PCSX2 is something that I am forever grateful for being as good as it is. Now that I have an insane PC, I can finally play some more demanding games emulated in 4k with no issues. Playing the Sly Cooper trilogy and Midnight Club 3 Dub Edition Remix is a dream because the PS2 means so much more to me than just a console. I grew up with some of the best games I’ve ever played.
Might want to use the Nightly build. I just switched last night and it’s great. Running on Vulkan and True Crime New York is running to its full capacity and it’s on HD😅. I want to say I used the AXCS2 64 bit.
Hey man, random question. My pcsx 2 has a lot of speed problems and framedrops. I have tried tweaking EE cycle rate and other settings. My PC has 8 GB ram and 4 GB Nvedia GPU (not sure which one exactly). Is it possible that my pc specs arent enough or there might be another reason?
One of the things I've found with emulators is that there's inconsistent input lag and so some games just don't feel right, particularly retro games reliant on frame perfect inputs. If the input lag were consistent, then we could adapt. Due to the nature of emulators though, sometimes it's 1 frame, other times it's 5. That's why I think FPGA is ultimately the future so long as the original hardware can be accurately described either by decapping or reverse engineering. In the late 2000s when LCDs took over the market and the PS3 was released, games started to lax the input windows. As such, I'd be curious to test fight games from the PS2 era to see if they started to loosen those input windows earlier. If they did, then being hardware-accurate may not matter so much.
Dolphin has no or very little input lag, PCSX2 still sucks at fighting games because of the input lag. For Budokai tenkaichi you can play that on Dolphin too.
I don't notice such latency on anything with a framebuffer and don't notice it with systems running run ahead. I actually find the original hardware has higher input latency than run ahead at times. I have heard people having such problems with Sega Saturn emulation but I am getting about the same frame counts between button presses as others are getting on MiSTer FPGA systems for Sega Saturn. I do wish we had more objective testing on both soft and hard emulation. Someone that does not have something to gain from the results they present.
23:30 convert a MC save to a folder is very useful to put a save created on emulator or downloaded from the internet on real console. Just bring the folder to an USB stick, run uLanchELF on PS2 console and copy the folder to memory card and bang, you can play the save on real hardware. The backwards is valid too. You also can convert the save folder to a PS3 save file and put on PS3 (softmodded or not) using an USB stick, and play PS2/PS1 back compat games on PS3 using the save file you created
Love this emulator, just wish I could upscale my MLB 06 The Show without the black vertical lines :). Have about 40 PS2 discs and most work flawlessly. Great job!
you can get really weird results using discs in pcsx2 emulator same as original ps2 if there's scratch it'll mess up an area of code. since the emulator is reading original game code + interpreting its own emulator response + you get this really bizarre amount of glitches from any tiny spot the laser doesn't read 00FF
The biggest thing for me when emulating is the controller. I could play it with another controller but it takes away a bit of nostalgia. I would encourage people too try to source an OG controller and a USB adapter. It makes a world of difference. Especially the PS2 controller because it had pressure sensitive buttons. The only other controller that comes close to the DS2 is the DS3 from the ps3. Some rare titles on the ps2 also had support for sixaxis but I don't think pcsx2 has sixaxis support
For sure, especially in regards to the pressure sensitivity with a few titles like MGS2 and MGS3, where pressure sensitive controls are a vital part of gameplay.
None of the USB adapters available at the moment support pressure sensitivity. There is a kind of expensive one for PSX controllers that may add it with an update.
@@mattpiechocki8874 Would a PS3 controller work with PCSX2 for the pressure sensitivity? I'm considering getting that and a stand for my Steam Deck so I can play them properly.
Love the PS2!! Easily my favorite video game console. Just added a HDD to to my fat PS2 and I’m able to play games that are ridiculously expensive right now. I’m still collecting games, but it’s refreshing that I can still play some premium PS2 games and actually have a shit ton of games backed up on the HDD.
Despite the bonuses, I still get the most joy playing my PS2 on my CRT. I have FreeMCBoot and a HDD in my PS2, so I don't have to use my discs, and have made my own OPL theme based off the PS3 UI in yellow. Still play mine at least every couple of weeks.
if there's thing I think PCSX2 could need it's some sort of other alternative upscaling methods like FSR for example, as I sometimes find that I end up preferring to use my mcable to upscale PS2 games on my TV as some PS2 games don't like the higher internal rendering resolution.
@@springchickena1 that... isn't relevant in the slightest to my comment, other than running games in native resolution, there is a software renderer to fix a majority of the issues in PS2 emulation, there are still some lingering issues like having to correct the fps in the emulator when running Tekken 1, Tekken 2, or Tekken 3 via Tekken 5's arcade history (as it will run slow by default for some reason), but otherwise my experience with Software renderer has been pretty good.
I remember like version 1.2 working pretty damn good with the resolution cranked up to like 2x even on my rig with a FX-8350 choking under the stock cooler and GTX-750ti back in 2014. It was impressive even before the massive reworking of the code in 1.7.
11:24 Soul Calibur 3 is running on interlaced mode, but that game is compatible with progressive scan (480p), you just need to press Triangle + X while the game is booting, until you see a menu asking you if you wish to activate progressive mode. I think that running the game in progressive mode should get rid of the ghosting.
It supports them, everything works.I've tested it with mgs 2, had to use triggers as pressure sensitive buttons due to xbox controller not having pressure sensitive buttons, only triggers.
I’m going to get a 1600x1200 CRT monitor and PCSX2 is one of my reasons for doing so. Deinterlacing and dodgy widescreen hacks won’t be a problem for me, and artefacts brought in by upscaling may be hidden by the attributes of a CRT(not sure about that last part).
@@5izzy557 if you knew what they used to solder things you wouldnt want to be anywhere near a crt turned on in a closed unvented room. totally different world today much less cancer than the early 90s late 80s... if you wanna be careful try making sure it's not from 85-93.
22:12 Launch box is a good option for managing ps2 games and it is constantly updated and while I haven't explored this option myself i think it does support some per game settings as well. the interface kinda looks like steam as well.
@@drone124 yup and its exactly that reason why i ended up hunting down a pvm crt monitor to run my ps2 in rgb on that crt screen because that game as well as tales of the abyss and some others had that issue. On a nice pvm or crt monitor Valkyrie profile 2 looks so crisp and clean it almost looks like an HD remaster in and of itself!
