[namenlos]

alright, here's the deal. I've had ePSXe 1.6.0 installed and working before with pete's dx6 d3d driver 1.75, no problems, ran fine. recently, I tried to play a few games with it, and it won't run at a constant playable speed, usually jumping back and forth between about 40fps, and 60fps. I've adjusted every possible setting I could think of, I've changed video plugins, I've even downloaded and installed new copies of both epsxe and pete's gpu plugins, still to have the same issue. I thought that maybe it was one of the other programs that are always running, so I closed everything I possibly could. still same issue. after that, I even tried to re-install my video card drivers, still same issue. the next step I can think of is to re-install windows, except I'd like to avoid that if possible, I'm still on dial-up and I don't want to have to re-download all the windows updates.
if anybody has any info regarding this, I'd greatly appreciate it...

 

[namenlos]

Just realized I forgot my system specs...

AMD Athlon XP 2700+
512MB DDR (don't remember speed)
ATI Radeon 9200SE 128Mb
Windows XP w/SP2

 

[Betamax]

Erm no offense, but double posting around here is considered very rude. Use the edit button if you forget something in future.

As for the problem. Is this a cd or an image file? If it's the latter you may just need to defrag the disk.

 

[namenlos]

sorry about that... didn't see the edit button

the game is an .iso so I defragged my harddrive and still same issue. tried running it from the original cd, and it still won't work, and in fact, it ran slower.

 

[I-Chan]

With a 9200 you should be using pete's opengl, and not dx6 d3d. Post your current configs (d3d and opengl share almost the same) so we can take a look at that and tweak them. Have you recently installed apps that run in the background? Something like an antivirus, firewall or so. Maybe it's taking cpu cycles so epsxe can't use them. Try shutting down any background app before launching ePSXe. Have you checked your system for virus/spyware?

 

[namenlos]

switched to ogl, noticed a BIG difference in performance, noticed even better speeds when I went from 'fast' settings to 'nice' settings, still a bit slower than I'd like...

current settings are as follows:
Plugin: Pete's OpenGL Driver 1.1.75
Author: Pete Bernert
Card vendor: ATI Technologies Inc.
GFX card: RADEON 9200SE DDR x86/MMX/3DNow!/SSE

Resolution/Color:
- 640x480 Fullscreen - NO desktop changing [32 Bit]
- Keep psx aspect ratio: off

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

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

Compatibility:
- Offscreen drawing: 3
- Framebuffer texture: 2
- Framebuffer access: 0
- Alpha multipass: on
- Mask bit: on
- Advanced blending: on

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

---this was copy/pasted from the plugin itself

 

[I-Chan]

let's see if your cpu can make a more efficient work with fb effects. Change fb texture to 0, and fb access to 4. This way some effects will probably behave better, also.

 

[namenlos]

no, that slowed it down even worse

 

[I-Chan]

Then try 2-3 instead of 0-4. But i suspect that indeed you have other apps running that are hogging your cpu, and that's why it lags.

 

[namenlos]

after killing all non-essential processes, and adjusting the settings, it still has some issues. it's finally at a constant speed, and thus is playable, it's just slower than I'd like. what really bothers me is that I used to have it running on this exact system with the direct 3d plugin, and it ran nice and smoothly. I may just suck it up and re-install windows. -- or maybe even linux...

[edit]
I switched out sound plugins, and things returned to normal, I'm stumped, but at least my issue's solved...
Thanks to everybody who lent a hand.

[edit]
come to think of it, I have been having issues with my sound card drivers in windows. that's a good possibility as to why the sound was the issue...

 

[fireblaster_lyz]

Update drivers?