The PlayStation 2 emulation scene has just seen the arrival of a new surprise contender. AetherSX2 is a PS2 emulator that runs on Android devices, and is set to release relatively soon. It comes from a new developer named Tahlreth, and while very little is known about the history of how AetherSX2 came to be, certain YouTubers have been given a alpha build of the emulator to show off the performance of PlayStation 2 games. Titles like Devil May Cry, Shadow of the Colossus, God of War, and Final Fantasy X are shown off, even running at fairly smooth framerates. The emulator is said to perform best when used with phones that have Snapdragon SoCs, and has wide compatibility with the PS2's library.

A beta build is planned for release sometime soon, where users will be able to get it from the Google Play Store and test it out, prior to a full launch.

Source

What is it?​

AetherSX2 is an emulator of the Sony PlayStation 2(TM) / PS2(TM) console for the Android platform. You can play games which you have dumped from disc on your portable device.

What are the requirements?​

The PS2(TM) is an extremely complex piece of hardware, with many very powerful components, even for today. You need a high end device to achieve good performance.

We recommend at least a Snapdragon 845-equivalent device. This means 4 large cores (Cortex-A75 level). If you only have two big cores (e.g. Snapdragon 700 series SoCs, you should not enable multi-threaded VU, and performance will suffer as a result). Devices with Mali or PowerVR GPUs will run the app, but performance will be much lower than Adreno GPUs, and the Vulkan renderer will not be available. This is because they are missing a critical feature (dual-source blending).

If you want to use the app on a slower device, you can try it, but games will run slow, especially heavier titles. You can try underclocking the CPU by setting the cycle rate to a negative number, and the cycle skip to a positive number in System settings, but this will cause games to lag internally at best, or crash at worst.

Expectations.​

This is a free app, worked on as a hobby in the developer's free time. At the time of writing, it is in very early stages and missing many useful features, however is usable for playing some games.

It is not going to be perfect, far from it. I will continue to improve it when I have time, but please remember this is not my job, and to have realistic expectations, especially if you do not have a high end device.

As it is an early preview, you should save your game regularly in case of crashes.

 

[Brawl345]

They somehow want no one else to fork the emulator, but at the same time they don't want to work on it themselves

They have other priorities besides porting to ungrateful Android users.

 

[Plazorn]

Do you think the Retroid Pocket 2 will run this?

 

[YoureALoser]

android can't even run dolphin properly at 1080p and that's on the shield pro the most powerful android device you can get. so a ps2 emu for android I can just imagine how slow it will run!

The Shield TV is far from the most powerful android you can get lmfao. The tegra x1 is almost a decade old & was never relevant.

 

[YoureALoser]

It's got nothing to do with that, because people have used far older CPUs with great effect for PS2 emulation. It's because it's a fairly weak CPU and there's not a whole lot of RAM in the Switch.

False. It is because the cpu is weak & outdated, has nothing to do with the amount of ram. The tegra x1 is damn near a decade old.

 

[JaNDeRPeiCH]

Hope my snapdragon 460 can run this emulator.

 

[Inola13]

*insert p3p joke*
(wait that's the point of your comment isn't it.)

FES is better for the most part anyways though

P3P has femc and doesn't have the answer, so it kinda is a toss up of which is better when you really think about it lol

 

[64bitmodels]

android can't even run dolphin properly at 1080p and that's on the shield pro the most powerful android device you can get. so a ps2 emu for android I can just imagine how slow it will run!

uh phones have come a long way since the shield pro. a S21 ultra can run dolphin @ 1080p no problem

 

[danny19901]

Does anyone have the alpha APK? It's nice that there's a 3rd contender for Android I mean we have DamonPS2, Play! & Now this so far Damon is most playable and Play! Is slowly coming together even on PC Play! doesn't run amazing but it's nice it has vulkan support

Sent from my M2011K2G using Tapatalk

 

[Guacaholey]

False. It is because the cpu is weak & outdated, has nothing to do with the amount of ram. The tegra x1 is damn near a decade old.

