2D & 3D RPG games, ePSXe plugin config guide + FFVII screenshots spectacular graphics

[Dakaran]

Hey guys I've been configuring my graphics all day and here are the results with screenshots to show you! Works for all games !

Super nice stuff to my taste I got to say

This is for you guys fans of RPGs INTEL/NVIDIA CONFIG, not tested for AMD/ATI.

59-60fps, superb sound and image quality. It plays flawlessly! 280gtx 1 gig video ram, i7 920 @2.4gighz, 6 gig of ram, x58 motherboard and WINDOWS 7 ULTIMATE 64-bits fully updated as of 3/21/2010.
Use the control key on the keyboard and mouse wheel to zoom the pics. It gives away the config. I couldn't post PNG so it lost a bit in quality, sorry, because I'm trying to share my settings. xD












Links to to viewable size settings:

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL138.../384576481.jpg
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL138.../384576480.jpg
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL138.../384576479.jpg
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL138.../384576478.jpg
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL138.../384576477.jpg
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL138.../384576476.jpg
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL138.../384576475.jpg
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL138.../384576474.jpg
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL138.../384576473.jpg
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL138.../384576472.jpg

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Last edited by Dakaran; March 22nd, 2010 at 03:05.. Reason: Automerged Doublepost

[Dakaran]

MY settings, from a someone who was completely new to the emulator scene, trials and errors with much reading I finally figured it out. Props to the read file describing the shaders specifications. I hope this helps out the new people out there because with this config and a system intel similar to mine you will be able to play ISO like FFVII flawlessly!

Note also, 3d games configuration but works for 2d games using different shaders so read below to know which and what settings.
Enjoy, it took me days of trials to get there. !

Plugin: Pete's OpenGL2 Driver 2.9
Author: Pete Bernert
Card vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
GFX card: GeForce GTX 280/PCI/SSE2

Resolution/Color:
- 1920x1080 Fullscreen - Use Window size in Fullscreen mode
- NO desktop changing
- Internal X resolution: 2
- Internal Y resolution: 3
- Keep psx aspect ratio: off
- No render-to-texture: off

- Filtering: 6
- Hi-Res textures: 2
- TexWin pixel shader: on
- VRam size: 1024 MBytes

Framerate:
- FPS limitation: on
- Frame skipping: off
- FPS limit: 80.0

Compatibility:
- Offscreen drawing: 2
- Framebuffer effects: 3
- Framebuffer uploads: 1

Misc:
- Scanlines: off
- Mdec filter: on
- Screen filtering: on
- Shader effects: 5/4
- Flicker-fix border size: 0
- GF4/XP crash fix: off
- Game fixes: off [00000000]



Plugin: P.E.Op.S. Soft Driver 1.1.18
Author: Pete Bernert and the P.E.Op.S. team

Resolution/Color:
- 1920x1080 Window mode
Stretch mode: 16
Dither mode: 2

Framerate:
- FPS limit: on
- Frame skipping: off
- FPS limit: 80.0

Misc:
- Scanlines: double blitting
- Game fixes: off [00000000]



==============================
\Sketch shaders\ColoredStorybook shader I and II, slight difference is that the contour/edges of the characters and their texture will be less brighten and lights/shadows effects drawn a bit differently at given strength levels.



Picture below is using GSlang slv/slf max strength 3 combat scene

Picture below is using GSlang slv/slf max strength 4 combat scene

Picture below is using GSlang slv/slf max strength 4 text and menu customized in-game



Picturetrail kinda scrapped my picture quality because the size of pics in 1920x1080 is 600k or more.
The effects and graphics are to say the least very positively surprising.
Very cool combat graphics with this one and spectacular drawings of the monsters.
==============================

Cell shaders\AdvCartoon Shader GBL
Basically, It transforms the game in a movie like graphics with enhanced textures and forms.



Picture below is using GSlang slv/slf max strength 4 exterior scene

Picture below is using GSlang slv/slf max strength 3 exterior scene


Picture below is using GSlang slv/slf max strength 3 combat scene

Picture below is using GSlang slv/slf max strength 4 combat scene


==============================
Nature Shaders
Basically it is polishing and rendering softly just like it meant to be on PS1, but smoother and very bright colors. No morph or change in textures otherwise.



First below is using ARB vp/fp

Natural Shaders max strength 4 combat scene ARB VP-FP


Second one below is using GSlang slv/slf

Natural Shaders max strength 4 combat scene GSlang slv/slf

==============================

Strength of shaders 3 or 4 recommended for best graphics in all three but as a rule I found the strength needs to be max in storybook for very spectacular changes. Noting that below strength 3 (medium) and because that's where the transformation kicks in it won't do much in 3d games like FFVII using shaders such as storybook/cell etc. 280gtx full 16AA/AF enabled with 197.21 drivers and DX11 under WINDOWS 7 64 bits.

