PPPP CCCC SSS X X 2222 P P C C S S X X 2 2 P P C S X X 2 P P C S X X 2 P P C S X X 2 P P C SSS X 2 PPPP C S X X 2 P C S X X 2 P C S X X 2 P C C S S X X 2 P CCCC SSS X X 2222222 **************** *PCSX2 FAQ v0.1* **************** This FAQ has been written for PCSX2 v0.6 FAQ Written by: CKemu & shadow _________________________________________________________ Q: What is PCSX2? A: PCSX2 is a WIP PS2 (PlayStation 2) emulator, written by linuzappz, shadow, florin. basara, asadr, goldfinger. PCSX2 is constantly WIP (work in progress), and is in the early stages of development (so don't expect much yet ;) ). Q: Why doesn't XYZ game work? A: PCSX2 is able to get many games to show 'screens'. Some of the games can reach ingame and less more can be consider playable. Speed is too slow on many of them so 'viewable' is a beter way to describe it :) Q: Why don't these games work? A: PCSX2 is in the early stages of development. It can run some games (many of them without glitches) but the speed issue prevent us of making the emu more compatible. Q: Where abouts do I find these demos? A:You can find some demos at http://pcsx2.ngemu.com or http://ps2dev.livemedia.com.au. There are proberbly more sites with PS2 homebrew demos. Q: Does PCSX2 require a 'real' PS2 BIOS. A: PCSX2 can use a 'real' BIOS, and is preferable to HLE BIOS as it is more compatible. But HLE does work well with many homebrew demos. Q: Why not use HLE? A: HLE is a difficult thing to do for a PS2. Game developers use their own modules for each game. That would mean we would have to HLE each module. This would be a massive task, and not a good idea, as emulating the real BIOS will mean compatibility with all released games. Q: Where do I get a BIOS? A: You can dump the BIOS from your own PS2, DO NOT ask us or anyone else for a BIOS, the BIOS is copyright of SONY and is illegal to download, so we won't help you with that. Q: I try to run a game, or the BIOS, but nothing happens! A: If no BIOS screen shows from attempting to run a CD/DVD, your BIOS maybe incorrect. Go to 'config>configure', and under the BIOS menu, check that firstly you haven't got the HLE BIOS selected, if you do change to a 'real' BIOS. If you have a 'real' BIOS selected and it still doesn't work, check that NO percentage is written next to the BIOS, if it is for instance "40%", your BIOS is to small (by 60%), or corrupt (by 60%), you may need to redump it. Also if no 'real' BIOS is listed, check its not compressed 'eg *.zip / *.rar' and extract it to the BIOS dir (note sub-folders NOT supported, it must be in /BIOS/). If that is not the case, your BIOS isn't an actual PS2 BIOS. To ensure that doesn't happen, dump your own ;) Q: I see lots of glitches with games/demos, why? A: Incomplete emulation of the GS, Vector Units etc, this is a WIP emulator, and will have many bugs for some time, until more is known about the PS2 hardware. Things generally improve with each release, so you never know, it may be fixed in the next release. Q: How can I help fix these bugs? A: Report these bugs to us, post at the offical PCSX2 forums at http://www.ngemu.com. Make a post describing the bug/glitch, perhaps with a screenshot showing it, and details on your system setup, what plugins your using etc. If you find any other bugs, with regards to the debugger, plugins, or differences between what you see in the emulator and a real PS2, feel free to email us. Q: How can I help develop for PCSX2? A: You can find the open-source plugins at http://pcsx2.ngemu.com , coding a GS plugin or and SPU2 plugin would help us greatly. Also if you have any technical information on the PS2, please email us, anyhelp is greatly appreciated. Q: Your emulator sucks!! I don't want to use it! A: Then don't, buy a real PS2. If you don't like it, just don't and there is no need to tell us you don't like it, the PCSX2 team put alot of hardwork into this emulator, and don't care to know. Q: Can you give me some more 'technical' answers? A: A technical FAQ would be massive, and take months to write. Instead email shadow / linuz with your questions. Q: When is the next release? A: The next release will happen when there is something to show, internal changes, and technical changes don't mean anything to the user, if they don't see something. Pestering us will make no difference :P Q: GSsoft is s..l..o..w!! A: Then use one of the OpenGL plugins found at our site http://pcsx2.ngemu.com or the GStaris plugin ( http://gstaris.ngemu.com ). Q: The emulator even with GStaris / GSmax is slow! Why? A: First of all, the PS2 is a powerfull piece of hardware, and will require a powerfull machine to achive NEAR correct speeds, Given that PCSX2 does not run any 'complex' commercial games, it is hard to judge the system requirements that will be eventually needed. Plugins and Emulator will get faster as new releases are made, but you can improve preformance by turning OFF "Enable Console Output" and "Enable Interpreter CPU" under 'config>CPU>' in the menu. Q: Do I need a DVD drive? A: Yes, if you want to read a DVDrom you will need a DVD drive, many PS2 games are written to CDrom, so its not essential, unless you have a DVD based game you wish to try. You can also use 'Linuz's CDVD ISO' plugin to run PS2 games in ISO / BIN format from your HDD. Note only NTFS Format drives (eg not FAT32) can store greater than 4GB in a single file. Q: I hear no sound! A: SPU2 Plugins are being worked on by a few coders, but as of now the only SPU2 plugin is nullSPU, which outputs no sound, If you are a coder, and feel you can help with SPU2, please email us. Q: Where can I get help!!! A: You can get help from the people over at http://www.ngemu.com or on IRC. Using an IRC client, log onto #PCSX2 or #NGEMU (EFnet). You can politly ask for help there (No BIOS / ROM / ISO requests, or you shall be banned). If you cannot get help there, email the PCSX2 team. _________________________________________________________ This FAQ was based on shadow's original FAQ, so thanks to him. This was written to clear up some of the basic questions you may have, and I hope it was of help. Written with very little sleep and too much coffee, so please excuse the mistakes, they will be fixed shortly :D ************ *Thanks to:* ************ The PCSX2 team for making me a betatester, and providing us with a fantastic PS2 emulator, and the opportinity for me to work on SPU2 (highly WIP :P ) shadow, Linuzappz, Absolute0, [Tyranid], F|res, Roor, Goldfinger, Florin, basara, asadr, CpUmaster, snake785, mike9010, bositman, DWatcher, Keith, Martin64.....and many more I am sure :D My lady, Lucy. Without her I would be lost. Coffee, where would we be without coffee :D ********** *Contact:* ********** If you think I should add something to this FAQ, or you spotted a bug, you can contact me (CKemu) via IRC in the #PCSX2 (EFnet) channel. You can contact the authors via: http://pcsx2.ngemu.com (homepage) http://www.pcsx2.net (homepage) http://www.ngemu.com (offical forums) or on IRC: #PCSX2 (EFnet) Enjoy PCSX2!! Best Regards CKemu ( http://www.ckemu.com ). /EOF/