User:DoctorMuerte/test2: Difference between revisions

In this guide we will try to explain how to download, install and properly configure '''PCSX2 1.2.1''' on a Windows environment, and also give some tips for running games. The latest version of the guide is to be found on [http://forums.pcsx2.net/Forum-English-Guide the official forum.]

There is also a [http://wiki.pcsx2.net/index.php/Setting_up_Linux_version Linux] and a [http://wiki.pcsx2.net/index.php/Setting_up_Mac_version Mac] version of this guide.

PCSX2 is a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_2 Playstation 2] emulator capable of running commercial games. It's an open source proyect and runs on Windos, Mac and Linux. Like its predecessor project PCSX (a PlayStation emulator), is based on a PSEmu Pro spec plug-in architecture, separating several functions from the core emulator. PCSX2 requires a copy of the PS2 BIOS, which is not available for download from the developers, due to the copyright concerns and legal issues associated with it.

===Bios===

You will need the BIOS file from your Playstation 2 console. This is not included with PCSX2 since it is a Sony copyright so you have to get it from your console.  

These are the minimum system requirements to run PCSX2, bear in mind most games will be unplayable slow:

===Recomended requirements===

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.

===Standalone Installer===

This will download the installer for the latest stable version of PCSX2. After opening it, you will be able to select the installation options.

 

 

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

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After clicking the ''Install'' button, the emulator is going to be installed to the chosen location. The installer is also going to create the following folders under the user's My Documents folder (those folders can be set to a different location anytime you want, find out how [http://wiki.pcsx2.net/index.php?title=User:DoctorMuerte/test1&action=submit#Folders_tab here]):

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

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

*''inis'': This folder is responsible to hold the configuration files for the emulator. You can make PSCX2 load different configurations for each game creating a shortcut to pcsx2.exe and using [http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-blog-The-return-of-the-Commandline?pid=118520#pid118520 command line arguments].

*''sstates'': [http://wiki.pcsx2.net/index.php/Savestate Savestates] are stored here.

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

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===Web installer===

The web installer follows the same procedure than the standalone installer, but it downloads the installation files after the user presses the ''Install'' button.

This option download the folder containing the Windows binaries. Just unpack it at the desired location and run '''pscx2.exe'''. This option will not create Start menu entries or a desktop shortcut.

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

=Running PCSX2 for the first time=

PCSX2 has a first time configuration wizard to help you configure it easier so we'll first go through that. PCSX2 will automatically store all settings, memcards and new files generated in general in your Documents folder if you used the installers, or in the same folder ''pcsx2.exe'' is located at if you used the binary version.

In the first dropdown, simply select the language you want the program to be in.

In the second screen you will be able to choose which plugins you want to use. The default plugins are the ones with the higher compatibility and usually fastest too, so before changing them make sure you know what you're doing.

In the third screen, you will be prompted to select your BIOS image from the list. If you can't see anything on this list, you need to either copy your BIOS files in the folder seen below, or change that folder to point to where you have your BIOS image saved. For more information about the BIOS, check the BIOS configuration section of this guide. If you can't make a selection, you will not be able to use PCSX2. Click Finish to end the First Time Configuration Wizard.

This is the main GUI (Graphical User Interface) of PCSX2:

From Config => Plugin/BIOS, you can change the settings or plugins used by PCSX2 as you see fit.

=The Component Selector=

<br />When you open '''Config => Plugins/Bios'', the The Component Selector will open. There are 3 tabs, Plugins, BIOS and Folders.

<br />We will start with configuring our plugins then we will move onto Core settings configuration.

=Plugin configuration=

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 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 may choose 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 to renew only this plugin (out of all plugins). In order to do it you'll need to download the updated version and extract it by using the archiver into your plugins folder. The changing of some settings (choosing your new plugin) may also be required.

Go to Config => Plugin/BIOS selector, select to select and configure the plugins PCSX2 will use.

 

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==Graphics==

For the time being you will be able to use 3 GS plugins:

GSdx v0.1.16 is a DirectX 9 and DirectX 10/11 plugin by '''Gabest''' which recently got greatly improved in both speed and image quality. It requires pixel shaders 2 and SSE2 to work and Vista/Windows 7/8 with a DirectX 10 compliant graphics card for the DirectX10/11 mode. ZeroGS is a very old plugin which has not been developed in years. A very small number of games works better with this plugin than with GSdx, you can try it as a '''last resort'''. GSnull is, as the name suggests, a null graphics plugin which will not output any kind of video. It is used for debugging purposes.

===GSdx===

First of all, GSdx comes in 5 versions: SSE2, SSSE3, SSE4.1, AVX and AVX2.

<br />'''Only IF''' your processor supports these instruction sets, use highest version you can, since it will be faster for you in this order from slowest to fastest:  

The new AVX and AVX2 instructions give a minor speed up '''only with the software renderers of GSdx and not the hardware ones.'''

Note: AMD users do '''NOT''' mistake SSE3 with SSSE3 (1 extra S) and SSE4A with SSE4.1, they are totally different and are '''NOT''' supported. In this case use the SSE2 flavor.

