pcsx2 Zombeaver's PCSX2 Configs / Simple 1-Click Installs With PCSX2 Configurator

[Zombeaver]

@mssngr just FYI, I will be trying out those settings for The Getaway and, assuming everything's okay, will include them in the next batch of configs. I've just had a lot of stuff going on IRL the last couple days so I haven't had a chance to work on these.

[Zombeaver]

So, VU Cycle Stealing: 2 seems to have some really bad issues with frame timing/pacing. For me anyway. It says it's 60fps for both 1 and 2, but 2 looks pretty awful to me because of how stuttery it appears. It's especially noticeable when there's fast motion, like while driving or when characters move quickly. It also seems to cause some visual bugs. The kid turns invisible in the opening cutscene (I played through it twice with 2 and it happened both times). Cycle Stealing: 1 doesn't seem to have either of these issues.

This needs to be viewed fullscreen but you should (hopefully) be able to see the difference pretty clearly.

 

[neil9000]

3 minutes ago, Zombeaver said:

So, VU Cycle Stealing: 2 seems to have some really bad issues with frame timing/pacing. For me anyway. It says it's 60fps for both 1 and 2, but 2 looks pretty awful to me because of how stuttery it appears. It's especially noticeable when there's fast motion, like while driving or when characters move quickly. It also seems to cause some visual bugs. The kid turns invisible in the opening cutscene (I played through it twice with 2 and it happened both times). Cycle Stealing: 1 doesn't seem to have either of these issues.

This needs to be viewed fullscreen but you should (hopefully) be able to see the difference pretty clearly.

 

@Zombeaver the digital foundry of emulation.  

[Zombeaver]

Hahaha

I dunno about that, but I am pretty picky about these things

Maybe stuff like that isn't particularly noticeable to some people but it sticks out like a sore thumb to me. It's easier to see it when you're actually playing the game in fullscreen than side by side like that though. It just looks really jerky.

[neil9000]

I'll be honest and say I completely forgot about the getaway games, "Guy Ritchies GTA" played a bit of the first one, might have to check those out again.

[mssngr]

I see what you mean. For me the Vu 2 (Inc other settings) was the only way to make it work near perfect. I guess the emulator responds different to each independent rig (?). 

Alsothis game was not playable/watchable at all in the beginning. So both your screens are already way better then the results I was having in the beginning. Seeing I struggled a lot on my own to make this game playable and also seeing others struggle in the past on other sites. I would go for a safe bet and but the Vu stealing at a minimum, check the 8-bit texture and mark it yellow, so someone in the future has a reasonable start to this game and could configure it further on their own. Or do you find that it is not playable enough?

[alec100_94]

So my findings for the Getaway were that it (at least the NTSC version) appeared to run pretty well, without using the VU Stealing which appears to be causing issues, there's a small bit of slow down at the start of the opening cut-scene for me (only running ~50FPS), and it may drop again in later cut-scenes, but all things considered it's pretty good, and much better than the odd behaviour that VU Stealing seems to be causing (I have experienced inconsistent graphical/animation bugs with VU stealing and this game). I only really played through the initial chase scene, and a bit of the first shooting segment, but so far so good.

39 minutes ago, neil9000 said:

@Zombeaver the digital foundry of emulation.  

@neil9000 strangely, a relatively serious idea for some YouTube content in a similar vein to that came to me a couple of weeks ago. I might be very interested in putting together such videos in the future.

[neil9000]

2 minutes ago, alec100_94 said:

@neil9000 strangely, a relatively serious idea for some YouTube content in a similar vein to that came to me a couple of weeks ago. I might be very interested in putting together such videos in the future.

Go for it, you would have a viewer here, I love that comparison of features type shit that they do, so to see it in a emulation capacity would be great.   

[Zombeaver]

After playing some more, the actual gameplay feels kindof off even with VU Stealing at 1. 1 is better than 2, but 1 is still off. That same sort of jittery feeling. Turning EE -3 and VU 0 feels great in play and only has some occasional hiccups in cutscenes for me. There were a couple momentary bits of slowdown in the first cutscene and none in the second cutscene. I think I'm going to upload it as a yellow with EE-3 / VU 0 and just make note on the sheet that the slowdown can be reduced by increasing the cycle stealing, but at the cost of frame pacing /jitteriness. I don't think I could play it with cycle steal at even 1, personally. It just feels noticeably off to me. I'd rather have the occasional blip in a cutscene than have the gameplay feel kindof janky.

