Duckstation has been a godsend for PS1 emulation. Not hating on ePSXe, that emulator was great for what it is but Duckstation just takes it up a notch.
Duckstation for me really took PS1 emulation up a notch & although ePSXe is still good, I no longer use it since Duckstation is far better in my opinion :)
Why compare it to epsxe if all things, beetle/mednafen is comparable, but duck still has the upper edge. You also can't do Switchres 15kHz output to a CRT with ePSXe, making it more limited in functionality. With duckstation you can, or the swanstation fork. Giving you exact 240p/480i video switching on a CRT. The uploader adding "in my opinion" isn't necessary, Duckstation is subjectively better, it's simply more accurate. It should be, considering ePSXe last saw updates like 10 years ago.
Some people still prefer ePSXe (Not me) because it has more filters and it supports playing games being read off actual PS1 disks & they are simply happy with it :) I never suggest to anyone to use ePSXe now but for those who do, it is their choice :) I love Duckstation and I'm happy people who are now using it or just making the switch can now see why it is worth the trade :)
@@AffrosCuriositiesOfficial "and it supports playing games being read off actual PS1" What do you mean by that? Duckstation reads original PS1 discs as well, played a bunch of my collection via Duckstation already. It's just some that are glitchy or won't be read, but in general you can play original PS1 Discs on Duckstation as well.
Hmmm I never knew this, I remember when I first had Duckstation I could not play my PS1 disk games but could with ePSXe (This was 2021 mind you) I guess they either added support & I did not realise or it was there all along & I was dumb not to find or see it xD No one else mentioned this working either until I saw your comment so this is something I need to try for myself in the future :)
In a way yes, but most importantly Dreamcast ran almost entire library in 60 fps, meanwhile PS1 ran in 30 fps or even less. Duckstation can't fix that.
I remember there used to be software called "bleem!" that would allow you to run select PS1 games on the Dreamcast. I think Gran Turismo was one of those games, screenshots looked amazing.
@@drcidd8153 This - they were designed to be seen on CRTs so make sure you use original resolution with a scanline filter for the most authentic experience
I think when this video game generation looks too sharp, it kind looses the thing. I usually prefer to set just 2x with some shaders to improve the image, it keeps the whole idea of the game.
I prefer a 2x scale for PS1 games at least on Emulation, real hardware, 5x when using the OSSC buying that's my preference 😊 This is why I like Emulation, you can pick how you want the games to look to your personal tastes :)
This is what the ps classic should have been all about. Legendary games upscaled for a new generation. I’ve been using duck station and like many are saying it breathes new life into them old skool titles 👍
I don't think Sony would have gone this far but it would have been nice & certainly they could have done a lot, lot better with their PS Classic :) Remember the PS Classic predated Duckstation by two to three years so, ePSXe was the best PS1 emulator at the time & they didn't take advantage of that either! Glad you are enjoying what Duckstation brings to the table!
I saw 57 subs and thought "how good could this be?" But I was pleasantly surprised! Great details, great commentary, and the perfect length for gameplay. Looking forward to more of your great work!
I know the subscriber count hides the true production values on my videos but, to give you a little history, this is my seventh season of Affro's Curiosities which has been moved to this channel :) My main channel is called The Affro Show & Affro's Curiosities used to be there until 2023 :) Thank you for the kind comments and if you want to see more, old episodes are here in a playlist for your enjoyment :)
To be fair, some of the PS1 shortcomings (like excessively dithered output, chunky pixels and low resolution), wasn't actually much of an issue when displayed on a CRT... People who want to know what a somewhat authentic output of the PS1 looked like back in the days (and can't get hold of 90's hardware). Run a high quality CRT with composite color blending (like "crt-hyllian-ntsc"). dithering is gone, pixels are rounder, smoother and more blended together. It doesn't look nearly as unattractive when using a quality scaler with clean RGB output on modern displays. Personally I prefer to play many of the PS1 games like this instead of using DuckStations upscaling.
It is very interesting because CRT's or at least higher end ones could support RGB, S-Video or even Component in later years & no one seems to realise or have an idea of how this would look on a CRT display, especially with how sharp the picture would look :) I always say I find it fantastic how we can customise & make the games look almost exactly as we please thanks to shaders & filters :) Me, I'll stick with real hardware using RGB SCART & my OSSC combination but, all the same, any way is the best way to play :)
For those prerendered background nothing beats a good old CRT tv, I never had a real ps1, all my experience was with ePSXe and Bleem, from 2000 to 2005 aprox... when I got a PS2 and forgot completely about ps1, but my graphics card had a s-video output and I played on a samsung crt tv, 32", the difference in games with prerendered graphics was amazing, FF9, RE2 and 3, parasite eve...
I use the OSSC, RGB SCART or Component cables using a 4K tv & I love the graphics using real hardware but, again for those wanting to upscale or wanting to use texture filtering, the option is there :) Same with using CRT's if it more your scene :)
Try the downsampling feature in emulation. It increases the resolution of 3D objects (namely characters) and then uses downsampling to match the background resolution. No more jarring disparity between the backgrounds and characters! It looks great.
I personally both the original PS1 output and the RetroArch, DuckStation, ePSXe (using the old DirectX plugin for GPU) emulation to bring forward the true nostalgia in terms of graphics accuracy. Nowadays I use RetroArch and the original PS1 output via Retrotink 5X Pro and that works wonders for me, and I enjoy every moment of playing games using these. I have to say the original PS1 output sometimes is worse than the DuckStation, RetroArch and ePSXe, but there's times when I want to play games on all these different graphics output options, as it brings out the game in different unique ways and it's always a fun time playing games at a preferred way. I personally enjoy it on original hardware or on RetroArch personally.
This is the beauty of both :) Original hardware is still amazing but we can use emulation to replicate or enhance games that could benefit from a facelift, performance boost or both! :)
It definitely makes more of a difference with some games over others. Silent Hill was night and day. Using Duckstation on my RG556 and loving it. Nice vid too
It is amazing when you test games with Duckstation and see how it can transform both the graphics and the overall experience! Thank you, I appreciate the comment! :)
I use Swanstation. The increased and locked framerate is a game changer. Widescreen hacks are nice too. Also the downsampling feature for games with pre-rendered background is really good.
Ah I know, that's why I just called it Battle Sabers & left the title screen up so the full name was shown :) I'd never heard of it until I just stumbled across this game xD I don't remember it being mentioned or advertised on TV in the UK during the 90s :)
Fantastic Episode. Do more videos like this and you will be successful. The Darkstalkers clip @ 11:56 made my speakers bass sound like it was coming from another room. Deep bass.
You might also try adding a comparison with a texture filter. Some games could gain or look different with bilinear or xbrz filtering. Sometimes the results are strange and sometimes better than pixelated graphics.
I personally prefer Nearest Neighbour after trying all of the filters but, I know others prefer a different look depending on the game & it is great users can pick and choose based on their own preferences :)
Wonder how it would compare to the games played on original hardware and upscaled via Retrotink. Retrotink's filters go a long way into making the games look better on modern TVs, while preserving the CRT look.
Many people have Retrotink footage out there but it depends on which one and what you are looking for :) The 2x, 5x & 4K all have various modes built in to suit your preference and the OSSC I use does have adjustable scanlines built in, although I never use the feature :) You can UA-cam search this since the family of devices are popular enough to where people show them off using a variety of consoles for testing :)
I highly suggest not to enable True Color Rendering for a game like Silent Hill. Dithering was used to hide most of the polygon pop-in, which is especially bad during night. Disable True Color Rendering to get the dithering back and enable Scaled Dithering. This gets rid of most of the distracting pop-in.
For me I did not mind the look at all & I personally don't mind pop in graphics as many of my favourite games were like this on PS1 :) For me, the fog did most of the work, dithering was used just to blend it all in but, I do agree it can be distracting for some if they are playing for the first time, I already completed the game several times so it was nice to experience it in a different way :)
@@AffrosCuriositiesOfficial I usually don't mind it either, but in this case, I noticed that something must be off, because I didn't remember the pop-in during night being this bad on original hardware and assets like trees stood out too much. BTW I'm also using the 60 fps and widescreen cheats (included in Duckstation) and haven't noticed any downsides yet. The former requires overclocking the virtual console way beyond 150% though. (I always set overclocking on a per-game basis because of their different requirements. Like the Tomb Raider games work fine with 150, but if you go significantly higher, at some point the gameplay suddenly speeds up. 🤨 ) Oh, and don't fiddle with the clock control while a game is running - that often leads to a crash.
@@rockapartie I can understand this & you are right but, I did not mind it as I was testing for fun :) Some games like Resident Evil 2 crash once you go above 150% & others like Crash Bash fail to start if overclocking is used :) I also found Vagrant Story unplayable as the game speeds up when overclocked but, thankfully lots of games work nicely when using overclocking :) Widescreen is a nice hack but some games again like RE 2 don't work properly and some games like Driver 2 has garbage on both sides of the screen when using the hack XD But again, game by game basis :)
awesome video as alwasy but i would never change my ps1 + ODV using s-video. having said that, i tried Vagrant Story and Front mission 3 on duckstation cranked up to the max and it was truly impressive! *edited to add fm3
DuckStation has been a blessing. It has made the ps1 games look stable like the equivalent pc ports back in the day. Made the games look a lot more digestable.