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Last edited by Dakaran; March 23rd, 2010 at 05:49.. Reason: Automerged Doublepost

[Dakaran]

Nothing like I was expecting before for sure! I'm replaying all RPG with better graphics xD!


Sound Plugin settings: Eternal SPU 1.50
Audio Device:Wave Mapper /\ Buffer Size:128
Audio out method: SPU async /\ Async mode: Smooth
Special Game Fix: Update before accessing register


MISC.
Cache VAG DECODE turned on /\ Fine Tune 64
Reverb: Neill's

My sound card is a m-audio 1814 firewire, it's professional stuff but it will work with good probabilities just as much with top of the line sound cards. I obtain limpid and crystal water clear sound quality with those settings.

> PLAYSTATION BIOS
bios\SCPH101.BIN /\ Use a valid bios file full integrity and you will run this stuff smoothly.

COUNTRY SET: NSTC

Auto load ppf files enabled turned on.

With all I posted above including the sound and video it should be giving you a fast and easy setup for RPG games because you just switch the shader type, get a working emulator and not so many hours to bother xD!

Note: You can config your games faster using two emulations of ePSXe, one to config and one to run the games. Simply hit esc to bring it out of full screen and pause the emulation(1). Open the configs menu in the ePSXe that is not emulating a game, and set the changes by clicking OK. To resume playing and update the game graphics after you pressed OK and applied the changes in the emulator used for configurating, open the run menu and press continue in your game emulator(2), that's a super quick way to do it.

That's it folks, see yas later

-Dakaran

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Last edited by Dakaran; April 10th, 2010 at 00:49..

[jonc2006]

im moving this to the general screen shots section if you dont mind dakaran.

__________________

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[Dakaran]

I'm going to post the filters settings with 2d RPG games like FF Tactics. Those are the four shaders I found improving 2d games with significant polish to color, clothes and details in the background. So far, as a rule I found, using shaders at maximum strength 3 will give the best results. Anything above 3 will cause pixelization on-screen.

Below those are the 2D FILTERS:

\Shaders\4xGLSLHqFilter shader /\ max strength 3 the clothes are almost silk like, very soft texturing but there is a tiny bit of extra pixel that needs to disappear before it gets on top.

\Shaders\AA shaders\SaL GLSL shader /\ max strength 3

\2xGLSLHqFilter shader /\ max strength 3

============================
BEST 2D FILTER OVERALL: >|< 5* S* T* A* R*S
Shaders\AA shaders\AA Shader v2.o - Bloom\ max strength 3! softer graphics and best results for Final Fantasy Tactics no more pixelized characters and colorful details added to an enhanced light source for everything on the screen. It could be improved further but it is performing greatly right now, 3/22/2010, which is the one I will use for 2D games.

*
Final Fantasy Tactics shaders max strength 3



*
Beyond the Beyond shaders max strength 4




*
Breath Of Fire IV






*
Chrono Cross

============================

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\*
Below those are the 3D FILTERS strength 3-4:

*
Cell shaders\AdvCartoon Shader GBL morph graphics into movie like

Chrono Cross


*
\Sketch shaders\ColoredStorybook shader I and II morph graphics.

- Note: Both above have the tendency a bit of overdoing it when rendering eyes and facial details shadows and lights(more like it stamps shadows a bit too strong), I could say overwhelming shadows. They do spectacular jobs at morphing the graphics of your games though, enough to make it feels like a completely enhanced and different version of the same game. They would be even more top notch if the creators would improve shadow rendering on the characters and their portraits, that's the main flaw so far that keeps it from perfection.

Nature shaders much the original graphics so doesn't morph but runs well and has great colors.
Chrono Cross

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Last edited by Dakaran; March 22nd, 2010 at 18:06..

[koko]

Awesome work man. Thanks for the info.

__________________

[Dakaran]

GAMES SETTINGS BY SHADERS

CHRONO CROSS
Shaders\Advanced Cartoon Shaders\AdvCartoon Shader II max strength 4. Works best in this game.


Cartoon III #special for Chrono Cross Shader max strength 3



Sketch shaders\ColoredStorybook shader I and II morph graphics.



The sound was OK tolerable with reverb and echoing, bad disrupt on emulation, so it needs improvement because this game sound is incredible.

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Last edited by Dakaran; March 23rd, 2010 at 05:54..

[Dakaran]

Brigandine legends doesn't work on ePSX as the compatibility is mediocre. Please fix support in futur versions.
Brigandine legends works on psx 1.13 flawlessly.

