Need Help Understanding Pete's Graphics Plugin

[Zeroextreme]

I know a thread like this was probably made, but instead of searching and ttt-ing it, I decided to make a new thread, so sorry in advance if this is seen as either spam or a waste of your time, if not both(take it easy on me, first post.) And sorry if it's kind of a long post, but I want to get as much info on my problem in hopes of trying to get the clearest answer.

Anyway, I just started getting into psx/n64 emulation, ever since I've been gradually upgrading my computer. I Originally had a Ati Radeon Xpress card that came with my computer(I forget the number, all I know is that it's built into my motherboard), which I had no real problem with project 64, except when I placed the AA or AF settings too high. But with epsxe, I really couldn't understand the settings, in what they did or how to set them. If I set them too high, it kept saying I had no buffer, or something.

I recently bought a new graphics card cause I couldn't play HD videos Right on my Pc. It's a Nvidia 8500 512mb card. I was told buy the guy at staples that the 8500 had better capabilities with HD, but the 8600 which was more expensive was better for gaming, but since I didn't buy it for modern gaming, I went with the 8500. Plus I wasn't sure why the 8600 cost more money and only had half the amount of ram and less hd support. whatever.

Long frickin story short, I was researching some related threads on this forum about my problem. I tried downloading pete's open gl, since it was made for modern cards, and I made Iso's of my games to run them a bit better, but I just can't seem to figure it out.

With project 64, or some pc demos i downloaded like Sonic Heroes(go ahead, laugh) fixing the graphics seemed easy, just pic the resolution, set the AA and AF, and that's it. With Pete's, it asks me so many questions and gives so many similar options I'm starting to develop a nerosis. What I'm trying to ask, is how do I get rid of the jaggy graphics (i.e. use AA) and overall stop this problem with slowdown I've been having with some games, namely, final fantasy games. I try setting the fps limit to 60, and tried some of the game fixes, but at certain parts of the game, it runs super fast, and some parts, I see the fps drop to 30fps, such as menus etc.

I read some threads about that as well, I'm assuming there is no real solution to that until they upgrade espxe or plugins.

I appreciate any and all help.

[jonc2006]

what type of cpu are you using, single or multi-core? before i suggest anything i need to know the rest of your system specs. and you are talking about the OGL2 plugin, right? and i for now i suggest you download both versions of epsxe, 1.6.0 and 1.5.2 because some games will not run correctly under 1.6.0, specifically FF9 and CC (as mentioned in one of the stickies at the top of this section).

[Zeroextreme]

Originally Posted by jonc2006

what type of cpu are you using, single or multi-core? before i suggest anything i need to know the rest of your system specs. and you are talking about the OGL2 plugin, right? and i for now i suggest you download both versions of epsxe, 1.6.0 and 1.5.2 because some games will not run correctly under 1.6.0, specifically FF9 and CC (as mentioned in one of the stickies at the top of this section).

It's a single core. It's An AMD Sempron 2.0ghz processor. yes I'm talking about the Ogl2 plugin, but I also have some other gpu drivers as well. You just answered my question since one of the problems I have is with ff9.

As For more system specs...

-Windows XP
-2.25 GB Ram
- Direct X 9.0
- 600 GB HDD
- 20x DVD-RAM/DVD-RW
- 52x CD-R/CD-RW

Edit:

Since I'm laying out specs, here's some epsxe specs that I'm trying to run.

Gpu plugins:
Pete's OGL2 v.2.8 (Which I'm currently using)
Pete's OGL v. 1.76
Petes D3D v. 1.76


Settings:
Desktop Resolution 800x600 (both Windowed and Full screen)
Color Depth - 32 bit
Internal X - 2
Internal Y -3
Render Mode - 2

Texture Filtering - 6
Hi Res - 2
GFX Card - 0 (Autodetect)

Framerate:
-Use Framerate Limit
-Fps Limit - 0-60fps

Compatability:
-Off screen Drawing - 2
-Framebuffer - 3
-Framebuffer upload - 2

Full Screen Filters:
-Screen filtering
-shader effects (screen smoothing)
-Flicker Fix - 0
-Shader level 4

Misc:
Everything except for scalelines.

[jonc2006]

these are my OGL2 settings:

Plugin: Pete's OpenGL2 Driver 2.8
Author: Pete Bernert
Card vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
GFX card: GeForce Go 7900 GS/PCI/SSE2/3DNOW!

Resolution/Color:
- 1920x1200 Fullscreen - NO desktop changing (ignore my setting here)
- Internal X resolution: 2
- Internal Y resolution: 2 (try bringing your Y resolution down to what i have)
- Keep psx aspect ratio: on
- Render mode: 2

- Filtering: 6
- Hi-Res textures: 0
- TexWin pixel shader: on
- VRam size: 256 MBytes (use autodetect or manually enter the amount your card has

Framerate:
- FPS limitation: on
- Frame skipping: off
- FPS limit: 60.0

Compatibility:
- Offscreen drawing: 2
- Framebuffer effects: 2
- Framebuffer uploads: 1

Misc:
- Scanlines: off
- Mdec filter: on (optional)
- Screen filtering: on (optional)
- Shader effects: 5/4 (using custom shaders, keep this off unless you are doing the same)
- Flicker-fix border size: 0
- GF4/XP crash fix: off
- Game fixes: off [00000000] (unless you see a game-specific one you can use, ignore this part),

[Zeroextreme]

Update:

Ok, I downloaded and set up 1.52, and ff7-9 seem to be loading a bit faster, and are running marginally better. Your setup also got rid of those annoying Green lines that were in ff7 before. I don't seem to have the black spots in GT2 anymore either.