Duckstation indeed can help but, unfortunately it cannot fix everything & 2D games only look sharper with no additional frames of animation added for those ports that were cut back at the time :) Otherwise, Duckstation has been a fantastic way to emulate PS1 games!
Yeah, but it's specially great for all those exclusives that looked amazing but didn't have PC ports and very soon after didn't age well due to the limitations of the hardware. It really helps see what the games truly were meant to look like had they been in better hardware, even at the time (not in 4k, but PC or if the PS1 hadn't had some of the limitations it had due to having to keep it at a certain price).
It certainly can give us an idea of what could have been had some games received PC ports & while Duckstation cannot fix everything, the fact we have all these options make it worth trying out, no matter if you want the native PS1 look or something different :)
Gow Glazer? I think you meant Gowcaizer. As in Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer. Ive known about it as an anime in the mid 90s from the makers of the Fatal Fury animation guys. Loved the artstyle so much. I learned about it having a video game waaay later.
Sadly I had to guess how to say it being a Japanese game & one that I've never heard of xD Ah I'm glad to know more about it, although this game sadly isn't so hot 🙄
I haven't touched Swanstation so I couldn't tell you but if they are, defiantly use it or use a standalone Duckstation emulator if not :) Thank you! (Note someone left a comment saying they used features in Swanstation which matches those used in Duckstation)
After all these years, I've come to find the original PS1 graphics charming. But the improvement provided by emulators is unquestionable. Of all the 3D titles you've showcased, 'Demolition Racer' is, for some reason, the only one I'm still not sure whether I prefer the original or emulated version (except for the improved framerate, of course). Everything else in 3D looks much better using Duckstation. "Gowcaizer" emulated blew me away. I didn't expect a game with 2D sprites to have such a significant improvement. Great video! Congratulations!
I love the PS1 look and I accept its flaws although I have also appreciated what Duckstation can do & games like Driver 2 work so much better thanks to overclocking :) I can understand, I'm still not sure either although the frame rate did make it more playable :) I was surprised too but the game is still bad unfortunately xD Thank you! :D
Great comparison I would also add the games that use 2D backgrounds with 3D character models such as Resident Evil 2 and parasites Eve You should look into down sampling in the duck station settings As that will give it a more cohesive look :) since you won't Have the mismatch of high-resolution character models with low resolution backgrounds
I get this a lot & although it defiantly would help I'm happy with the look even if it does sacrifice the image quality of the 2D backdrops :) That being said, since this comes up often, perhaps I need to make a dedicated video on downsampling in Duckstation :)
You know, as great as Emulators are, whenever I'm too lazy to get my old PS1 out and set it up on my TV, when I instead put the PS1 Disc in my PC and boot up the Emulator, it's nice to HAVE all these enhancement options, but I'm glad that Duckstation also can emulate the PS1 1:1 picture perfect, I kinda WANT that pixelated look with these old games. Everything else is interesting to watch and much fun to those who prefer it like that, but I prefer when it looks like it's 1996 - 1998 again
Well everything is there as you mentioned and you can customise the look to however you like :) I love Duckstation and messing with the enhancements at 4K but I love real PS1 hardware using RGB SCART too :)
We had Gawcaizer at my local arcade. It was super fun, but never managed to beat it. The A.I. would scale it difficulty quite hard towards the last stages, and kid me didn't have enough quarters to push through 😄 The arcade version plays like a traditional 2D Fighter, i.e. Street Fighter 2. Never knew about this weird 3D warping effect version of the game
It's going to be personal preference & yes some games won't have their intended feel due to the enhancements :) You can always turn the enhancements off or use software rendering mode if you want the PS1 look proper, albeit if it used RGB SCART :)
@@AffrosCuriositiesOfficial 100% agree with you :) I just think there are specific are specific games that stands out or made some sort of impact and after experiencing this, everything else will look off.
This is the beauty of emulation, you can choose how you want the games to look to your liking :) I always show off the enhancements as I feel most will use it to experience games in a different way! Still, at least for those wanting a vanilla experience, software rendering modes are available :)
I actually own both games but Duckstation would ruin the FMV backdrops using the settings used in this video, maybe I can include it in another video :)
@@AffrosCuriositiesOfficial I had problems especially with that game (and honestly with almost all games even though I have an ultrabook i7 -it is a Fujitsu U7720-)
On Duckstation, it will say adapter in the options menu & there you can pick from OpenGL, Vulkan, Null, Metal (Apple Only) or Software :) Software Rendering is basically true to the PS1 look and should work if you are having issues with any other render type :)
I still play PSX emulators on X1 resolution with a good CRT/NTSC shaders/filters. Just like how it was playing on original hardware on a crt television. They look beautiful on those settings. No point upscaling them graphics. They still look ugly. I if want to play better looking games, I just play modern games.
I like playing PS1 games using real hardware or emulation but I also enjoy upscaling to see what can be done with the old graphics :) Ultimately I love emulation because you can customise how you want the graphics to look as you please or to speed up some games that had performance issues like Driver 2, making it far more playable :)
For me, it depends on the game and what it's doing. Games like Wipeout are filled with unrealized detail that pops out at higher resolution with all the polygon and texture distortion fixes. But Resident Evil, with it's static low resolution backgrounds, can look worse. Even mostly full 3D games can suffer from this, Road Rash 3D has a dynamic skybox with aggressive pop-in and LOD that doesn't hold up at higher resolutions at all. The trick I use for games like the latter is running at ~4x scale with the PGXP enhancements them downsampling that back down to native resolution. It ends up looking cleaner without exposing the flaws of the original assets that don't scale up to HD well. Resident Evil-likes look kind of amazing this way, the real time 3D blends almost seamlessly with the backgrounds in a way that it never did, arguably to the point that it changes gameplay since you could always tell if something was a dynamic object just by looking to see if there was aliasing around it.
It is good we have the ability to make these changes using Duckstation :) I don't mind the 4K upscaled look without downsampling or real hardware using RGB with the OSSC but as I always say, we have the power to choose how to play and how it looks :)
Best result is still CRT. Not trying to sound like an elite oldschool gamer but It really makes a difference. When you sharpen the image so much you can see alot of clipping and the gfx show their age even more. certain games gain the upscale in resolution but definitly not all.
We all have different preferences and I know many, many people will agree with you but for me, while I agree with your assessments with Duckstation, I still love it & remember you can customise the look to your preference :) I just showed what a typical modern user would do :)
This kind of stuff worries me that eventually people via UA-cam and emulation be under the impression the ps1 was way more stable and capable than it actually was. It kind of smooths over the charm and original presentation in a way that turns me off. Idk, I’m sure other people strongly disagree
This is actually what motivated me to make these types of videos in the first place :) Too many videos using enhanced PS1 graphics via emulation and many people believing this is what the PS1 looked like when in reality it did not :) I love what emulation can and has done but, people also need to be aware of what real hardware truly looked like outside of emulation :) I prefer real hardware or software mode on emulation but I do enjoy using overclocking & disk speed up hacks to improve loading times :)
Why is the volume of this video so low? I thought my phone speakers blew until plugging in headphones and turning them up to the max and still wondering what's happening?
The volume is lower than you're used because I always edited my videos this way for the best sound quality possible in my voice work along with to make it smooth to listen to :) However, you can either use the new stable volume feature (PC only I think) on UA-cam to normalise all of the volume in the video or you can watch this video in my complete season episode where I boosted the volume of all my season 7 videos, this one included :)
The stable volume function now works on tablets and phones since this comment was posted & likely your tablet is using it to boost the volume, even at 30% :)
Duckstation literally converts every PS1 game into an HD remaster. RPCS2 does the same with PS2 games. The two emulators have an identical UI and similar settings selections.
Thank you for sticking with me :) Unfortunately I haven't since I don't use Retroarch, everytime I try to, it doesn't seem to work so well :) I have seen videos of shaders used on retro games & to me they didn't look appealing, at least in my opinion 😊 Maybe in the future I can look closely into them to see if my mind can be changed :)
@@AffrosCuriositiesOfficial you gotta try the right shader !! but yah ofc im kinda glad i found your channel! its chill if they werent that appealing tho i get that theyre not for everyone.
I can always have a look in the future to see if there's any I might like or at least make people aware of should they be interested :) I appreciate the comment 😁
Either try downscaling which is in Duckstation or simply output to a 4K display & use integer scaling also available in Duckstation which using 1x resolution :)
@@AffrosCuriositiesOfficial Brilliant, setting it back to 1x and using integer gave me exactly what I needed. I was using retroarch for the longest time because of MegaBezel but Duckstation is just too good now. Hopefully PCSX2 gets the same built in post processing. Guest FTW.
