

Taskmanager and GPU load measurement tools cannot accurately tell what the bottleneck is in multithreaded apps.

No card on the market today supports dx11 in hardware, the 4xxx series does dx10.1.

The nloop hack got removed, because we figured out the correct GS behavior. It's not needed anymore.

About us being defensive. It's your choice of words in the first posts.
They really sound very demanding.

 

[Judge Penance]

I am more than willing to find a single insulting or demanding word in my posts. In fact:

For the minor problems: Bear with them!

I wasn't me at all who initiated anything. My first post was a series of questions about how can factual issues be solved, directed to those who may know more than I do. A simple "To my knowledge, it can't be fixed." would be enough and less defending than "bear with them". No one ever demanded anything from anyone. It is a forum and whoever is willing to help, is invited to do so.

Why is it when people discover issues that aren't fixed yet, instead of the simple "they aren't fixed yet" answer, everyone tries to defend themselves this way? I emplore you to find any sentence in my posts which initiates insults or inappropriate demands. So far, I was the one who got mocked into almost being obsessive compulsive. Even if you do find one, please compare them with the amount of "thank you" phrases in my posts... Until then, please refrain from such a defensive stance.

Focusing on the facts in your answer, they do clarify the reason Nloop hack is absent. Again, I thank you for that.

About dx11, the way I understand it, 4xxx series do not have "native" dx11 (being 10.1), however dx11 is more a dx10 upgrade, than a totally new dx (like dx9c in the dx9 series) therefore cards which are dx10.1 will fully support it. At least that was said by ati long ago, if Microsoft and the GPU companies changed plans, I stand corrected. You being a developer I trust your word more than mine in this, however.

Again, as feedback to the developers, I was playing FFX from the beginning until now, and I reached up to Yuna summoning Valefor. So far things work very nice, with only minor glitches present (Wakka's clothes have polygons sticking out of his pants and shoulderpad, as well as various people who have their hair semi-transparent). I plan to finish the game so I can provide a more detailed feedback, that of course if you are insterested.

 

[magiceyes118]

Dude its probably becasue of your overclocked cpu lol or gpu if that is overclocked too high

 

[Judge Penance]

While this could be true, in this particular case, I am certain that it isn't. This machine had the CPU overclocked at 4.5GHz, and now backed down to 4GHz fro 24/7. It is 24hr prime stable (prime95 small fft) on max priority. The GPU is overclocked at 800/1000, but was tested with furmark and other comercial games like Crysis. Believe me, this is after 8 months of testing and the system is rock stable. The whole system is watercooled. This is normally a workstation pc for 3d rendering, hence the power, it just happen to be my gaming machine as well.

The glitches are not random, as they would appear in an overclocked case. There are certain "faces" (polygons) which react differently to the ingame lighting than they are supposed to. For example, Tidus's necklace appears black in the opening sequence, while it turns gold during the salvaging mission with Rikku. Normaly it should stay silver. The same applies to some "faces" of Wakka's shoulderpad and jumpsuit.

I believe those glitches are caused by some mistake in the calculation of lighting in the game. If anybody has played the game with ZeroGS, they are similar to how this plugin renders some of the models.

Again, all this information is shared to aid the developers. I will post screenshots tomorrow to show what I mean.

 

[Judge Penance]

Gretings,
I haven't uptated the thread yet, trying to play throughout the entire game first. I want to see how the game runs from start to end. I've tried different builds of the emulator and the GPU plugins, however the polygon glitches (improper reaction to light-transparency) I mention are apparent in all of them.

One thing that has been corrected is that the speed of the game shows improvements in the latest builds.