Gaming How good does psx look on a PSP?

[isaac17]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD5omDaCKAc
That's not stretched, neither are any of the other vids on youtube...

 

[elenar]

Just wanna jump in here, when something is "native" that means it runs on a piece of hardware with no software interface. For example, a simple calculator has the native ability to add, subtract, multiply, divide. Now, imagine one of those fancy-shmancy graphing calculators. You can code programs on them in Z80-Basic or whatever it happens to be on the specific calculator, but those programs are "software", not "native."

PSX emulation is something that the PSP is capable of "out-of-the-box", but that doesn't mean it has native support for PSX games. If it had native PSX support, then you could put a PSX disc into it, or in a better scenario, a PSX .iso on your memory stick and it would just run it, no POPSLoader necessary.

From Wikipedia:
The term native mode is used in computing in two related senses.

* to describe something running on a computer natively or in native mode meaning that it is running without any external support as contrasted to running in emulation.
* Native operating system, native instruction set, etc., in application to a computer processor means that the corresponding item was implemented specifically for the given model of the computer or microprocessor, as opposed to emulation or compatibility mode.



Neither of those definitions applies to running PSX games on your PSP. Knowledge is power!


EDIT:
Also, every PSX game I tried personally on my PSP looked on the low end of acceptable. Take that with a grain of salt (or perhaps not, depending) because I've been playing PSX games in 1680x1050 with all kinds of AA and AF with ePSXe, and the PSP doesn't have the screen resolution or processing power to look even close to that good. So, if you've been playing on your PC with a decent or high-end system, you might think your PSX games look a little rough on the PSP. If not, then the best answer is that they look a heck of a lot better than on the PSX or PS2.

EDIT 2:
Also, believe it or not, some PSX games had partial or full widescreen support. The emulators get funky sometimes when it comes to that, but for example if i play Chrono Cross on PS2 on a widescreen TV and i'm using the component cables, it's in widescreen (except for the menu's, which it letterboxes, if that's the right term to use for the bars on the side.)

 

[isaac17]

Holy shit, I think I've been playing psx games stretched for years... When I play these games at 1680x1050 in ePSXe, is that stretched? 'cause if so, I'm fine with everyone saying it stretches it, I wouldn't even notice

, otherwise: damn.

EDIT: THIS: http://youtube.com/watch?v=AD_ovE30yKQ

That's how I remember playing PSX games, that doesn't looked stretched to me at all, and if that's a good indicator of how playstation games look on the PSP, I'm buying one this week.

 

[AishunBao]

Im playing FFVII on 4.01 M33-2 and it plays flawlessly, all the FMV's play perfect, its just like playing the PSX version of the game, even the beginning FMV plays flawless, I don't know where your heard that from.

It's not that I heard it anywhere. I had just started playing FF7 when I just upgraded to 4.01 M33 so when I started a new game, I was stuck at a black screen. When I was talking about the beginning FMV, I was talking about the train one. I had read on MaxConsole before trying that firmware 4.01 worked perfectly. I assumed it was like FF8 where you can't start a new game with 3.80. Everything else including FMVs ran perfectly. Maybe it was my disc or something. I used the normal FF7 Game ID. You can try starting a new game yourself on 4.01 and tell me if it works.

 

[xalphax]

PSX games look pretty decent on a PSP. I've found ePSXe looking better when processing 3D, but nothing beats the portability of a PSP. You almost never run in speed issues with PSX games. I barely consider it emulation because it runs so well. It's almost as if playing PSX games are a native feature of a PSP. However, you may run into compatibility issues with certain games on certain firmware numbers or what they call "pops." Some games run perfectly on certain firmware versions and an updated firmware doesn't necessarily mean better compatibility. Which is why you get the Popsloader plug-in to load different pops for each game.

I hope that answers your question.

It IS a native feature? Sony made the POPSLOADER for their PSOne games, Dark Alex cracked that..

no, sony emulates it, thus its by definition NOT native.

What are you talking about?

PSX emulation is a native feature on the PSP!

no, psx emulation is a native feature on the ps2, because it got the psx processor on board, but the psp does not, so its not native.

clear now?

 

[myuusmeow]

(except for the menu's, which it letterboxes, if that's the right term to use for the bars on the side.)
That's called pillarboxing, btw. Letterboxing is top and bottom, pillarboxing is the sides.

QUOTEpsx emulation is a native feature on the ps2, because it got the psx processor on board, but the psp does not, so its not native.

That's not emulation if it has the hardware on board. Same thing with the DS and GBA, that isn't emulation either.