The PCSX2 emulator is now updated by the same devs who made Duckstation so it will have the same options for integer scaling :) It will work differently as the native output of PS2 games is 480i or 576i so the scaling will behave and work differently, same goes for PS1 games using its Hi-Res output (480i or 576i) so keep a lookout for this! Otherwise, glad my suggestion helped :)
Almost look like an early dreamcast game despite the low polygon count. Compare hydron thunder PS1 version on Duckstation against hydro thunder on real dreamcast hardware it will look almost the same
I don't think scaling that much is the way to go with PSX. I feel like it is better to render at 4K but to donwscale it to 2x-3x the original resolution.
From my experience using this emulator for years, I've never had a problem with input delay & I've enjoyed many hours of games without any significant problems :) Same goes for PCSX2 :)
I was expecting a comparisson on accuracy, or how accurate is the emulator vs the real hardware. I mean, is a gibben that the emulator will always look better rendering at 4k with whatnot graphical enhancements. But the thing is the original Ps1 hardware footage doesn´t look like that neither, because the Ps1 was meant to be played on crt screens. The missing scanlines and the horizontal blending that happens naturally on comercial grade crts helped to diminish the perception of dithering and other graphical "flaws", even more if you used composite video.
Oh goodness this is going to be a long comment.. xD For this comparison I did indeed use real hardware, albeit RGB SCART with the OSSC to show people the PS1 at its best (Subjective I know, everyone has a different take on it) along with what most people would do with Duckstation, i.e upscaling and using the enhancements at the same time :) I compare the two this way because many people don't seem to know or remember what real PS1 graphics look like, especially today when many people are using enhanced emulated footage & others not realising it :) I would be happy to do a video where I compare real PS1 hardware against Duckstation when it is in software mode to see how accurate it truly is :) As for the CRT comment, I know why many say this but for me, I always preferred RGB SCART, even on CRT & I don't own a CRT, I have a 4K TV & I love the image I get out of my OSSC on it, might not be your taste but this is why its fantastic to have options and choices to suit the tastes of many people :)
@@AffrosCuriositiesOfficial The thing is, you will never understand Ps1, Saturn, N64 and other older consoles graphics if you have never played them with composite connections on a crt tv. In Silent Hill all that dithering gets blended with composite and the low tvl from most consumer crt tvs, and the scanlines help to smooth those 240p/256p graphics, specially in games with prerendered backgrounds like the Final Fantasys, Resident Evils, Koudelka, Legend of Dragoon, etc.
I had a CRT growing up using composite cables for my PS1/PS2 games (I'm 30) so I do know what it was like but, unlike most people I just never cared for it. I even played on a Black & White CRT using RF when I used to visit my grandma back in the day too! I managed to get an RGB SCART cable in 2005 (Still using CRT) & I was blown away by the sharpness of the graphics on display :) By 2012, when I got my first HD TV, I had to use composite for a while until I was able to get good RGB or Component cables again & since then, especially with my OSSC upscaler, I've never looked back :) I also happen to like dithering on older consoles & scanlines although I agree they look cool, I'd rather sharper graphics anyway but this is my experience & opinion :)
I've heard about this before in another comment although I know nothing about the anime xD Sadly, the game is still terrible although it could have worked xD
Am I the only one to love the original, unaltered experience ? If I want modern graphics I play modern games. If I want to play the ps1 ... I want to play the ps1
Everyone is different I love Duckstation as much as I love real hardware :) But there are improvements to be had and some games can benefit from this, however if you prefer real hardware, that's no problem :)
even though it looks good i feel the graphics update indeed make the games lose alot of the charm to them.... maybe its me but i would prefer to play them as vanilla as possible. even though some adjustement besides the graphics are really appreciated , duckstation have really talented people working on it!
If you would rather play the games looking as normal as real hardware, I recommend using the software rendering mode & disabling any enhancements, although I'd still keep the overclock on & the disc speed up hack which still work with software rendering :)
Good video. Just a suggestion: you don't need to shit on older/non mainstream games just because you don't like them. What does calling a game useless adds to the video? Or like on Battle Sabers, the movement might be janky but so is Silent Hill's. Just keep it positive, no need for this
Thank you and yes, I did because they were terrible games xD I mean truly, truly terrible xD Silent Hill is an amazing game & yes the moment controls are not amazing but the game is incredible xD I don't think people know what Battle Sabers is so, not exactly hurting anyone & the game is indeed useless xD Good ideas, rubbish execution xD
Unfair comparation since it lacks of a CRT to show the true potential of the artistic direction and effects in most part of videogames displayed in the video. But yes Duckstation solve some geometry problems and it can be better in full 3D games overall.
Not everyone has a CRT anymore (Me included) & trying to show CRT captures always has problems, you have to see it in person to truly appreciate how nice CRT's can be :) Also, with HDMI upscalers getting more common, this digital approach at least shows what the two look like in high quality, so in this sense, it is completely fair :) Not to mention this approach allows people to see what Real hardware actually looks like vs trying to upscale it :) If you want me to see how Duckstation fares in software mode against Real hardware, I can look into it for a future video :)
Tomb raider really benefits from a stable 30 fps I can't count the number of times i missed a jump because of random sub 20 fps on my original ps1 (definitely not because i am bad at the game)
Locking games at 60fps is easy, getting them to 60fps using patches... Not so much xD I like the low res textures, if you want to replace them, you'd need to mod the games individually like they are doing with some games like Dino Crisis or Resident Evil :)
@@AffrosCuriositiesOfficial Yo, yea I have seen the "Seamless mod" for resident evil and dino crisis". Unfortunately, duckstation although being the best emulator for the ps1 still doesn't support texture replacement. I have worked on texture replacement projects myself for Mortal Kombat Gold and just completed Daytona usa 2001 hd remaster for the sega dreamcast. I'll make a video of it soon and upload to my youtube channel. Also, although you can overclock the psx cpu the majority of the ps games are tied to the frame rate meaning that if you attempt to run games at 60ps then the game will run at double speed. some patches work great like grand tourismo, jumping flash, and silent hill as you demonstrated in your video, others...not so good. I tried to overclock the cpu for Auto Destruct for example and although i was able to play the game at a solid 60fps it broke the game and the enemy ai kept spinning in circles lol.
Yes there's a good few out there & it won't sadly, hence why people have to go and get the game proper to replace the textures or needed to modify the emulator to make it work :) Indeed, Vagrant Story if you overclock it also breaks it by speeding up the game xD This is par for the course & as you said some games work better than others :)
It's an unfair comparison in my opinion because DuckStation improves image quality to 4K and the OSSC can't, The only competitor to this would be... Retrotink 4K Upscaler!
The point of this comparison is to show what Duckstation & its enhancements can do for those wanting to play in a different way :) Its also to show people what real hardware looks like as many people enhance their PS1 games and it can fool others into thinking its from PS1 hardware :) Duckstation has a software mode where it looks and behaves like a real PS1 & the OSSC although amazing as is the tink 5x will never do anything to this degree :) Plus this is just a bit of fun :)
@AffrosCuriositiesOfficial Thanks for the video Affros! But don't forget that Retrotink 5X Pro support 1440P and OSSC only 1080P like the GBS-Control 👍🏽
@@eyeofhelios7830 It does but in this case the graphics would only be a bit sharper, the internal resolution would be 240p still & would still not be at Duckstation 4K levels :)
Most games don't start if you push the overclock too hard (Over 150%) & I find 150% is perfect for all games to hit their maximum frame rate with no drops from what I've experienced :)
@@AffrosCuriositiesOfficial Try Nascar Racing. You're gonna need a laaaaaht more than 150% to get that one running smoothly. I have it set to 800%, bc any lower than that results in some frame drops. Shipwreckers / Overboard is another game that requires well over 150%. I have it set to 400%. I've actually never seen a game not start up due to a high overclock. Primarily I use the libretro version of this emulator and only use the standalone one for a very small amount of titles.
Resident Evil 2 won't start at higher than 150% xD But every game is different & I find most work nicely at 150% & I've tested hundreds of games at this point (I've had Duckstation since 2020) I know some will not start at all (Crash Bash doesn't work with any overclocking at all, the game doesn't start xD) luckily, just have to experiment so it is not a big problem :)
Codename Tenka is an emulation-only title, as the base control scheme is dreadful and unplayable. You have to use the modded ROM with more or less modern controls layout.
Not knocking original hardware but emulation is the only way to long term preserving the games. Old hardware will eventually fail and the media is not repairable once gone bad so it has to be copied before that.
No one can deny that, although it is still good to have options to suit everyone :) After all, emulation sticking around is not guaranteed! I hope it will be as I do love it & as a tool for preservation, its vital!
There is another advantage of emulation that will be very hard to copy on original hardware. 60FPS patches. Yes, you can do gameshark to do the same thing but overclocking PS1 makes needing a decent amount of modifications to make it happen.