Brigandine Grand Edition works great on ePSXe. Awesome voice acting in that game and Atlus had really outdone themselves back then! Screenshots to come.

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Last edited by Dakaran; July 21st, 2010 at 08:56..

[Dakaran]

I had a serious headache over this one seeing people splitting files in extensions I knew nothing about. It's actually as simple as a zip or rar file you just will have to find which of the three softwares to use to put back together the files.

I'm gonna save you time and that frustration here's a screenshot I took from a easy to understand method.



Use either winrar, 7z or HJSplit

The only one I have not figure out yet and gnaw at me is the mdf files and mds I think. Some rare games have been encoded in stuff I'm not used to see. How to extract mdf and md0 files using Alcohol120% (the name of the software, ya for real). Now the deal with virtual hard drive is unknown space to explore to me so if it mess up stability of your system because you followed instructions but it went fumble don't slash me please. I would recommend finding other files not using this method, that's what I do to keep my system normal. If I was better with virtual drive stuff and knowing it more I would maybe try my luck.

Software for MDF and MD0 files: http://www.alcohol-soft.com/
How to extract the files : http://filext.com/file-extension/MDF

Zipped files extractors:
http://www.7-zip.org/ |||| www.rarlab.com/ |||| http://www.freebyte.com/hjsplit/

Also, when you unzip,unrar and join back the files you may should attempt many times before giving up. Sometimes the error was only temporary and unfortunate, so from there check the passwords and if the files are downloaded as is from the source then give it a few more tries. I had to do as many as four times with 7z for some files and it successfully unzipped. I attribute it to bad synch or something like that. As long as it's not a constant crc check.

With all that above we're ready to get started.

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Last edited by Dakaran; April 10th, 2010 at 00:40..

[Dakaran]

Cartoon Shaders Class B\Cartoon shader II used above at max strength 4. I chose the backgrounds and combat effects with great overall textures but it's just the overpowering shadows in Alucard's face to sacrifice when he stands still because otherwise in combat he looks good fighting.

[Dakaran]

Bastard AA shaders SaL GLSL shader max strength 4 animation scene


Bastard Bloom shader 2.0 max strength 4 combat scene

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Last edited by Dakaran; March 24th, 2010 at 03:07..

[Xblade]

Originally Posted by Dakaran

I'm going to post the filters settings with 2d RPG games like FF Tactics. Those are the four shaders I found improving 2d games with significant polish to color, clothes and details in the background. So far, as a rule I found, using shaders at maximum strength 3 will give the best results. Anything above 3 will cause pixelization on-screen.

Below those are the 2D FILTERS:

\Shaders\4xGLSLHqFilter shader /\ max strength 3 the clothes are almost silk like, very soft texturing but there is a tiny bit of extra pixel that needs to disappear before it gets on top.

\Shaders\AA shaders\SaL GLSL shader /\ max strength 3

\2xGLSLHqFilter shader /\ max strength 3

============================
BEST 2D FILTER OVERALL: >|< 5* S* T* A* R*S
Shaders\AA shaders\AA Shader v2.o - Bloom\ max strength 3! softer graphics and best results for Final Fantasy Tactics no more pixelized characters and colorful details added to an enhanced light source for everything on the screen. It could be improved further but it is performing greatly right now, 3/22/2010, which is the one I will use for 2D games.

*
Final Fantasy Tactics shaders max strength 3



*
Beyond the Beyond shaders max strength 4




*
Breath Of Fire IV






*
Chrono Cross

============================

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\*
Below those are the 3D FILTERS strength 3-4:

*
Cell shaders\AdvCartoon Shader GBL morph graphics into movie like

Chrono Cross


*
\Sketch shaders\ColoredStorybook shader I and II morph graphics.

- Note: Both above have the tendency a bit of overdoing it when rendering eyes and facial details shadows and lights(more like it stamps shadows a bit too strong), I could say overwhelming shadows. They do spectacular jobs at morphing the graphics of your games though, enough to make it feels like a completely enhanced and different version of the same game. They would be even more top notch if the creators would improve shadow rendering on the characters and their portraits, that's the main flaw so far that keeps it from perfection.

Nature shaders much the original graphics so doesn't morph but runs well and has great colors.
Chrono Cross

Chrono Cross looks like a ps2 game .

__________________

[drhycodan]

Can someone please tell me how you're able to make 2d graphics look so smooth? I don't get all the shader/max strength stuff. What does all that mean? My 2d as well as 3d games on epsxe looks pixelated as hell, and I use pete's open gl2 plugin and I still don't get what all the shader codes mean.

