Zombeaver

I just tested D3D and GL again and both of them have the long pause for me, neither of them crash for me. D3D though, not only has the long pause like GL for me, but it makes my entire computer non-responsive while the game is loading Seems like there's just something odd with the game. If it's working okay for you in D3D, go for it. It basically acts like my entire computer is locked up when it's loading though so I'm going to stick with GL.

I've got a note about that on the spreadsheet. It doesn't actually crash, it just takes a while (for me at least). It can take 30+ seconds to start and 30+ seconds after skipping the intro cutscene but acts normally afterwards. Pretty unusual, which is why I added the note about it. The first time it happened I thought it had crashed. I can mess around with it in D3D and see if there are any visual problems and, if not, update the config.

Added new configs for the below titles. Details are on the sheet. Disgaea: Hour of Darkness Grand Theft Auto III Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Need For Speed: Underground Tekken 5 A couple notes on these (which are also on the spreadsheet): Grand Theft Auto Vice: City is a bit blurry but it's the result of an internal game effect (not a bug) called "Trails" which can be disabled in the in-game options if you prefer. It really changes the look of the game though. For Tekken 5, you'll want to go to the in-game options and then Display Settings, set the scan mode to "sharp", and make sure the video mode is set to "normal" and not "progressive" (which can cause some visual bugs). It should be set to "normal" by default though.

Eh, I haven't had any issues with the ones that come with the dev build honestly.

I'm not sure why the game would've been stretched for the other person if that's the case. Especially since he said extracting them fixed it. I dunno ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Like I said, the plugin is going to take care of it regardless on the next update.

I thought they came extracted by default, but someone else told me in Discord the other day that they tried a game and it was stretched and after checking none of the patches were in the cheats_ws folder. It'll be a non-issue after the next version of the plugin releases anyway, as Alec developed a way to make the plugin check and extract them if they're not present. I've tested it and can confirm it works quite well. A couple other improvements will be implemented as well I'll take a look today.

I've updated the Tales of the Abyss config from GL to D3D11. GL is technically the more accurate renderer (it's more up-to-date because there isn't an active D3D developer on the PCSX2 team currently), so when I initially started making these configs I just used it all the time. The thing is, the D3D11 renderer has one advantage that GL doesn't - MSAA. The way I've been making these more recently is to start with D3D and if there are problems with it (and sometimes there are) switch to GL to see if they can be fixed that way. If there aren't any visual bugs in the D3D renderer, I use it so I can use MSAA. MSAA can make games look really nice though it can have an impact on performance as well, depending on the game. TotA looks very nice with 4x MSAA and was still giving me a consistent 60fps at all times. GL: D3D11 with 4x MSAA:

You can either leave it at default PCSX2 behavior (Mcd001.ps2 and Mcd002.ps2 at all times) or you can select "Use Independent Memory Cards" in the plugin settings which will create a memory card named after the game title, inject it into the ui .ini into slot 1, and leave Mcd002.ps2 in slot 2. The cards that are created are .ps2 format.

I've updated the Tales of Legendia config. I wasn't quite happy with it originally because it seemed blurry for reasons that I couldn't quite determine (it wasn't from deinterlacing and some of the normal tricks that I try when a game is blurry didn't seem to do anything). I took another crack at it and found that the Merge Sprite hack worked quite nicely to clear it up. The screenshots below have to be viewed at full size, but the difference is quite noticeable. No hacks: Merge Sprite hack: I also added a new config for Drakengard.

Added configs for the below titles. Details are on the sheet. We're up to 100 configs now! God of War Maximo: Ghosts to Glory Maximo vs The Army of Zin The Nightmare of Druaga I also updated the config for Bujingai: The Forsaken City from an interlacing mode of "Auto" to "Bob tff". It looks clearer now. If you've already downloaded a config previously, you can have it re-check by holding down left ctrl when you click the "Configure" button.

Added configs for the below titles. Details are on the sheet. .hack//Infection .hack//Mutation .hack//Outbreak .hack//Quarantine Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII

Thank ya sir! It's a slow process for sure. Lotta fiddling with settings then testing, fiddling some more, and testing some more haha. Have fun! Let me know if you run into any problems.