On emulation this makes sense and can improve gameplay more :) For me, I'm happy with getting games to their maximum frame rate without 60FPS patches but, it is fantastic the option is there :)
Yes & I like dithering on PS1 :) Its a look I've grown up with and gotten used to, it does not bother me :) I'd rather a sharper image on RGB SCART (Used for real hardware in this video) than Composite anyday :)
@@AffrosCuriositiesOfficial Not me. I have RGB SCART but I choose not to use it for my PS1 and use 'lower quality' composite cables instead because that's what gives PS1 its best and most genuine look and feel. RGB SCART isn't well designed for ps1. I use RGB SCART on almost every other console I have (even Ps3!), but def not PS1. PS1 graphics are not about a sharper image.
If you like the composite CRT look I do understand & many would agree with you :) I've never cared for it & I love RGB SCART on PS1 but, to each their own & everyone has a different preference :)
Imagine if PS1 had at least some sort of minimal hardware graphics acceleration... The level of emulation and/or enhancements, especially for a framerate could've been virtually unlimited now even on physical hardware. Man, they really screwed at least one major thing in every console of this era: PS1 had no floating point and graphics acceleration, N64 had no disc space, Saturn had no proper 3D and two processors working together efficiently, Jaguar was another 64-bit beast with CD but nothing else... It's amazing how many great games and tech miracles we had from this era, but so much potential and legacy was lost.
I feel hindsight is a big part of it, what could the hardware have done had x and x been added or changed but, to me these flaws are part of the charm & while it would be nice to have some of what you stated fixed, the PS1 is special for its games and the flaws of the hardware forced developers to think in ways we wouldn't dream of :)
You put together a great video so nice job. IMO the PS1 look actually helps these games. A lot of these games with the improvements have all their depth and atmosphere stripped away and they look like contemporary mobile shovel ware games. There were some games I liked the emulation look better like that first Japanese exclusive fighting game, but games like Silent Hill and Symphony of the Night needed the PS1 effects for the design of the game. You can really tell on Symphony of the Night as I'd go so far as to say the emulated version looks horrible and what a lazy Unity container remaster would look like if released today. Tekken 3 and Spyro was hit hard by those "improvements" too.
I appreciate the kind words :) I feel it is personal preference & regardless I still enjoyed the comparison although I do agree some games, especially Silent Hill did lose its identity and atmosphere using the upscale :) Please remember even at 1x, you can still use all the enhancements such as better colour depth, perspective correction & overclocking :) So we could lower the resolution to native and still benefit with Duckstation :) You can pick and choose how you want your games to look which is amazing :)
Enhancements should be compared with decent CRT filters, not HD displays, since those graphics were made for that technology. I.e. dithering is an effect that takes advantage of CRT tech which does not translate at all to modern displays, at least not without using a good CRT filter.
I disagree :) I do understand what you are saying, but the reality is more & more people will play retro games like this on newer displays & for me, this makes the most sense since I'm in that category :) Because I don't own or plan to own a CRT again (I'd simply never use it) this way of testing is a must :) However, that doesn't mean I can't test out CRT filters if audiences are willing to help me with which ones are the best to use for the emulator :)
Bringing to you a new version of my most successful video ever! Hope you enjoy the results!
Tekken 3 arcade best with psxmame 4k 60 FPS
PSXMAME zinc emulateur for PC not work in anderoid
Duckstation has been a godsend for PS1 emulation. Not hating on ePSXe, that emulator was great for what it is but Duckstation just takes it up a notch.
Duckstation for me really took PS1 emulation up a notch & although ePSXe is still good, I no longer use it since Duckstation is far better in my opinion :)
Why compare it to epsxe if all things, beetle/mednafen is comparable, but duck still has the upper edge. You also can't do Switchres 15kHz output to a CRT with ePSXe, making it more limited in functionality. With duckstation you can, or the swanstation fork. Giving you exact 240p/480i video switching on a CRT.
The uploader adding "in my opinion" isn't necessary, Duckstation is subjectively better, it's simply more accurate.
It should be, considering ePSXe last saw updates like 10 years ago.
Some people still prefer ePSXe (Not me) because it has more filters and it supports playing games being read off actual PS1 disks & they are simply happy with it :)
I never suggest to anyone to use ePSXe now but for those who do, it is their choice :)
I love Duckstation and I'm happy people who are now using it or just making the switch can now see why it is worth the trade :)
@@AffrosCuriositiesOfficial "and it supports playing games being read off actual PS1"
What do you mean by that? Duckstation reads original PS1 discs as well, played a bunch of my collection via Duckstation already. It's just some that are glitchy or won't be read, but in general you can play original PS1 Discs on Duckstation as well.
Hmmm I never knew this, I remember when I first had Duckstation I could not play my PS1 disk games but could with ePSXe (This was 2021 mind you) I guess they either added support & I did not realise or it was there all along & I was dumb not to find or see it xD
No one else mentioned this working either until I saw your comment so this is something I need to try for myself in the future :)
It basically turns the PS1 into a "Dreamcast".
The new look is certainly similar to the graphical style of one :) I love the Dreamcast look so it is a win win for me :)
The games being built for dreamcast were pre 2000 so yea similar graphic style
In a way yes, but most importantly Dreamcast ran almost entire library in 60 fps, meanwhile PS1 ran in 30 fps or even less. Duckstation can't fix that.
I remember there used to be software called "bleem!" that would allow you to run select PS1 games on the Dreamcast. I think Gran Turismo was one of those games, screenshots looked amazing.
Does seem like Bleemcast 4.0
Playing resident evil series on duckstation is amazing. Upscaling, filters and enhancement made the graphics looks beautiful.
It certainly changes the experience although I prefer software mode but, that's me :)
Yeah but the running seems to fast it’s a bit to high def but looks good
Duckstation is how I remember those PS1 games looking to me when I was a kid
Pretty much the same although I love real hardware & Duckstation for different reasons :)
It helps that we played them on CRT when we were children too.
@@drcidd8153 This - they were designed to be seen on CRTs so make sure you use original resolution with a scanline filter for the most authentic experience
I think when this video game generation looks too sharp, it kind looses the thing. I usually prefer to set just 2x with some shaders to improve the image, it keeps the whole idea of the game.
I prefer a 2x scale for PS1 games at least on Emulation, real hardware, 5x when using the OSSC buying that's my preference 😊
This is why I like Emulation, you can pick how you want the games to look to your personal tastes :)
5:51 for "gowcaizer" is not just on playstation, it's also on neo geo AES and MVS .
Anyway , many games with duck station looks like a dreamcast game
Yes, I saw it was on NEO GEO and it was a far far better game than the one here xD
It does and I do like the Dreamcast look so it is a win, win :)
This video is unreal. Excellent quality mate, well done.
All my season 7 videos have this level of quality so, if you liked this, you'll enjoy the other episodes! Thank you for the kind response :)
This is what the ps classic should have been all about. Legendary games upscaled for a new generation. I’ve been using duck station and like many are saying it breathes new life into them old skool titles 👍
I don't think Sony would have gone this far but it would have been nice & certainly they could have done a lot, lot better with their PS Classic :)
Remember the PS Classic predated Duckstation by two to three years so, ePSXe was the best PS1 emulator at the time & they didn't take advantage of that either!
Glad you are enjoying what Duckstation brings to the table!
Facts. They are tripping. I still want a PS2 Pro thay does this and beyond.
I saw 57 subs and thought "how good could this be?"
But I was pleasantly surprised! Great details, great commentary, and the perfect length for gameplay. Looking forward to more of your great work!
I know the subscriber count hides the true production values on my videos but, to give you a little history, this is my seventh season of Affro's Curiosities which has been moved to this channel :)
My main channel is called The Affro Show & Affro's Curiosities used to be there until 2023 :)
Thank you for the kind comments and if you want to see more, old episodes are here in a playlist for your enjoyment :)
@@AffrosCuriositiesOfficial Exactly what I was looking for, thank you!
Anytime and glad I could help :)
To be fair, some of the PS1 shortcomings (like excessively dithered output, chunky pixels and low resolution), wasn't actually much of an issue when displayed on a CRT... People who want to know what a somewhat authentic output of the PS1 looked like back in the days (and can't get hold of 90's hardware). Run a high quality CRT with composite color blending (like "crt-hyllian-ntsc"). dithering is gone, pixels are rounder, smoother and more blended together. It doesn't look nearly as unattractive when using a quality scaler with clean RGB output on modern displays. Personally I prefer to play many of the PS1 games like this instead of using DuckStations upscaling.
It is very interesting because CRT's or at least higher end ones could support RGB, S-Video or even Component in later years & no one seems to realise or have an idea of how this would look on a CRT display, especially with how sharp the picture would look :)
I always say I find it fantastic how we can customise & make the games look almost exactly as we please thanks to shaders & filters :)
Me, I'll stick with real hardware using RGB SCART & my OSSC combination but, all the same, any way is the best way to play :)
Excellent video and great commentary.
