User:DoctorMuerte/test2: Difference between revisions

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. Selecting your new plugin and changing its configuration may also be required.

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].

GSdx is an OpenGL '''Gabest''' which recently got greatly improved in both speed and image quality. It requires at least 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 updated in years. Still 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.

*By selecting ''"OpenGL (hardware)"'', GSdx will use the OpenGL backend. As of now is a slower and less compatible equivalent of the DirectX renderers. But it's the only option for Linux users.

*By selecting ''"OpenGL (software)"'', GSdx will use the OpenGL backend in software mode (see Direct3D (Software)).

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

'''Scaling Subsection (D3D internal resolution)'''

Only available if a Hardware Renderer has been selected above. Here you can improve the visual quality of your games by increasing the resolution at which the textures are rendered. 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). On the other hand for many games (especially for 3D ones) increasing internal resolution will improve the graphics dramatically.  

*''D3D internal resolution'': Here you can specify the exact resolution you want textures 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 resolution means more work for your video card, thus slowing down rendering process.

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

*''Scaling'': This option will simply make it possible to choose an arbitrary resolution ('''Custom Resolution'''). Or you can set it to 2x-6x so that the game's internal resolution will be multiplied by that value. For instance setting this option to '''3x''' for a game with native resolution of 640x320 will render all scenes at 1920x960 (triple of the native resolution). Using simple multiplier instead of custom resolution may prevent some upscaling bugs from manifesting. As of 2014 most of graphics cards can easily render at x2 or x3 scaling but may get a sharp speed drop at higher settings.

*''Texture filtering'': This tickbox has 3 states. Checked, grayed and unchecked.

**When checked, everything on screen both 2D and 3D will be bilinearly filtered.

**When grayed, filtering will be done as on a PS2. This is the preferred setting.

**When off, bilinear filtering is disabled completely. Lowers video quality but may help some slower graphic cards.

 

*''Logarithmic Z'': This setting may help when some of the games graphics are "see through". Can be toggled only with graphics cards that do NOT support a 32bit Z-buffer.