@@matics28 i think valkyrie profile had a mode to run in 1080i so i am not surprised. there is hack in PCSX2 to sort of fix the ghost imaging but then you have to change it for every game
The new QT builds of PCSX2 now support per-game settings. Since pretty much every issue with emulation can be fixed with one tweak or another, it’s now possible to get 99% perfect emulation across pretty much all of the PS2 library, given that you tweak every game individually.
Bruh i didn't know theres a new mac version. I just deleted my old one I installed using wine to run on my MacBook and it's so flawless now, the graphics could use some work tho
My experience, is that original hardware is the way to go if you have a FAT PS2 + Upscaler for modern LED TV. Its smoother, some games look different on emulator (missing graphics) and performance. You need a powerful expansive CPU, to run emulation, and it will always slowdown, sometimes even run too fast. Its still a pain for PS2. PS1 Duckstation is perfect, but PS2 is still to complex for an average PC. Emulator was nice but never run as original hardware. Its expensive to get a scaler, but its better then emulation in my opinion. Or just by an old CRT.
4:15, (Maybe this might help someone idk lol) For anyone that uses Linux PCSX2 and wants to make an image file, use the "dd" command (e.g dd if=/dev/cdrom of=whateverisonameyouwant.iso, or dd if=/dev/sr0 of=whateverisonameyouwant.iso)
18:49-20:18 this is incorrect, the motion looks blurry because you are using the wrong deinterlacing setting (probably automatic or blend) for GT4 and many other games that are interlaced the best setting is bob bottom field first.
pcsx2 is prob one of the best emulators of all time. Its still fun to have a native ps2 though just for nostalgia. plus with freemcboot you could have every game
PC CRTs have visible scan lines for resolutions that the PS2 ran at but the main issue is that it output 480i which wasn’t supported on the vast majority of PC CRTs so most games wouldn’t work. The one that did 480p and higher would have no issues though.
I've played so many games on PCSX2 over the years and was wondering if it was worth getting my old PS2 hardware up and running with a modded HDD and HDMI convertors... It just still will never come close to the graphical fidelity that PCSX2 can bring to these old games with upscaling.
Hey can anybody send me a legit website to download ps2 roms? I have the emulator and it does not read ps2 roms at all and I downloaded from like 3 different sites
Vimm's Lair works well (assuming you only want a specific and aren't trying to DL a bunch). Just be sure you're extracting the file you get with 7-Zip. Afterwards you should be able to just plop the ISO file in PCSX2. Also worth keeping in mind that if you have some actual PS2 games, you can put them in your disc drive and PCSX2 can directly read from them.
My Soft Modded PS2 Died awile back so Emulation is a way to go, who cares about streaming games it is so Dumb I hope it never takes off, I like to own My stuff sorry Klaus Schwab.
Damn 20 years. I definitely did not use it back in those days definitely around the 2010's when i first discovered it. For help with the memory card management you can use mymc ps2 memory card utility. I had done so mainly because i found my childhood ps2 memory card recently so i was transferring into pcsx2 for use with my Steamdeck.
Dragon Ball Budokai 3 is absolutely gorgeous cranked up. It's been better than the PS2 for a long time assuming you have the hardware to play it. Sandy Bridge i7 or Skylake i5 is the bare minimum to play everything from what I can tell. Gran Turismo 4 was the hardest to emulate at full speed, they got that sorted around 1.5, AVX2 support helped tons.
Makes me want to see how the rcps3 emulator is doing. Did a full playthrough of the godfather a couple years back on stream and it was good but had some graphical issues. I know the Darkness was basically unplayable last I checked due to lighting issues.
To emulate ps2 well is it true, that you need 16gb ram (recommended) and an i5 7th gen or above (or obviously much newer ones like ryzen or amd I'm a noob so do I need at least these requirements to run ps2 emulator
Hey, you know how you were complaining about a lack of per-game configs and poor UI? Well guess what the PCSX2 team just fixed in the newest qt nightly?
It's a pretty good emulator, but GOOOOOD I wish they would fix the problems with Ape Escape 2 and 3. Ape Escape 2 has weird graphical glitches that keep happening. i.e. the weird lighting and textures popping in. And as for Ape Escape 3, it runs beautifully, but everytime you use the monkey radar the game just slows down.
Not in my experience with either of these. They both run pretty much flawlessly. 7800X3D + 3080 and I am using Vulkan backend for most games now. Nightly builds may help you as well.
A few quick notes: Technically the original Xbox used USB 1.1 but with proprietary controller ports, so the PS2 wasn't the only one! There are HLE firmware replacements available, but they don't have the same compatibility yet. The Play! and DobieStation emulators use them I believe. The forums have largely been replaced with the Discord, and the wiki is in need of updating (something I'm looking into). Lines in the text and in FMV sequences is a common PCSX2 issue and can be worked around with a hack in the manual HW hacks menu. Great video! Always love coverage like this. 😃
There's PS2 memory card based solutions that supposedly load faster then the disc or even the USB interface. MC2SIO from helders game tech is one you can buy but be prepared to wait because they the supply is limited and it usually comes out in batches.
I remember my ps2 but sadly I broke it because a game on there made me mad this was back in 2012 my first console I still miss it since I had dragon ball games on there
not if you want to play any game that utilized sony software tricks. any of the good ones, any one of the games that had specific ps2 only releases. you'll need the original software running on the original ps2 for it to run. we wont even get into the fact it's taking 10,000 threads more to get a single threaded process from a cpu from well over 20 years ago to function
I’m honesty pretty surprised you used Midnight Club 3 as a bad example, I personally really like the way the game looks upscaled. I think it keeps the right amount of jank without cleaning it up too much but I only scale up to 1080p
PCSX2 has been better than the original console for 6 years in my opinion. 4K PS2 gaming was wicked....and I only having an nVidia GT8800 at the time. 😏
tried to experience BLACK on it, the hidden gem FPS game people assume to be. somehow feeling the sticks having some weird input delay, since i dont really played the game before, can someone tell me if thats how the game suppose to be or not?
