psx + sotn = crap?

[Jhonny]

I have currently played about half-way through the game. I am a very patient person.
I have one major problem and want to know if I can solve it or not.
The game crashes almost EVERY time I change area. (when you change area the music changes). When it crashes it does some of the following.
1. a short message in the doswindow says something(i don't know now, but can check it out)
2. a whole row of neverending problems is showing in the doswindow
3. The game just get's stuck. I can't proceed so I have to reload a saved state.
And sometimes the graphics flips out and everything becomes oh so colorful with everything from pink to purple.


Anyone know anything? I figure this is the right place to ask.


oh. heh. sotn = castlevania symphony of the night. I am using an isofile.

[ShendoXT]

You are talking about pSX emulator right?
Have you tried any other Playstation emulator?

[Jhonny]

pSX yes.
I have tried 1 other and that didn't function very well.
I tried to get ePSXe to work, but I failed at that.

I did a search on this board and people seem to have waay more trouble running this game with ePSXe.

[ShendoXT]

What does the console window says?

*moved to pSX section*

[hushypushy]

AFAIK you just use Peops software GPU and Eternal SPU in ePSXe and you're good to go.

[Jhonny]

it was'nt the consolewindow saying this. it was the emulator itself
= over: 8019dda8 <ebc2>
the consolewindow says a lot of executed illegal opcode and physical address.

peops huh. eternal spu. I will see if they might help cuz epsxe only has pluginerrors so far.

AFAIK you just use Peops software GPU and Eternal SPU in ePSXe and you're good to go.


I only get "error loading plugins"

[ShendoXT]

Opcode error, hm, might be a bad ISO, try to run the game from cd.

As for error loading plugins, make sure that you have unpacked ePSXe and put plugins in the "plugins" folder.

[Jhonny]

Opcode error, hm, might be a bad ISO, try to run the game from cd.

As for error loading plugins, make sure that you have unpacked ePSXe and put plugins in the "plugins" folder.


I have done that.
Bad iso, that though has crossed my mind as well. But the game seems to be fully functional otherwise =)
I'll see if I can run it from cd.

[Melanogaster]

Well, it seems that there is a workaround for playing Castlevania: SOTN on the pSX emulator. psicomaniaco would be the best person to explain it here, but I'll quote his words, and I hope he's OK with that:

Ok, here's a hint: when you get to the screen change area (the one where the music stop playing), OPEN THE MENU BEFORE GOING TO THE NEW SCREEN.

If the game freezes when oppening the menu, wait some seconds, and the game will un-freeze. Now, close the menu and go to the new area.

If you do this, the game will NEVER freeze when going to a new area. Oh, and do this before going to a boss fight, and after you beat the boss.

Again: OPEN THE MENU, WAIT FOR THE MENU SCREEN TO APPEAR, CLOSE THE MENU, GO TO THE NEW AREA.

[Jhonny]

What menu, pause or in the window?:)
I'll try that after work.
And I'll experiment a little more with the cd instead of iso.
My stomach hurts :\

[Melanogaster]

I guess it's the game's menu, huh...

[Jhonny]

Okay. I've been playing for 1 or 2 hours now.
And...
It's unbelieveable :) it actually works to pause the game.
there are some times the game locks down though. but that is not very common. and sometimes it crashes and asks me to save a crash dump.

feels a bit stupid that it works just by pausing the game every now and then ^^ I guess it compensates for the loading times on a regular ps.


edit : fine until i came to the point when im going to the upsidedown castle via the beam. Then the game dies. 4 ever. Anyone here who has it who can tell me if they came through?

[Jhonny]

I got epsxe to work now. the game don't seem to have lockissues so far.
BUT. the game is way uglier. Software. Do psx automatically show it in open gl? is there any way to get sotn to look as good and play as smooth as it does on pSX?

[ShendoXT]

It depends of the video plugin you use, try with P.E.Op.S soft plugin like hushypushy suggested.
If you don't have it you can get it here (http://www.ngemu.com/plugins.php?cat=1&os=win32&type=gpu).

[Jhonny]

I have it. I am also using it.

I took 2 pics

epsxe : http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y164/lyxorm/skiten.jpg

pSX : http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y164/lyxorm/skiten2.jpg

and the same pic from pSX but in epsxe : http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y164/lyxorm/skiten3.jpg

[hushypushy]

well those screenshots are horrible. we don't need to see your entire desktop (as proud of it as you may be). F8 is screenshot in ePSXe and F12 is screenshot in pSX, that will make a perfectly cropped BMP for ya ;)

anyway, it looks like that because pSX uses software rendering and you are using a hardware plugin with ePSXe. pSX is software only. ePSXe can use software or hardware plugins. so, do what Shendo said and you'll be fine.

[Jhonny]

First off. I am using it already.
And second. I think i'll lay this case to rest. I can play it now. Just a bit uglier :) I will however try to download some other plugins and stuff.

hehe. sorry bout the pics. I'm so used to print screen :)

[ShendoXT]

Try using various filters in P.E.Op.S plugin (stretching options).

Btw: if you still want to use PrintScreen then press Alt+PrintScreen to capture a window only,
but it is better that you do it in the way hushypushy mentioned.

[Jhonny]

Ok. Here's an update :)
I've managed to get the game to play as smooth as on pSX(well kinda)
but using peops plugins the graphics is worse.
If I use d3d however, the graphics look almost the same as on pSX. Except 1 thing. Some parts of the game is black. like parts in the save room and bits in the menu.

How annoying :dead: I don't think the stretch would do much.

cool smiley btw --> :spy:

---|--'@

[I-Chan]

In fact, for a 2D game like that you really should be using PEOPs. Raise filtering, use something like 2xSAI or 4xHQs as stretching options. I'll see if i can get my friends SoTN to make a couple sshots later, and tell you specific settings.

[Jhonny]

Nah. You don't have to.
It plays really fine. Maybe it's just me being picky :)