Thank you for the kind response and I worked hard to make it better after Season 6 :)
For those prerendered background nothing beats a good old CRT tv, I never had a real ps1, all my experience was with ePSXe and Bleem, from 2000 to 2005 aprox... when I got a PS2 and forgot completely about ps1, but my graphics card had a s-video output and I played on a samsung crt tv, 32", the difference in games with prerendered graphics was amazing, FF9, RE2 and 3, parasite eve...
I use the OSSC, RGB SCART or Component cables using a 4K tv & I love the graphics using real hardware but, again for those wanting to upscale or wanting to use texture filtering, the option is there :) Same with using CRT's if it more your scene :)
Try the downsampling feature in emulation. It increases the resolution of 3D objects (namely characters) and then uses downsampling to match the background resolution. No more jarring disparity between the backgrounds and characters! It looks great.
This might be worth making a video on in more detail to see if it can indeed help :)
I personally both the original PS1 output and the RetroArch, DuckStation, ePSXe (using the old DirectX plugin for GPU) emulation to bring forward the true nostalgia in terms of graphics accuracy. Nowadays I use RetroArch and the original PS1 output via Retrotink 5X Pro and that works wonders for me, and I enjoy every moment of playing games using these.
I have to say the original PS1 output sometimes is worse than the DuckStation, RetroArch and ePSXe, but there's times when I want to play games on all these different graphics output options, as it brings out the game in different unique ways and it's always a fun time playing games at a preferred way. I personally enjoy it on original hardware or on RetroArch personally.
This is the beauty of both :) Original hardware is still amazing but we can use emulation to replicate or enhance games that could benefit from a facelift, performance boost or both! :)
It definitely makes more of a difference with some games over others. Silent Hill was night and day. Using Duckstation on my RG556 and loving it. Nice vid too
It is amazing when you test games with Duckstation and see how it can transform both the graphics and the overall experience! Thank you, I appreciate the comment! :)
I use Swanstation. The increased and locked framerate is a game changer. Widescreen hacks are nice too. Also the downsampling feature for games with pre-rendered background is really good.
Duckstation has all of the same features & has been around since 2019/2020 :) Clearly Swanstation is based on Duckstation which is good to see :)
In duckstation I like to use a smaller scaling factor, about 2x (and nearest neighbour texture upscaling) and some shader like CRTLottes.
I like using 2x on my Steam Deck but without the filters but this is my preference :)
7:00 Full name is Saber Marionette J Battle Sabers. Saber Marionette was a popular anime back in the nineties
Ah I know, that's why I just called it Battle Sabers & left the title screen up so the full name was shown :)
I'd never heard of it until I just stumbled across this game xD I don't remember it being mentioned or advertised on TV in the UK during the 90s :)
3:08 what disc speed up hack are you talking about? Does it make games load times faster?
Yes, I overclocked & sped up the disk read speed by 5x meaning games loaded pretty much instantly compared to real PS1 hardware :)
Fantastic Episode. Do more videos like this and you will be successful. The Darkstalkers clip @ 11:56 made my speakers bass sound like it was coming from another room. Deep bass.
Thank you, I have more coming so I hope they will do a good job like this video did :) Haha, I do love that music for its deep bass :)
Thanks for the video!
No problem, hope you enjoyed it :)
What song is that playing @0:20 ??
It's Plan Of Operations From Gungriffon 2 :)
Overclocking the cpu and afmf or lossless scaling also helps a lot for smoothing framerate. (Framerate doubling )
The overclock was used in this video on every game tested on the Duckstation Emulator 😊
You might also try adding a comparison with a texture filter. Some games could gain or look different with bilinear or xbrz filtering. Sometimes the results are strange and sometimes better than pixelated graphics.
I personally prefer Nearest Neighbour after trying all of the filters but, I know others prefer a different look depending on the game & it is great users can pick and choose based on their own preferences :)
The original PlayStation was a glorious system. It allowed developers to easily exploit its abilities.
I love the PlayStation for so much & I love seeing it still thrive in 2024!
@@AffrosCuriositiesOfficial Agreed!
I find while the backgrounds are often painted there isn’t much to be done about that but the 3d stuff really benefits
It will always vary from game to game but, the improvements are best seen on completely 3D titles :)
DuckStation has killed all of my desire to own a real PS1. It's that freaking good. I've been using it for years. Never looked back at ePSXe.
Understandable & I feel you are not alone :) I love my PS1 but at least emulation is there if it goes wrong or I choose not to buy another :)
Wonder how it would compare to the games played on original hardware and upscaled via Retrotink. Retrotink's filters go a long way into making the games look better on modern TVs, while preserving the CRT look.
Many people have Retrotink footage out there but it depends on which one and what you are looking for :)
The 2x, 5x & 4K all have various modes built in to suit your preference and the OSSC I use does have adjustable scanlines built in, although I never use the feature :)
You can UA-cam search this since the family of devices are popular enough to where people show them off using a variety of consoles for testing :)
I highly suggest not to enable True Color Rendering for a game like Silent Hill. Dithering was used to hide most of the polygon pop-in, which is especially bad during night. Disable True Color Rendering to get the dithering back and enable Scaled Dithering. This gets rid of most of the distracting pop-in.
For me I did not mind the look at all & I personally don't mind pop in graphics as many of my favourite games were like this on PS1 :)
For me, the fog did most of the work, dithering was used just to blend it all in but, I do agree it can be distracting for some if they are playing for the first time, I already completed the game several times so it was nice to experience it in a different way :)
@@AffrosCuriositiesOfficial I usually don't mind it either, but in this case, I noticed that something must be off, because I didn't remember the pop-in during night being this bad on original hardware and assets like trees stood out too much.
BTW I'm also using the 60 fps and widescreen cheats (included in Duckstation) and haven't noticed any downsides yet. The former requires overclocking the virtual console way beyond 150% though. (I always set overclocking on a per-game basis because of their different requirements. Like the Tomb Raider games work fine with 150, but if you go significantly higher, at some point the gameplay suddenly speeds up. 🤨 ) Oh, and don't fiddle with the clock control while a game is running - that often leads to a crash.
@@rockapartie
I can understand this & you are right but, I did not mind it as I was testing for fun :)
Some games like Resident
Evil 2 crash once you go above 150% & others like Crash Bash fail to start if overclocking is used :)
I also found Vagrant Story unplayable as the game speeds up when overclocked but, thankfully lots of games work nicely when using overclocking :)
Widescreen is a nice hack but some games again like RE 2 don't work properly and some games like Driver 2 has garbage on both sides of the screen when using the hack XD
But again, game by game basis :)
awesome video as alwasy but i would never change my ps1 + ODV using s-video. having said that, i tried Vagrant Story and Front mission 3 on duckstation cranked up to the max and it was truly impressive! *edited to add fm3
I love my real hardware using the OSSC & RGB SCART on my 4K TV or MacBook but I do love what Duckstation can do & I use it often on my Steam Deck :)
DuckStation has been a blessing. It has made the ps1 games look stable like the equivalent pc ports back in the day. Made the games look a lot more digestable.
Duckstation indeed can help but, unfortunately it cannot fix everything & 2D games only look sharper with no additional frames of animation added for those ports that were cut back at the time :)
Otherwise, Duckstation has been a fantastic way to emulate PS1 games!
Yeah, but it's specially great for all those exclusives that looked amazing but didn't have PC ports and very soon after didn't age well due to the limitations of the hardware. It really helps see what the games truly were meant to look like had they been in better hardware, even at the time (not in 4k, but PC or if the PS1 hadn't had some of the limitations it had due to having to keep it at a certain price).
It certainly can give us an idea of what could have been had some games received PC ports & while Duckstation cannot fix everything, the fact we have all these options make it worth trying out, no matter if you want the native PS1 look or something different :)
But i liked the look of the PC MS-Dos 320x200 Master Race that 3d Ps1 games had.
Everyone is different and some games maybe looked good at this low resolution :)
9:40 Music name please 🙏
It's Katrina's theme from Asuka 120% Burning Fest Final :)
Gow Glazer? I think you meant Gowcaizer. As in Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer. Ive known about it as an anime in the mid 90s from the makers of the Fatal Fury animation guys. Loved the artstyle so much. I learned about it having a video game waaay later.
Sadly I had to guess how to say it being a Japanese game & one that I've never heard of xD
Ah I'm glad to know more about it, although this game sadly isn't so hot 🙄
Are the improvement settings on duckstation available on swanstation in retroarch?
Great video!
I haven't touched Swanstation so I couldn't tell you but if they are, defiantly use it or use a standalone Duckstation emulator if not :)
Thank you!
(Note someone left a comment saying they used features in Swanstation which matches those used in Duckstation)
It does have the same settings, I'm working on that at the moment and it does not cease to impress me how good the emulation is.
@@Manny_Morales please give me these settings lol the games look amazing in this video!!!.