I mean i dont see the point of that question mark, its an infinitely customizable tweakable emulator running on grotesquely more powerful hardware, how could any type of actual ps2 compete
Emulation will never be better than the real deal for ps2. Emulation has issues faithfully implementing bleem effects so games like budokai tenkaichi trilogy look horrible in emulation
@@supermetroid009 How is he being dramatic by pointing out the simple fact that PCSX2 isn't all that accurate? It has a load of bugs and broken graphics across plenty titles lmao
I’ve used a fat and slim in stock format, I’ve modded my PS2 to run ISOs from a HDD, and the best way is simply to use a quality emulator. 203 year old hardware is not a good idea. Too many headaches.
Fun fact, the other PS2 emulator Play! has an HLE bios, so you don't need to provide your own. Though Play! still has a long ways to go before it gets to PCSX2 compatibility
Native PS2 fat with a freemcboot, with an ssd using a sata adapter and opl, and a HDMI adapter using fmcb to force 480p on all games, emulation is good, but the ps2 still is a a damn hell to emulate, thanks to many games using heavely customized engines that used every feature of the original hardware to the point of literal madness, ratchet and clank or jak and daxter come to my mind especially for their situation in pcsx2, other games like dirge of cerberus and many others still have some flaws or are so taxing that even high end computers have trouble running them at a somewhat stable framerate, usually with frametimes all over the place.
Forcing 480p on all games can create compatibility issues for those that don't support it at all. SATA clone adapters are also terrible. Best approach is: - Fat PS2, the 39k or 50k models preferably. - Official magic gate 8MB FMCB MC on the 2nd slot. - Official magic gate 8MB MC on the 1st slot for saves. VMCs are less reliable than real memory cards. - A USB flash drive for save backups when the MC is full. Easy to import and export back to the MC through uLaunchELF. - Official IDE Sony network adaptor with the SATA upgrade kit. - 3.5 inch 2TB HDD. 2.5 inch HDDs will "float" inside and SSDs do not benefit of the speed. - Official OPL v1.1.0 from PSX Place. - Component cables or a good Y Cb/Pb Cr/Pr HDMI adaptor for the best picture quality.
@@Manic_Panic I personally went through the ordeal of finding an official hdd adapter to get network support and use a sata upgrade kit, regarding the ssd, it's not entirely accurate, as any older console actually benefits from the faster random reads the ssd is capable of, and personally I'm tired of HDDs going kamikaze, in 10 years i switched HDDs on my PC more times than i renewed my underwear.
Considering I can run Dirge of Cerberus at a near locked 60 on my pc there is no way I could ever imagine playing it on original hardware where it tanked everywhere.
@@omgazr0 Personally i never managed to run Dirge of Cerberus "well enough", and my PC specs are quite good, except for the gpu that it's starting to show its age: Ryzen 3700X, 16GB drr4 3600mhz, gtx 960 4GB version, and 2 500GB nvme SSD's no raid as i use one for linux and the other for windows, with a single 1TB HDD. And either the game just goes kboom on me regarding performance, or i manage to run it stable at 60fps but then the effects go kboom, specially noticable on the first level with all the lamps and lights, you can easley see that pcsx2 has trouble getting where the textures have to be and they just pop out like a laminated shiny aberration, i haven't advanced that much (im going through Edge, so level 3 or 4, idk exactly), but DoC is one of those games that i never managed to run it "just fine", and i played A LOT with the settings years ago, not so much right now with 1.7 builds, but even now i haven't managed to run it just fine. And i had a lot of trouble with the Atelier Iris games, or basically koei tecmo games, the emulator "separated" the sprites from the actual prerendered background and added lines to the edge of each object sprite making it look like a lego block puddle in some maps, that has been fixed in these latest 1.7 builds, but only when using certain texture filtering settings, so it's not perfect yet.
Honestly my biggest issue with PCSX2 from other emulators is the UI. I think it’s terrible compared to everything else out there like dolphin, duck station, RPCS3, and others. They need to update it. Still I love playing on my PC CRT and I wonder how it would look with the hdmi to composite adapter I have to connect to old SD CRTs
Per game settings would be so cool, I have a zipped portable version of PCSX2 with the basic core settings and make a copy of it for each game I want to play in order to tweak it and get the best results (or sometimes to get them to work at all!), also having a memory card per game helps keeping saves sorted and tidy.
@@davidste60 Spectabis is meh. You can do per-game configs with Steam and then have them show up on steam with Steam Rom Manager. Steam Rom Manger also fetches cover-art for them as well. I run all of my pc games and roms with Steam and it's great. I can go from playing a PC game to a PS2 game in seconds, without even having to touch my keyboard. (I use Big Picture)
Dunno, I can run most of the PS2 library at 6K on my computer but I still play these games on real fat PS2 with an HDD, using a Trinitron CRT that I got for 10 euros. No amount of upscaling, widescreen hacks, shaders etc. can compare to the real deal, which is absolutely magical (I am also speaking as someone who didn’t have a PS2 console as a kid, so there is no nostalgia for me; this console is THIS good!)
I’m very grateful to PCSX2 devs for how good the emulator is. I grew up with the PS2 and my childhood console is basically 99% playable on the emulator. I know OG Xbox fans that aren’t so lucky. Not that Xbox emulation is bad or anything but it’s not as good as Dolphin or PCSX2.
fun fact PCSX2 memory cards can be used on the PS3 virtual memory card (the actual one, not the one baked into PS2 classics) make sure you have a memory card made on the PS3, rename the .PS2 virtual memory card to VM2 (if I remember off the top of my head) then drag n drop it onto the PS3 using FTP or multiman (obviously in the correct folder) I should note that the PS3 won't always show the memory card items.... it's just if you want to switch between PCSX2 and PS3 for gameplay or something
@@EposVox I was hooking it up using a Monster multi adapter hook up which had PS2 Nintendo Multi, and Xbox connector on one end, and on the other had standard RCA red, white, and Yellow, AND S-video.that could have been part of the problem, but also, there is a option in BIOS to change the disk read speed: normal and fast. I always kept my PS2 on fast.
IMHO hardware is still the way to go. I found PCSX2 to have pretty bad input lag, especially when games are field rendered. FMCB, OPL and an adapter to use modern wireless controllers...nothing can beat it.
