PS3 Compatibility List - PS2 on PS3

[cha0shacker]

I mean you would have to figure out and automate the injection. After that you can basically use the netemu configs (just without speed hacks as speed is usually fine in gxemu). IIRC configs basically work the same in gxemu and netemu.
It's just weird having games being less glitchy in netemu vs gxemu.
Black is my favorite example of that. It runs slow in netemu but at least you don't get stuck or teleported and the memory card bug isn't there.
I asked EvilNat if he can look into config injection for gxemu in addition to temperature support. He did say he'll look into it for cobra integration if possible.
If that doesn't work and we need a tool for injection we may ask aldostools since he has done all those other amazing tools for PS3 firmware and homebrew stuff.

Hell i wish i had the knowledge and capabilities to do it myself, but my programming skills are very limited and i definitely lack the talent, so i sadly have to rely on others.

 

[qawsed]

I mean you would have to figure out and automate the injection. After that you can basically use the netemu configs (just without speed hacks as speed is usually fine in gxemu). IIRC configs basically work the same in gxemu and netemu.
It's just weird having games being less glitchy in netemu vs gxemu.
Black is my favorite example of that. It runs slow in netemu but at least you don't get stuck or teleported and the memory card bug isn't there.
I asked EvilNat if he can look into config injection for gxemu in addition to temperature support. He did say he'll look into it for cobra integration if possible.
If that doesn't work and we need a tool for injection we may ask aldostools since he has done all those other amazing tools for PS3 firmware and homebrew stuff.

Hell i wish i had the knowledge and capabilities to do it myself, but my programming skills are very limited and i definitely lack the talent, so i sadly have to rely on others.

We could make a bounty to ask devs to implement the features we want, or to finally port a decent ps1 emulator on the console that allow high definition rendering, 60 fps patch, z buffer and fpu calculation, texture replacing, texture filtering, true color rendering (maybe also 8mb ram as devkit to allow some fantastic patch like the one on gran turismo to increase draw distance).. damn we really need that, the official ps1 emu run games as if we are in 1996.

We have gpu acceleration and dynarec, we also have source code of ps1 emu for power pc (pcsx ported to nintendo wii) and ps3sx and mednafed ported a base for the project (i have already tried to ask here https://www.psx-place.com/threads/wii-station-ps3-port.40376 but no dev seems interested)

 

[cha0shacker]

We could make a bounty to ask devs to implement the features we want, or to finally port a decent ps1 emulator on the console that allow high definition rendering, 60 fps patch, z buffer and fpu calculation, texture replacing, texture filtering, true color rendering (maybe also 8mb ram as devkit to allow some fantastic patch like the one on gran turismo to increase draw distance).. damn we really need that, the official ps1 emu run games as if we are in 1996.

We have gpu acceleration and dynarec, we also have source code of ps1 emu for power pc (pcsx ported to nintendo wii) and ps3sx as a base for the project (i have already tried to ask here https://www.psx-place.com/threads/wii-station-ps3-port.40376 but no dev seems interested)

I feel like nobody is interested because that would be a lot of work for only slight improvements over the original emu and a lot of work being involved. We already have a PS1 emulator on the console with nearly perfect compatibility, upscaling, smoothing and disc support.
Porting another emulator that will most likely involve multiple months of debugging and ongoing support. Making or even just porting an emulator is hard work and especially to such an alien architecture like the PS3.

As for a tool that you basically have to develop and debug once, that sounds at least in my mind much more realistic. I still don't expect it to be easy but a manageable amount of work.

-decrypt emulator self
-inject configs with correct offsets
-encrypt again

Developing the configs specifically for gxemu would be another matter, but that doesn't have to be done by the dev that develops that tool.
That would be a community effort again.
But i would definitely pay money to have such a tool developed.
I currently try to get reliable data on current gxemu compatibility and combine that in a somewhat readable table. Including current issues and if an official config is currently present.

