| paleface [sys=PC; cat=Emulation; reg=WLD] |
| | | https://www.duckstation.org/
https://github.com/stenzek/duckstation
PS1 emulator, very similar in appearance to PS2 emulator PCSX2 (see entry 1665). |
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| | | | It was duckstation, followed by Mednafen, as the two recommended: https://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/PlayStation_emulators |
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| | | | And Mednafen sounds fussy about specific BIOS files, so bleh nevermind it. |
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| | | | URL for cover downloader: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xlenore/psx-covers/main/covers/default/${serial}.jpg |
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Lilith's light jab in Darkstalkers 3 for PS1 (see entry 829) on a PS2, in the PS1 Classics version on PS3 (see entry 1453), and with a rip of the PS1 disc under each of PS1 emulator duckstation's (see entry 1743) five renderers on a Windows 11 PC.
My ~4 year old mid-range gaming laptop: a "Sager NP6858CQ 15.6-Inch Thin Bezel FHD 144Hz Gaming Laptop, Intel i7-10750H, GTX 1660Ti 6GB, 16GB RAM, 1TB NVMe SSD" (see entry 1744) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B089KW3Y1R bought in summer 2020, outputting to a 60 Hz 1080p Asus 5ms monitor. Component output via OSSC for the consoles. Hori Real Arcade Pro V 2017 PS3/PS4 arcade stick--through a Brook Super Converter on the PS2.
1:20 - PS2 2 frames
5:44 - Classics PS3 4 frames
9:16 - Duck D3D11 4 frames
10:35 - Duck D3D12 4 frames
11:49 - Duck Vulkan 3 frames
12:54 - Duck OpenGL 2 frames
14:26 - Duck Software 3 frames
I ran duckstation with Vsync off (default), and 9x (4k) Internal Resolution Scale--except for the Software renderer, which doesn't upscale. duckstation's Graphics menu says the Software renderer is the slowest, but the D3D ones were slower for me. You'll notice where allowed I'd set the Adapter to my laptop's NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, so it wouldn't be using the integrated Intel UHD Graphics chip--ASSUMING the GeForce would be the faster option. But OpenGL and Software only allow the "Default" setting for Adapter; so to be sure I went back and tried Vulkan on "Default"--but it stayed the same (3 frames). So I don't think having Adapter set to the GTX slowed down the D3D or Vulkan response times.
Darkstalkers 3 is just as responsive in duckstation's OpenGL renderer as it is on an actual PS2! This rules! No more bothering with my PS1 physical discs, I'll just rip any I want to play and run them in duckstation! And I'd bought the Kitchen Panic PS1 Classic off the PS3 JP store even though I own the disc, because I didn't want to be bothered getting my JP PS2 out--but turns out that was a waste, 'cause now I can just rip the disc and play it in duckstation woooo. : D
If only PCSX2 would run PS2 games w/o adding input delay... Well, I'm gonna do a specific test w/ it on VF4E...but I'm pretty sure it'll still be adding a frame or two. : P Oh hang on. PCSX2 has all those renderers too--and in the little test I did with it once, I left it on Default--so probably D3D11. There's still the others to try!! = ooo
I used ImgBurn https://www.imgburn.com/ (see entry 1741) for ripping the Darkstalkers 3 PS1 disc, and CHDMAN https://wiki.recalbox.com/en/tutorials/utilities/rom-conversion/chdman (see entry 1742) (that's with handy automated scripts; CHDMAN's basic form comes with MAME--see entry 1541) for compressing the rip (duckstation (see entry 1743), PCSX2 (see entry 1665), and Flycast (see entry 1615) can all load games as .chd files, which tend to be about half the size of uncompressed ripped .iso, .bin, or .gdi files).
Hilarious ripping anecdote! Yesterday was my first attempt at ripping PS1/2 games. Dug out my old lappy--my new one doesn't have a DVD drive. Test-ripped two Taito Memories JP PS2 games successfully, and thought woo got this down--although I did notice the drive was a fussy about recognizing the discs at first. Later in the day I tried Darkstalkers 3 (PS1)--and only got the drive to show the disc contents once, for about five seconds; then it just whirred and blipped and I could barely get it to eject the darn thing. Same with every game & dvd I tried after that.