@@EposVox In my searching for fixes at the time I found a fair few people with issues, but no solutions. Others didn't seem to have any. Maybe it's just a hardware configuration specific thing? Eventually I just gave up. It wasn't lagless even with progressive patches, but without them some games were borderline unplayable.
glad i'm not the only one who has input lag issues, pcsx2 has felt the worst in terms of input lag so far. still playable, but i can definitely feel it. can't really feel it on any of the other emulators i've tried so far. it might be due to how pcsx2 is made 🤷♂️
Pops loader is an emulator too. They havnt figured out how to enter psx mode in hardware with the fat yet. It does boot in hardware on official firmware with a disk only.
I'd take compatibility and playability over graphics and visuals. They should bring back 32 bit support. There's another PS1 emulator called ePSXe. As for PlayStation Plus, why would anyone buy a subscription to play PS2 games when they can just download an emulator and play for free?
Looking forward to the PS2 Softmod, i had my FAT ps2 die not long ago shamefully just when i wanted to do the HDD expansion bay thing since you dont get jumpy cutscenes unlike using USB 1.0 due of the bandwith limitations. And good luck finding an OG 80gb PS3, had one but shamefully had YLOD twice even after seding it to be reballed/refurbished, last time i saw one where i live they costed around 600 dollars, ouch... Also wished i had so many physical copies like that, specially ones i saw like Digital Devil Saga, those are literal gems, shame that Raidou Kuzunoha games alone are now 200 dollars each, crazy high prices since they are just so rare! My biggest regret is selling my Time Crisis 2 with the Guncon II after i got the PS3, now i just wished i had it back with my old TV :C
There's a new mod that puts an SD adapter on the memory card and runs as fast as with the internall HDD and it doesn't have the issues of the USB stuttering
YOU WERE AT TOO MANY GAMES ? DID YOU GET TO SEE JAMES ROLFE ROCK OUT WITH REX VIPER ? OH MAN I LOVE JAMES ROLFE, HE HAS SAVED MY LIFE. LOVE THE GUY BET HE ROCKED OUT HARD !! WISH I WAS THERE TO HAVE A BEER WITH THE DUDE SO I CAN TELL HIM HOW MUCH HE HAS DONE FOR ME.
28:52 dude you don't get enough credits for your backdrops. This background looks sick as hell with all the differently sized crt's all displaying the ps2 logo. Looks like you're trying to sell me some sick ass, new old crts to boot with my ps2 :D
@@EposVox Can the PCSX2 play the PS1 and PS2 Japanese game discs...??? I have many Japanese physical discs, and I want to know if this emulator stores copies the disc into the drive
15 seconds in MK: Armageddon I love it. This is absolutely incredible, PS2 always captures dark for me, emulators look perfect and Ps2 still has a active online community that can cross play from pcsx2 to old PS2's from windows or Mac users. It's incredible.
this ^ the ps2 didnt have many games that could suppoert 480p you can use cheat codes to force some games to run in a progressive mode but they are not available for every game
Hats off to the devs... It's a labour of love to code emulators ensuring they will not be forgotten.
PCSX2 is something that I am forever grateful for being as good as it is. Now that I have an insane PC, I can finally play some more demanding games emulated in 4k with no issues. Playing the Sly Cooper trilogy and Midnight Club 3 Dub Edition Remix is a dream because the PS2 means so much more to me than just a console. I grew up with some of the best games I’ve ever played.
Might want to use the Nightly build. I just switched last night and it’s great. Running on Vulkan and True Crime New York is running to its full capacity and it’s on HD😅. I want to say I used the AXCS2 64 bit.
i can’t understand pcsx2 at all
Hey man, random question. My pcsx 2 has a lot of speed problems and framedrops. I have tried tweaking EE cycle rate and other settings. My PC has 8 GB ram and 4 GB Nvedia GPU (not sure which one exactly). Is it possible that my pc specs arent enough or there might be another reason?
One of the things I've found with emulators is that there's inconsistent input lag and so some games just don't feel right, particularly retro games reliant on frame perfect inputs. If the input lag were consistent, then we could adapt. Due to the nature of emulators though, sometimes it's 1 frame, other times it's 5. That's why I think FPGA is ultimately the future so long as the original hardware can be accurately described either by decapping or reverse engineering. In the late 2000s when LCDs took over the market and the PS3 was released, games started to lax the input windows. As such, I'd be curious to test fight games from the PS2 era to see if they started to loosen those input windows earlier. If they did, then being hardware-accurate may not matter so much.
Agreed, i feel a very strange input when playing godhand sadly
Dolphin has no or very little input lag, PCSX2 still sucks at fighting games because of the input lag. For Budokai tenkaichi you can play that on Dolphin too.
It will be a long t8me before you see FPGA running PS2 games.
@@Xanduur I agree. I think Mister will never be able to run PS2. But if it ever does it will be a miracle.
I don't notice such latency on anything with a framebuffer and don't notice it with systems running run ahead. I actually find the original hardware has higher input latency than run ahead at times. I have heard people having such problems with Sega Saturn emulation but I am getting about the same frame counts between button presses as others are getting on MiSTer FPGA systems for Sega Saturn.
I do wish we had more objective testing on both soft and hard emulation. Someone that does not have something to gain from the results they present.
23:30 convert a MC save to a folder is very useful to put a save created on emulator or downloaded from the internet on real console. Just bring the folder to an USB stick, run uLanchELF on PS2 console and copy the folder to memory card and bang, you can play the save on real hardware. The backwards is valid too. You also can convert the save folder to a PS3 save file and put on PS3 (softmodded or not) using an USB stick, and play PS2/PS1 back compat games on PS3 using the save file you created
@TH4U yes, you can convert PS1/PS2 saves to PS3 save format, drop into a USB stick, plug in your console and use with digital games and vice versa
@TH4U since you have the save file in any format, you can convert it to use on emulator or real console, just using the right tools to do it
Love this emulator, just wish I could upscale my MLB 06 The Show without the black vertical lines :). Have about 40 PS2 discs and most work flawlessly. Great job!
