PS3 PS2_softemu viability

Gavin Archer

Gavin Archer

Member
Hey there, as I understand it the ps2_softemu is quite unstable and only works with about 10% of games. Well, if I wanted to use one of those games (ntsc-j ape escape 3). Would it, well... Work? It would really help before I proceed with the process of downgrading or simply settle with the ps2_netemu and it's downloaded version. This is a very specific use case and only needed for one game.
 
Gavin Archer said:
Hey there, as I understand it the ps2_softemu is quite unstable and only works with about 10% of games. Well, if I wanted to use one of those games (ntsc-j ape escape 3). Would it, well... Work? It would really help before I proceed with the process of downgrading or simply settle with the ps2_netemu and it's downloaded version. This is a very specific use case and only needed for one game.
Click to expand...

The same thing happens with the PS1 emulator. Most games work well with ps1_netemu (which is not set by default in webManMOD but can be changed in the options), while certain games work better with ps1_emu.

As far as I know, it's all trial and error as there isn't a list of tested PS2 games, on which console they were runned, with which emulator, and with which PS2 config.

Fortunately, there is a PS2 Classics compatibility list on the dev wiki, check it out: https://www.psdevwiki.com/ps3/PS2_Classics_Emulator_Compatibility_List

EDIT: I'll add this comment from @Naked_Snake1995:

Naked_Snake1995 said:
There is one for 3.55,but i advise to stay away from PS2SoftEmu, that Emulator SELF its a prototype version of the GX_Emu.self without any PlayStation2 Hardware, not only the Emulation its broken and riddled with bugs, not even a handful of games will boot, framerate is beyond poor, and controllers constantly lose sync or won't sync at all, its a prototype internal testing Emulator, and its only accessible in Factory Service Mode,totally not worth the try, stay with the PS2Net_Emu and be grateful
emoji106.png
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Hm, you have a good point there. I have noticed that the config for ape escape 3 from the soft emu works perfectly when used as the config for net emu versions, but I figure the only added bonus is the ability for it to read the disc directly, albeit within a recovery mode on an old version. But just to confirm before I go about the process of trial and error, it would indeed read the disc and appear like a PS2 disc would on a bc model?
 
Is there a specific reason you are wanting to use softemu compared to netemu? Saru Getchu 3 was released officially on the PS Store and is fully compatible. Softemu will more than likely have incredible performance issues paired with the accuracy issues that netemu's config fixes.
 
My mistake, just saw your first reply.

To make your decision a bit easier, here are some gameplay videos of softemu: https://www.psx-place.com/posts/280169/

Saru Getchu 3 will most likely see similar performance to these (in addition to graphical glitches and other abnormalities). The softemu config worked fine on netemu…since it was used on netemu.

But yes, the game will be read and show up on the XMB like a bc model. If you are willing to try it, go for it, but don't expect performance equal to netemu by any means. :)
 
I see. For some extremely odd reason when someone mentioned a very low compatibility I had assumed these specific games were used as test builds around the emulator, similar to how super Mario 64 always run well on N64 emulators because that's the main game developers build around. If performance is quite bad like that, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to try, but as an experiment only as I'll just end up with the net emu. Thanks!
 
Gavin Archer said:
I see. For some extremely odd reason when someone mentioned a very low compatibility I had assumed these specific games were used as test builds around the emulator, similar to how super Mario 64 always run well on N64 emulators because that's the main game developers build around. If performance is quite bad like that, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to try, but as an experiment only as I'll just end up with the net emu. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Is mostly the result of how they was working, for the sony software developer team that wrote the ps2 emus all them are the same "project"... in the sense that all them have a huge amount of source code in common, but some of them can be considered "forks" of the others
Even the PS1 emus, and the PS2 emus included in the PS4 firmware have things in common with the PS2 emus shipped with the PS3 firmware

In the PS3 chronology the order is ps2emu ---> ps2gxemu ---> ps2softemu ---> ps2netemu

The first time they made a fork (gxemu) is because the hardware engineers removed the EE cores (the CPU of the PS2)... so in gxemu they added the EE rmulation

In softemu is pretty much the same story, but they removed GS (the GPU of the PS2). This is the first version of the PS2 emulator that does the emulation 100% by software
The problem at that point was the internal software design of softemu was inheriting many design details from the previos versions. The most important problem was how the workload was "ballanced" in between the CELL cores (1 main core with 2 threads + 7 SPU threads), it can be seen very well in this table
https://www.psdevwiki.com/ps3/PS2_Emulation#PS2_emulators_workload_comparison

In the practise... netemu is the first time the sony directives allowed the software developers to "redesign" a PS2 emulator running 100% by software from scratch
The performance of netemu in comparison with softemu improved a lot, just because the redesign of the workload assignments
And i guess they implemented a lot of new ideas they was afraid to implement before (the kind of small optimizations here and there) because there are some games that required a config in gxemu or softemu but in netemu works fine without it
 
Old thread but is there an easy way to actually switch into softemu? I can't seem to get the bloody thing to work no matter what.
 
I couldn't find any ps2_softemu.self in 4.01, i'll try 3.72.

Update found it in 3.72 :
softemu in Firmware 3.72 uses v1.90 usa bios, labeled as console so i'm guessing it's based off retail rather than a devkit?.
netemu in Firmware 4.92 uses v2.20 japan bios, labeled as developer.

Testing the bios in pcsx2 the softemu has both a browser & memory card manager included unlike the netemu bios,
the browser being v1.40
& cdplayer 2.00
the PS1DRV is also earlier v1.11
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Back
Top