Former DuckStation developer Stenzek is on a roll adding features to PlayStation 2 emulator PCSX2. After adding a Vulkan renderer in January and texture dumping/replacement support last month, Stenzek has now made it so that PCSX2 will automatically apply the correct settings to a game for the optimal experience. Since emulation can be finicky, sometimes tweaks are needed to make a game run correctly. Up until now, users would have to look up the fixes on the PCSX2 wiki and apply them manually; now, those settings will be stored in PCSX2's GameDatabase and be applied automatically when launching a game.

Stenzek has updated settings for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and both God of War games, but says the rest of the settings will need to be filled in by the community. It's worth noting that while the GameDB is community-supported, pull requests still need to be approved by the PCSX2 team on GitHub, meaning that fixes will be verified and tested before being applied automatically. This also means that PCSX2 will not download the best setting for a game; they will be pre-packaged along with the app in the new nightly builds, so if your game isn't running correctly, you may need to check the new nightly builds to see if someone has updated the GameDB with the correct settings for your game.

Originally posted as a pull request nine days ago, this feature has just been merged into development build v1.7.2436.

Source

 

[RichardTheKing]

It requires a Bios. There have been attempts in the past to HLE the bios and the emulator *Play* uses one, but they are not.. very good. Pandubz on the Discord put it this way:



So, it would be a massive undertaking in the first place and need additional, special code for a lot of individual games.

That's...unfortunate, as I have no clue how to go about dumping the BIOS from my PS2 slim (if it still works, that is), and I'm pretty sure asking for a BIOS download is against 'temp rules.
Dammit Sony...

 

[64bitmodels]

That's...unfortunate, as I have no clue how to go about dumping the BIOS from my PS2 slim (if it still works, that is), and I'm pretty sure asking for a BIOS download is against 'temp rules.
Dammit Sony...

it's as simple as typing ps2 bios into google bro, not exactly the biggest deal out there

 

[Zeze]

That's...unfortunate, as I have no clue how to go about dumping the BIOS from my PS2 slim (if it still works, that is), and I'm pretty sure asking for a BIOS download is against 'temp rules.
Dammit Sony...

If only there would be an archive on the internet that has that type of stuff

 

[Gronbar]

PCSX2 alongside with Dolphin are one of the best emulators, great news.

 

[Zeze]

hopefully the next update involves making the emulation accuarte to the point where game toggles and hardware fixes arent needed. glad to see this progress though

Not going to happen due to how the PS2 works, at least on the hardware renderers. And it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with accuracy.

For a large part, because when Sony developed the PS2's gpu thingy (The GS) they managed to go wildly against the grain of how GPU's would develop . That's why for example Upscaling (which in itself is a hack) needs so many hacks in comparison to other emulators.

There's other stuff that can't be easily emulated on modern hardware. Or not at all, even. For example: PCSX2 has exaggerated Z-Fighting issues compared to the PS2. That's not because the code isn't accurate, but because modern GPU's simply are less precise than the PS2's GS is.

Then there's other fixes PCSX2 has, that are technically more accurate, but would result in a substantial performance hit or even regressions when activated globally.

It will get better long term, but don't expect hardware fixes to go away.

 

[Cris1997XX]

Took long enough.

That Gendo profile picture is so fitting lmfao

Greedy ungrateful smartass

 

[the_randomizer]

People who are bitching about PCSX2 not being good are armchair programmers who never did anything worthwhile.

 

[mightymuffy]

Another excellent update! I mean, I was happy enough just with Vulkan support, but the good stuff just keeps on coming... thank you Stenzek and the team!

 

[Nynrah]

I've always wondered... what is it about PlayStation 2 emulation that different games require different settings? I know that for N64 emulation this was explained by games having different microcodes, but for PS2 this was never clear to me.

 

[darkxex]

Stenzek is a Dev Machine

 

[AndorfRequissa]

i wish three was an easier way to update or an easy way to find that there is even an update. The github pages to me are a complete mess and while all this stuff sounds cool finding it and being able to use it is to me the biggest problem.

A self update feature in the app would be awesome. Or even a webpage that has a link to the latest download installer for x86, x64, etc. i got to these github releases and they have files that all are named in greek to most people. I have no clue what I need to download or run to get the latest pcsx2 versoin. if they could fix this issue that woule be awesome.