Added configs for the below titles. Details are on the sheet. Ape Escape 2 The Bouncer Dead To Rights Rule of Rose Samurai Western

Well Launchbox already does that for you as well. No reason to use Dfend. When you import a DOS game into LB and use the DOS importer, it's assigning those folders to automount and using the .exe to start the program.

Right, because you have to direct it to a folder on your computer that exists. You're saying "I want you to call this real folder on my folder the C: drive". You're not just making something up, you need to direct it to a folder on your computer. What folder, specifically, are you trying to mount? You need to enter the entire path.

You have to direct it to a real folder on your computer. You type "mount c" followed by the directory that you want DOSBox to consider the "C drive". So, for example, all my DOS games are in a directory of X:\Emulation\DOS\[folders named after each game] In DOSBox, I could type: mount c "x:\emulation\dos\quake\" C: dir /p This will mount my Quake folder as "C:" in DOSBox. Typing "C:" will change to that directory. Typing "dir /p" will show a pausing list of all files in that directory.

Yeah that's what prompted these in the first place. I got tired of having this mess of old configs across different versions of PCSX2, most of which don't transfer from one version to the next because their plugins change pretty dramatically over time. PCSX2 1.5.0 actually has a significant number of improvements over 1.4.0 and earlier, so I just started from scratch. Still a looooooooooong way to go to get through the initial stuff that I want to get through. So far it's a lot of RPGs and survival horror, with some other good stuff sprinkled around. Gotta start somewhere though.

