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.

 

[cashboxz01]

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

Ok, so point out one single official build for Android. It's been well over a decade, after all, since Android OS was able to get emulators. Or iOS. Or any ARM-based release.

Just like people are going to use ISOs for games of abandoned hardware on modern hardware, they're going to find a way to run abandoned software on modern hardware.

I honestly have no sympathy for teams who abandon their software, and it gets taken over by someone else. And yes, for the most part, PCSX2 has been abandoned, since its mostly incompatible with modern non-x86 CPU's. PCSX2 has not been properly maintained for the good part of the last decade. The UI is horrible, and the code is all over the place. There isn't enough people working on it to even make a proper retroarch core or to update the UI of the standalone emulator. They should take a lesson from Dolphin.

 

[DKAngel]

Ok, so point out one single official build for Android. It's been well over a decade, after all, since Android OS was able to get emulators. Or iOS. Or any ARM-based release.

Just like people are going to use ISOs for games of abandoned hardware on modern hardware, they're going to find a way to run abandoned software on modern hardware.

I honestly have no sympathy for teams who abandon their software, and it gets taken over by someone else. And yes, for the most part, PCSX2 has been abandoned, since its mostly incompatible with modern non-x86 CPU's. PCSX2 has not been properly maintained for the good part of the last decade. The UI is horrible, and the code is all over the place. There isn't enough people working on it to even make a proper retroarch core or to update the UI of the standalone emulator. They should take a lesson from Dolphin.

but they arnt coding for android, its a x86/64 based emulator, latest full release was last year and well looking at the build bot its very very active https://pcsx2.net/download/development/dev-windows.html. so not sure why u think they have abandoned it at all , the ui is basic and simple and bloody easy as to use. and i say again, they have built it only for x86/64 who gives a toss about arm its up to them, u want to port it to arm you go right ahead. and maybe they dont want to make a retroarch core? does it really matter that much

 

[cashboxz01]

but they arnt coding for android, its a x86/64 based emulator, latest full release was last year and well looking at the build bot its very very active https://pcsx2.net/download/development/dev-windows.html. so not sure why u think they have abandoned it at all , the ui is basic and simple and bloody easy as to use. and i say again, they have built it only for x86/64 who gives a toss about arm its up to them, u want to port it to arm you go right ahead. and maybe they dont want to make a retroarch core? does it really matter that much

Clearly it matters to you as someone who sees this Android fork of the emulator as an attack on the PCSX2 team

 

[DKAngel]

Clearly it matters to you as someone who sees this Android fork of the emulator as an attack on the PCSX2 team

I dont care if they forked it as long as credit is given where credit is due . good on them for making it work , im just rebutting how much you seem to hate the original pcsx2 builds as everything you have said about pcsx2 is pretty much false and how much u seem to demand that they make u an android or retroarch port when they clearly dont have to.
now bad ui's = retroarch now thats an over complicated mess lol

 

[cashboxz01]

I dont care if they forked it as long as credit is given where credit is due . good on them for making it work , im just rebutting how much you seem to hate the original pcsx2 builds as everything you have said about pcsx2 is pretty much false and how much u seem to demand that they make u an android or retroarch port when they clearly dont have to.
now bad ui's = retroarch now thats an over complicated mess lol

Retroarch is by far the easiest UI to use if you've ever used the XMB from PSP or PS3. You just add a playlist for every system, and it pretty much takes care of itself.

 

[player594]

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.

I use Spectabis for Pcsx2. It's a great frontend.

 

[the_randomizer]

Ok, so point out one single official build for Android. It's been well over a decade, after all, since Android OS was able to get emulators. Or iOS. Or any ARM-based release.

Just like people are going to use ISOs for games of abandoned hardware on modern hardware, they're going to find a way to run abandoned software on modern hardware.

I honestly have no sympathy for teams who abandon their software, and it gets taken over by someone else. And yes, for the most part, PCSX2 has been abandoned, since its mostly incompatible with modern non-x86 CPU's. PCSX2 has not been properly maintained for the good part of the last decade. The UI is horrible, and the code is all over the place. There isn't enough people working on it to even make a proper retroarch core or to update the UI of the standalone emulator. They should take a lesson from Dolphin.

