Setting up Windows version: Difference between revisions

This guide explains how to download, install and properly configure '''PCSX2''' in Windows. It will also give some tips on how to use PCSX2 more efficiently. Keep in mind that the guide was written for PCSX2 '''v1.2.1''' but can still be used for other versions of the emulator.

*512MB RAM (note Vista needs at least 2GB to run reliably)

 

*Windows Vista / Windows 7 (32bit or 64bit) with the latest DirectX

*CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo @ 3.2 GHz or better OR i3/i5/i7 @ 2,8 GHz or better OR AMD Phenom II @ 3,2 GHz or better

*GPU: 8800gt or better (for Direct3D10 support)

*RAM: 1GB on Linux, 2GB or more on Vista / Windows 7

You can get PCSX2 for Windows [http://pcsx2.net/download/releases/windows/viewcategory/6-windows.html here]. There are 3 versions available for download: standalone installer, web-installer and Windows binaries.

This option is recommended for advanced users. You will download the archive containing the Windows binaries. You should then unpack it in a desired location and run '''pscx2.exe'''. Start menu entries or a desktop shortcut will not be created automatically.

This is the ideal solution if you want to keep the application portable. You will need [http://www.7-zip.org/ 7-Zip] to decompress the files and the [http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/E/6/2E61CFA4-993B-4DD4-91DA-3737CD5CD6E3/vcredist_x86.exe Visual Studio 2013 redistributable package] for this version to work.

PCSX2 is a plugin oriented program. Your ''pcsx2.exe'' is the main processor that can emulate the real PS2 on the PC but it does not work alone. It needs a graphics plugin to display the game graphics and a sound plugin to play the game sounds and music, and it also needs a pad plugin to allow you to play using your keyboard, mouse or gamepad. Moreover there may be more than one plugin of each type so you can choose the one which is better suited for a particular game. All plugins are stored (by default) in the ''plugins'' folder of your main PCSX2 folder. Some plugins like ''GSdx'' for example can be updated quite often so you may want update only a chosen plugin from time to time. In order to do it you'll need to download the updated version and extract it by using the archiver into your plugins folder. Selecting your new plugin and changing its configuration may also be required.

===Graphics (GS) plugins===

GS plugins are used by PCSX2 to provide the graphical output on the screen (i.e. to render the picture). Before choosing the plugin you will need to know if your video card is pixel shaders 2.0 capable (only the very old cards before Radeon 9xxx series or the Geforce 5xxx series does not support this standard).

The default PCSX2 1.2.1 installation has three different GS plugins for you to select from (only two of the three are useful):

GSdx v0.1.16 is a DirectX 9 and DirectX 10/11 plugin by '''Gabest''' which is the most compatible and in most instances the fastest GS plugin for PCSX2. It requires at least pixel shaders 2 and SSE2 to work and Windows Vista/7/8 with a DirectX 10 compliant graphics card for DirectX10/11 mode. ZeroGS is a very old plugin which has not been updated in years. Still a very small number of games works better with this plugin, so you have an option to try it as a ''last resort''. GSnull is a null graphics plugin which will not output any kind of video. It is used for debugging purposes.

The default PCSX2 installation has GSdx in 5 versions: SSE2, SSSE3, SSE4.1, AVX and AVX2. They are in fact the same plugin compiled using different optimization instructions sets.<br />

You must use only the versions supported by your CPU otherwise the emulator may crash. The difference between these versions speed-wise is in fact minuscule and only some games are showing any improvements in speed when using more optimized version. So if you are unsure, your safe choice is the SSE2 version. Here's the order from the "slowest" version to the "fastest" one for reference:

The new AVX and AVX2 instructions give a minor speed-up '''only when GSdx works in software mode'''. These versions will not improve the speed in hardware mode.<br />

*''"OpenGL (hardware)"'': GSdx will use the OpenGL interface to render the image. Currently this mode is a slower and less compatible equivalent of the DirectX renderers but it's the only option for Linux users.