Introduction If you’ve tried your hand at PS2 emulation with PCSX2 for any length of time, you’ll know that it’s an impressive but thoroughly imperfect emulator that needs a guiding hand more than most. There’s really no one-size-fits-all setting solution when it comes to PCSX2 configuration (other than setting it to software mode and leaving it there, and even then you’ll still run into some issues, just much less frequently) which means that you really need to create configurations on a per-game basis to get the most out of it. This is often a slow, tedious, and incredibly time-consuming process of testing, making changes, reading wiki and forum posts, testing, making more changes, and then testing some more. In some cases, it’ll never be perfect, regardless of settings used but with some adjustments you can get it “pretty close”. Some cases are nigh on perfect and others are a broken mess with any setting (even software, in a few cases). There are a significant number of one-off fixes that are often necessary in games, from special hacks, to fixes like running all FMVs in software mode, to things like skipdraw for disabling buggy post-processing effects and TC offsets to fix sprite alignment issues - all kinds of things that are needed to offset various visual bugs brought on by upscaling. It’s just the nature of the thing. I’ve been using PCSX2 for a while now - since version 1.2.1 (2014). My Launchbox library had been a mishmash collection of configs for versions 1.2.1, 1.3.1, and 1.4.0 so several weeks ago I decided to finally break down and go through the process of updating all of these to 1.5.0 (1.6.0 now) and then try to add more once that was complete. The thought occurred to me though, that if I was going to go to the trouble of doing this, I might as well share them here for others to use as well. That presented a question, however, as to how best to distribute them. PCSX2 is a bit more complicated when it comes to creating and using custom configs - you have to duplicate not one, but several .ini files that contain various settings that PCSX2 will use, and then direct these specific .inis to PCSX2 via command-line (--cfgpath “[path\to\the\config]”). User @alec100_94 created a great plugin for Launchbox called PCSX2 Configurator that helps automate the configuration creation process by duplicating sections of your current .inis into a new folder named after the game title, then injects the appropriate command-line parameters into that game’s Launchbox library entry. As an added bonus, it can even create independent memory cards for each game. I thought this might be a way to at least help simplify the process for people so they could more easily use the configs, so I contacted him about it about a week ago to get his thoughts on it. To my surprise, not only was he willing to help me in my attempt to streamline the process for people, he offered to come up with a way to incorporate the configs into the plugin and allow users to download and apply them directly from within Launchbox. So we had a lot of back and forth over the course of the last week and did a lot of testing and now we’ve ended up with something I’m really happy to say works very well. Exciting! Major props to Alec for all his hard work on this (and for putting up with all my picky crap ). Note: All tech support requests for the plugin itself need to be directed to Alec on the Launchbox Discord, not here. Our Discord server can be accessed here: https://discord.gg/AFxfhnv Go to the plugins channel and message @alec100_94#4327 Getting started All you need to do is download and install the plugin, then right-click on a Playstation 2 game in your library, and then click on the "PCSX2 Configurator" option at the bottom of the right-click menu. From here you can either click "Create Config" to create your own config (or overwrite your current config) or "Download Config" to download mine. If I've created a config for the game, the "Download Config" option will be enabled (lit) - if I haven't, it won't be (note that a takes a second or two for a match to be made, so "Download Config" won't immediately be lit even if I've created a config for it). If I've updated a config since you originally downloaded it, an update option will be lit which can be clicked to update the config to the newest version. Once you've downloaded or created a config, the "Remove Config" and "Configure with PCSX2" options will be usable. Clicking "Configure with PCSX2" will open PCSX2 for you to edit that config as you see fit. Once a config is present, the right-click "Configure" option will do this as well. The games must be scanned and matched with the LBGDB first! The LBGDB ID is how configs are matched, so you must do this first. Once they're scanned/matched you're ready to go - just right-click -> PCSX2 Configurator -> Download Config and you're all set! First and foremost, and I cannot stress this enough, is that these configs are designed specifically for PCSX2 1.6.0. Do not use 1.4.0 and don't use a 1.5.0 dev build unless it's a very late one. These were specifically tested with 1.5.0-dev-3400 which was post-1.6.0 release candidate. The configs Now that everything's squared away with the plugin, I'll be able to get back to working on more configs going forward. Right now I’m at 86 configs [EDIT: up to 285 currently]. Not a whole lot, I know, but it’s a start. I’m open to requests, but understand that I’ve already got a stack of about 200 more games that I have set aside to work through as a start (to-do list is at the bottom). I’m prioritizing stuff that’s 1) of interest to me and 2) don’t sound like they have huge game-breaking issues based on their PCSX2 wiki page. The PCSX2 compatibility wiki is kindof a mess that isn’t particularly well-documented and, in my experience, is frequently full of outdated and/or outright incorrect information, but it’s at least a sortof starting reference point for whether or not I decide to try out a game. Also try to keep in mind that this is often a very time-consuming process so don’t expect to see 20 new configs added in a day. In cases of really severe complications, it can be 30 minutes to multiple hours of testing and tweaking for one config. I have an ongoing spreadsheet detailing what’s in each config as well as some additional notes where appropriate and a rating of what I consider to be the relative significance of emulation issues present for that game, from minor/nonexistent to moderate to broken. Software mode is generally only used as a last-resort when no other hacks or fixes could resolve various issues brought on by hardware rendering, but be aware that there are some configs that use software rendering because of this. I’ll periodically be making updates in this thread to note new configs that are added, and of course the spreadsheet will be kept up to date. >> PCSX2 Config Spreadsheet << The configs are fairly moderate in terms of system requirements, as my PC is about 4 years old (EDIT: 7 years old) at this point (specs at the bottom) and can often push these a bit higher than what’s included in the configs, depending on the game, but realize that there’s going to be some variance in performance depending on your hardware. Because of this, I wanted to provide some tips below on how these can be altered to improve performance. Performance improvement tips (if necessary) As part of the update process from 1.5.0 configs to 1.6.0, I went through and benchmarked all configs with the framelimiter off, and made adjustments as necessary. The end result should be better performance (at the very least, better maximum performance, whether you actually need that or not) for everyone. Some key elements that can be used to improve performance (and generally have been used already where appropriate) are listed below. Enabling MTVU is often a good starting point for improving performance. It has high compatibility and is an easy go-to. There are some cases where it causes problems in a game that I've noted on the details spreadsheet. This is generally enabled where appropriate and where there was an actual impact on performance in testing. If necessary, you can also try dropping the scaling by 1x at a time until performance improves. It should be noted that some games are more CPU-limited than GPU-limited, in which case reducing the scaling can have little to no impact on performance. It's something to try if performance is poor, however. You can also try disabling Large Framebuffer. This is a parameter that used to be on by default but no longer is. It serves a primarily niche purpose as it only affects a small number of games (FMV flickering with it off) but can often negatively impact performance. I've generally disabled this in cases where appropriate, didn't cause an issue (or the issue could be remedied in an alternate way), and actually did improve performance in testing, but there may be additional cases where disabling it would be beneficial. Enabling Allow 8-Bit Textures can also improve performance depending on your hardware and the demands of the game. It basically shifts the demand on the CPU and GPU. One additional thing you can try is changing the sync mode in the SPU settings from timestretch to async. I mention this one last because it has the highest probability of causing problems, but compatibility is still quite good overall. Basically what this is doing is changing it so that audio and video no longer have to be 100% synced at all times, which sounds like a bad thing but in practice it’s not. With timestretch there can be times where, if the game is performing poorly, you’ll get this really awful, stuttery, warbled mess for the audio because it’s going out of its way to keep them in sync and it creates a bit of a mess. Async can make these problematic moments much less noticeable. It's useful for games that have occasional and brief dips in performance - if a game is just constantly running at 50% speed though, the only thing it's going to do is make the audio way out of sync from the game. You can also try adjusting the EE Cycle Rate, but I don't recommend doing this unless you really have no other option. It can be helpful on occasion, but it has a significantly higher probability of breaking things, so leave it alone unless absolutely necessary. I would highly recommend that you never change EE Cycle Skipping at all, as it has an even greater chance of breaking things, causing dropped frames, giving false speed numbers... just leave it alone. My hope is that the vast majority of people won’t have to change anything at all, but I wanted to give some pointers here in case your system is struggling. My current to-do list: My PC: i7 4770k CPU GTX 780 32 GB RAM 256GB SSD System Drive Windows 7 Pro (64-bit) pcsx2-v1.5.0-dev-2711-g8307cfc54-windows-x86.7z

