Well linux users, we promised we'd have you back and here is the living breathing proof!
Along with this release you have a couple of new plugins exclusively!
ZeroPAD - New pad plugin based off Twinpad, PADWinkeyb and SSSPSX Pad.
ZeroGS OGL - An OpenGL conversion of ZeroGS. No more GSSoft for you
You also have available a 32bit and 64bit build for your pleasure, we do spoil you sometimes! Take note the 64bit version is far from finished!
The next release will be much quicker than the current implimentation... head over to the download section to grab it.
WINDOWS USERS:- I have some bad news for you, there will be no 0.9.3 for windows, BUT Before you go crying to mummy that weve been picking on you, you will see 0.9.4 very soon, we have some 64bit bugs in windows to sort out, along with some excellent fixes for games such as Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas so it will be worth the wait.
As a consolation, if you are in to Dreamcast emulation, the long awaited nullDC has just been released, you can grab it here
Just to excite you a little more, here are a few shots ive taken with some of the new fixes for 0.9.4. Enjoy
Well ladys and gents, here it is, the brand spanking new PCSX2 0.9.4. We have lots of new stuff for you people to try out, some of the major features included in this release are:
- ZeroSPU2 - new SPU2 plugin from zerofrog. It is the most stable SPU2 plugin. Also has a time-scaling feature which slows down sound when the frame rate is too low (instead of hearing popping sounds). The time-scaling feature works best under Windows, but is also implemented in Linux. This new plugin also fixes the voices on the Japanese release of Final Fantasy X
- VU recompilers - games like Kingdom Hearts II, Metal Gear Solid III, and Katamari Damacy are now playable.
- ZeroGS 0.97 - ZeroGS DirectX has gone open source! You can download it from sourceforge. A lot of bug fixes in this release and the added support of AA modes up to x16! One new feature is the ability to tweak ZeroGS options, which were internal up to these release. Read more about this feature in the help guide for how to patch up games.
- Path3 GS fixes - Fixes corrupting textures on many games.
- Memory Card Fixes - Now you can save your games in games like Resident Evil 4 and others which refused to see memorycards!
- Dual Layer DVD reading support for games like Xenosaga.
- Windows x64 and Linux x86-64 support - The recompilers are not optimized yet, so don't expect major speed improvements. However, pcsx2 can now natively run on these platforms as well as the x86 platforms.
- Real Time Clock - Silly as it may seem, this actually makes Metal Gear Solid 3 and Katamari Damacy work, plus your ps2 says the actual time!
here is zerogs 0.97.1 that solves the xenosaga missing text problem
make sure the advanced option "relaxed depth" is enabled
or in your xenosaga pnach file, add this:
zerogs=08000000
FPU NaN handling - fixes several "quirky" issues with many games (ffx blue screens too)
VU NaN Handling - Experimental changes to see what impact they have
New Frame Limiter - More stable than the older version
New Frame Skip - Experimental new version to cut down "choppyness"
- Timing fixes, addressing freezes in games like Kingdom Hearts (eye issue), Grandia 3, Shadow Hearts
- VU NaN handling off by default, can be enabled and disabled for testing by making a patch for your game containing "vunanmode=0" or "vunanmode=1" respectively
More timing fixes (proper Kingdom Hearts fix) also some other fixes for game stability.
FPU Reg Caching re-enabled with katamari fixed, all those broken by it being turned off should work again.
USB responsiveness/timing improved, shouldnt miss keypresses anymore.
Edit: and yes, i broke ffx :p tho it works if you use run->execute
FFX Fixed, was a serious timing bug on IOP i made, suprised more didnt break.
Plus the previous fixes:
More timing fixes (proper Kingdom Hearts fix) also some other fixes for game stability.
FPU Reg Caching re-enabled with katamari fixed, all those broken by it being turned off should work again.
USB responsiveness/timing improved, shouldnt miss keypresses anymore.
Games which had the post-processing effect removed:
Okami (0x21068223)
Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (0x053D2239)
DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 2 (0x278722BF)
Street Fighter EX3 (0x72B3802A, 0x71521863)
Bully (0x28703748)
One Piece Grand Adventure (0x3122B508)
ICO (0x6F8545DB, 0x5C991F4E)
Grand Turismo 4 (0x44A61C8F, 0x0086E35B, 0x77E61C8A)
DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 3 (0x428113C2, 0xA422BB13)
Wild Arms 5 (0xC164550A, 0xC1640D2C)
How to report a bug with a gs dump:
Go to a static scene in the game where not much is moving and the bug is visible.
Press SHIFT + F8.
In the snap folder of pcsx2 you will find a .gs file next to the .bmp.
Compress and upload them.