You can also use [http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html CPU-Z] to find out your processor's supported

instruction set.}}

To use the DirectX10/11 mode, you will have to be running '''Windows Vista''' or '''Windows 7/8 with a DirectX10/11''' compliant graphics card [http://www.gpureview.com/videocards.php (check previous link)]. DirectX10 and DirectX11 modes of GSdx for the time being are '''exactly the same''' in both terms of speed and compatibility. The only difference is that you will only see the first if your graphics card supports up to DirectX10 and only the second if your graphics card supports up to DirectX11.

<br />Here you can select which graphics adapter GSdx will use.

Very useful for computers which have a dedicated graphics card and an onboard graphics chip, so the user can select the much faster dedicated graphics card explicitly.

<br />Here you can choose how the graphics will be rendered.

 

*By selecting ''"Direct3D10/11 (Hardware)"'' '''(only selectable in Vista/Windows 7 with DX10/11 graphics card)''', GSdx will use its Direct3D10/11 mode which is usually the fastest mode and sometimes even more compatible as well. '''Highly recommended''' if your system supports it.

 

*By selecting ''"Direct3D9/10/11 (Software)"'', GSdx will use its built-in software renderer, which will not use your graphics card at all, but your processor instead. This way the emulation speed is greatly reduced but you get maximum compatibility. Recommended if you encounter graphics bugs with the Direct3D (Hardware) renderer.

 

*By selecting ''"OpenGL (hardware)"'', GSdx will use the OpenGL backend, which at this time is a slower equivalent of the DirectX renderers, with the same or worse compatibility. It's the best option for Linux users.

 

* By selecting ''"OpenGL (software)"'', GSdx will use the OpenGL backend in software mode, with the same characteristics as described above.

 

*By selecting ''"Direct3D9 (null)"'', Direct3D10/11 (null)", "Null (software)" or "Null (null)" the plugin will simply not render anything, thus not giving any output on screen. Use it only if you want to e.g. Hear some music since with this mode you get a dramatic speed increase.

<br />Here you are able to choose between None, Auto and 6 other interlacing techniques, which are used to remove the "shaking" of the display. '''We recommend leaving this to Auto for most games.'''

In parentheses, you can see what kind of effect and maybe disadvantage (e.g. like the half FPS note in blend) each one of these modes have.

'''Scaling Subsection'''

Only available if a Hardware Renderer has been selected above. Here you can tweak various settings to improve the visual quality of your games by increasing the resolution the textures are rendered at or applying filtering. Do keep in mind that changing the native resolution of games can cause various glitches (from the usual very minor glitches to more serious ones in rare cases).

*''D3D internal resolution'': Here you can specify the exact resolution you want resources to be rendered at!This way, if your PC is powerful enough (mainly your graphics card), you can play your favorite ps2 games in much higher resolutions making the graphics crisp and more detailed.Note that the higher the resolution, the more resources the plugin will have to use, thus making emulation much slower.

*''Original PS2 Resolution - Native'': If you check this box, the plugin will render in the native resolution of the ps2 (that is why Custom Resolution and Scaling get grayed out)

*''Scaling'': Set it to Custom to use whatever you set in the setting below (Custom Resolution). Setting it to 2x-6x will multiply the game's internal resolution by that value and render it. So if a game's native resolution is 640x320, setting this to 3x will render it at 1920x960 (triple of the native resolution). This way some upscaling bugs are prevented which would be present if you set a Custom Resolution in the boxes below.At this time most games and graphic cards can do x2 or x3 scaling fine but get a sharp speed drop at higher settings.

 

*''Custom Resolution'': When Scaling is set to custom, you can input here whatever resolution you want the game to be rendered at.

*''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 FXAA'': By enabling this GSdx will apply the FXAA anti-aliasing algorithm to improve the visual quality of your games with a usually minor speed hit. You can toggle FXAA on and off by pressing the PageUp key.</div>

*''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.  

{{Tip|You can toggle the use of external shaders on and off by pressing the '''Home''' button while running a game.

===ZeroGS===

===GSnull Plugin===

==Sound==

===SPU2-X===

===ZeroSPU2===

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==Pad==

===Lilypad===

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===Pokopom===

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===SSSPSX===

==CDVD==

===Gigaherz's CDVD===

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===Linuz Iso CDVD===

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===CDVD Null===

==Dev9==

==USB==

==Firewire==

=Bios=

=Folders=

 

 

 

 

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

[[image:VUs.png|300px|thumb|left]]

[[image:GS.png|300px||thumb|left]]

[[image:GSWindow.png|300px|thumb|left]]

[[image:Speedhacks.png|300px|thumb|left]]

[[image:GameFixes.png|300px|thumb|left]]

*''Memory cards'': Will open the memcard manager:

*A list of other usefull guides on this wiki can be found [http://wiki.pcsx2.net/index.php/Category:Guides here]

*Information about compiling and developement can be found [http://forums.pcsx2.net/Forum-Developer-Discussion here]

<br />Thanks to '''Gigaherz''' for pointing out how to make the index work with Firefox on the [http://pcsx2.net/config-guide/official-english-pcsx2-configuration-guide.html web version].