FF8 Choppy Problem

[XxWARxX]

OK well i got a pSX emulator 1.9 and i got it a Bios and so then i plug my xbox 360 controller and config it and then pop my FF8 in perfect no problem so far well as the game play keeps on and it lets me walk turns choppy and also the battle system when I'm boosting the GF's power it will jump to the X out of no where so if you guys got any advice i can get to fix this problem would be much appreciated :)

[Gamesoul Master]

What kind of settings are you using? Which version of the game are you using? Did you try fullscreen mode? If you tried using fullscreen mode, did you try turning down the resolution? Is bilinear filtering on? What are your system specs? Are you running the game from the original disc, a burned disc, a mounted disc image, or a directly loaded image?

[XxWARxX]

Thx for you concern but i was messing around with it and i fixed it but the only problem i have now is that it has in the begging movie in the fighting scene it had horizontal chops line going threw like the video was cut but it still played fine just had line going threw it also during the battle phase when summoning a GF. my config right now is bilinear on and my contrast is at 640x480 and took off VSync i also took off frame skipping

[Gamesoul Master]

In terms of speed gain, I'd almost recommend turning off bilinear filtering and turning on VSync. VSync will fix a lot of those "cut" errors in the video, while bilinear filtering just makes the picture a little nicer looking... which one is really more important here?

But really... what *is* your system specs? I'm rather curious what kind of processor, RAM, etc. you have in your computer. If you make sure to shut off unnecessary processes using the task manager, you may find that you can keep VSync on without any problems of lag. If nothing else, you may be able to turn frame skipping on without a worry of too many frames being skipped to stay at 60 fps.

[XxWARxX]

Hmmm ok i will try that out later my system specs are CPU:AMD Athlon XP processor@2.08GHz,RAM: DDR SDRAM memory 512MB,CD-RW drive 48x24x48xmax.speed,DVD-ROM drive 16x max speed,Graphics:Nvidia GeForce 4 MX 64MB DDR;OS:WinXP Home Edition Service Pack 1,Sound:Realtek AC97 also I'm playing the game off a CD if that helps and its legit

[Gamesoul Master]

Umm... you shouldn't be having any problems playing pSX, even if you have the resolution up and play a complex game like FFIX or something... your specs are more than good enough to play almost any game on pSX with all the best options enabled.

My recommendation... Keep VSync on, turn on bilinear filtering, set the fullscreen resolution to 640x480, turn on frameskip (which in your case, should only kick in for those rare occasions that your framerate drops for a second or so), and play the game from a ccd/img/sub image (compressed to .cdz if you're concerned about drive space). And of course, close any processes in the background that are unneeded... I can't stress that one enough, as it makes a big difference many times. Also, right-clicking "psxfin.exe" from the Processes tab in the Task Manager and setting the priority to "High" is always helpful (there is also an option for this in Ultima's frontend program, which is a must-have for any pSX user). Doing all this, you should be able to play the game as well as possible.

Just remember that there are a couple points that freeze... save often. If a freeze occurs, try changing your BIOS to a PAL BIOS and reload the game, or reload the game and try fast forwarding past the part that froze the first time.

[XxWARxX]

hmmm ok thank you very much i will try that right now but where can i get the ultima program if im allowed to ask that question here and if i am is this the program UOEdit v1.0a and another thing lol well im kinda of a noob at this how can i turn my cd into a ccd/img/sub file i know i need a type of program right?

[Gamesoul Master]

For a program that can create ccd/img/sub images, go here: http://trial.alcohol-soft.com/en/index.php
That is for the free trial version of the program, which is fine for what you need. When you go to extract/rip the CD, select the "CloneCD" format (which will be mentioned as ccd/img/sub also).

For Ultima's frontend program (which is freeware, never fear), go here: http://s14.quicksharing.com/v/912087...v108a.rar.html
That is actually what I uploaded, because 3 or 4 of us highly active members on the official forums have it uploaded and linked in our signature (for anybody to easily access).

[XxWARxX]

thank you very much going to get them right now and format everything

ok problem with that Ultima program it says install bios img but it already read it is their a thread anywhere that can tell me how to run it properly step by step and the Alcohol 120% loving it i got a bunch of PlayStation games so I'm going to spend most of today making img files out of them lol

oh and another thing do i need all the files i copied from the cd or would one ccd image be fine or should i keep the other SUB file and IMG file or which one should i delete cuz i dont think i need them all do I?

ok i got a question is their a ripper for the isos from the CD that can read threw the scratches cuz my FF8 disc 2 has some scratches and when it downloads it stops exactly at 99.2 percent and says theirs an error is their some way i can fix this help

[Gamesoul Master]

For Ultima's frontend, you have to make sure that the BIOS is in a folder called "bios", this folder being in the same directory as the emulator. Once you set where psxfin.exe is in the frontend, everything else should be fine. But another thing... make sure that the BIOS you're using is the actual name of it (SCPH1001.bin, SCPH1002.bin, etc.). If using NTSC-U games, use SCPH1001.bin... if using PAL games, use SCPH1002.bin.

Keep all three files, and keep them in the same folder. The .ccd file gives the specs of the image, the .img file contains the main chunk of the disc, and the .sub file contains the subcode data which usually contains copy-protection information... information that the emulator sometimes needs to run the game properly.

If CloneCD or Alcohol 120% can't read the disc properly for ripping, try using IsoBuster (which will mean you'll have to use bin/cue... the most popular format used with pSX). Just make sure that it creates the .cue file when it's done. The only reason I generally don't recommend IsoBuster anymore, is because it doesn't support ccd/img/sub... but it's a really good program to toy around with a little, as it is quite good at reading discs that most other programs can't read. And... it's free. The Pro version of IsoBuster doesn't contain anything that you'd ever need, so the free version is still more than enough.

[ultima528]

Technically, the directory that the BIOS needs to be in is just the directory that the selected BIOS file in psx.ini is in -- meaning you can have the PS1 key in the BIOS section of psx.ini be C:\Hello\World\SCPH1001.bin, and it'd look in C:\Hello\World for all "supported" BIOS files :P

[XxWARxX]

thx just got it working now thx to you guys great advice but one more thing I'm worried about my space how can i compress the files for space on my hard drive oh and isobuster hate it thing is so slow takes forever and on top of that still wont read over the scratches it just ask me to retry which is the only positive thing about it but still wont read it even if you hit retry

[ultima528]

Check the File menu for the CDZ converter.

[Gamesoul Master]

By far the best solution for saving disc space.

The BIOS directory thing... I just tend to recommend keeping things in their default locations whenever possible.

Whoa... I just read what I said, and I directly said that it *had* to be there... I didn't mean that. I had meant to say to *try* that, but I guess it came out completely wrong between my head and my fingers.

ultima528... you seem vaguely familiar, as if I know you in another place... XD