pSX is jerky in full screen mode

[donutbandit]

I am playing FF7, and I have set it up according to the recommendations. It plays perfectly reduced, but is jerky in full screen

3 year old Compaq, AMD Athlon 2 gig, 1 gig RAM, onboard VIA S3 video, onboard VIA AC'97 sound.

I am running it as a .bin file. I was in the process of ripping it to img/ccd/sub but the power went out in the middle. Going to start that process again right now.

[Gamesoul Master]

Doing that may be your best bet. The game plays almost perfectly, and doesn't usually have a jerkiness problem in fullscreen. So if ripping it to ccd/img/sub doesn't work, try playing from the original disc. Are you inserting the image directly, or mounting it? Try playing from the original CD too. What resolution are you using for fullscreen?

[patrickp]

Make sure you don't have Frame skipping enabled, donutbandit. I find that, even on machines where it won't run at full speed, pSX will still run smoothly with frame skipping off. But with it on, it gets jerky as anything. Your specs look fine for running pSX at full speed, so you shouldn't need frame skipping anyway. What OS are you using?

[donutbandit]

Windows 2000, SP4. With all updates. I'll try the suggestions, and post the results soon. I am having periodic power "blips" due to a blizzard in the area, and my UPS seems to have a bad battery, so the computer reboots. Not a good time to try gaming.

[Gamesoul Master]

Oh boy... I can't believe I forgot about turning off frameskipping (the number one cause of lagging/skipping problems on decent computers). Yeah, you definitely need to make sure it's off. Good OS though... I've been very tempted to ditch XP and go back to my Win2k SP4.

Good luck with your UPS, and hopefully that blizzard passes soon so you can get back to gaming...

[donutbandit]

W2K SP5 unofficial is the best! The only thing I miss from XP is native support for my DVD deck. Haven't found a real solution on W2K.

I'll try all the suggestions tomorrow. The blizzard is over. Power is stable.

Thanks, guys. I'll let you know if it works or not.

[patrickp]

I never had a problem with DVD on W2K, donutbandit - first I used several iterations of the ATI Multimedia Suite, which has been based on the PowerDVD core for a while now, and is free if you get the ATI CD with your card - this worked excellently.

Then I got a copy of WinDVD and this is superb. I don't know if it's still so, but you used to be able to pick up OEM copies on ebay for pennies...

[donutbandit]

Well, frameskipping is off, I am playing .img, and it still slows down and skips big time. I did find (sort of) a fix.

I put my resolution down to 640 x 480, and the minimized window is almost full screen now. Big enough to play, and to see a lot more detail than I ever saw on my TV screen. Odd, but this game looks better with higher resolution.

I don't know why this computer has trouble playing games, since the hardware oughta be able to run pSX, but it does. I can emulate N64 very well, but it goes no higher, and even some N64 games don't play properly.

You can bet that the next computer I have will be built to play games properly.

[patrickp]

Ah, there's a thought, donutbandit - are you using an LCD screen, do you have the refresh rate set to 60Hz and are you playing NTSC games? This may cause either jerkiness or picture tearing, since NTSC games run at 50fps, which obviously doesn't synchronise well with a 60Hz display.

If this is the case, try increasing your screen refresh rate to 75Hz (if it can be), as this will work better with 50fps games (most monitors won't go down to 50Hz), and should work OK with 60fps PAL games. If your monitor can't handle this, make sure VSync is disabled in pSX, and is disabled or can be set so that an application can disable it in your video driver.

[Shendo]

You got it the wrong way patrickp.
NTSC games run at 60 FPS while PAL games run at 50.

[Gamesoul Master]

That's... really weird. I've never seen patrickp, in all the time I've known him, to make a post that... wrong. He must've *just* woken up when he posted that... XD.

[patrickp]

Erm... actually, I had, GM! It was about 8:30 in the morning here, and I was getting ready to go to w*rk...

Yes, you're quite right, Shendo.

However, the point might still be appropriate if the OP is running his monitor at some other refresh rate than 60Hz...

[donutbandit]

Yes, it's an LCD monitor, the frame rate is at 60. I'll try increasing it. How would the monitor cause the sound to slow down, though? In full screen, it's running at about 50% speed.