@@AffrosCuriositiesOfficial Thanks for responding. Keep up the amazing work.
The settings I used in this video for Duckstation are at the beginning :) Anytime, just here to help!
Tried to find track from 1:20 to 7:00 or so but couldn't. Is it really from Wipeout 3?
The soundtrack is from a game called World Tour Racing for the Atari Jaguar CD :)
After all these years, I've come to find the original PS1 graphics charming. But the improvement provided by emulators is unquestionable.
Of all the 3D titles you've showcased, 'Demolition Racer' is, for some reason, the only one I'm still not sure whether I prefer the original or emulated version (except for the improved framerate, of course). Everything else in 3D looks much better using Duckstation.
"Gowcaizer" emulated blew me away. I didn't expect a game with 2D sprites to have such a significant improvement.
Great video! Congratulations!
I love the PS1 look and I accept its flaws although I have also appreciated what Duckstation can do & games like Driver 2 work so much better thanks to overclocking :)
I can understand, I'm still not sure either although the frame rate did make it more playable :)
I was surprised too but the game is still bad unfortunately xD
Thank you! :D
You can always get same look with emulator, but still have certain enhancements like overclocking to fix framerates or faster CD loading.
Great comparison I would also add the games that use 2D backgrounds with 3D character models such as Resident Evil 2 and parasites Eve You should look into down sampling in the duck station settings As that will give it a more cohesive look :) since you won't Have the mismatch of high-resolution character models with low resolution backgrounds
I get this a lot & although it defiantly would help I'm happy with the look even if it does sacrifice the image quality of the 2D backdrops :)
That being said, since this comes up often, perhaps I need to make a dedicated video on downsampling in Duckstation :)
@@AffrosCuriositiesOfficialwell If you decided to make that video I'd definitely watch it 😁
I may make an EX video on it since I can focus on it :) Watch out for it!
You know, as great as Emulators are, whenever I'm too lazy to get my old PS1 out and set it up on my TV, when I instead put the PS1 Disc in my PC and boot up the Emulator, it's nice to HAVE all these enhancement options, but I'm glad that Duckstation also can emulate the PS1 1:1 picture perfect, I kinda WANT that pixelated look with these old games. Everything else is interesting to watch and much fun to those who prefer it like that, but I prefer when it looks like it's 1996 - 1998 again
Well everything is there as you mentioned and you can customise the look to however you like :)
I love Duckstation and messing with the enhancements at 4K but I love real PS1 hardware using RGB SCART too :)
just subbed....go on mate!!!!
Thank you, got plenty more to post :)
Whats the background track at 6:35 lad?
The whole background soundtrack used from the beginning of Wipeout 3 until Bloody Roar II was a song from World Tour Racing for the Atari Jaguar CD :)
Great video. Love Duckstation. Its my PS1 emu for years now.
@manolytovivi3090 Duckstation is superb & easily my go to for PS1 emulation 😁
We had Gawcaizer at my local arcade. It was super fun, but never managed to beat it. The A.I. would scale it difficulty quite hard towards the last stages, and kid me didn't have enough quarters to push through 😄
The arcade version plays like a traditional 2D Fighter, i.e. Street Fighter 2. Never knew about this weird 3D warping effect version of the game
I never heard of this game at all until I found this and then learned it was a NEO GEO game first xD
Don't worry, this version is terrible xD
As much as I like the major enhancements the original graphics really added to the atmosphere. Especially Silent Hill.
It's going to be personal preference & yes some games won't have their intended feel due to the enhancements :)
You can always turn the enhancements off or use software rendering mode if you want the PS1 look proper, albeit if it used RGB SCART :)
@@AffrosCuriositiesOfficial 100% agree with you :) I just think there are specific are specific games that stands out or made some sort of impact and after experiencing this, everything else will look off.
This is the beauty of emulation, you can choose how you want the games to look to your liking :)
I always show off the enhancements as I feel most will use it to experience games in a different way! Still, at least for those wanting a vanilla experience, software rendering modes are available :)
Great vid! ❤
It would have been nice if you had also included "Fear Effect"
I actually own both games but Duckstation would ruin the FMV backdrops using the settings used in this video, maybe I can include it in another video :)
@@AffrosCuriositiesOfficial I had problems especially with that game (and honestly with almost all games even though I have an ultrabook i7 -it is a Fujitsu U7720-)
Hmmm, not sure as I tried it on my MacBook & Steam Deck & it works :)
Try software mode on your ultrabook :)
@@AffrosCuriositiesOfficial what is a mode on software?!
On Duckstation, it will say adapter in the options menu & there you can pick from OpenGL, Vulkan, Null, Metal (Apple Only) or Software :)
Software Rendering is basically true to the PS1 look and should work if you are having issues with any other render type :)
I still play PSX emulators on X1 resolution with a good CRT/NTSC shaders/filters. Just like how it was playing on original hardware on a crt television. They look beautiful on those settings. No point upscaling them graphics. They still look ugly. I if want to play better looking games, I just play modern games.
I like playing PS1 games using real hardware or emulation but I also enjoy upscaling to see what can be done with the old graphics :)
Ultimately I love emulation because you can customise how you want the graphics to look as you please or to speed up some games that had performance issues like Driver 2, making it far more playable :)
For me, it depends on the game and what it's doing. Games like Wipeout are filled with unrealized detail that pops out at higher resolution with all the polygon and texture distortion fixes. But Resident Evil, with it's static low resolution backgrounds, can look worse. Even mostly full 3D games can suffer from this, Road Rash 3D has a dynamic skybox with aggressive pop-in and LOD that doesn't hold up at higher resolutions at all.
The trick I use for games like the latter is running at ~4x scale with the PGXP enhancements them downsampling that back down to native resolution. It ends up looking cleaner without exposing the flaws of the original assets that don't scale up to HD well. Resident Evil-likes look kind of amazing this way, the real time 3D blends almost seamlessly with the backgrounds in a way that it never did, arguably to the point that it changes gameplay since you could always tell if something was a dynamic object just by looking to see if there was aliasing around it.
It is good we have the ability to make these changes using Duckstation :)
I don't mind the 4K upscaled look without downsampling or real hardware using RGB with the OSSC but as I always say, we have the power to choose how to play and how it looks :)
@@scheeseman486 I use the downsampling trick and add a retro crisis shader on top, looks amzing to me
There's always an interesting solution out there for image quality :)
Best result is still CRT. Not trying to sound like an elite oldschool gamer but It really makes a difference. When you sharpen the image so much you can see alot of clipping and the gfx show their age even more. certain games gain the upscale in resolution but definitly not all.
We all have different preferences and I know many, many people will agree with you but for me, while I agree with your assessments with Duckstation, I still love it & remember you can customise the look to your preference :) I just showed what a typical modern user would do :)
Thanks for the video
Glad you enjoyed it :)
i cant find the music that you use in this video i love the pumping beats of this video!
It is a song from the Atari Jaguar CD game, World Tour Racing 😊
@@AffrosCuriositiesOfficial THANK YOUU
Anytime :) Glad I could help you find it :)
This kind of stuff worries me that eventually people via UA-cam and emulation be under the impression the ps1 was way more stable and capable than it actually was. It kind of smooths over the charm and original presentation in a way that turns me off. Idk, I’m sure other people strongly disagree
This is actually what motivated me to make these types of videos in the first place :) Too many videos using enhanced PS1 graphics via emulation and many people believing this is what the PS1 looked like when in reality it did not :)
I love what emulation can and has done but, people also need to be aware of what real hardware truly looked like outside of emulation :)
I prefer real hardware or software mode on emulation but I do enjoy using overclocking & disk speed up hacks to improve loading times :)
Duckstation makes revisiting PS1 gaming a pleasure.
It does, I love playing games or even games I never played growing up using Duckstation :)
Why is the volume of this video so low? I thought my phone speakers blew until plugging in headphones and turning them up to the max and still wondering what's happening?
The volume is lower than you're used because I always edited my videos this way for the best sound quality possible in my voice work along with to make it smooth to listen to :)
However, you can either use the new stable volume feature (PC only I think) on UA-cam to normalise all of the volume in the video or you can watch this video in my complete season episode where I boosted the volume of all my season 7 videos, this one included :)
I have the volume of my tablet at 30% and I can hear this video perfectly. Something is wrong with your phone 🤔
The stable volume function now works on tablets and phones since this comment was posted & likely your tablet is using it to boost the volume, even at 30% :)
Duckstation literally converts every PS1 game into an HD remaster. RPCS2 does the same with PS2 games. The two emulators have an identical UI and similar settings selections.
Indeed because they are made by the Duckstation team, PCSX2 is updated by them and has come a long way :)
Bloody Roar 2 looks phenomenal in 4K! Prettiest game on the list.
It certainly helps that the game uses the PS1's Hi-Res mode (480i or 576i for PAL Users) which already gives it more detail than most games :)
All I wanna know is when is it coming to fightcade?! Been waiting years.
I've never used fightcade so I couldn't tel you unfortunately!
