REAL method for increase FPS on 15~30% NOT UPGRADE - Page 12

matrixteddy · May 16th, 2007

just tried it with ffxii

well, i now have 3 or 4 fps more using 0.96.0, but if i use 0.95.2 there is no improvement (but its still faster than with 0.96 with that "workaround")

DinJerr · May 16th, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by StriderVM

256 only after menus and after ZeroGS checks for video card capabilities.

How strange, since mine always reverts to the original colours after ZeroGS checks video caps.

I'm kinda suspicious about the actual nature of this trick because from most of the screenshots given, there is total lack of either colour-bands or dithering occuring as with most downgraded graphics, or, if it's running in a window should actually be worse.

I'll tried it with a WIP game I made and configured it to run in a window.
Here is a normal shot.
Here it is in 256-compatiblity mode.

You have to remember that there is a limited colour palette to work with, and in windowed mode, the desktop/explorer has priority to assign what colours to use, leaving the program to try and match the available colours from the palette. The end result isn't pretty.

I also noticed a lot of programs utilising DirectDraw will assign the correct colour depth for a program upon going fullscreen, regardless of whether 256-compatibility is on or not (my WIP confirmed that), and Direct3D apps will either correct itself, or crash.

Alright, since I can't get PCSX2 itself to do this 256-trick thing

, and reading the past posts, I theorize that:
1) Upon launching, the PCSX2 interface is doing 256.
2) This disables(/forces software?) the certain features mentioned in previous posts.
3) When the gs window pops up, it changes back colour depth to the original. However, the features remained disabled.
4) Depending on how the game uses said features, frame gain/loss.

Well, just a theory anyway. Anyone who could analyse a raw printscreen from PCSX2 runnng in 256 colour, can you ascertain if the colour table from the grab is indeed 256 please

?

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PSF Haxor · May 17th, 2007

I've been trying to get the 256 color thing to work for sometime now, but it never does for some reason. I set it to 256 colors in properties, launch PCSX2 and it switches to 256 colors as normal. But after I click on Run CD/DVD and the main GUI closes and switches to the ZeroGS KOSMOS window, it switches back to 32-bit color mode. Does anyone know a way to fix this? I really want a boost out of at least FFX.

__________________
Intel P4 w/ HT @ 3.0 GHz
ATI RADEON XPRESS 200
Realtek HD Audio
512 MB RAM
140 GB Hard Drive
Dual Booting Win-XP Home SP2 and Ubuntu Linux 7.04
MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, x86-64
20" Widescreen TFT LCD Monitor @ 1680x1050

Barius · May 17th, 2007

The 256-bit trick does not cause games to play in 256 colours. It simply causes ZeroGS to mis-detect the capabilities of your graphics card so that alpha blending is not enabled. ZeroGS sets it's own colour depth independently.

The hack will only increase the speed of games under certain conditions:

1 - The game is graphics intensive and/or makes liberal use of alpha blending. (think KH2 or RE4).

2 - Your graphics hardware sucks (<6600GS), and therefore reducing the ab takes some load off.

If neither of the above conditions is met, you will get little to no benefit from this hack.

Zerofrog mentioned somewhere that he was considering adding an option to his plugin to manually enable/disable alpha blending. When/if he does you won't need to use this 'trick'.

Please stop over analyzing, it was already figured out in the first page posts.

@PSF Haxor
I am somewhat surprised you aren't seeing any speed increase. FFX is not strongly affected by this hack, but your gfx card is pretty pathetic. Are you sure you're not getting at least 2-3 fps difference?

PSF Haxor · May 17th, 2007

Not really. It pretty much is the same.

Attached Images

	FFX - 8bit.jpg (49.4 KB, 142 views)
	FFX - 32bit.jpg (49.6 KB, 140 views)
	KH - 8bit.jpg (49.2 KB, 161 views)
	KH - 32bit.jpg (50.6 KB, 151 views)

__________________
Intel P4 w/ HT @ 3.0 GHz
ATI RADEON XPRESS 200
Realtek HD Audio
512 MB RAM
140 GB Hard Drive
Dual Booting Win-XP Home SP2 and Ubuntu Linux 7.04
MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, x86-64
20" Widescreen TFT LCD Monitor @ 1680x1050

Barius · May 17th, 2007

I'd say it's just that your GPU is still too much faster than your CPU. I was getting those same fps when I had a P4@3ghz with a Radeon 9600XT (worse than yours). On that system the hack only made about 3-4 fps difference.

If you had a CPU that could push your GPU harder I suspect you would see more of a difference.

PSF Haxor · May 17th, 2007

I will get a new rig pretty soon (my mom bought the one i'm currently on) after I start saving my money. It's not the greatest, but it's better than this one.
Some of the specs:
Intel Core 2 Duo
nVidia Geforce 8800
2048 MB RAM
300 GB Hard Drive

__________________
Intel P4 w/ HT @ 3.0 GHz
ATI RADEON XPRESS 200
Realtek HD Audio
512 MB RAM
140 GB Hard Drive
Dual Booting Win-XP Home SP2 and Ubuntu Linux 7.04
MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, x86-64
20" Widescreen TFT LCD Monitor @ 1680x1050

Andrets · May 17th, 2007

PSF Haxor, have you seen if it makes a difference with AA and/or BF enabled? Also you aren't looking at terribly graphics heavy areas. For Kingdom Hearts the waterfall on the first world was a pretty good spot. I'm not sure about FFX, I haven't played it much on the emulator.

