GSdx

GSDX is the most known graphics plugin for PCSX2 initially developed by Gabest (although he still is the main contributor to it's development as of now). GSDX uses DirectX and is currently able to utilize DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 APIs. Also it can switch between hardware rendering and software one. Some of many of the impressive features of GSDX are high rendering resolution, anti-aliasing filtering, many deinterlacing modes, full screen mode, correctable aspect ratio, et cetera. DirectX 10 mode is confirmed by many to be the most compatible mode (in contrast with DirectX 9) but some game will still be working better under DirectX 9. You can find the official thread of GSDX here.

Quick guide to the settings

Hardware vs Software
DX9 vs DX10
DirectX updates
All GUI GSDX settings
Hidden settings in ini file

List of ingame keys

The information on hotkeys usable by GSDX are scarse and hard to find. All shortcuts listed here are accessible at any time whenever the emulater game is running.

• F5 -- cycle-switches through interlacing modes. Those mode are useful when you're playing NTSC games or game have some "lining" artifacts. On the real PS2 those "artifacts" are used to present the picture in the most smooth way possible. But they're quite moticable bothersome when you play your game on PC. This option tries to help to solve the problem but some cases are still incurable. If you like to read more on deinterlacing, try Wikipedia article. Some modes can slightly decrease performance while the others can blur the whole picture. Use them only when it's necessary. The cycle contain the following modes:
  • None -- no deinterlacing is applied (default)
  • Weave tff
  • Weave bff
  • Bob tff
  • Bob bff
  • Blend tff
  • Blend bff

• F6 -- cycles through different spect ratios. Includes 4x3, 16x9 and "stretch to screen".

• F7 -- (?) some kind of deinterlace mode, please add info here

• F8 -- takes the screenshot of the current screen. Screenshots are taken in the current rendering resolution (not the resolution of your GSDX window) and stored in snaps folder of your PCSX2.

• F9 -- switches from the hi-res rendering into native resolution (which is rather small 512x448 for NTSC-U). The native resolution can be used to avoid some severe graphics glitches occured in some games in video or special sequences when they are rendered in high resolutions (for example in 1024x768). Some 2D objects can also suffer from wrong rendering in hi-res modes. You can switch runtime to native resolution finish the critical game section and switch back to hi-res.