PS1/2 Whats better OPL or HDLoader

[TheMrIron2]

On top of comments about USB 1.1 on PS2, it is important to note that the PS2 cannot reach maximum USB 1.1 speeds via its interface - the I/O processor is the primary bottleneck of all the PS2 interfaces - with the sole exception of FireWire, where a hardware byteswap (which can't be disabled.. yet?) is slaughtering the speeds on the order of ~6x slower than it should be, though even this could be blamed on the IOP as the IOP is the processor doing the byte swap...

Regardless, HDLoader is archaic. OPL is still actively maintained with very good compatibility and settings that can be refined to fix any problematic games (unless the complaint is loading times on, say, USB). HDLoader's straight to HDD dump feature is useful, but really that's the extent of its use case in 2019. And as mentioned, yes, absolutely use daily builds. Countless new features such as FireWire support and a HD GUI added, along with under-the-hood improvements.

EDIT: One very important thing about SMB.. you can't play online while loading games via SMB which is a deal breaker for some games for me. COD 3 and MGO are still great fun to play online although the latter especially often needs premeditated organising to get a game going.

 

[Immortallix]

Recently got a PS2 for the first time ever and wasted no time setting up games on an HDD and getting freemcboot, but with the exception of games straight up not launching, HDLoader works way better for me.
Most of the games I've tried on OPL (latest nightly too) still have stuttering, and not just FMVs, in game stutter. The games that HDL do run, do so flawlessly for me. As long as a game works on HDL, it's my preferred way to go.

 

[Foxi4]

Recently got a PS2 for the first time ever and wasted no time setting up games on an HDD and getting freemcboot, but with the exception of games straight up not launching, HDLoader works way better for me.
Most of the games I've tried on OPL (latest nightly too) still have stuttering, and not just FMVs, in game stutter. The games that HDL do run, do so flawlessly for me. As long as a game works on HDL, it's my preferred way to go.

How are you loading them in OPL? I have never experienced any stutter over SMB, and I've tested it extensively. It's also not always a great idea to run the nightly, if you have issues you should run the latest stable.

 

[Immortallix]

How are you loading them in OPL? I have never experienced any stutter over SMB, and I've tested it extensively. It's also not always a great idea to run the nightly, if you have issues you should run the latest stable.

Had the same issues with last stable, I left all the actual loading settings default, only configured display settings. All my games are on a SATA HDD (the stock 160GB hitachi that's in the PS3 slim), I don't have any way of doing SMB.

 

[Foxi4]

Had the same issues with last stable, I left all the actual loading settings default, only configured display settings. All my games are on a SATA HDD (the stock 160GB hitachi that's in the PS3 slim), I don't have any way of doing SMB.

Ah, that explains it. HDD loading is a bit spotty on OPL, HD Loader does tend to be better for that.

 

[Zaphod77]

hdd loading works fine for me with OPL. i can even disable the spindown for games that don't play nice with it, like tetris new century. i've never seen that stutter from internal harddrive.

I did have issues with rhythm games like dance dance revolution max, they jumped and skipped like crazy on OPL, but that may be fixed now.

 

[Foxi4]

hdd loading works fine for me with OPL. i can even disable the spindown for games that don't play nice with it, like tetris new century. i've never seen that stutter from internal harddrive.

I did have issues with rhythm games like dance dance revolution max, they jumped and skipped like crazy on OPL, but that may be fixed now.

Compatibility on any loader will be hit and miss depending on what hardware it's running on, this includes Sony's own loader on the PS3. Both OPL and HD Loader are designed to run on original PS2 hardware on which, in my experience, they work perfectly. On the PS3 the situation is complicated since, depending on the model, it might be running on real hardware, some of the real hardware or a software emulation layer. PS2 Netemu is far from perfect and a lot of its functionality is firmware version dependent.

 

[Alexander1970]

Hello.

Last weekend I got the PlayStation 2 back to work again after a LONG time of inactivity (~2 Years).The only "issue" is always getting back into the "Software".

I do not say OPL is better.As mentioned by @Foxi4 and @Zaphod77
if it works then near perfect.But I ONLY use IDE HDD´s (120 - 300 GB) with the ORIGINAL SONY HDD Adaptor.Maybe it depends on that.
The following games are mainly played:

- Guitar Hero (Original and Modified)
- Rockband
- BUZZ games
- Racing (Formula 1/Grand Turismo/Need for Speed)
They work without any issues.And I love that VMC save on HDD feature.

Thank you.

 

[uyjulian]

The code to OPL is open source, so it's much easier to fix than HDLoader. Too bad it's pretty hard and frustrating to debug either software without a IOP serial cable or a DTL-T.

Stutter from internal harddrive is a really odd problem. Check the SMART status of that hard drive.

 

[Foxi4]

The code to OPL is open source, so it's much easier to fix than HDLoader. Too bad it's pretty hard and frustrating to debug either software without a IOP serial cable or a DTL-T.

Stutter from internal harddrive is a really odd problem. Check the SMART status of that hard drive.

Yeah, it pretty much shouldn't happen, there's no reason why it would. On USB it's a common occurrence since the transfer rate is capped, but there should be no slowdown over ATA/SATA or Ethernet, those are fast enough to handle it.

 

[Immortallix]

The code to OPL is open source, so it's much easier to fix than HDLoader. Too bad it's pretty hard and frustrating to debug either software without a IOP serial cable or a DTL-T.

Stutter from internal harddrive is a really odd problem. Check the SMART status of that hard drive.

Would that really explain OPL stuttering in a game when HDLoader doesn't?

 

[uyjulian]

Would that really explain OPL stuttering in a game when HDLoader doesn't?

Does the issue still occur with another HDD?

 

[Immortallix]

Does the issue still occur with another HDD?

I don't have another to test atm.

 

[uyjulian]

I don't have another to test atm.

Post here once you do

 

[DinohScene]

I've got HDLoader and OPL on me PS2.
HDLoader for the majority of the games and OPL for the ones that have issues.