Here's my psxfrontend.ini file. I didn't know what PPF is, so I left it blank. See any problems there, anybody?

[pSX Frontend Settings]
guiMaximized=0
guiWidth=350
guiHeight=300
guiXpos=326
guiYpos=336
runAction=Nothing
profileAction=Run
profileView=List
[Last Session]
ProfileIcon=|0
pSX=F:\GAMES\PSX\pSX_1_13\pSX_1_13\psxfin.exe
DiscType=Image
DiscPath=cdimages\FINALFANTASY7 - d1.ccd
PPF=
SaveState=saves\quicksave_SCUS_941.63_1.psv
MemoryCardSlot1State=1
MemoryCardSlot1=cards\mem1.bin
MemoryCardSlot2State=1
MemoryCardSlot2=cards\mem2.bin
PadModeState=4
PadMode=0 - SCPH-1010: Normal pad
Switches=
BIOS=bios\scph1001.bin
AspectRatio=No Correction
SizeMultiplier=1.0x
SizeResolution=640x480
BilinearInterpolationState=1
FrameSkippingState=4
HideLogWindowState=4
HighProcessPriorityState=4

Success! I turned off VSync and set NTSC at 640 x 480 75 hertz, and it's running great! That's for the help, guys.

[patrickp]

Actually, as per the discussion myself, GM and Shendo just had, 60Hz would have been Ok. However, you'll probably find your monitor less flickery at 75Hz. Personally, I couldn't spend any length of time even with an an LCD monitor set at 60Hz without getting a blinding headache, and with a CRT... <shiver>

Actually, psxfrontend.ini is the configuration Ultima's Frontend sets when it starts the emulator: pSX' configuration is psx.ini.

[Samor]

CRT's on 60hz? That's terrible indeed. It's different per person, but aside from a headache, it also makes me feel sick. I can handle 60hz LCD's just fine though... most LCD's actually run at it all the time, I think(?)

[Shendo]

Originally Posted by patrickp

Personally, I couldn't spend any length of time even with an an LCD monitor set at 60Hz without getting a blinding headache, and with a CRT... <shiver>

I could be wrong but you may have a placebo effect that is hurting your head, not the actual flickering, patrickp.

LCDs do not actually refresh the same way as the CRTs do, "refresh rate" of LCD is actually a response time.
That means how fast will the pixel be changed. It has the same brightness all the time until it's changed.

As for the backlight used to illuminate liquid crystal shutters according to Wikipedia it is usually 200Hz, regardless of response time.

So lower "refresh rate" on LCDs will only lead to ghosting and not flickering.

[patrickp]

I know, Shendo, but I do find it noticeable - both in that I see 'flicker' in an LCD screen at 60Hz, and it does give me a headache after a time.

@Samor: we used to use CRTs at work until fairly recently (nearly a year ago), and many of the people I work with would have the refresh rate set to the default 60Hz - and not notice/mind...

[Shendo]

Originally Posted by patrickp

I know, Shendo, but I do find it noticeable - both in that I see 'flicker' in an LCD screen at 60Hz, and it does give me a headache after a time.

Well that's strange but i can understand it.
I had a terrible headache after using Vista. I first thought that it was blurring but I disabled Aero and it was the same. I think it's just "too bright" i guess.

[Samor]

My father didn't notice it much either until I visited him at his work and changed the refresh rate from his monitor from 60hz to 75hz. He then remarked that it made a difference, but still - I instantly noticed when entering his room

I also had a strange issue where I had problems watching XP on my current (LCD) monitor, whereas it was fine under Vista (I guess the opposite, of you, Shendo)... it's not logical; I still don't know where that difference came from, as both reported the same refresh rate. It could have something to do with brightness, as I tend to use dark colours for my windows in Vista, whereas I usually use "silver" in XP.

[patrickp]

I wonder if noticing 60Hz more has anything to do with living in the UK, where the mains frequency is 50Hz rather than 60Hz, as it is in the US?

That means that 50Hz rather than 60Hz is the electrical (lightbulbs, fluorescent tubes etc - and TV) background I'm constantly subjected to, so 60Hz is probably more noticeable by its difference.