I ran into this with tekken recently. Have you tried going into HW hacks and clicking “align sprites”?
you can get really weird results using discs in pcsx2 emulator same as original ps2 if there's scratch it'll mess up an area of code.
since the emulator is reading original game code + interpreting its own emulator response + you get this really bizarre amount of glitches from any tiny spot the laser doesn't read 00FF
The biggest thing for me when emulating is the controller. I could play it with another controller but it takes away a bit of nostalgia. I would encourage people too try to source an OG controller and a USB adapter. It makes a world of difference. Especially the PS2 controller because it had pressure sensitive buttons. The only other controller that comes close to the DS2 is the DS3 from the ps3. Some rare titles on the ps2 also had support for sixaxis but I don't think pcsx2 has sixaxis support
For sure, especially in regards to the pressure sensitivity with a few titles like MGS2 and MGS3, where pressure sensitive controls are a vital part of gameplay.
None of the USB adapters available at the moment support pressure sensitivity. There is a kind of expensive one for PSX controllers that may add it with an update.
@@mattpiechocki8874 Would a PS3 controller work with PCSX2 for the pressure sensitivity? I'm considering getting that and a stand for my Steam Deck so I can play them properly.
@@GenesHand Seriously??? 😭
First party controllers also usually feel nicer even with age and wear, plus you don’t have to worry about button mapping.
Love the PS2!! Easily my favorite video game console. Just added a HDD to to my fat PS2 and I’m able to play games that are ridiculously expensive right now. I’m still collecting games, but it’s refreshing that I can still play some premium PS2 games and actually have a shit ton of games backed up on the HDD.
Despite the bonuses, I still get the most joy playing my PS2 on my CRT. I have FreeMCBoot and a HDD in my PS2, so I don't have to use my discs, and have made my own OPL theme based off the PS3 UI in yellow. Still play mine at least every couple of weeks.
It's so funny you released this video today. I just got done tweaking my PCSX2 settings for the past two hours.
For Soulcalibur high resolution it need... Upscale Hack 'Aling Sprite' 'Merge Sprite' then Half-Pixel Offest set to Normal (Vertex) .
I just learned today that Digimon Rumble Arena on the PS1 has a sequel on the PS2 🤯
if there's thing I think PCSX2 could need it's some sort of other alternative upscaling methods like FSR for example, as I sometimes find that I end up preferring to use my mcable to upscale PS2 games on my TV as some PS2 games don't like the higher internal rendering resolution.
you just figured out why the original hardware firmware software combination of ps2 wins.
congratulations.
@@springchickena1 that... isn't relevant in the slightest to my comment, other than running games in native resolution, there is a software renderer to fix a majority of the issues in PS2 emulation, there are still some lingering issues like having to correct the fps in the emulator when running Tekken 1, Tekken 2, or Tekken 3 via Tekken 5's arcade history (as it will run slow by default for some reason), but otherwise my experience with Software renderer has been pretty good.
I remember like version 1.2 working pretty damn good with the resolution cranked up to like 2x even on my rig with a FX-8350 choking under the stock cooler and GTX-750ti back in 2014. It was impressive even before the massive reworking of the code in 1.7.
11:24 Soul Calibur 3 is running on interlaced mode, but that game is compatible with progressive scan (480p), you just need to press Triangle + X while the game is booting, until you see a menu asking you if you wish to activate progressive mode. I think that running the game in progressive mode should get rid of the ghosting.
What about the pressure-sensitive d-pad, face buttons, and shoulder buttons? I know a good number of PS2 games supported that feature.
It supports them, everything works.I've tested it with mgs 2, had to use triggers as pressure sensitive buttons due to xbox controller not having pressure sensitive buttons, only triggers.
Yea bro it all works
I’m going to get a 1600x1200 CRT monitor and PCSX2 is one of my reasons for doing so. Deinterlacing and dodgy widescreen hacks won’t be a problem for me, and artefacts brought in by upscaling may be hidden by the attributes of a CRT(not sure about that last part).
Good idea, I still remember when I couldn't give CRT's away for free, now they are like gold dusk lol
@@5izzy557 if you knew what they used to solder things you wouldnt want to be anywhere near a crt turned on in a closed unvented room.
totally different world today much less cancer than the early 90s late 80s... if you wanna be careful try making sure it's not from 85-93.
22:12 Launch box is a good option for managing ps2 games and it is constantly updated and while I haven't explored this option myself i think it does support some per game settings as well. the interface kinda looks like steam as well.
With how beautiful Valkyrie Profile 2 was on native hardware, I wonder how it would look on the PCSX2.
it actually has this ghostly artifact to most, if not all, character models. it can be very distracting
@@drone124 yup and its exactly that reason why i ended up hunting down a pvm crt monitor to run my ps2 in rgb on that crt screen because that game as well as tales of the abyss and some others had that issue. On a nice pvm or crt monitor Valkyrie profile 2 looks so crisp and clean it almost looks like an HD remaster in and of itself!
@@matics28 i think valkyrie profile had a mode to run in 1080i so i am not surprised. there is hack in PCSX2 to sort of fix the ghost imaging but then you have to change it for every game
One day, Battlefield 2 Modern Combat will be playable in the other renderers I really hope they can solve that issue.
Darkcloud baby, I was ten and my mind was blown !
8:05 Aether is the same word as ether, and they are both pronounced the same.
I’ve been thinking about setting this up to revisit some games! Thanks for the vid. Maybe I’ll try them on drums, too!
The new QT builds of PCSX2 now support per-game settings. Since pretty much every issue with emulation can be fixed with one tweak or another, it’s now possible to get 99% perfect emulation across pretty much all of the PS2 library, given that you tweak every game individually.
Not every game can be fixed that way, but it is a major step
Bruh i didn't know theres a new mac version. I just deleted my old one I installed using wine to run on my MacBook and it's so flawless now, the graphics could use some work tho
My experience, is that original hardware is the way to go if you have a FAT PS2 + Upscaler for modern LED TV. Its smoother, some games look different on emulator (missing graphics) and performance. You need a powerful expansive CPU, to run emulation, and it will always slowdown, sometimes even run too fast. Its still a pain for PS2. PS1 Duckstation is perfect, but PS2 is still to complex for an average PC. Emulator was nice but never run as original hardware. Its expensive to get a scaler, but its better then emulation in my opinion. Or just by an old CRT.