 

[deathfisaro]

It seems that some people are confusing nativity and backwards compatibility.
I consider native features as "Each and every normal PSP has the feature available without the need of extra soft/hard/firmware"

As for backwards compatibility,

PSP has PSX emulation.
PS2 has PSX backwards compatibility.

Wii's VC isn't backwards compatibility but emulation.
GC disc on Wii is backwards compatibility.
360 achieves backwards compatibility by emulation (and so does 80GB PS3)

PSPs are not designed to play PSX discs, but it's designed to be able to play PSX games.
Stock PSP right out of box can play PSX games downloaded from PSN. So its PSX support is native.
(And its backwards compatibility is non-existant, since PSP doesn't have a true preceder. PSX emulation is just slapped on because of PSP's capable specs)

Wi-Fi is a native feature, it's built-in and available right out of box.
GPS is not a native feature of PSP because you need a GPS add-on or whatever else.
(In the same sense as burning an optical media is not a native feature of all desktops, I know desktop is very broad but just saying)
Web Browser is added by firmware update so it's not truly native
(PSP is capable, but it is not made with Web Browser built-in)

ETC.

Well, firmware part can be a little vague. It's like whether humans have native ability to speak OR to make a sound, and speaking is just making specific sounds.
I don't think people have native ability to speak, the very first human beings would have just emitted random noise and as their social structures grew they learned (can be compared to firmware update) to "speak."

 

[Jiggah]

I'm confused here. How is the web browser not considered native because it needed a firmware update when the same was needed to be able to play PSX games and you're considering that native? The PSP off the bat was not capable of running PSX games, it was added through a firmware update long ago.

 

[deathfisaro]

Well, okay I didn't know PSX support came with firmware update. As I was able to play them the day I got my phat. Maybe I DID update my firmware before playing?

Then it's not "truly" native.

 

[nccom]

Of course its not truly native as psp doesnt have any ps1 hardware build-in

They added support at about 2.7 firmware.

 

[deathfisaro]

Well, if it's got enough machine power to emulate games I don't think there needs to be a chip.

You can play most XBOX/PS2 games without a chip. And Same goes to PSP, significant number of PSX games run and almost every firmware update more PSX games are runnable.

Heck, I think more PSX games runnable for PSP than PS3. (Don't know why some PSX games on PSN are only for PSP not for both)

 

[jesterscourt]

I'm just sad about the incredible lag in Persona 2.

 

[Arm73]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD5omDaCKAc
That's not stretched, neither are any of the other vids on youtube...

Are you saying those videos are not stretched,or the games ?
Because you can see from a mile away that even with the first second of the video you realize that the image is clearly stretched and the cars look wider than they should be, it's the wrong aspect ratio.
I actually find stretched games impossible to play, especially when there's scrolling and rotating involved, it seems that the subjects become shape shifting creatures as they become wider or thinner as the camera moves around.
I much prefer pillar mode in this case, even if I waste some of my wide screen real estate...

 

[SargeSmash]

Persona 2 works quite well now. Try firmware 4.01 and changing the game ID to SLPS-02100. As noted in the compatibility list I'm using, there may be freezes every once in a while still, but it works much better now.

Heck, I upgraded to 4.01 just for this purpose.

 

[SargeSmash]

And to actually answer the question of the original poster, games look like they would on a real PSX. You're not going to get any texture smoothing, anti-aliasing, or high resolutions, but it WILL look like it did running on an original PSX. Some of the custom video modes are slightly scaled, but most games don't use those. I think the menus in FFVII are slightly scaled, for example, because they used one of the higher resolution video modes (similar to the old 512x448 modes on the SNES). It's not an issue, and still looks good.

And I think everyone has covered the scaling options available. The original mode puts the pixels perfectly in place, except for the aforementioned modes. So it's a very clear image, but a tad small. Normal mode scales it up a bit, but keeps the aspect ratio, so you're still going to have black bars on the sides. It looks like they're using a bilinear filter, and looks relatively nice (much like some of the filtering modes in XBox emulators). Fullscreen just does away with the aspect ratio, and I personally HATE this option. But I know some people who swear by it. I prefer the aspect ratio unsullied, to be honest.

All in all, it works great, and it seems like most of the big PSX games work with some version of POPS, so I certainly don't regret my purchase. Too bad the actual games library looks pretty bleak right now, but I'm liking the fact that they're bringing over the Star Ocean games and also putting the new Parasite Eve on there. I'd still love to see SNES get honest-to-goodness full speed, but it's really good now, and way better than what I was doing back in the day on my old Pentium 166.

Back to work...

 

[Mangofett]

"native emulation" is an oxymoron btw