*''"Direct3D9 (null)"'', Direct3D10/11 (null)", "Null (software)" or "Null (null)": The plugin will not render anything in these modes, thus not giving any output on the screen. It's useful for debugging purposes only.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

===Pad (input) plugins===

Default PCSX2 installation allows you to select one of three PAD plugins:

#LilyPad v0.11.0

====LilyPad====

====Pokopom====

 

====SPU2-X====

===CDVD plugins===

In most cases you will only need to use the PCSX2 built-in ''ISO loader'' ('''ISO''' option in the ''CDVD'' menu, then use '''ISO Selector''' to select actual game image from the ''image history list'' or choose ''Browse...'' to select the image from disk.<br />

However, if you want to play a game from the actual DVD disk or to create a dump of an ISO file use '''Plugin''' option in the ''CDVD'' menu. It will let you use one of the PCSX2 CDVD plugins instead of ''ISO loader''.<br />

#Gigaherz's CDVD v0.8.0

 

[[image:Cdvd_Gigaherz_Settings.png|left|thumb|Gigaherz's CDVD]]

*Configuration allows you to select your DVD-ROM drive letter. This option will allow you to play directly from your PS2 DVD without dumping it to an ISO image. Put your PS2 DVD disk in the selected drive before starting emulation.  

====Linuz ISO CDVD====

*The unique feature of this plugin is that it allows you to compress and to use compressed ISO images in order to save your HDD space. It can also decompress compressed earlier ISO images.

*To compress, decompress or use an already existing ISO image click ''Select ISO'' button. Once you've selected an image you can compress or decompress it by using the corresponding button. The selected image will also be used automatically when you start emulation.

**Note that plugin has two compression modes: ''.Z'' (faster compression, bigger result size) and ''.BZ'' (slower compression, smaller result size).

*The ''Enable Block Dump=>ISO name.dump'' checkbox is used manly for debugging purposes. When checked, the plugin creates '''''ISO name'''.dump'' file in the PCSX2 folder. This file will contain every sector read during the emulation of the game. You can select this file using ''Select ISO'' button afterwards and run like any other ISO image but if the game will attempt to read a sector that was not included in the file, you will experience a hang or the emulator will crash.

 

 

 

At this moment, there are no official or unofficial working Firewire plugins for PCSX2. The included plugin ''FWnull v0.7.0'' is a stub akin to Dev9 and USB plugin stubs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This page will allow you to select different folders to store [[Savestate|savestates]], snapshots or system logs. Uncheck the ''Use default setting'' checkbox to be able to choose the required folder.

==EE/IOP==

EE/IOP tab stands for ''Emotion Engine / Input Output Processor'' which are the core components of the Playstation 2. The tab contains 4 settings.

*''Emotion Engine'': Enables or disables ''recompiler'' (i.e. the program that translates the native PS2 code into the native x86 code, instead of slowly interpret each PS2 command) for PS2 ''Emotion Engine'' (EE) processor emulation. ''Interpreter'' mode disables the recompiler making the emulation painfully slow. ''Recompiler'' mode is extremely compatible, so the ''interpreter'' mode shouldn't be used for anything but debugging purposes.

==VUs==

GS stands for ''Graphics Synthesizer'' Playstation 2 co-processor responsible for rendering the graphics (but is also used by some games for additional calculations and other purposes). The PCSX2 will work in conjunction with the selected GS plugin (like for ex. [[#GSdx|GSdx]] plugin) to emulate PS2 graphical co-processor and convert its output into input understood by the PC video cards.

*''Framelimiter'': The options in this group can be used to control the frame rate of your games in various ways.

#''Disable Framelimiting'': With this option enabled the frame rate will only be limited by the power of your PC. It will '''not''' however increase the game performance in case the game runs slow. This option may be useful when you want to skip some repetitious sections of the game. You can toggle it while playing by pressing ''F4''.

#''Base Framerate Adjust'': This option will allow you to adjust the base framerate for your games by a percentage. The emulator will limit the game frame rate by the base NTSC (59.94 FPS) or PAL (50 FPS) constants. Frame rate will be increased or decreased according to this value. Again, this option will not speed up the slow game it may only limit the frame rate of a game performing faster than needed on your PC.

#''Slow Motion Adjust'' and ''Turbo Adjust'': PCSX2 has two additional frame rate modes that you can freely switch to while playing a game. ''Slow Motion'' mode can be switched (on and off) by using ''Shift-Tab'' and ''Turbo'' mode be switched by just using ''Tab'' key.  