[neil9000]

24 minutes ago, Zombeaver said:

After playing some more, the actual gameplay feels kindof off even with VU Stealing at 1. 1 is better than 2, but 1 is still off. That same sort of jittery feeling. Turning EE -3 and VU 0 feels great in play and only has some occasional hiccups in cutscenes for me. There were a couple momentary bits of slowdown in the first cutscene and none in the second cutscene. I think I'm going to upload it as a yellow with EE-3 / VU 0 and just make note on the sheet that the slowdown can be reduced by increasing the cycle stealing, but at the cost of frame pacing /jitteriness. I don't think I could play it with cycle steal at even 1, personally. It just feels noticeably off to me. I'd rather have the occasional blip in a cutscene than have the gameplay feel kindof janky.

I agree with that sentiment, id much rather the cut scenes were dodgy rather than actual gameplay.

[alec100_94]

@Zombeaver, I think that's a good call, I am getting similar results with EE-2/VU0 (anything above VU0 causes at least some glitches for me), didn't see much difference between EE-2 and EE-3, but I guess your mileage may vary, especially with this game.

@neil9000, I might work on doing a video like that over the festive period. I've been wanting to do some (decent) Youtubing for a while and have generally struggled to find an Audience/Focus, though this idea might actually have some viewership/interest as it's not extensible covered. Though I think I'll need to work on my presentation skills a bit I'm No Richard Leadbetter or even ETA Prime. I also have a bunch of other things going on in life too, including relocating for a new job I am due to start early next year, so It may not be the wisest time to start doing this, though it's good to know i'd have your support.

[Zombeaver]

If you want any help with that, I'm game. My channel's by no means huge but I've got a couple thousand subscribers at least. I'd be open to working on something together if you want.

https://www.youtube.com/user/Mugenmush

[alec100_94]

Your channel seems pretty cool, and it would be good to work something out. 

[Zombeaver]

New configs:

Ape Escape 3
The Getaway
Haven: Call of the King
Rumble Roses

Thanks to @alec100_94 and @mssngr for helping with the config for The Getaway!

[mssngr]

2 hours ago, Zombeaver said:

New configs:

Ape Escape 3
The Getaway
Haven: Call of the King
Rumble Roses

Thanks to @alec100_94 and @mssngr for helping with the config for The Getaway!

Perfect! Thank you for making games like these accessible to people like me who have difficulty thinkering with the PCSX2 settings (although I am getting a lot better at it now). For me the gameplay (including the graphics) of the getaway is not as important as the whole story. The gameplay is unforgiving and clunky, thank (the emulator) God for save states. So my priority, in this game at least, was to get the cutscenes near perfect. And play through the game as fast as possible to get, like Neil said, that Guy Richy feeling that makes this game so good to me.

[Zombeaver]

New configs:

Burnout 3 Takedown
Rampage: Total Destruction
Shadow of Destiny
Stretch Panic
Twisted Metal: Head-On - Extra Twisted Edition

Burnout 3 isn't great. It's in software mode. That game has a lot of problems, all of which are resolved by software mode. For hardware rendering you have to, at the very least, start the race in software mode anyway and then switch to hardware otherwise the sky is just black. The game doesn't run particularly well in hardware rendering either, and there are other visual bugs.

[Zombeaver]

New configs:

Legaia 2: Duel Saga
Magna Carta: Tears of Blood
Romancing SaGa
Unlimited Saga
Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria

Valkyrie Profile 2 does have some issues - namely with bloom alignment in some areas and some areas (like the forest in the beginning) have a grid on top of the image (can be fixed by switching to software rendering). They're not too terrible but I would recommend switching to software (via F9) if the grid appears. Alternately you can just change the config to Open GL Software and you'll be set, as it doesn't seem to have any problems. The widescreen hack for the game apparently causes some bugs so I've disabled it in the config, but the game has native widescreen support and it prompts you to choose it as soon as you start the game - press square when you start to choose 16:9.

[Zombeaver]

New configs:

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age

The Return of the King is basically a green except that you have to switch to software mode (press F9) in the menus between levels because some of the text is missing otherwise, then just switch back when the level starts. Other than that it seems to be fine.

I have no idea how I've never heard of The Third Age but that game seems pretty awesome. I thought it was just another beat em up-esque game like The Two Towers and Return of the King but it's actually an RPG with turn-based combat and it really seems pretty great. I was sitting there playing it and genuinely thinking "How have I never heard or seen anything about this?" I'm definitely looking forward to playing more of that one.

[kmoney]

I don't think I have heard of The Third Age as well...looking forward to trying it out!

[Zombeaver]

It definitely took me by surprise. I went in thinking that it was just going to be another one of the beat em ups but then the first encounter started and I was like "Wait... what?". The production values are really high too, it looks really nice upscaled in PCSX2.

Apparently it was made by Visceral back when they were still called EA Redwood Shores. Seems to have flown under the radar.