That drive had always felt a bit fragile--only laptop optical drive I've used though so I don't know--so I thought maybe it's had it, even though I never used it much before. Spent a stupid amount of time ordering an external DVD drive from Amazon (jeez they're only $20-$34.99! = o (Just below Amazon's new free shipping price hmm) I thought they'd be ~$120). Then thought wait maybe the lens got dirty somehow; got the lappy back out, ejected the drive, blew on it with my slobbery breath--worked perfectly. Canceled the order, wey-hey!
Vulkan is the successor to OpenGL, developed by the same tech industry consortium behind OpenGL (originally developed by SGI). |
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| | | | That was without "Optimal Frame Pacing" in the Settings - Emulation being checked. But duckstation's explanation of OFP differs from the one in PCSX2: while PCSX2 says it "can reduce input lag at the cost of measurably higher CPU and GPU requirements," duckstation doesn't use that phrase, simply saying "will ensure every frame the console renders is displayed to the screen, for optimal frame pacing," but recommending disabling it (the default is off) if "you are having difficulties maintaining full speed, or are getting audio glitches." Which sounds like a noskip or whatever, not an input lag thing exactly. But I dunno. PCSX2's says "Sets the VSync queue size to 0, making every frame be completed and presented by the GS before input is polled and the next frame begins"; PCSX2 also has a "Maximum Frame Latency" drop-down next to it, which defaults to 2; I set it to 0 and turned ON PCSX2's OFP, and it didn't seem to hurt my maintaining 60 fps at 4K internal resolution in OutRun 2006. |
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| | | My impression was that duckstation was fairly new, so I'd assumed (:p) the close similarity in UI between it and long-running PS2 emulator PCSX2 meant duckstation had just swiped PCSX2's UI ideas--but it looks like what actually happened is that the developer of duckstation, Australian stenzek https://github.com/stenzek, started helping out on PCSX2 by 2022-ish; so PCSX2 got *duckstation's* UI: https://www.resetera.com/threads/so-ps2-emulation-got-way-better-recently.564466/?post=83960653#post-83960653
Hm and it sounds like PCSX2 got native DualShock 4 & 5 support around that time: https://www.resetera.com/threads/so-ps2-emulation-got-way-better-recently.564466/post-87026714
Apparently, months before this, in Feb 2022--I guess a bit after stenzek put Vulkan support into PSCS2, the duckstation dev had had a falling out with popular multi-emulator front-end RetroArch, which was incorporating duckstation; he felt RA, or someone or someones there, was ripping off his stuff, including leaking and taking credit for uncommitted code, and harassing him; a fork called "Swanstation" had been made that apparently wanted to take his work and go commercial with it. Frustrated, he put the duckstation github in read-only mode for a while and said the project was on hiatus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-iRW7BAoOU |
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| | | | duckstation requires a PS1 BIOS. Fortunately, one can be extracted from a PS3 BIOS made publicly available by Sony themselves, and processed through the PS3 emulator PCSX3 (see entry 1745). |
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| | | The AA settings are under "Advanced" (rather than Display--hadn't spotted them before); tested in a 3D game and found no additional input delay with 16x MSAA.
(It goes up to 32x but that absolutely kills the framerate, whereas it doesn't touch it up through 16x. There's also SSAA, but supposedly that's a lot more processor intensive and also smooths stuff inside poly edges, which I don't need here; it too killed the framerate when going from 16x to 32x.) |
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| | | In Windows, at least in duckstation, which is where I was just messing with things, when you plug in the HRAPV stick (see entry 1430) set to PS4 mode, it hijacks my regular audio jack headset (JBL Quantum 100--see entry 1678) audio out and mic in, in favor of the jack built into the HRAPV.
I didn't want to have to swap my headset cables when switching controllers, so I deactivated the HRAP entry under Device Manager's "Sound, video and game controllers" section. After a compulsory reboot, my headset was working again, and, somewhat surprisingly, the joystick functions of the HRAP were still working. : D
I'd switched the stick to PS4 mode to get the touchpad to work, because it didn't work in duckstation in PS3 mode--which makes sense I guess seeing as how the DS3 doesn't have a touchpad. (The touchpad seems like a handy place to put the turbo toggle for duckstation & PCSX2.)
Also, I was there to retest PS3 vs PS4 mode input delay, and confirmed that there is no difference my crude input lag test can detect. |
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