Video output and a few other questions

[Aleatoriedad]

Hey all. First of all let me say I'm very impressed with this emulator, despite being the complete opposite of user friendly :D It's the only emulator that's been able to properly run Breath of Fire IV for me. My PS2 has the same frame rate problems as ePSXe–I know, very strange, but the game is probably meant to be run only on a regular PSX–which happen when moving the camera in certain busy places. I tried pSX and it was great, no frame rate drops, but a lot of graphic glitches.

However, even though I've been able to run it, I have not been able to find a conclusive answer on what a few parameters in the Video Output screen mean, namely Progressive and what each Cycle stands for.

I've tinkered with the numbers for each Cycle, but for now I have them all at at 0. What do they mean exactly? They seem to have something to do with the frame rate, right? Are there any recommended or optimal values?

A few more specific questions, some related, some unrelated:

- When I activate Sync the game runs really smooth but very sped up. Does this have to do anything with the refreshing rate? Is there anyway to manually change this value for Xebra? I'm trying to get the game to run as smoothly as possible, with its regular speed.
- Is there any reason to change the default numbers that come in Sound Output? (10k, 30k, 50k, 88200, 0, -2397, 88, 3519, 7037, 3519).
- What is the difference between Run 1 (Interprete), Run 2 (1-pass), and Run 3 (2-pass)? With Sync activated, Run 1 seems the slowest, and Run 3 the fastest. Without Sync, I'm not sure which one to use.

My specs, just in case:
CPU: Phenom ii x4 965, 3415 Mhz
RAM: 4096 MB, DDR3
GPU: Radeon HD 6800, 1024 MB

Thanks to anyone that might help!

[kerframil]

However, even though I've been able to run it, I have not been able to find a conclusive answer on what a few parameters in the Video Output screen mean, namely Progressive and what each Cycle stands for.

Consider that a real (NTSC) PSX outputs a 480i (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/480i) signal. Enabling the progressive option ensures that all fields - or lines, if you prefer - are rendered to the screen upon each refresh. If the option remains disabled, then XEBRA is essentially having to fill in the 'gaps', a process often referred to as line doubling. Otherwise, you would see rapidly alternating black horizontal lines, which would be intolerable.

Furthemore, on a progressive scan display such as your computer monitor, you will experience unsightly artifacts in fast moving scenes unless a (complex) motion-adaptive de-interlacing algorithm is employed. This is also why consoles that output 480i looks so bad on (older) LCD televisions. For more information on this topic, look here:-

http://retrogaming.hazard-city.de/

XEBRA does not perform any advanced de-interlacing so I would strongly recommend that the Progressive option is enabled. Watch the fade-to-black transition after the initial Sony logo appears; display artifacts are visible unless you turn on the Progressive option.

As for Cycle, you can find a very terse explanation in the help text. There's also a post somewhere else in this forum which elaborates further. Suffice to say that, if Cycle (1) is set to 0 then it will not perform any frame skipping. The other two values affect the behaviour of frame skipping, if it is employed.

What is the difference between Run 1 (Interprete), Run 2 (1-pass), and Run 3 (2-pass)?

Run 1 interprets the machine code from the PSX application binary whereas the other two options compile (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-in-time_compilation) to native x86 code. Run 1 is indeed the slowest but it is also the most accurate and compatible. I recommend it if your PC is powerful enough. If you are unable to use this mode then be mindful of the I Cache Rate setting in XEBRA. For some games, it may require tweaking. Further discussion can be found in the compatibility threads in this forum.