*''Frame Skipping'': Frame skipping is a technique which tells the emulator to refrain from drawing some frames making it possible to increase the perceived game performance when the normal game speed can't be achieved by other means. PS2 internal design (the way GS processor's output and communications are implemented) does not allow for the precise frame skipping. Although this feature may help some slow games to work smoother, it will inevitably cause stuttering, flashing or other abnormal behavior in other games, so use it with cation and do not forget to disable it when you're about to switch to another game. Frame skipping can be toggled while ingame by pressing ''Shift + F4''. The following frame skipping modes are available:

#''Disabled'': This option will have frame skipping disabled (you can still enable it by the mentioned ''Shift + F4'' combination)

#''Skip when on Turbo only'': This option will enable the feature automatically in ''Turbo'' mode (see above, use ''Tab'' to toggle the turbo mode while ingame)

#''Constant Skipping'': This allows the frame skipping to be enabled by default.

#''Frames to Draw'' and ''Frames to Skip'': These boxes allow to adjust the frame skipping mechanism to your liking. You can specify how many frames will be drawn before skipping (''Frames to Draw'') and how many frames will be skipped prior to start drawing again (''Frames to Skip''). Default values are ''2'' and ''2''.

*''Aspect Ratio'': You can select the window aspect ratio (shape) here. If you have a widescreen (16:9) monitor you may want to remove the left and right black bars to get a better experience. Unfortunately many games do not natively support wide screen aspect ratio and selecting it here will cause the image to stretch which may not be a desirable side effect. Some games however may be helped to support 16:9 resolution by special ''widescreen patches'' made by the community. If the game neither have the native 16:9 support nor the patch to overcome this your only options are to play it with 4:3 aspect ratio with black bars or bear with image stretching whichever option is the best for you. You can choose ''Standard (4:3)'', ''Widescreen (16:9)'' or ''Fit to Window/Screen'' here. In the latter case image will always be stretched.

*If you have downloaded widescreen patch (a file with ''pnach'' extension) you should place it into '''cheats_ws''' folder of your PCSX2. This way you will be able to enable cheats and widescreen patches (essentially cheats as well) separately for any game. To enable patches from '''cheats_ws''' folder select ''Enabled Widescreen Patches'' item in ''System'' sub-menu of PCSX2 main menu

*''Custom window size'': This option lets your define the GS window size in pixels. Note that this does not affect the game's rendered resolution, image quality or speed in any way. Your game sessions will always start with the window size you have selected here.

*''Zoom'': This option will zoom in or out the rendering image (around the central point). It may help in certain situations (decrease black bars for instance by zooming them out of the view). You can also use this feature while in game by pressing ''Ctrl'' and '' numpad +'' to zoom in, ''Ctrl'' and ''numpad -'' to zoom out and ''Ctrl'' and ''numpad <nowiki>*</nowiki>'' to reset zoom too 100%.

*''Disable window resize border'': This option will remove the black bars used as resizing padding from the GS window.

*''Wait for vsync on refresh'': When checked, PCSX2 will use [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_television#Vertical_synchronization ''vertical synchronization''] when drawing frames. ''Vsync'' can reduce image tearing but will also greatly reduce actual FPS. This option will only apply to ''fullscreen'' mode and may not work with all GS plugins.

*''Simulate VIF1 FIF read ahead'': Can help games which load slow (for ex. [[Test Drive Unlimited]] or [[Transformers]])

*''Ignore Bus Direction on Path 3 Transfer'': Fixes [[Hot Wheels: Beat That!|Hot Wheels]].

*'''CDVD menu''' contains options for PCSX2 internal ISO loader.

**''Emulation Settings'': Please refer to [[#Emulation Settings (Core configuration)|Emulation Settings]]. [[image:MemcardManager.png|300px|thumb|right|The Memory Card manager]]

**''Memory cards'': Will open the [[Memcard|memcard]] manager able to manipulate your virtual memcards:

***''Eject'' button is available when you select one of the two ''active'' memcards. ''Ejecting'' memcard will not delete its contents it will only make the card inactive disallow PS2 games to use it in any way. To ''insert'' card in one of two available virtual card slots, select a disabled card, press ''Insert'' button and choose a virtual port to insert your card to (any memcard already in this port will be automatically ''ejected'' and disabled).

***To ''create'' a new card you can select '''<nowiki>[-- Unused cards --]</nowiki>''' slot and press ''Create'' button. You will need to specify your new card's name and size ('''8Mb''' is a recommended option because some older games will not be able to use large memory cards). ''Use NTFS file compression'' will create a file with NTFS ''compress'' flag (it will save some of your HDD space but considering the midget card size by today's standards it will not make any noticeable difference).