Hey afro, been a sub since your ps2 video ngl
have you tried RetroCrisis's GDV shaders for RetroArch before? It changes everything.
Thank you for sticking with me :)
Unfortunately I haven't since I don't use Retroarch, everytime I try to, it doesn't seem to work so well :)
I have seen videos of shaders used on retro games & to me they didn't look appealing, at least in my opinion 😊
Maybe in the future I can look closely into them to see if my mind can be changed :)
@@AffrosCuriositiesOfficial you gotta try the right shader !! but yah ofc im kinda glad i found your channel! its chill if they werent that appealing tho i get that theyre not for everyone.
I can always have a look in the future to see if there's any I might like or at least make people aware of should they be interested :)
I appreciate the comment 😁
Is there a good way in Duckstation to upscale to 4k but keep the 3d graphics pixelated still?
Either try downscaling which is in Duckstation or simply output to a 4K display & use integer scaling also available in Duckstation which using 1x resolution :)
@@AffrosCuriositiesOfficial Brilliant, setting it back to 1x and using integer gave me exactly what I needed. I was using retroarch for the longest time because of MegaBezel but Duckstation is just too good now. Hopefully PCSX2 gets the same built in post processing. Guest FTW.
The PCSX2 emulator is now updated by the same devs who made Duckstation so it will have the same options for integer scaling :)
It will work differently as the native output of PS2 games is 480i or 576i so the scaling will behave and work differently, same goes for PS1 games using its Hi-Res output (480i or 576i) so keep a lookout for this!
Otherwise, glad my suggestion helped :)
This is awesome for 3D games, in the 2D ones that uses sprites, the changes are imperceptible (case of SOTN)
I agree, although the 4K makes the 2d sprites sharper :)
Otherwise, I agree with your observation :)
@@AffrosCuriositiesOfficial time to give parasite eve 2 in nightmare another go!
Good luck with the game! Nice choice as well :)
I actually do prefer Bloody Roar II on real hardware, it does looks better for me
It does look good on real hardware 😊😊
Almost look like an early dreamcast game despite the low polygon count. Compare hydron thunder PS1 version on Duckstation against hydro thunder on real dreamcast hardware it will look almost the same
The massive upscale and various enhancements do indeed come across as a Dreamcast or early PS2 graphics in certain games :)
I don't think scaling that much is the way to go with PSX. I feel like it is better to render at 4K but to donwscale it to 2x-3x the original resolution.
I do have a video showing off the downscaling of Duckstation if you are interested in the results 😊😊
Incredible video. Sub.
Thank you, very much appreciated :)
What about comparing the input lag ?
From my experience using this emulator for years, I've never had a problem with input delay & I've enjoyed many hours of games without any significant problems :)
Same goes for PCSX2 :)
I was expecting a comparisson on accuracy, or how accurate is the emulator vs the real hardware. I mean, is a gibben that the emulator will always look better rendering at 4k with whatnot graphical enhancements. But the thing is the original Ps1 hardware footage doesn´t look like that neither, because the Ps1 was meant to be played on crt screens. The missing scanlines and the horizontal blending that happens naturally on comercial grade crts helped to diminish the perception of dithering and other graphical "flaws", even more if you used composite video.
Oh goodness this is going to be a long comment.. xD
For this comparison I did indeed use real hardware, albeit RGB SCART with the OSSC to show people the PS1 at its best (Subjective I know, everyone has a different take on it) along with what most people would do with Duckstation, i.e upscaling and using the enhancements at the same time :)
I compare the two this way because many people don't seem to know or remember what real PS1 graphics look like, especially today when many people are using enhanced emulated footage & others not realising it :)
I would be happy to do a video where I compare real PS1 hardware against Duckstation when it is in software mode to see how accurate it truly is :)
As for the CRT comment, I know why many say this but for me, I always preferred RGB SCART, even on CRT & I don't own a CRT, I have a 4K TV & I love the image I get out of my OSSC on it, might not be your taste but this is why its fantastic to have options and choices to suit the tastes of many people :)
@@AffrosCuriositiesOfficial The thing is, you will never understand Ps1, Saturn, N64 and other older consoles graphics if you have never played them with composite connections on a crt tv. In Silent Hill all that dithering gets blended with composite and the low tvl from most consumer crt tvs, and the scanlines help to smooth those 240p/256p graphics, specially in games with prerendered backgrounds like the Final Fantasys, Resident Evils, Koudelka, Legend of Dragoon, etc.
I had a CRT growing up using composite cables for my PS1/PS2 games (I'm 30) so I do know what it was like but, unlike most people I just never cared for it. I even played on a Black & White CRT using RF when I used to visit my grandma back in the day too! I managed to get an RGB SCART cable in 2005 (Still using CRT) & I was blown away by the sharpness of the graphics on display :)
By 2012, when I got my first HD TV, I had to use composite for a while until I was able to get good RGB or Component cables again & since then, especially with my OSSC upscaler, I've never looked back :)
I also happen to like dithering on older consoles & scanlines although I agree they look cool, I'd rather sharper graphics anyway but this is my experience & opinion :)
That Battle Sabers game is based on anime called Saber Marionette J lol classic
I've heard about this before in another comment although I know nothing about the anime xD Sadly, the game is still terrible although it could have worked xD
Am I the only one to love the original, unaltered experience ? If I want modern graphics I play modern games. If I want to play the ps1 ... I want to play the ps1
Everyone is different I love Duckstation as much as I love real hardware :) But there are improvements to be had and some games can benefit from this, however if you prefer real hardware, that's no problem :)
even though it looks good i feel the graphics update indeed make the games lose alot of the charm to them.... maybe its me but i would prefer to play them as vanilla as possible. even though some adjustement besides the graphics are really appreciated , duckstation have really talented people working on it!
If you would rather play the games looking as normal as real hardware, I recommend using the software rendering mode & disabling any enhancements, although I'd still keep the overclock on & the disc speed up hack which still work with software rendering :)
Good video. Just a suggestion: you don't need to shit on older/non mainstream games just because you don't like them. What does calling a game useless adds to the video? Or like on Battle Sabers, the movement might be janky but so is Silent Hill's. Just keep it positive, no need for this
Thank you and yes, I did because they were terrible games xD I mean truly, truly terrible xD
Silent Hill is an amazing game & yes the moment controls are not amazing but the game is incredible xD I don't think people know what Battle Sabers is so, not exactly hurting anyone & the game is indeed useless xD Good ideas, rubbish execution xD
Well, those games are indeed terrible, he is not hating.
I'm also a Demolition Racer lover.
I'm glad to not be the only one who loves that game!
Unfair comparation since it lacks of a CRT to show the true potential of the artistic direction and effects in most part of videogames displayed in the video.
But yes Duckstation solve some geometry problems and it can be better in full 3D games overall.
Not everyone has a CRT anymore (Me included) & trying to show CRT captures always has problems, you have to see it in person to truly appreciate how nice CRT's can be :)
Also, with HDMI upscalers getting more common, this digital approach at least shows what the two look like in high quality, so in this sense, it is completely fair :) Not to mention this approach allows people to see what Real hardware actually looks like vs trying to upscale it :)
If you want me to see how Duckstation fares in software mode against Real hardware, I can look into it for a future video :)
Tomb raider really benefits from a stable 30 fps
I can't count the number of times i missed a jump because of random sub 20 fps on my original ps1 (definitely not because i am bad at the game)
It does make a difference, overclocking makes it so any slowdown is now gone for good :)
18:55 Spyro FTW! 😂
But why is Spyro green? 🤢
As stated in the timestamp, it is a hacked version called Spyro Year Of The Dragon 3.5 :)
@@AffrosCuriositiesOfficial I see. Thanks!
Anytime!
Dusckstation is the best PS emulator IMO, but my first love is ePSxe.
Same here, started with ePSXe, enjoyed it but Duckstation is now one of the best ways to enjoy PS1 emulation in 2024 :)
Duckstation is quite good. But still great to play in native hardware
I love playing both :) Duckstation is a nice bonus for me which I use on my Steam Deck but, I still love using real hardware along side it!
Its running like hell on my Raspi5. PS1 emulation at its best.
You can't beat it & I bet it's awesome on a device like that :)
A new era of Emulation!
Its been on the scene since 2019 but, I think it is more people are finally making thee switch to it :)
All we need is the ability to lock the games at 60 fps and replace those low res textures then these games will look like early dreacast games
Locking games at 60fps is easy, getting them to 60fps using patches... Not so much xD
I like the low res textures, if you want to replace them, you'd need to mod the games individually like they are doing with some games like Dino Crisis or Resident Evil :)
@@AffrosCuriositiesOfficial Yo, yea I have seen the "Seamless mod" for resident evil and dino crisis". Unfortunately, duckstation although being the best emulator for the ps1 still doesn't support texture replacement. I have worked on texture replacement projects myself for Mortal Kombat Gold and just completed Daytona usa 2001 hd remaster for the sega dreamcast. I'll make a video of it soon and upload to my youtube channel.