4:15, (Maybe this might help someone idk lol) For anyone that uses Linux PCSX2 and wants to make an image file, use the "dd" command (e.g dd if=/dev/cdrom of=whateverisonameyouwant.iso, or dd if=/dev/sr0 of=whateverisonameyouwant.iso)
I wish I can use it on a chrome book
18:49-20:18 this is incorrect, the motion looks blurry because you are using the wrong deinterlacing setting (probably automatic or blend) for GT4 and many other games that are interlaced the best setting is bob bottom field first.
pcsx2 is prob one of the best emulators of all time. Its still fun to have a native ps2 though just for nostalgia. plus with freemcboot you could have every game
Used it to play those expensive game...Haunting Grounds and Rule of Roses...almost $800 each
Believe per game settings are actually gonna come with the new qt ui overhaul Stenzeks working on
scanlines are a must IMO.
Interlaced content barely have scanline effect
Yeah scanlines are for fake nostalgia, most people on consumer sets with 480i content basically never saw them
PC CRTs have visible scan lines for resolutions that the PS2 ran at but the main issue is that it output 480i which wasn’t supported on the vast majority of PC CRTs so most games wouldn’t work. The one that did 480p and higher would have no issues though.
I've played so many games on PCSX2 over the years and was wondering if it was worth getting my old PS2 hardware up and running with a modded HDD and HDMI convertors... It just still will never come close to the graphical fidelity that PCSX2 can bring to these old games with upscaling.
Hey can anybody send me a legit website to download ps2 roms? I have the emulator and it does not read ps2 roms at all and I downloaded from like 3 different sites
Vimm's Lair works well (assuming you only want a specific and aren't trying to DL a bunch). Just be sure you're extracting the file you get with 7-Zip. Afterwards you should be able to just plop the ISO file in PCSX2. Also worth keeping in mind that if you have some actual PS2 games, you can put them in your disc drive and PCSX2 can directly read from them.
My Soft Modded PS2 Died awile back so Emulation is a way to go, who cares about streaming games it is so Dumb I hope it never takes off, I like to own My stuff sorry Klaus Schwab.
Damn 20 years. I definitely did not use it back in those days definitely around the 2010's when i first discovered it.
For help with the memory card management you can use mymc ps2 memory card utility. I had done so mainly because i found my childhood ps2 memory card recently so i was transferring into pcsx2 for use with my Steamdeck.
Mymc’s features are now baked into PCSX2 so it doesn’t really offer anything
@@EposVox oh lol. I didn't know
Dragon Ball Budokai 3 is absolutely gorgeous cranked up.
It's been better than the PS2 for a long time assuming you have the hardware to play it. Sandy Bridge i7 or Skylake i5 is the bare minimum to play everything from what I can tell. Gran Turismo 4 was the hardest to emulate at full speed, they got that sorted around 1.5, AVX2 support helped tons.
You should look into spectabis it’s a launcher for pcsx2 and it’s not bad plus it saves per game settings
17:17 HOL UP! **Sprinting to pc**
What version of the console are you using there? I noticed it didn't have the HDD slot.
Makes me want to see how the rcps3 emulator is doing. Did a full playthrough of the godfather a couple years back on stream and it was good but had some graphical issues.
I know the Darkness was basically unplayable last I checked due to lighting issues.
Been playing Demon's Souls on RPCS3 recently at 60fps and it runs flawlessly.
Great vid. Thank you.
To emulate ps2 well is it true, that you need 16gb ram (recommended) and an i5 7th gen or above (or obviously much newer ones like ryzen or amd
I'm a noob so do I need at least these requirements to run ps2 emulator
long live videogame preservation
Thank you. You saved me the trouble of buying a ps2. Subbed.
Buying a physical PS2 is good if you're a collector. If you just wanna enjoy and play games then playing on the emulator is your best choice
@@sebastiangonzales46 thank you, my man. Grateful.
Hey, you know how you were complaining about a lack of per-game configs and poor UI?
Well guess what the PCSX2 team just fixed in the newest qt nightly?
It's a pretty good emulator, but GOOOOOD I wish they would fix the problems with Ape Escape 2 and 3. Ape Escape 2 has weird graphical glitches that keep happening. i.e. the weird lighting and textures popping in. And as for Ape Escape 3, it runs beautifully, but everytime you use the monkey radar the game just slows down.
Not in my experience with either of these. They both run pretty much flawlessly. 7800X3D + 3080 and I am using Vulkan backend for most games now. Nightly builds may help you as well.
A few quick notes:
Technically the original Xbox used USB 1.1 but with proprietary controller ports, so the PS2 wasn't the only one!
There are HLE firmware replacements available, but they don't have the same compatibility yet. The Play! and DobieStation emulators use them I believe.
The forums have largely been replaced with the Discord, and the wiki is in need of updating (something I'm looking into).
Lines in the text and in FMV sequences is a common PCSX2 issue and can be worked around with a hack in the manual HW hacks menu.
Great video! Always love coverage like this. 😃
He didn't say it was the only one, it was the *first* one.
FreeMcboot is good but I could not go back to playing a PS2 as standard again the loading from the disc drive is just way too slow
There's PS2 memory card based solutions that supposedly load faster then the disc or even the USB interface. MC2SIO from helders game tech is one you can buy but be prepared to wait because they the supply is limited and it usually comes out in batches.
Jojo voice: YEEESSS!!!
All sony need to do is drop a mini ps2 so we can mod it lol
I remember my ps2 but sadly I broke it because a game on there made me mad this was back in 2012 my first console I still miss it since I had dragon ball games on there
RIP
not if you want to play any game that utilized sony software tricks.
any of the good ones, any one of the games that had specific ps2 only releases.
you'll need the original software running on the original ps2 for it to run.
we wont even get into the fact it's taking 10,000 threads more to get a single threaded process from a cpu from well over 20 years ago to function
I’m honesty pretty surprised you used Midnight Club 3 as a bad example, I personally really like the way the game looks upscaled. I think it keeps the right amount of jank without cleaning it up too much but I only scale up to 1080p
Anyone that says there is no games to play lately needs to get PCSX2
If they could add a higher quality de-interlacing mode...
He's just using the wrong deinterlacing setting.
lol the console sold over 157 Million, jesus lol
What about ligthgun games ?
PCSX2 has been better than the original console for 6 years in my opinion. 4K PS2 gaming was wicked....and I only having an nVidia GT8800 at the time. 😏
idk for me even at 480p ratchet and clank still run pretty bad in big areas and my pc is decent
Awesome 👀 💯
tried to experience BLACK on it, the hidden gem FPS game people assume to be.
somehow feeling the sticks having some weird input delay, since i dont really played the game before,
can someone tell me if thats how the game suppose to be or not?
