Setting up Windows version: Difference between revisions

[[image:PCSX2 Installer 1.png|400px|thumb|left|Click to enlarge]]

*''bios'': This is where you should place the BIOS file of your PS2, PCSX2 will look for it here by default.

*''cheats'': Cheats will be stored and read from here. Cheats are the files with .pnach extension.

{{Tip|Remember that savestates made with a certain version of PSCX2 won't be compatible with other versions of the emulator.

'''Save your game's progress on your memory card before updating PCSX2!'''.}}

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[[image:PCSX2 Installer 2.png|400px|thumb|left|Click to enlarge]]

===Web installer===

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On its first run the emulator is going to create the folders mentioned in ''Standalone Installer'' section.

=Running PCSX2 for the first time=

[[image:PCSX2_Wizard_1.png|400px|thumb|left|Click to enlarge]]

Here you can also specify a different folder for your plugins if you want, by unchecking the ''use default setting'' checkbox and selecting a folder of your choice by clicking ''Browse''. ''Open in Explorer'' button will simply open a file explorer window in the folder you have specified.

To finish the configuration process press ''Finish'' button. You will be taken to the main GUI (Graphical User Interface) of PCSX2:

The plugin configuration page will look like this (see the picture on the left).

===Graphics (GS) plugins===

First, you will want to check what version of pixel shaders and DirectX (on Windows) your graphic card supports. You can do that [http://www.gpureview.com/videocards.php here].

*''Enable Shade Boost'': By checking this a new set of options will become available to you via the settings button at the right. Click settings to adjust saturation, brightness and contrast to your liking for the video output of GSdx. You can click the reset button on the lower left to set the sliders to their initial positions.

*''Enable FX Shader'': Since version 1.2.0, PCSX2 is able to use [[external shader]] programs to add various effects and visual improvements. By default, PCSX2 comes with 4 simple scanline shaders (which you can cycle through while running a game by pressing F7). For a huge set of shader effects which include UHQ FXAA, Bilinear FS Filtering, Bicubic FS Filtering, Gaussian FS Filtering, High Quality Blended Bloom, Per-Channel Gamma Correction, Scene Tone Mapping, RGB Colour Correction, S-Curve Contrast Enhancement, Texture, Sharpening, Pixel Vibrance, Post-Complement Colour Grading, Cel Shading, Scanline Emulation, Vignette and Subpixel Dithering you can download Asmodean's shader file from our forum [http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-Custom-Shaders-for-GSdx?pid=334766#pid334766 HERE]. Open the zip file and extract the PCSX2Fx_Settings.txt and shader.fx files in the same directory with ''pcsx2.exe''. You can change the settings of the shader by opening the PCSX2Fx_Settings.txt and following the included instructions and finally saving the file with your changes. Use with caution as setting huge values here can have an enormous impact on speed. Note that '''you can use external shaders even with a GSdx (software) renderer,''' which is the best way to get higher visual quality with this rendering mode.  

#''None'': Audio will skip if you set this mode and you don't get max speed with the game you're running. Small FPS boost.

#*''Advanced'': Here you can fine tune how your selected time stretcher will work. As described in the GUI, larger values are better if you are not getting good speeds while the opposite is true if you're running your game above full speed. Pressing ''Reset to Defaults'' will set all values here back in their initial setting.

'''Audio Expansion mode''': Here you can choose if you want the audio produced from the plugin to be expanded to your whole speaker configuration and not just in 2 channels (stereo). Only usable with the XAudio2 module.

#''Stereo'': Default setting, no audio expansion when this is selected.

#''Surround 7.1'': Will expand audio to 7.1 surround speakers

#*''Use a Winamp DSP plugin'': If you don't know what this is, leave it be. (Not available in Linux at the moment.)

====ZeroSPU2====

*''Mute'': Will mute sound, giving a bit of extra speed.

===Pad===

Here you will be able to use 3 plugin:

#Lilypad v0.11.0,  

*For a very detailed description about what each setting does and how to properly configure it, visit the official thread of the plugin [http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-LilyPad-0-10-0 here].

====Pokopom====

[[image:Pokopom_Settings.jpg|thumb|left|Pokopom]]

Go to Config =>Plugin/BIOS, select ''Pokopom 2.1.0'' and press the Configure button.

*For a very detailed description about what each setting does and how to properly configure it, visit the official thread of the plugin [http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-Pokopom-KrossX-s-Pad-Plugin here] and check the Wiki for it [https://code.google.com/p/magical-tools/wiki/Pokopom here].

====SSSPSX====

[[image:SSSPSX_Settings.png|thumb|left|SSSPSX]]

Go to Config =>Plugin/BIOS, select ''SSSPSX Pad v1.7.1'' and press the Configure button.

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{{Tip|This is the only plugin that at least partially supports disc changing. If you have troubles changing a disc that is required by a game try this plugin!}}

====Linuz Iso CDVD====

[[image:LinuzIso_Config.png|left|thumb|Linuz Iso CDVD]]

Select Linuz Iso CDVD v0.9.0 and hit configure.

*Under ''Compression Method'' you can select either ".Z - compress faster", which will compress your image faster but make it larger or ".BZ - compress better", which will compress your image slowly but make it smaller.

*Under ''Options'' you can check/uncheck ''Enable Block Dump=>ISO name.dump''. When checked, this option will create a "ISO name".dump file in the PCSX2 root folder(where ''pcsx2.exe'' is located) from the game you ran. This file is like a small iso, '''which is mainly used for debugging'''. It will store the sectors read during the execution of the game you ran, so afterwards you will be able to load the file(using "select iso" of Linuz Iso CDVD) and run it without any image/cd/dvd. Note that if the game will try to read any other sectors from the ones not included in the dump file, it will obviously stop responding.