Also, although you can overclock the psx cpu the majority of the ps games are tied to the frame rate meaning that if you attempt to run games at 60ps then the game will run at double speed. some patches work great like grand tourismo, jumping flash, and silent hill as you demonstrated in your video, others...not so good.
I tried to overclock the cpu for Auto Destruct for example and although i was able to play the game at a solid 60fps it broke the game and the enemy ai kept spinning in circles lol.
Yes there's a good few out there & it won't sadly, hence why people have to go and get the game proper to replace the textures or needed to modify the emulator to make it work :)
Indeed, Vagrant Story if you overclock it also breaks it by speeding up the game xD This is par for the course & as you said some games work better than others :)
Duckstation makes PS1 games look like PSP games. It appears to be very impressive.
I feel they look more akin to Dreamcast games but, PSP is a good shout too :)
@@AffrosCuriositiesOfficial True. The PSP and Dreamcast are very similar in terms of specs. But I agree with you.
Some day I will revisit both consoles because both deserve more love :)
It's an unfair comparison in my opinion because DuckStation improves image quality to 4K and the OSSC can't, The only competitor to this would be... Retrotink 4K Upscaler!
The point of this comparison is to show what Duckstation & its enhancements can do for those wanting to play in a different way :)
Its also to show people what real hardware looks like as many people enhance their PS1 games and it can fool others into thinking its from PS1 hardware :)
Duckstation has a software mode where it looks and behaves like a real PS1 & the OSSC although amazing as is the tink 5x will never do anything to this degree :)
Plus this is just a bit of fun :)
@AffrosCuriositiesOfficial Thanks for the video Affros!
But don't forget that Retrotink 5X Pro support 1440P and OSSC only 1080P like the GBS-Control 👍🏽
@@eyeofhelios7830 It does but in this case the graphics would only be a bit sharper, the internal resolution would be 240p still & would still not be at Duckstation 4K levels :)
Frankly I thought you were an amateur "overclocking 150%" but I digress I underestimated duck station FPGA should take notes
Most games don't start if you push the overclock too hard (Over 150%) & I find 150% is perfect for all games to hit their maximum frame rate with no drops from what I've experienced :)
@@AffrosCuriositiesOfficial great stuff thx for the tip
No problem, been using Duckstation since 2020 & I've learnt a lot :)
@@AffrosCuriositiesOfficial Try Nascar Racing. You're gonna need a laaaaaht more than 150% to get that one running smoothly. I have it set to 800%, bc any lower than that results in some frame drops. Shipwreckers / Overboard is another game that requires well over 150%. I have it set to 400%. I've actually never seen a game not start up due to a high overclock. Primarily I use the libretro version of this emulator and only use the standalone one for a very small amount of titles.
Resident Evil 2 won't start at higher than 150% xD
But every game is different & I find most work nicely at 150% & I've tested hundreds of games at this point (I've had Duckstation since 2020) I know some will not start at all (Crash Bash doesn't work with any overclocking at all, the game doesn't start xD) luckily, just have to experiment so it is not a big problem :)
Turning 3D ps1 games into remastered and better performance.
It can do that & it is a nice way to replay or experience games :)
excellent video. Duckstation is amazing :)
Thank you! It really is an incredible emulator for PlayStation games :)
Codename Tenka is an emulation-only title, as the base control scheme is dreadful and unplayable. You have to use the modded ROM with more or less modern controls layout.
It was a victim of early console FPS games so anything to help modernise games like it are massively appreciated & welcome :)
I also love Demolition Racer
I'm glad its not just me :)
@@AffrosCuriositiesOfficial If you haven't already you should try Demolition Racer: No Exit on the Dreamcast
Already have & to be honest I prefer the PS1 original :)
Looks excellent... To me the duckstation emulator makes it look like the PSP graphics
PSP not sure about but Dreamcast is more likely :)
But I do enjoy seeing Duckstation and what it can do all the same :)
duck station makes games look like dreamcast/early ps2 games
I think that is about right :)
Not knocking original hardware but emulation is the only way to long term preserving the games. Old hardware will eventually fail and the media is not repairable once gone bad so it has to be copied before that.
No one can deny that, although it is still good to have options to suit everyone :)
After all, emulation sticking around is not guaranteed! I hope it will be as I do love it & as a tool for preservation, its vital!
I play duckstation on a CRT TV and it looks like real hardware.
Using the software mode & using Integer scaling makes it look like real hardware using RGB SCART & I love it :)
duckstation makes ps1 games looks like a dreamcast.
Some of them do indeed have a Dreamcast look to them, which I'm a fan of :)
There is another advantage of emulation that will be very hard to copy on original hardware. 60FPS patches.
Yes, you can do gameshark to do the same thing but overclocking PS1 makes needing a decent amount of modifications to make it happen.
On emulation this makes sense and can improve gameplay more :) For me, I'm happy with getting games to their maximum frame rate without 60FPS patches but, it is fantastic the option is there :)
Been playing Gran Turismo 2 with a 60 fps patch and it's been pretty great.
I imagine that would be very nice since GT 2 could only hit a maximum of 30 or 25 fps depending on region of the title :)
The PSone pro we never received.
Ah, I love the PSone as it is, but I do love what we can do in Duckstation :)
No fps for the duckstation?
I'm a bit confused by your question, can you elaborate? :)
TEKKEN 3 Looking FINE
It sure is 😊
xenogears looks great using duckstation
It certainly does & emulation does nothing to hurt the image quality 😁
You're only getting that dithering because your not using composite cables on a crt
Yes & I like dithering on PS1 :) Its a look I've grown up with and gotten used to, it does not bother me :)
I'd rather a sharper image on RGB SCART (Used for real hardware in this video) than Composite anyday :)
@@AffrosCuriositiesOfficial Not me. I have RGB SCART but I choose not to use it for my PS1 and use 'lower quality' composite cables instead because that's what gives PS1 its best and most genuine look and feel. RGB SCART isn't well designed for ps1. I use RGB SCART on almost every other console I have (even Ps3!), but def not PS1. PS1 graphics are not about a sharper image.
If you like the composite CRT look I do understand & many would agree with you :)
I've never cared for it & I love RGB SCART on PS1 but, to each their own & everyone has a different preference :)
Compare to a ps3 if you can. I'm fairly happy with my ps3 for psx games. One of the best consoles ever made
I certainly can look although I did do a video years ago comparing PS1 Games on PS3 vs PS2 :)
Dusckstation makes it a PS1.5 or PS1 Pro+
That's one way of looking at it or it can easily replicate the look of real hardware if you prefer that style of graphics :)
Imagine if PS1 had at least some sort of minimal hardware graphics acceleration... The level of emulation and/or enhancements, especially for a framerate could've been virtually unlimited now even on physical hardware. Man, they really screwed at least one major thing in every console of this era: PS1 had no floating point and graphics acceleration, N64 had no disc space, Saturn had no proper 3D and two processors working together efficiently, Jaguar was another 64-bit beast with CD but nothing else... It's amazing how many great games and tech miracles we had from this era, but so much potential and legacy was lost.
I feel hindsight is a big part of it, what could the hardware have done had x and x been added or changed but, to me these flaws are part of the charm & while it would be nice to have some of what you stated fixed, the PS1 is special for its games and the flaws of the hardware forced developers to think in ways we wouldn't dream of :)
You put together a great video so nice job.
IMO the PS1 look actually helps these games. A lot of these games with the improvements have all their depth and atmosphere stripped away and they look like contemporary mobile shovel ware games. There were some games I liked the emulation look better like that first Japanese exclusive fighting game, but games like Silent Hill and Symphony of the Night needed the PS1 effects for the design of the game. You can really tell on Symphony of the Night as I'd go so far as to say the emulated version looks horrible and what a lazy Unity container remaster would look like if released today. Tekken 3 and Spyro was hit hard by those "improvements" too.
I appreciate the kind words :)
I feel it is personal preference & regardless I still enjoyed the comparison although I do agree some games, especially Silent Hill did lose its identity and atmosphere using the upscale :)
Please remember even at 1x, you can still use all the enhancements such as better colour depth, perspective correction & overclocking :)
So we could lower the resolution to native and still benefit with Duckstation :) You can pick and choose how you want your games to look which is amazing :)
Using Net Yarose games ❤
If Isos of the games exist, I could try it for next time :)
Enhancements should be compared with decent CRT filters, not HD displays, since those graphics were made for that technology. I.e. dithering is an effect that takes advantage of CRT tech which does not translate at all to modern displays, at least not without using a good CRT filter.
I disagree :)
I do understand what you are saying, but the reality is more & more people will play retro games like this on newer displays & for me, this makes the most sense since I'm in that category :)
Because I don't own or plan to own a CRT again (I'd simply never use it) this way of testing is a must :)
However, that doesn't mean I can't test out CRT filters if audiences are willing to help me with which ones are the best to use for the emulator :)