Ah, good point. I actually wasn't aware of that as I just had Java already. I'll add a note about it. Thanks!

If it's not letting you drag them in, it means you're running LB as administrator. Do not do this. Dragging them in will work when you run it normally.

I had posted some instructions on this a while back but realized this is probably worth posting into a separate tutorial thread for future reference rather than leaving buried in another random thread. ParaJVE is a Vectrex emulator with built-in bezels and screen overlays, which are really necessary to get the whole Vectrex experience: Setting these up in LB could be a bit of a pain because in order for specific games to be launched via command-line, the appropriate game name had to be sent for each one via -game=[the game title] So I extracted all the names of the game titles that ParaJVE looks for, and created blank files for them so that they can be imported into LB as "roms". They're not actually roms, they're just telling the emulator which game to start. You can find them below: Game IDs.zip These are separated into different categories in the same method that they're separated in the ParaJVE UI. Some of these probably won't be of much interest to most people as there are things like Tech Demos in there. In any case, choose the categories that you want to import, place them somewhere on your computer. First let's setup ParaJVE itself in LB. To start, your emulator entry for it should look like this: Add your Vectrex platform (named "GCE Vectrex" if following the LB GDB format) to the associated platforms tab and check to use as the default emulator if you wish. Now, drag the folders for the Vectrex game IDs into LB and indicate that they're Vectrex games. When you get to the "custom options" part of the import wizard, be sure to select the "use folder names instead of ROM file names for game titles" option, otherwise the game titles will be wrong. Let the import complete and now they can be started and the appropriate game will launch. You'll probably want to change the controls once the emulator starts. You can do this by going to Controls -> Key Mapping and then changing the Joystick #1 and Joystick #2 controls as you see fit. Once this is done, go back to your emulator entry for ParaJVE and change the command-line parameter to the below if you want the games to start in fullscreen with no menu: -fullscreen=TRUE -menu=OFF -game= And that's it! NOTE: Java is required in order for ParaJVE to work.

I'm not sure what this means. What icons in the program? Nearly everything in LB is just images that are user-supplied (box art, screenshots, etc.). If you use Big Box, you can just use a theme that better suits your tastes. That's what they're there for. That could be, I'm not sure. You wouldn't if you were just doing it with a shortcut though.

There's plenty of them in the "small things" thread. Just read through it.

Yes. It's the Launchbox icon. I see it and think of Launchbox. Dozens or hundreds of pieces of various art materials that other users have made over the years incorporate the icon into them, because it represents Launchbox. If you don't like it, that's your prerogative. You do know you can just change them if you don't like them right? Either via a windows shortcut -> change icon or changing the .exe's icon itself via something like Resource Hacker. Nothing's stopping you from changing them if you don't like them.

Yeah, better change that icon so that it's comprised of simple flat colors like Material. Oh wait...