The gui isn't horrible, it's probably your device that sucks. Pcsx2 is fine.

 

[crazyseandx]

So would, say, a Revvl 5G work with this emulator?

 

[7bbbbbbb]

Soon we'll see how it runs...

 

[scoobydude51]

PCSX2 is aware of this new emulator and actually supports it!

https://pcsx2.net/301-aethersx2-pcsx2-mobile.html

 

[AngryCinnabon]

PCSX2 is aware of this new emulator and actually supports it!

https://pcsx2.net/301-aethersx2-pcsx2-mobile.html

And so begins a new, clean age of PS2 emulation on Android. (gonna add this to my post that was speculating about the origin and possibility of Aethersx2 back at the first page so more people see it if you don't mind.(

 

[scoobydude51]

And so begins a new, clean age of PS2 emulation on Android. (gonna add this to my post that was speculating about the origin and possibility of Aethersx2 back at the first page so more people see it if you don't mind.(

I don’t mind at all. Go right ahead.

 

[izy]

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!

you do realise it isnt
it still uses the tegra X1+

unless you saying that the switch has one of the most power mobile gpus on market alongside it lmao

its vastly outdated and outperformed by the 888 and even my Google Tensor chip



also on that not the Tensor uses a Mali GPU which aether says mali doesnt support vulkan
but my gpu has vulkan 1.2 api support so thats interesting

lul nvm the tensor chip dosent have proper opengl/vulkan support in this current alpha release which is ironic since the gpu supports both and is more power for 3d than the snapdragon

 

[AngryCinnabon]

you do realise it isnt
it still uses the tegra X1+

unless you saying that the switch has one of the most power mobile gpus on market alongside it lmao

its vastly outdated and outperformed by the 888 and even my Google Tensor chip



also on that not the Tensor uses a Mali GPU which aether says mali doesnt support vulkan
but my gpu has vulkan 1.2 api support so thats interesting

lul nvm the tensor chip dosent have proper opengl/vulkan support in this current alpha release which is ironic since the gpu supports both and is more power for 3d than the snapdragon

Yeah, it's bold of him to assume the shield TV boasts the strongest gpu, a few years ago perhaps but this is late 2021. and people are getting pretty solid performance with the newer snapdragons with Aether now that it's out. i swear some people just don't understand the mobile hardware side of things.

 

[izy]

Yeah, it's bold of him to assume the shield TV boasts the strongest gpu, a few years ago perhaps but this is late 2021. and people are getting pretty solid performance with the newer snapdragons with Aether now that it's out. i swear some people just don't understand the mobile hardware side of things.

yeah software emu on my pixel 6 pro pretty solid
open gl works with 4x scaling at full speed but is buggy rendering
vulkan loads but its really buggy like black/white etc

dolphin works perfect with vulkan on it full speed with scaling so its just a early dev build thing

 

[Morricorne]

I start tested this emu yesterday on my Motorola Ibiza snapdragon 480.
Final Fantasy X work almost full speed. Sometimes drop to 60/70. Resident Evil outbreak work on full speed. Fatal Frame 2 work on full speed. And its only alpha emulator build. Nice

 

[CloudStrife1901]

If this is legit, I'll definitely be trying it out. DamonPs2 be damned.

This is running on my galaxy s20fe and so far so good on whatever game i try

 

[spotanjo3]

Latest update just released on Alpha 720. Klonoa 2 fixed like green winged balloons bug already fixing and others! Here is the changelog:

 

[michele59]

Tested all original gameboyadvance games on aethersx2 on your android phone i've got:

007 - Everything or Nothing (U): works perfect.
Driv3r (E): Runs full speed, but has some issues with the Intro video and other things there. Graphic glitches and lag.
Driv3r (J): Nothing runs, just crashes and makes distort audio loop before starting the 3th mission. Game has many gfx glitches on screen and heavy slowdown.
Sims 2 (E)&(U): works perfect.
Sims 2 - Pets (E)&(U): works perfect.
Winter Sports (J): works perfect.

 

[cobjak]

Someone got a list of playable game (like kingdom hearts) and settings to play with correct fps?

I'm looking for the same with gamecube games also