 

[Spider_Man]

Thats cool, maybe now the fb groups will stop the idiots posting, why doesn't xxx game run smoothly and never occurs to them to post their specs.

But what is this vulkan renderer I see emulators are having, but doesn't seem to work if I select it such as retroarch or other emus on my laptop which is a gaming laptop with a okay nvidia graphic card.

 

[Zeze]

i wish three was an easier way to update or an easy way to find that there is even an update. The github pages to me are a complete mess and while all this stuff sounds cool finding it and being able to use it is to me the biggest problem.

A self update feature in the app would be awesome. Or even a webpage that has a link to the latest download installer for x86, x64, etc. i got to these github releases and they have files that all are named in greek to most people. I have no clue what I need to download or run to get the latest pcsx2 versoin. if they could fix this issue that woule be awesome.

As said on the previous page an auto-updater will come with the new UI.

Until then, this would be the page you're looking for.

https://pcsx2.github.io/downloads.html

Download the AVX2 version.

 

[AndorfRequissa]

As said on the previous page an auto-updater will come with the new UI.

Until then, this would be the page you're looking for.

https://pcsx2.github.io/downloads.html

Download the AVX2 version.

thank you very much. most the times the problems are on the users ends like in this case. just needed some simplicity to make the user expierence easier which makes it alot better.

the download link was exactly what I needed thanks again.

 

[XXLANCEXX]

I would love MVG to cover this more in depth but this is really cool

 

[player594]

Auto update would be a great feature.

 

[HinaNaru Cutie]

View attachment 301594​

Former DuckStation developer Stenzek is on a roll adding features to PlayStation 2 emulator PCSX2. After adding a Vulkan renderer in January and texture dumping/replacement support last month, Stenzek has now made it so that PCSX2 will automatically apply the correct settings to a game for the optimal experience. Since emulation can be finicky, sometimes tweaks are needed to make a game run correctly. Up until now, users would have to look up the fixes on the PCSX2 wiki and apply them manually; now, those settings will be stored in PCSX2's GameDatabase and be applied automatically when launching a game.

Stenzek has updated settings for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and both God of War games, but says the rest of the settings will need to be filled in by the community. It's worth noting that while the GameDB is community-supported, pull requests still need to be approved by the PCSX2 team on GitHub, meaning that fixes will be verified and tested before being applied automatically. This also means that PCSX2 will not download the best setting for a game; they will be pre-packaged along with the app in the new nightly builds, so if your game isn't running correctly, you may need to check the new nightly builds to see if someone has updated the GameDB with the correct settings for your game.

Originally posted as a pull request nine days ago, this feature has just been merged into development build v1.7.2436.

Source

Oh wow I never knew of a ps2 emulator being made at all..I assumed it would take like more years to release since..from what I noticed on my end no PlayStation emulator has really gotten out..like um ps3 to ps4 emulator - I know the ps4 is still kind of new-ish but I just am surprised it didn't get an emulator drop like the switch or wii to gamecube..it surprised me is all.

Now I wanna know is it like fully developed in a sense I can test out any ps2 games or do i need to wait??

 

[urbanman2004]

Oh wow I never knew of a ps2 emulator being made at all..I assumed it would take like more years to release since..from what I noticed on my end no PlayStation emulator has really gotten out..like um ps3 to ps4 emulator - I know the ps4 is still kind of new-ish but I just am surprised it didn't get an emulator drop like the switch or wii to gamecube..it surprised me is all.

Now I wanna know is it like fully developed in a sense I can test out any ps2 games or do i need to wait??

Dafuq, have you been living under a rock? PCSX2, the PS2 emulator has been in active development since 2002, but a majority of games have been playable on it since 2010. Not sure if you heard, but there's a new and competent PS2 emulator for Android called AetherSX2 which has had an initial beta release this past Dec from what I recall.

 

[emilin_rose]

this is awesome

 

[Zeze]

Dafuq, have you been living under a rock? PCSX2, the PS2 emulator has been in active development since 2002, but a majority of games have been playable on it since 2010. Not sure if you heard, but there's a new and competent PS2 emulator for Android called AetherSX2 which has had an initial beta release this past Dec from what I recall.

Aether is a modified fork of PCSX2. They share code too between each other when reasonable (Aether for example can load custom textures too (though doesn't support dumping).

Though, funnily enough, as the whole trademark thing with Daemon looms over Aether they can't name PCSX2 by name.