The emulator has input delay. Try on a ps2 with crt
I mean i dont see the point of that question mark, its an infinitely customizable tweakable emulator running on grotesquely more powerful hardware, how could any type of actual ps2 compete
Good thing there’s a video below that question mark to answer your question
Where you been... upscaling for the past few years. Check out Duckstation for PS1 upscaled
Hahaha, I was playing PCSX2 right before I Scrolled past this video.
I hv ps2 slim with lens & also i use free mcboot thats enough
why are you lookin extra cute on this video...
Full of bugs...
Only way to get rid of the bugs is lowering the graphics extremely.
Not recommended.
Ps3 emulation next please.
Finalmente! 🤩
Emulation will never be better than the real deal for ps2. Emulation has issues faithfully implementing bleem effects so games like budokai tenkaichi trilogy look horrible in emulation
Your being dramatic
@@supermetroid009 How is he being dramatic by pointing out the simple fact that PCSX2 isn't all that accurate? It has a load of bugs and broken graphics across plenty titles lmao
Launchbox
Gran Turismo still runs like shit, so as far as I'm concerned the whole thing is shit.
I’ve used a fat and slim in stock format, I’ve modded my PS2 to run ISOs from a HDD, and the best way is simply to use a quality emulator. 203 year old hardware is not a good idea. Too many headaches.
aprro
Liar
original hardware via component on a CRT, only way to play.
Fun fact, the other PS2 emulator Play! has an HLE bios, so you don't need to provide your own. Though Play! still has a long ways to go before it gets to PCSX2 compatibility
pointless comment play will never be near pcsx2
@@chadbrick67 How would you know? It'll take time eventually.
@@Abel-Alvarez not a chance they've been at it for years play it's still garbage..behave you triggered dosser
AetherSX2 is already leagues ahead of it but it needs bios. Bios are easy enough to get anyways
@@JohnRambo1947-July-6th use Google
Native PS2 fat with a freemcboot, with an ssd using a sata adapter and opl, and a HDMI adapter using fmcb to force 480p on all games, emulation is good, but the ps2 still is a a damn hell to emulate, thanks to many games using heavely customized engines that used every feature of the original hardware to the point of literal madness, ratchet and clank or jak and daxter come to my mind especially for their situation in pcsx2, other games like dirge of cerberus and many others still have some flaws or are so taxing that even high end computers have trouble running them at a somewhat stable framerate, usually with frametimes all over the place.
Forcing 480p on all games can create compatibility issues for those that don't support it at all. SATA clone adapters are also terrible.
Best approach is:
- Fat PS2, the 39k or 50k models preferably.
- Official magic gate 8MB FMCB MC on the 2nd slot.
- Official magic gate 8MB MC on the 1st slot for saves. VMCs are less reliable than real memory cards.
- A USB flash drive for save backups when the MC is full. Easy to import and export back to the MC through uLaunchELF.
- Official IDE Sony network adaptor with the SATA upgrade kit.
- 3.5 inch 2TB HDD. 2.5 inch HDDs will "float" inside and SSDs do not benefit of the speed.
- Official OPL v1.1.0 from PSX Place.
- Component cables or a good Y Cb/Pb Cr/Pr HDMI adaptor for the best picture quality.
@@Manic_Panic I personally went through the ordeal of finding an official hdd adapter to get network support and use a sata upgrade kit, regarding the ssd, it's not entirely accurate, as any older console actually benefits from the faster random reads the ssd is capable of, and personally I'm tired of HDDs going kamikaze, in 10 years i switched HDDs on my PC more times than i renewed my underwear.
@@Manic_Panic PS2 is very susceptible to fragmentation issues, so a SDD does makes sense.
Considering I can run Dirge of Cerberus at a near locked 60 on my pc there is no way I could ever imagine playing it on original hardware where it tanked everywhere.
@@omgazr0 Personally i never managed to run Dirge of Cerberus "well enough", and my PC specs are quite good, except for the gpu that it's starting to show its age: Ryzen 3700X, 16GB drr4 3600mhz, gtx 960 4GB version, and 2 500GB nvme SSD's no raid as i use one for linux and the other for windows, with a single 1TB HDD.
And either the game just goes kboom on me regarding performance, or i manage to run it stable at 60fps but then the effects go kboom, specially noticable on the first level with all the lamps and lights, you can easley see that pcsx2 has trouble getting where the textures have to be and they just pop out like a laminated shiny aberration, i haven't advanced that much (im going through Edge, so level 3 or 4, idk exactly), but DoC is one of those games that i never managed to run it "just fine", and i played A LOT with the settings years ago, not so much right now with 1.7 builds, but even now i haven't managed to run it just fine.
And i had a lot of trouble with the Atelier Iris games, or basically koei tecmo games, the emulator "separated" the sprites from the actual prerendered background and added lines to the edge of each object sprite making it look like a lego block puddle in some maps, that has been fixed in these latest 1.7 builds, but only when using certain texture filtering settings, so it's not perfect yet.
Honestly my biggest issue with PCSX2 from other emulators is the UI. I think it’s terrible compared to everything else out there like dolphin, duck station, RPCS3, and others. They need to update it. Still I love playing on my PC CRT and I wonder how it would look with the hdmi to composite adapter I have to connect to old SD CRTs
I just launch all of my PCSX2 games through Steam, same for Dolphin
Test PCSX2 EX, it has a Dolphin-like interface
I think it's alright, then again, it might be because I am used to it.
And it needs the custom Textures like the PPSSPP
@@brandonperez8977 latest version on pcsx2 does have custom texture support
Per game settings would be so cool, I have a zipped portable version of PCSX2 with the basic core settings and make a copy of it for each game I want to play in order to tweak it and get the best results (or sometimes to get them to work at all!), also having a memory card per game helps keeping saves sorted and tidy.
Have you tried Spectabis? It amazes me what people do to try to manage game settings with PCSX2! Just get a launcher.
@@davidste60 didn't even knew there were launchers for the emulator... I just found a way to do what I need to do years ago and kept doing it haha
What about games that give you bonuses for having a save from another game on the memory card?
@@KewelsBri I don't think I've ever played one of those haha if I did then I just missed the bonuses...