Being outdated has nothing to do with it. People comfortably run PCSX2 on hardware much older than the Switch's.

 

[Shahaan]

Being outdated has nothing to do with it. People comfortably run PCSX2 on hardware much older than the Switch's.

So the Switch is Tegra based
That makes it older
Just because it released in 2017 doesn't mean it was cutting edge, after all it had to be cost effective
Also CPU architecture is different
Apples to oranges here

 

[Shahaan]

I would be surprised if they release anything but I don't expect it. These teasers seem like a typical sketchy project, there is no need to hype it up.

Taki Udon is a reputable emulation channel
He has no direct affiliation with the project but they reached out to him to do it, and prior to that on the announcement page I believe on emulators on android mods verified that it is indeed real you're being a pessimist when the proof is right in front of your face more work just needs to be done for it
I mean if you were going to release a big project like this you'd hype it up as well yes?
This is a big thing the android emulation community has been clammering for over the last few years so they'll rightfully hype it up as they please

 

[Shahaan]

ps2 emulation on the pc isnt messy at all, the amount of games that pcsx2 runs is unbelivable

PCSX2 is pretty messy imo but software fixes many of the issues but some still stand
They focused on compatibility and speed and getting there took some work around, lots of hacks in the mix now this doesn't matter to the average user but also a lot of games may be playable but have had long standing bugs in hardware mode like video garbage I'm the corners of the screen and such. I get it all the games are in playable not perfect but I think some of these could stand to use improvement, the more glaring ones anyway
Every time I play a game there I have to make sure I check the wiki per game and change the settings to account for any bugs and there's always some bigger issues.
The default controller plug in is spotty and as I see it the devs removed the option to use others
I've always had an issue with bad framepacing and it's very sensitive to if you do other things on your desktop, and there's also no form of de-interlacing yet unless you use patches
There goes my rant and that's all, PCSX2 is a very commendable emulator just not one I think should be on a pedestal

 

[AngryCinnabon]

PCSX2 is pretty messy imo but software fixes many of the issues but some still stand
They focused on compatibility and speed and getting there took some work around, lots of hacks in the mix now this doesn't matter to the average user but also a lot of games may be playable but have had long standing bugs in hardware mode like video garbage I'm the corners of the screen and such. I get it all the games are in playable not perfect but I think some of these could stand to use improvement, the more glaring ones anyway
Every time I play a game there I have to make sure I check the wiki per game and change the settings to account for any bugs and there's always some bigger issues.
The default controller plug in is spotty and as I see it the devs removed the option to use others
I've always had an issue with bad framepacing and it's very sensitive to if you do other things on your desktop, and there's also no form of de-interlacing yet unless you use patches
There goes my rant and that's all, PCSX2 is a very commendable emulator just not one I think should be on a pedestal

This, i'm forced to use launchbox just so i don't have to swap settings EVERY time i want to play a different game because apparently game profiles didn't matter to the devs, and i can't even fucking run xenosaga at 60fps on my current setup. it works yes, it's good yeah, but perfect? fuck no.

 

[Bazooka_Face]

View attachment 285545​

The PlayStation 2 emulation scene has just seen the arrival of a new surprise contender. AetherSX2 is a PS2 emulator that runs on Android devices, and is set to release relatively soon. It comes from a new developer named Tahlreth, and while very little is known about the history of how AetherSX2 came to be, certain YouTubers have been given a alpha build of the emulator to show off the performance of PlayStation 2 games. Titles like Devil May Cry, Shadow of the Colossus, God of War, and Final Fantasy X are shown off, even running at fairly smooth framerates. The emulator is said to perform best when used with phones that have Snapdragon SoCs, and has wide compatibility with the PS2's library.

A beta build is planned for release sometime soon, where users will be able to get it from the Google Play Store and test it out, prior to a full launch.

