PCSX2: Difference between revisions

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'''PCSX2''' is a [[Playstation 2]] emulator for Windows and Linux. It was started by the team behind PCSX (PS1 emulator) back in 2002. Development remains mostly active through all these years. The emulator achieved some playable speeds only by mid-2007 and the later versions have improved speed and compatibility making it both the ultimate solution for PS2 emulation and the instrument to keep and preserve the PS2 legacy in the modern world. Though not yet perfect the program can successfully emulate most commercial PS2 games at playable speeds and good visuals (often better than the original PS2).
'''PCSX2''' is a [[Playstation 2]] emulator for Windows and Linux. It was started by the team behind PCSX (an emulator for the original PlayStation) back in 2002, and as of late 2011 development is still active. The emulator achieved playable speeds only by mid-2007 and subsequent versions have improved speed and compatibility making it both the ultimate solution for PS2 emulation and the instrument to keep and preserve the PS2 legacy in the modern world. Though not yet perfect the program can successfully emulate most commercial PS2 games at playable speeds and good visuals (often better than the original PS2).


The emulator uses plugin architecture making it possible to expand its capabilities by installing additional plugins. Although the plugins are numbered and unlikely to increase their quantity in the near future the plugin approach is still solid - it's possible to change to new updated versions of the plugins without changing the version of the main program and vice versa. As of late 2010 the program runs on both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows OSes and uses no more than 2 cores on multicore CPUs (1 core is used for the main emulation purposes and the second is for plugins' purposes like rendering graphics, output sounds or PAD works). While the increase of number of useful cores may happen in the future it still remains unknown when this will happen because the division of the general emulation thread into two or more is a very hard and complex task - the original PS2 hardware has multiple CPUs and the correct timing between emulated CPUs is complicated enough without further dividing every CPU into more than one thread.
The emulator uses plugin architecture making it possible to expand its capabilities by installing additional plugins. Although the plugins are numbered and unlikely to increase their quantity in the near future the plugin approach is still solid - it's possible to change to new updated versions of the plugins without changing the version of the main program and vice versa. As of late 2010 the program runs on both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows OSes and uses no more than 2 cores on multicore CPUs (1 core is used for the main emulation purposes and the second is for plugins' purposes like rendering graphics, output sounds or PAD works). While the increase of number of useful cores may happen in the future it still remains unknown when this will happen because the division of the general emulation thread into two or more is a very hard and complex task - the original PS2 hardware has multiple CPUs and the correct timing between emulated CPUs is complicated enough without further dividing every CPU into more than one thread.
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===Hardware and Software===
===Hardware and Software===
Harware requirements are very game-dependant although it must be noted that the bottleneck of this emulator in most cases is the CPU rather than than the GPU (video card). Therefore a faster CPU should net you better PCSX2 performance. Some games however can be slowed down because of unoptimized GFX code or even because of weak GPU cards (for example [[Final Fantasy XII]] is said to use your GPU fully). Intel CPUs are better than AMD ones with PCSX2 although both can run the emulator.
Harware requirements are very game-dependant although it must be noted that the bottleneck of this emulator in most cases is the CPU rather than than the GPU (video card): basically, a faster CPU should net you better PCSX2 performance. Some games however can be slowed down because of unoptimized GFX code or even because of weak GPU cards (for example [[Final Fantasy XII]] is said to use your GPU fully). Intel CPUs perform better than AMD ones although both can run the emulator.


Even though CPU frequency is one of the main factors for smooth PCSX2 execution, this speed is not the determining meter of success with PCSX2. Newer CPUs perform better than the old ones using the same frequency. You can easily outperform Intel Pentium CPU with Intel Core CPU because of improvements in architecture in Intel Cores.
Even though CPU frequency is one of the main factors for smooth PCSX2 execution, this speed is not the determining meter of success with PCSX2. Newer CPUs perform better than the old ones using the same frequency. You can easily outperform Intel Pentium CPU with Intel Core CPU because of improvements in architecture in Intel Cores.
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PCSX2 project is currently using Google SVN repository. All the source files stored there in public domain (you can access them anytime). When a developer changes anything in the code he can synchronize (commit) his changes with the main online repository thus changing its contents. Each change automatically receives the number and can be commented, seconded or rejected by other developers or users. These numbers are called revisions. The repository works the way that you can restore all source files on your hard drive at any time for the certain revision number so no changes will ever be lost. Thus this numbers like 1736 or 1888 mean that the source files of this executable were from the 1736 revision or 1888 revision. The greater the revision number on your executable the newer the file is.
PCSX2 project is currently using Google SVN repository. All the source files stored there in public domain (you can access them anytime). When a developer changes anything in the code he can synchronize (commit) his changes with the main online repository thus changing its contents. Each change automatically receives the number and can be commented, seconded or rejected by other developers or users. These numbers are called revisions. The repository works the way that you can restore all source files on your hard drive at any time for the certain revision number so no changes will ever be lost. Thus this numbers like 1736 or 1888 mean that the source files of this executable were from the 1736 revision or 1888 revision. The greater the revision number on your executable the newer the file is.


As of January 2011, the latest available public build is '''r3878'''.
As of October 2011, the latest available public build is '''r4600'''.


==Setting up PCSX2 guides==
==Setting up PCSX2 guides==
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