You can also replay the .gs file (it's only going to be two frames looping), run the following command:
Rant:
It has been more than 4 years since I started this plugin. Back then pcsx2 didn't have any sound plugin except for spu2null. I remember getting into the pcsx2 IRC channel (#pcsx2 on efnet) and asking for help to make a sound plugin. One of the pcsx2 developers kindly gave me some documents and wished me luck, and I promised I would do my best.
After some days, or weeks, I had enough registers implemented that the bios would start to play sounds. It was a revolution. First sounds ever to come from pcsx2!!
Too bad the sounds were completely wrong, as I had misunderstood the ADPCM algorithm. I kept working on it after that, but not regularly at all: I can spend a few days working on something, but once I'm stuck debugging for too long, I get bored.
After me, there were a few other attempts at doing spu2 pugins. One of them, ps2sp, was a bit more successful than mine. These attempts caught pete's attention, so he decided to hack up a spu2 plugin too.
For some time, pete's plugin has been the best choice to many, and recently Zerofrog, annoyed by the relatively bad results of our plugins, also decided to code his own.
With so much competition, it has been hard for me to get my plugin to have acceptable results, and even if I'm releasing, it still fails to compare with zero's in most games. But on the other side, my plugin has always been coded with compatibility in mind, so even if it's few, there's some games where it gives better results.
I want to make clear there's some known problems with the plugin:
If the game runs slow, the plugin will be all loopy. This is the expected result given the way I coded it. I might improve the output system someday if I get better ideas.
Some games seem to have "clicks" and noises while playing music, videos and speech. I'm clueless as what coudl cause it.
Some games seem to have robotized sound. I don't know why yet, but I will look at it if I get reports of games doing it.
Some games don't like to work with the plugin. I'm specially interested in knowing about them, so I can fix the problem(s).
Some people seem to get problems with audio output. Make sure you are using FMOD, and your sound card supports 48000hz output correctly.
When the emulator crashes, there's some chances that the ASIO output plugin will not have the chance to shut itself down. In those cases it will leave the device used, and a reboot is required in order to "unlock" it.
Savestates are broken. Specially the plugin will ignore a save if it wasn't created by itself. Blame the lack of a proper standard save format.
Note 1: As of version 1.4, fmod.dll is no longer required to use the plugin, but it is still required to use the FMOD output system.
Note 2: The plugin has its own speed limiting system. For some reason when the emu limits the FPS to 50/60, the sound plugin still runs a tiny bit too slow so if the game generally runs stable at 100% using the framelimiter, it's recommended to use the limiter on my spu2.
Note 3: If anyone is interested, the code can be downloaded from the SVN server in SourceForge.net .
Games which had the post-processing effect removed:
Okami (0x21068223)
Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (0x053D2239)
DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 2 (0x278722BF)
Street Fighter EX3 (0x72B3802A, 0x71521863)
Bully (0x28703748)
One Piece Grand Adventure (0x3122B508)
ICO (0x6F8545DB, 0x5C991F4E)
Grand Turismo 4 (0x44A61C8F, 0x0086E35B, 0x77E61C8A)
DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 3 (0x428113C2, 0xA422BB13)
Wild Arms 5 (0xC164550A, 0xC1640D2C)
Manhunt 2 (0x8B029334)
How to report a bug with a gs dump:
Go to a static scene in the game where not much is moving and the bug is visible.
Make sure it is not the spikey polygon syndrome.
Press SHIFT + F8.
In the snap folder of pcsx2 you will find a .gs file next to the .bmp.
Compress and upload them.
You can also replay the .gs file (it's only going to be two frames looping), run the following command:
Converted all the output modules into C++ classes, this way it's easier to manage them.
Cleaned up some parts of the code.
Modified the DPLII decoding code to try to improve the quality.
[+] Added an option to change the LFE lowpass crossover frequency.
[+] Added "delayed" Irq calls so they are only called once in each T.
Restored the older decoding function, and partially rewrote it. The newer decoder function was breaking some games.
Games which had the post-processing effect removed:
Okami (0x21068223)
Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (0x053D2239)
DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 2 (0x278722BF)
Street Fighter EX3 (0x72B3802A, 0x71521863)
Bully (0x28703748)
One Piece Grand Adventure (0x3122B508)
ICO (0x6F8545DB, 0x5C991F4E)
Grand Turismo 4 (0x44A61C8F, 0x0086E35B, 0x77E61C8A)
DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 3 (0x428113C2, 0xA422BB13)
Wild Arms 5 (0xC164550A, 0xC1640D2C)
Manhunt 2 (0x8B029334)
For the full list refer to source.
How to report a bug with a gs dump:
Go to a static scene in the game where not much is moving and the bug is visible.
Make sure it is not the spikey polygon syndrome.