Source

If you say the ps2 is an extremely complex and powerful device, even by today's standards, does that mean that the psp is too? the psp is proven time and time again to be more capable and powerful than the ps2, so I would only assume that it is extremely complex and powerful as well.

 

[Guacaholey]

So the Switch is Tegra based
That makes it older
Just because it released in 2017 doesn't mean it was cutting edge, after all it had to be cost effective
Also CPU architecture is different
Apples to oranges here

Agreed on the last two points.

If you say the ps2 is an extremely complex and powerful device, even by today's standards, does that mean that the psp is too? the psp is proven time and time again to be more capable and powerful than the ps2, so I would only assume that it is extremely complex and powerful as well.

The PSP is incredibly easy to emulate by comparison. There were a lot of 2.5D PSP games that were almost playable on my Xperia Play when PPSSPP first launched. FWIW I wouldn't agree with the claim it's powerful by today's standards. It was more quirky than anything else.

 

[DKAngel]

This, i'm forced to use launchbox just so i don't have to swap settings EVERY time i want to play a different game because apparently game profiles didn't matter to the devs, and i can't even fucking run xenosaga at 60fps on my current setup. it works yes, it's good yeah, but perfect? fuck no.

you know the point of emulation is to emulate the system, and not really to go beyond that, ps2 isnt 60fps, all these extra filters etc etc are bonuses so why should the dev care about it? if it runs as intended then its done its job, and concidering i have barely come across a game that does not run well

 

[Impossible_Igntiz]

uh phones have come a long way since the shield pro. a S21 ultra can run dolphin @ 1080p no problem

True, makes me wonder why Nvidia never bothered making a Shield TV 2? i understand most android tv manufactures focuses on making them cheaply as possible and selling them to the common denominator but it would be nice to have some sorta Snapdragon equivalent at the very least.

 

[Impossible_Igntiz]

PCSX2 is pretty messy imo but software fixes many of the issues but some still stand
They focused on compatibility and speed and getting there took some work around, lots of hacks in the mix now this doesn't matter to the average user but also a lot of games may be playable but have had long standing bugs in hardware mode like video garbage I'm the corners of the screen and such. I get it all the games are in playable not perfect but I think some of these could stand to use improvement, the more glaring ones anyway
Every time I play a game there I have to make sure I check the wiki per game and change the settings to account for any bugs and there's always some bigger issues.
The default controller plug in is spotty and as I see it the devs removed the option to use others
I've always had an issue with bad framepacing and it's very sensitive to if you do other things on your desktop, and there's also no form of de-interlacing yet unless you use patches
There goes my rant and that's all, PCSX2 is a very commendable emulator just not one I think should be on a pedestal

I agree! farrrr from a perfect emulator and there's still alot of games on PlayStation 2 that doesn't emulate properly at all like Flower, Sun & Rain for example.

 

[DKAngel]

I agree! farrrr from a perfect emulator and there's still alot of games on PlayStation 2 that doesn't emulate properly at all like Flower, Sun & Rain for example.

you know it plays fine in software rendering mode not hardware?
the ps2 was a pretty complex system to emulate hence why the lack of emulators, pcsx2 is still hands down the best

 

[DKAngel]

Yea but the current PCSX2 team has a fragile ego. They somehow want no one else to fork the emulator, but at the same time they don't want to work on it themselves...so they always try to spin a fork as stolen code. If team PCSX2 were serious about keeping the project alive, we'd have already seen a retroarch core as well as at least 1 iOS IPA of it.

My guess is that the people who are opposed to it being forked aren't the people who started then project with the intention of making it open source...after all, a huge number of people have contributed to the project over the years.

umm they work on it quite regularly do u not follow the daily build bot? and also its thier emu they can do what they want with it, plenty of other emus that are closed source. a fork isnt stolen code, but in past times people have ripped off their work, claimed it as thier own and given no credit of course they are going to be pissed. and there is an alpha core, but considering there is so much non portable code in the emulator they cant just click their fingers overnight and rewrite it just for retro arch