gpu plug ins

[jox43w]

im a newbie with epsxe although i have it configuerd to work and can play all my games on my pc, iv heard people using special plugins that make the graphics look better than the orginnal is this true? what is the name for the plug in that does this thers so manny plugins avalible im confused.

tar

[Zarnik]

IM using Petes open GL driver and its awesome, lots of options and settings to set. It looks like the real games...I recommend it. I dont know if its the best plugin though...

[jonc2006]

the plugin that offers the most enhancement features is the OGL2 2.9 (http://www.pbernert.com/html/gpu.htm) (a hardware accelerated openGL based plugin). you need a decent video card in order to get reasonable performance with it though. if you want some shots of some of the things it can do look over this (http://forums.ngemu.com/psx-plugin-questions-troubleshooting/76098-links-guides-custom-shaders-petes-opengl2-plugin.html) thread. if you can post your system specs i can tell you what plugin is probably going to be the best for you.

next in line would be the d3d plugin and the OGL1, both are pretty much the same. you cant get them to pull off the heavier stuff that the OGL2 can do but they have a few enhancements that can make the textures look better or smoother and they both are ideal for a good balance of performance/visual quality.

[Zarnik]

OMG is that Final Fantay VII???:bow:
Cartoonish feeling...I must get this!!!!!!:wub:

[jonc2006]

its one of the cartoon shader effects, you can get them off petes site.

[Zarnik]

It looks cool, but I cant get the sound to work. Dude maybe you could upload a folder with the emulator + the right settings and plugins. It would be great for all newbs like us :p

[jox43w]

no way that looks amazing! ill have a good read of that thread later,im buillding my new pc this week which consists of. e2220 2.4ghz dualcore 1mb L2, 2gb corsair 800mhz ram and 128Mb ATI Radeon X550 from untimar which is a modified versioin of the card designed to play arcade games at their native resolutions it bacialy has all the orginal resolutions plus loads of other custom low ones for the older games it also outputs 15hz constantly so can be wired up to a uk scart tv via rgb

will i be able to use the ogl 2 with that?

[Zarnik]

Probably, time will tell:agree:
And dude could you please upload a folder with the emulator + plugins and settings. Just ignore the BIOS, we already got them :thumb:

[jonc2006]

what plugins are you both using now? i cant really give you the exact plugin/settings i use because your systems may or may not work with them but if you two can post the plugins, what settings you are using with them, and your system specs, then i can give you some suggestions.

[Zarnik]

Right now Im using Petes Open GL Driver 1,76 with the following settings:
Texture quality: Dont care
Texture filering: Extended w/o sprites - unfiltered 2D
Use FPS limit + Auto detect FPS/Frame skipping limit
Off screen drawing: Standard - ok for most games
Framebuffer textures: Black - fast but no special effects
Framebuffer access: Graphic card buffer movies

I use Alpha multi path + Mask bit + Advance blending

Misc
Scanlines - yes
Linemode - no
Unfiltered framebuffer updates - yes
Force 15 bit framebuffer updates - yes
Color dithering - yes
Screen smoothing - yes
Screen cushing - no
Disable screensaver - no

Special game fixes - yes
*I use the following:
*Adjust framebufer access
*Direct framebuffer updates
*Remove blue glitches
*Use old frameskipping

and thats it!:rotflmao:
Dude it would be awesome if you could upload the emulator with the correct settings, or what you think are the correct settings. Cuz I really hate to play around with those settings. And by the way Im using P.E.Op.S. DSound Audio Driver 1.9. The sound didnt work when I tried the pluagin earlier maybe the sPlugin has something to do with it.

Thanks alot for your help Jonc :D


EDIT: By the way I got vista home premium 32 - bit. Dont think it matters but thats what I got....

[jonc2006]

what hardware are you using (video card, cpu, etc.)? you see the thing is that with epsxe, the plugin/settings you should use are always going to revolve around the hardware you use with your system. there is no "universal" setup where one setup will work for everyone regardless of the system and hardware (although most of the time if you choose the "nice" preset in the video plugin config, it will correct any GPU related issues but i prefer to set mine up manually since it does not always work that way).

[Zarnik]

Where can I see all information about my computer? When I look at the standard information I see the following:

Windows vista home premium 32 -bit
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E4500 @ 2.20GHz 2.20 GHz
Memory(RAM) 2047 MB

I know its possible to get full information from the command window but I have forgot the command to call the information :P

[karas81]

1- Click start/run

2- Type dxdiag then OK

there you go...

