Hotkeys

This article lists the keyboard shortcuts available to PCSX2 and provides information on how to change them.

Introduction

Keyboard shortcuts (or hotkeys) allow for quick access to some emulator features. For example, shortcuts can be used to save/load states, remove FPS limit or test different interlacing modes.

Note: Some of these hotkeys (such as F6 and F9), although not GSdx-specific, will not work with other GS plugins.

Hotkey list

Hotkey	Action
F1	Saves savestate in the current slot.
F2	Changes current savestate slot (Press Shift + F2 to cycle through slots backwards).
F3	Loads savestate from the current slot (Shift + F3 loads from backup slot. Backup savestate will contain the last overwritten savestate so you have a last chance to restore your game when you accidentally overwrite it or the written state appears to be corrupted).
F4	Toggles frame limiter mode.
Shift + F4	Toggles frame skipping mode.
F6	Cycles through aspect ratio modes (stretch, 4:3 and 16:9).
F8 Shift + F8 Ctrl + Shift + F8	Takes screenshot in the current rendering resolution (not the actual resized resolution of the GS window). Screenshot are saved in snaps folder.
F9	Toggles hardware/software renderer. Switching from hardware rendering to software rendering (which is always in native resolution) can be done to avoid some severe graphics glitches occurring in some games in video or special sequences; or when the hardware render has bugs.
F10	Toggles the logging.
F12	Starts/stops video capture of the GS window. Note that lossless or uncompressed video may produce a VERY large file so your HDD must have enough free space to contain it. An audio capture file "recording.wav" may also be created along with the video. This is done by SPU2-X; which will record the audio simultaneously with your GS plugin. If you simply wish to capture audio - you can use Audacity to record while the emulator is running - simply configure it to accept audio input from "stereo mix".
Tab	Toggles turbo mode.
Shift + Tab	Toggles slow motion mode.
Alt + Enter	Toggles fullscreen mode.
ESC	Pauses the emulation.
Ctrl + numpad +	Zooms into the GS window.
Ctrl + numpad -	Zoom out of the GS window.
Ctrl + numpad *	Resets the zoom on the GS window and otherwise toggles between automatic cropping of black borders and not cropping.

These shortcuts change the vertical zoom of the image (stretching it):

Hotkey	Action
Ctrl + Alt numpad +	Stretches the image vertically.
Ctrl + Alt numpad -	Squishes the image vertically.
Ctrl + Alt numpad *	Resets the vertical image resolution.

These shortcuts move the whole image inside the GS window:

Hotkeys	Action
Ctrl + Alt + Up	Moves the image up.
Ctrl + Alt + Down	Moves the image down.
Ctrl + Alt + Left	Moves the image left.
Ctrl + Alt + Right	Moves the image right.
Ctrl + Alt + numpad /	Re-centers the image.

GSdx-specific combinations

Hotkey	Action
F5	Cycles through GS plugin's de-interlacing modes.
F7	Cycles through "pixel geometry" modes activating different shaders (there are 4 different shaders and the default mode).
Insert	Toggles mipmapping (Full, Half, Off)
Home	Toggles external shaders.
Page Up	Toggles FXAA mode.
Page Down	Cycles through dithering modes (Only works in hardware renderers for some games).
Delete	Toggles software anti-aliasing (AA1).

Editing Keyboard shortcuts

PCSX2 supports overriding the default hotkeys by using a custom ini file PCSX2_keys.ini which should be placed in PCSX2 inis folder. PCSX2 comes with a pre-configured PCSX2_keys.ini.default file. In order to use it, just remove the .default file extension and place it into the inis folder. Then you are free to customize any of the keys you would like.

This file must contain entries of the following format: Function name=Keys combination

The following function names are supported:

• States_FreezeCurrentSlot
• States_DefrostCurrentSlot
• States_DefrostCurrentSlotBackup
• States_CycleSlotForward
• States_CycleSlotBackward

---

• Frameskip_Toggle
• Framelimiter_TurboToggle
• Framelimiter_SlomoToggle
• Framelimiter_MasterToggle

---

• FullscreenToggle

---

• Sys_Suspend
• Sys_TakeSnapshot
• Sys_RenderswitchToggle
• Sys_LoggingToggle
• Sys_FreezeGS
• Sys_RecordingToggle

---

• GSwindow_CycleAspectRatio
• GSwindow_ZoomIn
• GSwindow_ZoomOut
• GSwindow_ZoomToggle
• GSwindow_ZoomInY
• GSwindow_ZoomOutY
• GSwindow_ZoomResetY
• GSwindow_OffsetYminus
• GSwindow_OffsetYplus
• GSwindow_OffsetXminus
• GSwindow_OffsetXplus
• GSwindow_OffsetReset

A keys combination may begin with special keys alt-, ctrl- or shift- that can be stacked together and is followed by the actual key name.

The list of supported special key names are as follows:

• DEL
• DELETE
• BACK
• INS
• INSERT
• ENTER
• RETURN
• PGUP
• PGDN
• LEFT
• RIGHT
• UP
• DOWN
• HOME
• END
• SPACE
• TAB
• ESC
• ESCAPE
• CANCEL
• CLEAR
• MENU
• PAUSE
• CAPITAL
• SELECT
• PRINT
• EXECUTE
• SNAPSHOT
• HELP
• ADD
• SEPARATOR
• SUBTRACT
• DECIMAL
• DIVIDE
• NUM_LOCK
• SCROLL_LOCK
• PAGEUP
• PAGEDOWN
• KP_SPACE
• KP_TAB
• KP_ENTER
• KP_HOME
• KP_LEFT
• KP_UP
• KP_RIGHT
• KP_DOWN
• KP_PRIOR
• KP_PAGEUP
• KP_NEXT
• KP_PAGEDOWN
• KP_END
• KP_BEGIN
• KP_INSERT
• KP_DELETE
• KP_EQUAL
• KP_MULTIPLY
• KP_ADD
• KP_SEPARATOR
• KP_SUBTRACT
• KP_DECIMAL
• KP_DIVIDE
• WINDOWS_LEFT
• WINDOWS_RIGHT
• WINDOWS_MENU
• COMMAND
• F0 - F12
• KP_0 - KP_9
• SPECIAL1 - SPECIAL20

Note that KP_x are the number keys in the keypad/numpad. The normal letter and number keys also work, even though some of them (e.g. ']') may not display correctly at the log console message.

Some examples:

• FullscreenToggle = Alt-Ctrl-F12
• GSwindow_CycleAspectRatio = KP_0