 

[Alonso240]

Would it be possible to modify gxemu to read from external configurations like netemu does?

 

[cha0shacker]

Would it be possible to modify gxemu to read from external configurations like netemu does?

I asked Nathan (@Evilnat) about this. He said he'll take a look, in addition to temperature support the emu.

That makes me wonder if it could even be possible to fix the few games that don't run correctly in ps2_emu. But then that emulator uses a completely different config format.

In the meantime i just play Burnout 2 in ps2_netemu so the graphics are correct.

 

[mrjaredbeta]

@cha0shacker You are able to just patch the ISO directly to fix Burnout, Black, Twinsanity, others. A lot of configs are just memory patches similar to PCSX2 pnach format. Of course you will not be able to use your actual disc and will have to use ISO, but it will at least get you able to use gxemu with working graphics.

 

[aldostools]

@cha0shacker You are able to just patch the ISO directly to fix Burnout, Black, Twinsanity, others. A lot of configs are just memory patches similar to PCSX2 pnach format. Of course you will not be able to use your actual disc and will have to use ISO, but it will at least get you able to use gxemu with working graphics.

As anyway he would need to use an ISO, wouldn't it be easier to play these games with ps2_netemu?

 

[cha0shacker]

As anyway he would need to use an ISO, wouldn't it be easier to play these games with ps2_netemu?

The framerate in netemu isn't as good and you get missing visual effects, loose the 1080p output. Also the lack of mipmapping is really noticeable in the burnout games.

Since i just come from a PS3 slim, i can tell you that the difference is pretty big. Gxemu also seems to use a different smoothing algorithm.

Also: 480p to 1080p upscaling with smoothing looks pretty good, even compared to a PS2 with a RetroTink 5x

 

[mrjaredbeta]

1080p could potentially be added to netemu at some point. How does gxemu look in comparison to netemu's 720p? Have you tried running gxemu in 720p to compare? All games are still rendered at their native resolution, so I wouldn't think the difference would be too drastic, but I could be wrong.

 

[cha0shacker]

1080p could potentially be added to netemu at some point. How does gxemu look in comparison to netemu's 720p? Have you tried running gxemu in 720p to compare? All games are still rendered at their native resolution, so I wouldn't think the difference would be too drastic, but I could be wrong.

Maybe it's mainly the mipmapping and the upscale but the difference from the smoothing algorithm is definitely there. Need to check both at 720p later.
Something that is also there is that some vertices are still slightly warping when standing still. Something about the math accuracy of the GS. Something that doesn't happen in netemu.
I wish i could do screenshots.
I do compare both against a real PS2 (Fat 30004R) with a RetroTink 5X attached. That still looks a bit better but gxemu comes really close especially in progressive scan games, which funnily enough is something that ps2_emu can't do. Scaling 480p games to 1080p that is.

EDIT:
So all three at 720p with smoothing on and Burnout 3 running in 480p.

-ps2_gxemu: Picture is noticeably less blurry, the game loads faster and online / lan is supported. Game runs basically without frame drops.
-ps2_netemu: picture is very blurry with smoothing on, initial load is slower, online / lan is greyed out in the main menu. Game runs with a couple of frame drops but nothing major. Image looks a lot grainier and flickery. But i can see my temperature ingame and the PS3 menu is slightly transparent compared to ps2_gxemu but i cannot change memory cards ingame.
-PS2 with a RetroTink 5x: picture is very sharp, the colours look better, loading is a tiny bit faster compared to ps2_gxemu. But the nice AA from ps2_gxemu is missing.
I still prefer that look though.

@mrjaredbeta The difference is definitely noticeable. It looks like netemu is using a simple full screen blur while gxemu uses something that looks similar to the filter the PS4 uses for it's PS2 games. I still wish i had my capture card. Then i could show you the difference

 

[mrjaredbeta]

Got it, thanks for testing! I never use smoothing because of the blurriness, and it also affects performance in some games. These days, prefer normal upscaling and no smoothing for the cleanest image on netemu.