PSF Haxor · May 17th, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andrets

PSF Haxor, have you seen if it makes a difference with AA and/or BF enabled? Also you aren't looking at terribly graphics heavy areas. For Kingdom Hearts the waterfall on the first world was a pretty good spot.

BF isn't supported by my graphics card and AA makes it run slow no matter what (not on every game). I was standing right next to the waterfall, just looking in the other direction.

__________________
Intel P4 w/ HT @ 3.0 GHz
ATI RADEON XPRESS 200
Realtek HD Audio
512 MB RAM
140 GB Hard Drive
Dual Booting Win-XP Home SP2 and Ubuntu Linux 7.04
MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, x86-64
20" Widescreen TFT LCD Monitor @ 1680x1050

Andrets · May 17th, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by PSF Haxor

BF isn't supported by my graphics card and AA makes it run slow no matter what (not on every game). I was standing right next to the waterfall, just looking in the other direction.

Well, the waterfall (looking directly at it) was the most graphically intensive part of that world from what I recall. With the Alpha blending disabled the AA doesn't need to do as much work so you might not lose as many FPS.

Track · May 18th, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by PSF Haxor

Intel Core 2 Duo
nVidia Geforce 8800
2048 MB RAM
300 GB Hard Drive

I like it!

Mad · May 18th, 2007

Well it made a good diference here, maybe coz im using an onboard video.
My fps on castlevania was 8, now i get like 14.
I just hope zero add this feature to his plugin.
Left one is normal, right with 256 colors.

Attached Images

	snap016.jpg (35.9 KB, 122 views)
	snap012.jpg (32.5 KB, 127 views)

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Marius The Boss · May 19th, 2007

The trick with 256 culors don't work for me,I play Dragon Ball Z Budokai 2 and 3 and I still have 25-30 FPS when I'm fighting and 200 FPS in menu.

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baracus2k · May 19th, 2007

just tried it in GT3 and RE4... got about 10 fps boost for GT3 and RE4 around 10-15fps making both nearly full speed on my system

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Rod2327 · May 28th, 2007

Guys, i tried to test the 256 color trick, but always when open the game the color back to normal, anyone have a sugestion? Thx

jusama14 · May 28th, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rod2327

Guys, i tried to test the 256 color trick, but always when open the game the color back to normal, anyone have a sugestion? Thx

That's normal.

cdiddy7 · May 28th, 2007

256 color helps a bit. but I was wondering does setting your desktop to 16-bit color and running pcsx2 in window mode help also? There is color banding so would that take a little more of the load off the grfx card?

sorry if this has been brought up before this thread has alot of pages so i haven't them all

but if it hasn't would 16-bit help also?

__________________
CPU/ core 2 quad Q6600 @ 3.0Ghz 1333Mhz fsb (G0 stepping)
RAM/ OC2 platinum 2Gb DDR2 800
GPU/ nVidia Bfg 8800 640Mb GTS OC2
SOUND/ Audigy4 sound card
MOBO/ Asus P5N32-E SLI plus
OS/ Vista 64bit

Darkplayer · May 29th, 2007

Remember to set the desktop resolution to 800X600 And use 16 bit (desktop)! It will give some more FPS!

Lovingika · May 29th, 2007

Wew, great tips. I got 5-10 fps more in FFX using this 256 colors trick. Ahh, its glad to be here, thanks folks

DeBlackDragon · July 5th, 2007

I´ve tryt it with FFX-2 and get 5-10fps more.
Nice Guide^^

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May 16th, 2007	#221 (permalink)
matrixteddy Registered User Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Germany Posts: 79	just tried it with ffxii well, i now have 3 or 4 fps more using 0.96.0, but if i use 0.95.2 there is no improvement (but its still faster than with 0.96 with that "workaround")

May 17th, 2007	#223 (permalink)
PSF Haxor Playstation Family Haxor Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Florida Posts: 52	I've been trying to get the 256 color thing to work for sometime now, but it never does for some reason. I set it to 256 colors in properties, launch PCSX2 and it switches to 256 colors as normal. But after I click on Run CD/DVD and the main GUI closes and switches to the ZeroGS KOSMOS window, it switches back to 32-bit color mode. Does anyone know a way to fix this? I really want a boost out of at least FFX. __________________ Intel P4 w/ HT @ 3.0 GHz ATI RADEON XPRESS 200 Realtek HD Audio 512 MB RAM 140 GB Hard Drive Dual Booting Win-XP Home SP2 and Ubuntu Linux 7.04 MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, x86-64 20" Widescreen TFT LCD Monitor @ 1680x1050