====CDVD Null====

This is a Null plugin just like GSnull, meaning it simply does nothing.  

<br />It doesn't have a configuration screen for obvious reasons.

[[image:Folder_selector.png|400px|caption|left]]

Here you can change the folders where some of the files that PCSX2 creates will be stored at. By unchecking ''Use default setting'' you can click the ''Browse'' button to find a folder of your choice where PCSX2 will store: Save states, snapshots and logs/dumps respectively.

=Core configuration=

Next are the Core PCSX2 settings which can be found under Config => Emulation settings. You'll see a window like this (click to enlarge):

==EE/IOP==

EE/IOP stands for ''Emotion Engine / Input Output Processor'' which are the core components of the Playstation 2. Below we'll describe the settings available to us:

[[file:EE-IOP.png|300px|thumb|right]]

*''Clamping mode'': These settings go from '''faster''' to '''slower''' from top to bottom. So 'None' is the fastest but least compatible and 'Full' is the slowest but most compatible. Default value here is ''Normal'' which works fine for most games without compromising speed much. Automatically changed when ''Automatic Gamefixes'' is checked under System for some games known to need a different value than default.

*''Restore Defaults'': Click this to restore all settings to their default values (which are seen as Bold in Vista/Windows 7 or colored green in Windows XP).

==VUs==

VUs stands for Vector Units which are the co-processors of the Playstation 2 working in parallel with the EE and IOP. The Playstation 2 has 2 of these co-processors called ''VU0'' and ''VU1''. Below we'll describe the settings available to us:

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{{Tip|If you experience spikey polygons or bad geometry, try setting ''Clamping mode'' to '''Extra + Preserve Sign'''.}}

==GS==

GS stands for Graphics Synthesizer which is responsible for rendering the graphics of the Playstation 2 (among other things).  

<br />Below we'll describe the settings available to us:

<br />'''Shift + F4''' Enables frame skipping.

}}

==GS Window==

Here you will be able to control various aspects of the video output of PCSX2. Below we'll describe the settings available to us:

{{Tip|For more information regarding Widescreen, please check:

Widescreen Game Patches post [http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-How-do-you-enable-turbo-mode-in-the-emulator-and-how-to-get-frame-skipping-to-work this here].}}

==Speed Hacks==

Speed hacks are various techniques used to speed up emulation at the cost of emulating accuracy. All of these options <span style="color: red">can and will cause severe bugs, crashes and other abnormal behavior so use them with caution!</span>.

<br />Also note that these affect certain games only, so you might not get any speed up depending on the game. Below we'll describe the settings available to us:

***''MTVU (Multi-Threaded microVU1)'': Check this to use a third core for emulating the ''VU1'' unit of the PS2. This speed hack provides a '''large''' speed boost for processors''' with 3 cores or more''', while having extremely high compatibility (causes problems only in a handful of games). Note that some games might not get a good speed increase (depends how much they use the VU1 unit). There are also reports of speed boosts even on dual core processors.

*''Restore defaults'': Click this to restore all settings to their default values (which actually disables all hacks in this tab).

==Game fixes==

As the name implies, these are special game fixes for some games which for some reason emulating them requires something special. Note that the team has no intention of keeping hacks for specific games, these are there temporarily until a proper fix is found so they can be removed. Many of these are automatically applied when ''Automatic Gamefixes'' is checked under System.

*''Ignore Bus Direction on Path 3 Transfer'': Fixes '''Hotwheels'''.

*''Switch to GSdx software rendering when an FMV plays'': With this checked, ''GSdx'' will automatically switch to a software renderer when it detects a video playing and back to hardware when it's done. More of a convenience setting than a hack, it is very useful considering the number of games that have issues with videos on hardware renderers of GSdx.

==Presets==

Starting from 0.9.8, the preset system was introduced. In short this is a system to help users who want a quick and easy configuration of PCSX2. When ''Presets'' is checked (located at the bottom of all 6 tabs we have described until now), all of the options in these tabs will be grayed out since the Preset system will be changing them instead of you. Here are the preset levels (from slowest and most compatible to fastest and less compatible):

#''Safest'': As the name implies it is the safest preset in terms of compatibility. Compared to the other levels it is the most compatible and the slowest too.

**Select any memcard in the -Unused- list to enable the Insert button, which will bring out a dialog for you to choose in which port you want to insert the selected memcard.

**Auto-Eject Memcards when loading save states: Description is in the GUI, recommended to be checked.

*''Plugin/BIOS selector'': Will open the Plugin/BIOS selector screen where you can change plugins, BIOS used and folders which we described at the start of this guide.

The follwing entries will open the configuration screen for the selected plugin, respectively (Video/Audio/Pad/Dev9/USB/Firewire).

*''Multitap 2'': Will enable Multitap 2. You also have to enable multitap in the Lilypad input plugin for it to work. Does not work with all games yet, but most should be fine.

*''Clear all Settings'': Will clear all saved settings restoring them to defaults and opens the First Time Configuration Wizard.

'''Misc menu'''

*''Check/Uncheck Show Console'': This will enable/disable a second window that will appear behind the PCSX2 display and is mainly used for debugging. There you will be able to see various messages that can help you identify a problem or when running a game what is being done each moment by the emulator. Red messages are errors and yellow messages are warnings.