But there still seems to be the problem with the battle screens for whatever reason. There's slowdown going into battle and when the battle screen loads, the fps drops to 10fps and bounces up and down from 60. The end battle screens have these annoying slowdowns too. I really don't know what's the cause of that.

Plus, one of your settings for the custom shaders, what are they and how do I install them, and is there one that can help increase the AA and AF settings?

Also, one of my friends said something about sli with nvidia cards make graphics run faster. I don't have a clue to what that is, or how to begin setting that up. Help maybe?

[jonc2006]

battle slowdowns in what game, FF7? i dont see the line glitch happen often with the OGL2, usually its with the d3d or OGL1 but either way, the reason you didnt get the green lines with my settings is because i have hi res textures disabled. usually having that on with games that have 2d or pre-rendered backgrounds will trigger the colored lines glitch although it is more common in FF7 than any other game from what i have seen over the years. having texture filtering enabled or at a certain level can also do this as well but its not as often, ive never had problems with it myself but i have seen people who have, usually setting TF to 4 or 0 (which disables it) will fix it.

custom shaders are shader effects that can be used to change or improve the visual/visual effects in the games. some games look good with certain ones and some games dont, some examples can be found here. that link will also show you how to use them. if you still have trouble getting them to work let me know and i will try to explain it myself.

edit- didnt see that last part in you post- no, SLI doesnt provide any improvements in overall performance, at least none that i am aware of. if it does, its minimal at best. SLI can be explained here, and you would need two (or more but most people only use two atm) of the same card models to use SLI,a motherboard that supports SLI and a PSU that provides enough power (nvidias site will have motherboards and PSU's that are SLI-ready listed). im pretty sure you can mix identical card models that have different VRAM amounts (one with 256MB and one with 512MB) but it isnt recommended because it doesnt work as effectivly as identical card models with identical VRAM amounts (256MB/256MB or 512MB/512MB).

[Zeroextreme]

Done and Done.

Thanks dude. The 'Natural' shader is f'n TIGHT!!! That's exactly what I wanted. Everything looks nice and smoothed, plus the game seems to run faster!

The Cartoon Shader is also pretty neat. Just wish I could change the brightness a little bit with that.

Thanks for all the help!

[Squall-Leonhart]

Jonc, the compatibility options you set will cause a gfx lockup before battles in FF7 and 8, these games require 1-3-2 compatibility settings, since setting offscreen drawing to 2 causes texture artifacts. especially on the horizon.

[Zeroextreme]

I actually have no problems with any of the battles, pre or post anymore., and I still have it set on 2. 3 I think is just a waste, since it slows down every game and causes the black triangles...

The only real problem I had with ff7 is that there's no battle swirl during regular gameplay, but it's there with the natural and cartoon shaders.

FF8 gives me a few frame rate dips when spells/draws, but it's nothing to bad, mostly drops from 60-30, which I think is contributed to the limiter.

I think the hi-res settings are just garbage too. Ever since I set them to 0, games have been playing fine, and the shaders make up for it anyway.

[jonc2006]

Originally Posted by Squall-Leonhart

Jonc, the compatibility options you set will cause a gfx lockup before battles in FF7 and 8, these games require 1-3-2 compatibility settings, since setting offscreen drawing to 2 causes texture artifacts. especially on the horizon.

doesnt do that for me. what do you mean by graphics lockup, are you talking about the battle swirl? i played up to the end of disc 1 in ff7 a few weeks ago with the same settings i posted and i have never had any issues like the ones you mentioned here. the only plugin that gives any sort of slowdown in ff7 is the d3d plugin and it only happens at the battle spoils screen, and i dont really use that one anymore.

[Squall-Leonhart]

probably doesn't happen on FF7, but i know it does on FF8, the entire screen just stops the entire duration of the normal battle swirl and enters battle without displaying it.

Users experience may vary though,

[jonc2006]

i guess so because it doesnt do it for either of them with the setup i use, the battle swirl works fine with the OGL2 and the settings i posted earlier. the only plugin that i have used that acts weird with the battle swirl for both games is the d3d one i was using before i made the jump to the OLG2. now i havnt played though ff8 as much as i have ff7 but a few weeks ago i was fooling around with a bunch of custom shader effects to see how they look in various games and i never ran into anything like what you are describing in ff8, with or without the shader effects in use.

so if what you are saying is something that is well known to occur, i have somehow avoided it. im well aware that the battle swirl effects are kind of glitchy in other plugins with certain compatibility settings like the d3d as i mentioned before (i get issues myself if i dont use a certain setup), but with the OGL2 everything runs smooth. i dont know why, maybe epsxe just thinks im awesome and is fearful of my wrath or something. but ill have to get back to you on that one after i finish interrogating it for answers.

edit- btw i have kept all my other settings aside from some of the shaders i was trying out the same as the ones as i posted earlier in this thread so there hasnt been any sort of drastic overhaul on my usual setup or anything either.