[Dakaran]

Shaders max strength is the strength put to use by the shaders in the configuration options. Open your video settings and copy mine. With the shaders package they made you got all of them together, and using pete's plugin with everything else setup it will not be hard to get graphics this nice. If you lower the strength of a shader it impacts and changes less the game looks. On the contrary, if you increase the strength of a shader it will change more the game with the effect it's supposed to give. Keep mind as explained earlier above that a shader too weak or too strong can very well butchered the image on-screen. So determining the right strength and configuration took me a while.

That's why following my configs with nvidia I can promise you get good graphics and support for RPG games. Trust me it took a newbie like me days of trial and errors to find out all this stuff even if I'm good with computer softwares, I had basically no clue about configurating emulators.

BEST 2D FILTER OVERALL: >|< 5* S* T* A* R*S
Shaders\AA shaders\AA Shader v2.o - Bloom\ max strength 3! softer graphics and best results for Final Fantasy Tactics no more pixelized characters and colorful details added to an enhanced light source for everything on the screen. It could be improved further but it is performing greatly right now, 3/22/2010, which is the one I will use for 2D games.

*
Final Fantasy Tactics shaders max strength 3


Have you read my explanation above because I tried to give full details?

MY settings, from a someone who was completely new to the emulator scene, trials and errors with much reading I finally figured it out. Props to the read file describing the shaders specifications. I hope this helps out the new people out there because with this config and a system intel similar to mine you will be able to play ISO like FFVII flawlessly!

Note also, 3d games configuration but works for 2d games using different shaders so read below to know which and what settings.
Enjoy, it took me days of trials to get there. !

Plugin: Pete's OpenGL2 Driver 2.9
Author: Pete Bernert
Card vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
GFX card: GeForce GTX 280/PCI/SSE2

Resolution/Color:
- 1920x1080 Fullscreen - Use Window size in Fullscreen mode
- NO desktop changing
- Internal X resolution: 2
- Internal Y resolution: 3
- Keep psx aspect ratio: off
- No render-to-texture: off

- Filtering: 6
- Hi-Res textures: 2
- TexWin pixel shader: on
- VRam size: 1024 MBytes

Framerate:
- FPS limitation: on
- Frame skipping: off
- FPS limit: 80.0

Compatibility:
- Offscreen drawing: 2
- Framebuffer effects: 3
- Framebuffer uploads: 1

Misc:
- Scanlines: off
- Mdec filter: on
- Screen filtering: on
- Shader effects: 5/4
- Flicker-fix border size: 0
- GF4/XP crash fix: off
- Game fixes: off [00000000]



Plugin: P.E.Op.S. Soft Driver 1.1.18
Author: Pete Bernert and the P.E.Op.S. team

Resolution/Color:
- 1920x1080 Window mode
Stretch mode: 16
Dither mode: 2

Framerate:
- FPS limit: on
- Frame skipping: off
- FPS limit: 80.0

Misc:
- Scanlines: double blitting
- Game fixes: off [00000000]

GSL and ARB are two video rendering modes which are the category of extensions the plug-ins will show graphics on the screen belongs to. Plug-ins are not all working in both modes so that's why you read carefully the extension of the plug-ins. Also, besides my video settings I also added sound settings. I ain't going to re-post/re-quote all my stuff just read it above please. But to better understand it you need to open your video settings in the configuration menu of the emulator.

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Last edited by Dakaran; May 6th, 2010 at 00:37..

[drhycodan]

So AA shader 2.0 is the shader you used for FF Tactics, beyond the beyond, and breath of fire IV?

[Dakaran]

Ya, AA Shader v2.o - Bloom\ max strength 3! for those. Beyond the Beyond is the game that emulates the best with epsxe that I've played. Tactics is good too but movies ugh so so. Epsxe doesn't play movies too well for the games. Someone needs to update that emulator massively and fix those kinks and bugs hanging out. =p

[Luchopez]

it looks very good whta config are u running?

__________________
Mariscos

[Cappie]

Originally Posted by Dakaran

CHRONO CROSS
Shaders\Advanced Cartoon Shaders\AdvCartoon Shader II max strength 4. Works best in this game.

I really LOVE how it looks

[Dakaran]

Update, some games need new shader plugins more performant than those currently available to correct lights and shadows drawn over the character and in the background.

[Vampir3_Knight]

Hi,

I was wondering if any of you configuration plug-in experts had any ideas on what the settings would be, in order to optimise the graphics of "Tales of Phantasia?"

I have had a fiddle around myself, however; i cannot seem to strike a balance between a sharp, brighter, clearer style and an advanced, detailed look.

Maybe I'm being to much of a perfectionist here... Still, it doesn't hurt to ask

Kris