 

[cha0shacker]

Got it, thanks for testing! I never use smoothing because of the blurriness, and it also affects performance in some games. These days, prefer normal upscaling and no smoothing for the cleanest image on netemu.

On ps2_netemu i totally get that. Looks just like someone smeared vasiline over my screen.

On ps2_gxemu i kinda don't want to play without it honestly, because it doesn't cause excessive blurriness and the framerate is unaffected. That gxemu kinda looks the best of all 3 emulators is mentioned in a lot of YouTube comparison videos. Mystic talks about it too in his CECHE backwards compatibility video.

I always use normal scaling with PS2 games. Widescreen is just anamorphic anyway and can look weird sometimes. In addition earlier games just cut of the top and bottom to get widescreen, which drastically decreases your field of view. I'd rather play with black bars. On my OLED it just looks like it's meant to look like this anyway.

 

[mrjaredbeta]

Gauntlet: Dark Legacy (SLUS-20047, SLES-50211, SLPM-62125)

3D 00 00 00 57 44 00 00 15 00 00 00 04 00 00 00

Fixes random hangs at the end of levels. Only tested the first level a few times and seems to be good now, but may need some more testing.


Gene Troopers (SLES-53644)

3D 00 00 00 57 44 00 00 0A 00 00 00 01 00 00 00
F0 89 37 00 4E 00 A0 12 4E 00 00 10

Fixes random freezes during opening FMVs.

 

[qawsed]

Hello @mrjaredbeta just a question, how many more games you think will become playable with config files?

I saw on psdev wiki that (i know that "a game that was released in 3 regions: PAL-EU, NTSC-U/C, NTSC-J and was reported as {{playable}} in the 3 regions counts as 3 units in the playable counter"):

• 2221 games (official psn config + unofficial config) are perfectly playable
• 319 have minor issues
• 84 have major issues
• 39 are not playable

Are we nearing the end of config files or are there other ways to improve ps2 emulation? (Im thinking about @zecoxao cpu overclock for example - i know that cpu overclock has problems with gameos and ps3 games, but as ps2 netemu unloads gameos there could be, maybe, a workaround to use the cpu overclock just for ps2 emulation)

Is there a chance to improve the patches that disable some effects to improve performances?

Thank you

 

[mrjaredbeta]

It is difficult to say when configs will be "done." There are still a ton of games that I have not looked at that are on the compatibility list, and there are also hundreds of games that have yet to be tested. I would not say configs are close to being done yet, but you never know. I thought at 100 "unplayables" we were done with configs. Then at 80, then at 60. Now it is under 40, and the number of unplayable games are still decreasing, so I just really don't know. There will probably be a point when we all just kinda give up.

There is not really any way to improve the configs that disable effects as that is sort of where the bottleneck lies. $ony also did it for some of the officially released games as well (Dark Cloud, Cookie & Cream). I also wouldn't count on some sort of CPU overclock to be the answer that netemu needs.

I would say this: play the games that you want to play. They are probably playable in some capacity at this point. At the end of the day, it is not about how many games are left that need to be playable, it is about playing the game and having fun...something that I sometimes forget to do when I am testing these games.

 

[cha0shacker]

CPU overclock? Did i miss some major breakthrough?

The weirdest thing about the communities effort with configs around ps2_netemu is that the games end up with less visual glitches than in ps2_gxemu because we can't inject configs in an easy fashion into that emulator (yet). There are even games that don't work at all in ps2_gxemu but boot in ps2_netemu.

 

[mrjaredbeta]

It is not so weird. Netemu is more widely accessible than gxemu, and slims are a lot more reliable that BC models. I did have a CECHA at one point, but it YLOD'd on me out of nowhere…probably due to capacitors as temps were fine. Tried to fix it, gave up…now here we are.