May 17th, 2007	#224 (permalink)
Barius Registered User Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: At home Posts: 942	The 256-bit trick does not cause games to play in 256 colours. It simply causes ZeroGS to mis-detect the capabilities of your graphics card so that alpha blending is not enabled. ZeroGS sets it's own colour depth independently. The hack will only increase the speed of games under certain conditions: 1 - The game is graphics intensive and/or makes liberal use of alpha blending. (think KH2 or RE4). 2 - Your graphics hardware sucks (<6600GS), and therefore reducing the ab takes some load off. If neither of the above conditions is met, you will get little to no benefit from this hack. Zerofrog mentioned somewhere that he was considering adding an option to his plugin to manually enable/disable alpha blending. When/if he does you won't need to use this 'trick'. Please stop over analyzing, it was already figured out in the first page posts. @PSF Haxor I am somewhat surprised you aren't seeing any speed increase. FFX is not strongly affected by this hack, but your gfx card is pretty pathetic. Are you sure you're not getting at least 2-3 fps difference?

May 17th, 2007	#226 (permalink)
Barius Registered User Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: At home Posts: 942	I'd say it's just that your GPU is still too much faster than your CPU. I was getting those same fps when I had a P4@3ghz with a Radeon 9600XT (worse than yours). On that system the hack only made about 3-4 fps difference. If you had a CPU that could push your GPU harder I suspect you would see more of a difference.

May 17th, 2007	#227 (permalink)
PSF Haxor Playstation Family Haxor Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Florida Posts: 52	I will get a new rig pretty soon (my mom bought the one i'm currently on) after I start saving my money. It's not the greatest, but it's better than this one. Some of the specs: Intel Core 2 Duo nVidia Geforce 8800 2048 MB RAM 300 GB Hard Drive __________________ Intel P4 w/ HT @ 3.0 GHz ATI RADEON XPRESS 200 Realtek HD Audio 512 MB RAM 140 GB Hard Drive Dual Booting Win-XP Home SP2 and Ubuntu Linux 7.04 MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, x86-64 20" Widescreen TFT LCD Monitor @ 1680x1050

May 17th, 2007	#228 (permalink)
Andrets 0x526567756C6172 0x557365 Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: US Posts: 321	PSF Haxor, have you seen if it makes a difference with AA and/or BF enabled? Also you aren't looking at terribly graphics heavy areas. For Kingdom Hearts the waterfall on the first world was a pretty good spot. I'm not sure about FFX, I haven't played it much on the emulator.

May 19th, 2007	#233 (permalink)
Marius The Boss Boss ****** Join Date: May 2007 Location: Romania Posts: 39	The trick with 256 culors don't work for me,I play Dragon Ball Z Budokai 2 and 3 and I still have 25-30 FPS when I'm fighting and 200 FPS in menu. __________________ Intel Pentium D 925 3 Ghz,Gigabyte GA-965P-S3,Asus 7600GT,Geil Pc 6400 2x512 DDram II at 800 mhz.Maxtor 120 Gb SATA

May 19th, 2007	#234 (permalink)
baracus2k Registered User Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: fsd Posts: 1	just tried it in GT3 and RE4... got about 10 fps boost for GT3 and RE4 around 10-15fps making both nearly full speed on my system __________________ Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 @ 3.4GHZ Asus P5B Deluxe 2GB Corsair XMS2 6400C4 @ 850MHZ eVGA 8800GTX 768MB @ 630/2100 Dell 2405FPW

May 28th, 2007	#235 (permalink)
Rod2327 Registered User Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Brazil Posts: 63	Guys, i tried to test the 256 color trick, but always when open the game the color back to normal, anyone have a sugestion? Thx

May 28th, 2007	#237 (permalink)
cdiddy7 Ron Paul for President Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: America Posts: 29	256 color helps a bit. but I was wondering does setting your desktop to 16-bit color and running pcsx2 in window mode help also? There is color banding so would that take a little more of the load off the grfx card? sorry if this has been brought up before this thread has alot of pages so i haven't them all but if it hasn't would 16-bit help also? __________________ CPU/ core 2 quad Q6600 @ 3.0Ghz 1333Mhz fsb (G0 stepping) RAM/ OC2 platinum 2Gb DDR2 800 GPU/ nVidia Bfg 8800 640Mb GTS OC2 SOUND/ Audigy4 sound card MOBO/ Asus P5N32-E SLI plus OS/ Vista 64bit

May 29th, 2007	#238 (permalink)
Darkplayer Registered User Join Date: May 2006 Location: Denmark Posts: 333	Remember to set the desktop resolution to 800X600 And use 16 bit (desktop)! It will give some more FPS!

May 29th, 2007	#239 (permalink)
Lovingika Hentai Guy... Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Balamb Garden Posts: 108	Wew, great tips. I got 5-10 fps more in FFX using this 256 colors trick. Ahh, its glad to be here, thanks folks

July 5th, 2007	#240 (permalink)
DeBlackDragon Registered User Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Germany Posts: 5	I´ve tryt it with FFX-2 and get 5-10fps more. Nice Guide^^