[jonc2006]

for your video card open up the dxdiag utility and under the "display" tab you should see info on your video card, the video card and the memory amount it has is the main thing i need to know. and i forgot to mention this before but if you can give me a rough idea of what games you want to play that can help me in what im going to suggest because some games require specific setting in order for them to work correctly. and you are using epsxe 1.7.0, correct?

btw in vista you need to use the "start search" thing to open up the dxdiag since that has replaced the start>run found in previous windows versions.

[Zarnik]

Ok heres the information I found:

NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS
DAC - type: Integrated RAMDAC
Total memory 1008 MB
1680 x 1050 (32bit) (60Hz)
DirectX version: DirectX 10

I dont think know if its enough, but hopefully its :heh:
And the only games Im really gonna play are the Final Fantasies. Right now I play Final Fantasy VII. So thats it:agree:

BTW Im using the espxe before the latest version...

[jonc2006]

you can use the OGL2, and since your card really isnt that different from mine in terms of what they can/cant handle- these are the settings i use with it:

http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm182/jonc2006_photos/ogl2.jpg

[Zarnik]

DUDE it works flawlessly aka perfect.:thumb: Your settings are awesome. Thx alot for your help, now Im gonna download the latest shader effects and have some fun. By the way you seem to be a smart guy, maybe you could help me with this problem as well....
http://forums.ngemu.com/epsxe-discussion/105681-pec-codes.html

[jonc2006]

unfortunately thats one area that ive never really played around with, so my knowledge of using cheats with epsxe is minimal at best. however there is another member who frequents this board who goes by the sn squall-leonheart, im pretty sure he has more experience with that sort of thing than i do. and there are a few others too, hanibal81 and shendo can probably help with that as well.

but if you need help on how to set up and use the shaders (they can be confusing for people new to the OGL2 plugin and how it works) either refer to that thread about the shaders i posted a while back or i can attempt to explain the setup process myself. and btw, if you are using epsxe 1.6.0 to play some of the FF games, be aware that FF9 does not work on that version, you need to use 1.5.2 or 1.7.0 (which is what i recommend). if you are using a PAL version of any of those games then you will want to set the FPS limit in the video config to 50 or auto. and for your sound plugin, either use the eternal spu 1.41 or the spu core 1.7. if you use the eternal spu, set it up like this:

audio device- directsound
buffer size- 64
audio-out method- thread
all 3 special game fixes enabled
"wait for XA buffer is free" enabled under the "misc" section
neill's reverb

and if you are using epsxe 1.6.0 or below, in the spu selection menu there should be 4 boxes, enable the top 3 and leave the 4th disabled. this does not need to be done in 1.7.0 because those boxes are not there anymore.

[Zarnik]

Hmm Squall, Il contact him thx...if you want to you can explain the process of installing them. I dont really know what folder to put them in. Is it the patches folder?:eyespin:

[karas81]

Nooooooooooooooooooo, move to your thread you just started

[jonc2006]

in your \plugins folder there needs to be a directory call "shaders", extract them into there and then direct the emulator to that directory by using the "..." button located to the right of the shader effects section. now depending on what shaders you want to use, you need to configure the video plugin so it matches the file types of the shaders (this is what is confusing for most people). basically every custom shader pack includes two files that have the file extensions "fp/vp" or "slf/slv". they are only grouped in those pairs, they are never mixed so you will not find a shader pack with two files like ".fp/.slv" or "vp/.slf".

ok for example the advanced cartoon shader i use for some games comes with two files that have the extension pair ".slf/.slv". what you do with those is place those two files in the shaders directory and then in the video config under the shader effects setting, there are 5 choices, #3 and #5 are what you usually want to look for. depending on what file pair you have, you need to set it so the shader effect setting matches the pair you are trying to use. since the file pair i have for the advanced cartoon shader is ".slf/.slv", i would use setting #5. if you have a .fp/.vp pair, you would use setting #3. it sounds very confusing but basically all you are doing is making sure the file types match to the shader type setting found in the video plugin config. if the shader setting doesnt match the pair type it will give you a "missing custom extensions" or something like that message.

[Zarnik]

Thx it works!:thumb: The cartoon effect is awesome, by the way jonc you got msn??:)