@@davidste60 Spectabis is meh. You can do per-game configs with Steam and then have them show up on steam with Steam Rom Manager. Steam Rom Manger also fetches cover-art for them as well. I run all of my pc games and roms with Steam and it's great. I can go from playing a PC game to a PS2 game in seconds, without even having to touch my keyboard. (I use Big Picture)
Yes. Burnout 3 does run at a locked 60fps on othe PS2 3:14
Dunno, I can run most of the PS2 library at 6K on my computer but I still play these games on real fat PS2 with an HDD, using a Trinitron CRT that I got for 10 euros. No amount of upscaling, widescreen hacks, shaders etc. can compare to the real deal, which is absolutely magical (I am also speaking as someone who didn’t have a PS2 console as a kid, so there is no nostalgia for me; this console is THIS good!)
I’m very grateful to PCSX2 devs for how good the emulator is. I grew up with the PS2 and my childhood console is basically 99% playable on the emulator. I know OG Xbox fans that aren’t so lucky. Not that Xbox emulation is bad or anything but it’s not as good as Dolphin or PCSX2.
fun fact PCSX2 memory cards can be used on the PS3 virtual memory card (the actual one, not the one baked into PS2 classics)
make sure you have a memory card made on the PS3, rename the .PS2 virtual memory card to VM2 (if I remember off the top of my head)
then drag n drop it onto the PS3 using FTP or multiman (obviously in the correct folder)
I should note that the PS3 won't always show the memory card items.... it's just if you want to switch between PCSX2 and PS3 for gameplay or something
To be fair with Soul Calibur 3, playing it on my fat PS2 on a Sony Trinitron with S-video hooked up it had pretty gnarly screen tearing.
My copy doesn’t seem to do that :O
@@EposVox I was hooking it up using a Monster multi adapter hook up which had PS2 Nintendo Multi, and Xbox connector on one end, and on the other had standard RCA red, white, and Yellow, AND S-video.that could have been part of the problem, but also, there is a option in BIOS to change the disk read speed: normal and fast. I always kept my PS2 on fast.
the nightly builds are goated now
I have the same silver japanese fat PS2!! My favorite way to play any game thru a hard drive w/ OPL
IMHO hardware is still the way to go. I found PCSX2 to have pretty bad input lag, especially when games are field rendered. FMCB, OPL and an adapter to use modern wireless controllers...nothing can beat it.
Very odd for you to find it to have input lag. Low input lag is something it’s known for
@@EposVox In my searching for fixes at the time I found a fair few people with issues, but no solutions. Others didn't seem to have any. Maybe it's just a hardware configuration specific thing? Eventually I just gave up. It wasn't lagless even with progressive patches, but without them some games were borderline unplayable.
glad i'm not the only one who has input lag issues, pcsx2 has felt the worst in terms of input lag so far. still playable, but i can definitely feel it. can't really feel it on any of the other emulators i've tried so far. it might be due to how pcsx2 is made 🤷♂️
@@EposVox I don't know where you saw that, cuz yeah some games have unbearable input lag
Pops loader is an emulator too. They havnt figured out how to enter psx mode in hardware with the fat yet. It does boot in hardware on official firmware with a disk only.
I'd take compatibility and playability over graphics and visuals. They should bring back 32 bit support. There's another PS1 emulator called ePSXe. As for PlayStation Plus, why would anyone buy a subscription to play PS2 games when they can just download an emulator and play for free?
I CANT BELIEVE YOU SHOWED THIS GAME FIRST!ONE OF MY ALL TIME FAVORITES!
Looking forward to the PS2 Softmod, i had my FAT ps2 die not long ago shamefully just when i wanted to do the HDD expansion bay thing since you dont get jumpy cutscenes unlike using USB 1.0 due of the bandwith limitations. And good luck finding an OG 80gb PS3, had one but shamefully had YLOD twice even after seding it to be reballed/refurbished, last time i saw one where i live they costed around 600 dollars, ouch...
Also wished i had so many physical copies like that, specially ones i saw like Digital Devil Saga, those are literal gems, shame that Raidou Kuzunoha games alone are now 200 dollars each, crazy high prices since they are just so rare!
My biggest regret is selling my Time Crisis 2 with the Guncon II after i got the PS3, now i just wished i had it back with my old TV :C
There's a new mod that puts an SD adapter on the memory card and runs as fast as with the internall HDD and it doesn't have the issues of the USB stuttering
Is there any way to play lightgin games?
Lightgun games
Dude why doesn't Sony just hire them it would make the gaming community so happy to play these classic ps2 titles
I believe only ps3 is streaming everything else will offer native downloads for psp ps1 ps2 and ps4 / ps5.
Fun Fact if you buy A Ps1 Game on Ps3 Psn store you can play it on the Psp.
I see you were at Too Many Games the same year I was! I got a picture with Dan and he gave me a prototype board (no ribbon cable, though)
YOU WERE AT TOO MANY GAMES ? DID YOU GET TO SEE JAMES ROLFE ROCK OUT WITH REX VIPER ? OH MAN I LOVE JAMES ROLFE, HE HAS SAVED MY LIFE. LOVE THE GUY BET HE ROCKED OUT HARD !! WISH I WAS THERE TO HAVE A BEER WITH THE DUDE SO I CAN TELL HIM HOW MUCH HE HAS DONE FOR ME.
28:52 dude you don't get enough credits for your backdrops. This background looks sick as hell with all the differently sized crt's all displaying the ps2 logo.
Looks like you're trying to sell me some sick ass, new old crts to boot with my ps2 :D
:)
@@EposVox
Can the PCSX2 play the PS1 and PS2 Japanese game discs...???
I have many Japanese physical discs, and I want to know if this emulator stores copies the disc into the drive
Well I should have bought a PlayStation 2 before you say it the name not the numbers of the years years ago
Wat
english?
15 seconds in MK: Armageddon I love it. This is absolutely incredible, PS2 always captures dark for me, emulators look perfect and Ps2 still has a active online community that can cross play from pcsx2 to old PS2's from windows or Mac users. It's incredible.
The deinterlacing is my biggest issue. If it could not suck and be progressive like dolphin I'd be fine with 99% of the other minor things
this ^ the ps2 didnt have many games that could suppoert 480p you can use cheat codes to force some games to run in a progressive mode but they are not available for every game