Press SHIFT + F8.
In the snap folder of pcsx2 you will find a .gs file next to the .bmp.
Compress and upload them.
You can also replay the .gs file (it's only going to be two frames looping), run the following command:
Games which had the post-processing effect removed:
Okami (0x21068223)
Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (0x053D2239)
DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 2 (0x278722BF)
Street Fighter EX3 (0x72B3802A, 0x71521863)
Bully (0x28703748)
One Piece Grand Adventure (0x3122B508)
ICO (0x6F8545DB, 0x5C991F4E)
Grand Turismo 4 (0x44A61C8F, 0x0086E35B, 0x77E61C8A)
DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 3 (0x428113C2, 0xA422BB13)
Wild Arms 5 (0xC164550A, 0xC1640D2C)
Manhunt 2 (0x8B029334)
For the full list refer to source.
How to report a bug with a gs dump:
Go to a static scene in the game where not much is moving and the bug is visible.
Make sure it is not the spikey polygon syndrome.
Press SHIFT + F8.
In the snap folder of pcsx2 you will find a .gs file next to the .bmp.
Compress and upload them.
You can also replay the .gs file (it's only going to be two frames looping), run the following command:
FF7 Dirge Of Cerberus crash fixed.
Couple of Vif stall fixes (chessmasters goes 1 screen further, woo!!) brings a tiny speedboost for Guitar Hero too.
VU Skip reverted to the old version to fix those games which had black screen problems when using it
Noteable changes in this beta:
Fix for other DMC1 version (see forum dwellers, i told you 302 would fix it )
Including fixes from 277-301:
Fix for neopets/tenchu problems introduced recently
GT4 crashes might be reduced now when using ZeroGS (GSDX will still crash)
Some aging rec bugs have been fixed, not sure what games it effects
Few counter changes effecting DMC1 and Mojo Ribbon, possibly others.
Fixed a small bug in Tokyo road race
PCSX2 0.9.5 SVN Rev. 315
Noteable changes in this beta:
New memorycard manager and patch browser
New Cpu->Speedhacks section providing ways to speed the emu up (will compromise on stability)
VIF Unpack fixes, mainly for Sensible soccer, Brian Lara Cricket etc.
Small speedups on some parts of the emu.
Enhanced SPU2 sync, helps some videos (Wild Arms 5)
FFXII Videos improved, less jumpy
PCSX2 0.9.5 SVN Rev. 317
Noteable changes in this beta:
Big fix for CD games (growlanser games, simple series games etc) should now work. any cd's which loop read should be fixed by this (not dvd's)
Small regression causing missing/corrupt graphics on Shox and Wipeout
Oh and managed to fix Sensible Soccer properly
PCSX2 0.9.5 SVN Rev. 327
Noteable changes in this beta:
Vsync/Hsync rewritten, stops DMC video freezing, improves real time cutscene lipsync.
Memcard selection saving fixed.
SPU2 Async adjusted to be quicker and hopefully stable.
Special "speed hack" added which tightens SPU2 Async but slows the emu down, can help in the case of some videos (FFXII demo for me)
PCSX2 0.9.5 SVN Rev. 330
Noteable changes in this beta:
Fixed a bug in the recompiler causing corrupted text on King Kong, may effect other games also with distorted textures/text.
Changed 1 op to interpreted on the MMI, it was actually slower being recompiled! videos seeing 10-30% speed increases, enjoy
PCSX2 0.9.5 SVN Rev. 342
Noteable changes in this beta:
Loading Savestates with MTGS more stable (Thanks Rama1)
Memcard Browser doesnt auto display the icons, this should provide the old and new functionality, with less crashing ;p
SIF Timing implemented, Okami no longer requires a patch to run.
Fix for games such as Beatmania/Dance Dance Revolution which refused to load.
Hopefully fixes for recent betas which developed problems!
- Huge rewrite, mainly from the new members of the Playground branch! Too many speedups, optimizations and other fixes to write here! Many famous games will now work.
- Dropped VM build replaced by the all new Vtlb, meaning no more 'Cannot allocate memory' errors at start up, more accurate emulation, slightly lower speeds but with many optimizations to come
- Full memcard support, working in all games
- Improved Frameskip/VU-skip
- Special Game Fixes Section
- Advanced Options Section for custom tweaking VU/FPU behavior.
- Rewritten Multithreaded GS (MTGS) mode, with as much as 15% speedup for HT machines (only 3-5% for Dual Core), and fixes many instabilities.
- Improved VU/FPU Flags and Clamping support (helps fix odd behaviors and SPS in some games)
- Improved EE/IOP synchronization (fixes many freeze-ups and vmhacks).
- Improved CDVD support.