It would be nice to have a CECHC/E model, but I will most likely never get one, and I think that is the case for most people.

 

[cha0shacker]

Random YOLDs on 90nm fat models is not that surprising given that NVidia GPUs at that time all had a production defect that causes them to die much faster. I should mention that ATI GPUs had these problems as well.
That's why transplanting 40nm RSX chips onto these old COK boards is now a thing.
Maybe my model still lives because i have a bin 1 RSX instead of a bin 2.
Or it's just because it has just 70 days of usage.

 

[cha0shacker]

C models are still around here in Europe given that they were the launch models so all launch day customers have one. It was also the only choice for me to play my old physical PAL library. Sadly i don't have the memory card adapter to get my Gran Turismo 4 save over to the PS3. I will have to fiddle with FreeMCBoot, uLaunchELF and PSV converter again to get that done. I always felt that instead of 3 card readers on the first gen models they could have put at least one memory card slot there. Would have at least been better than 3 randomly chosen card readers.
The memory card adapter goes for 200€ on eBay here.

If i had more money currently i would get each of you main devs a CECHC model as a donation. I would refurb them completely and then send one of them to each of you.
I don't even know if Nathan has one to test ps2_gxemu modifications.

 

[qawsed]

It is difficult to say when configs will be "done." There are still a ton of games that I have not looked at that are on the compatibility list, and there are also hundreds of games that have yet to be tested. I would not say configs are close to being done yet, but you never know. I thought at 100 "unplayables" we were done with configs. Then at 80, then at 60. Now it is under 40, and the number of unplayable games are still decreasing, so I just really don't know. There will probably be a point when we all just kinda give up.

There is not really any way to improve the configs that disable effects as that is sort of where the bottleneck lies. $ony also did it for some of the officially released games as well (Dark Cloud, Cookie & Cream). I also wouldn't count on some sort of CPU overclock to be the answer that netemu needs.

I would say this: play the games that you want to play. They are probably playable in some capacity at this point. At the end of the day, it is not about how many games are left that need to be playable, it is about playing the game and having fun...something that I sometimes forget to do when I am testing these games.

The fact its just that i love how you and other devs have improved the ps3 over time: we have a very good ps2 software emulator and even gpu overclock that increase fps in almost every ps3 game.

Anyway i already have played a lot of ps2 games on my ps3 slim, but never finished scarface (because of poor performances even with config) and crash twinsanity (because its too difficult and save points are pretty rare - if i could choose a feature to add to to ps2 netemu it would be savestate).

The others games i played (crash the warth of cortex, gta vice city, gta san andreas, crash nitro kart and a few others) worked perfectly, never had a problem or a freeze.

CPU overclock? Did i miss some major breakthrough?

The weirdest thing about the communities effort with configs around ps2_netemu is that the games end up with less visual glitches than in ps2_gxemu because we can't inject configs in an easy fashion into that emulator (yet). There are even games that don't work at all in ps2_gxemu but boot in ps2_netemu.

About cpu overclock u should ask zecoxao for a better explanation, anyway he already overclocked the decr cpu to 4.8 ghz, the console boot but the xmb is not shown, while there are differences in order to overclock cex cpu.

anyway even if we had fully working cpu oc, we may not have performace improvements in ps2 emulation (the emulator may even work worse or dont work at all - look at xbox cpu upgrade (faster clock): a faster cpu has prolems with almost every game and only homebrew, developed with that support in mind, can use correctly the faster cpu - same thing that happend for xbox upgraded ram where homebrew must have support for more ram in the source code).
Also cpu clock its not the only important thing, there could be others bottleneck that may make cpu overclock useless.

Anyway this could be the only option to improve ps2 emulation as gpu overclock doesnt make differences (as Agrippa said).

Maybe thanks to gpu overclock devs could take the ps2 gxemu upscaling filters (that are done on rsx) and port it over ps2 net emu