1) Download the new PCSX2 v0.9.6 HERE
2) Open the archive and extract its contents into a folder(eg C:\PCSX2)
3) Run pcsx2.exe which is in the folder you extracted the files.
For Linux Users
Get the binary from HERE or the source from GoogleCode. To compile from source, follow the instructions in the checkout section, then go to the PCSX2 folder and type "sh build.sh all", and all the plugins with PCSX2 will compile in the bin folder.
You need the following installed: gtk2, opengl, libbz2, libjpeg, glew-dev, libxxf86vm-dev, x11proto-xf86vidmodeautomake and autoconf (version >= 1.9) Nvidia Cg-Toolkit, libasound-dev, joystick.
Plugins available for Linux are: ZeroGS OpenGL, ZeroSPU2, PeopsSPU2, ZeroPad, EFP Iso, EFP Polling and Linuz Iso
Configuring PCSX2
The new VTLB version of PCSX2 has replaced the 2 older ones,but do note that save states created with the old VM build will not be compatible with it.
This is the main GUI(Graphical User Interface) of PCSX2.From here you can change the settings or plugins used by PCSX2 as you see fit.
Go to Config =>Configure to start configuring PCSX2.You'll see a screen like this(click to enlarge):
First off you can use the Set Plugins Directory and Set Bios Directory to change the directory from which PCSX2 loads its plugins and bios respectively.
So if you are not using the default directories(/plugins and /bios) you should use these buttons to change them.
The Configuration,Test and About buttons that you see under each plugin section are for Configuring the selected plugin,testing if a selected plugin works(kind of obsolete since if it shows up in the list it will work) and for checking out some info about the selected plugin.
Now onto the actual plugin configuring:
Graphics:
What version of pixel shaders and DirectX does your graphics card support?
For the time being you will be able to use the ZeroGS v0.97.1 plugin ,which is a new DirectX 9 graphics plugin that requires a graphics card that supports pixel shaders 2 to work.
GSdx at v0.1.14 ,is a DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 plugin by Gabest which recently got greatly improved in both speed and image quality.Requires pixel shaders 2 and SSE2 to work and Vista with a DirectX 10 compliant graphics card for the DirectX10 mode. Both plugins have been included in our PCSX2 0.9.6 release packs
Select GSdx v0.1.14 and press the Configure button.
- First of all GSdx comes in 3 versions,SSE2,SSSE3 and SSE4.Only IF your processor supports these instruction sets use the respective version since it will be faster for you.Otherwise you will get constant crashes when using it.
SSE2 supporting CPUs: Check here
SSSE3 supporting CPus: Check here
SSE4 supporting CPUs: Intel Core 2 Duo Penryn series,meaning the E7xxx and E8xxx models for dual cores and the Q9xxx models for quad cores - To use the DirectX10 mode,you will have to be running Windows Vista with a DirectX10 compliant graphics card (check previous link)
- Resolution: In this drop-down menu you will be able to select "Windowed" if you want GSdx to run in a window,or choose the resolution/refresh rate you want for a full-screen display.
- Renderer: Here you can choose how the graphics will be rendered.
By selecting "Direct3D9 (Hardware)",GSdx will use the Direct3D capabilities of your graphics card,boosting the emulation speed significantly.
By selecting "Direct3D10 (Hardware)" (only selectable in Vista with DX10 gfx card),GSdx will use its' Direct3D10 mode which is usually the fastest mode and sometimes even more compatible as well.Highly recommended if your system supports it.
By selecting "Direct3D9 (software)" GSdx will use its' built-in software renderer,which will not use your graphics card at all,but your processor instead.This way the emulation speed is greatly reduced but you get maximum compatibility.Recommended if you encounter graphics bugs with the Direct3D renderer.
By selecting "Direct3D9 (null)","Null (software)" or "Null (null)" the plugin will simply not render anything,thus not giving any output on screen.Use it only if you want to e.g. Hear some music since with this mode you get a dramatic speed increase. - Shader: Here you will be able to choose between 2 options,if your graphics card doesn't support some of the modes,they will not show up in the drop-down list:
Pixel Shader 2.0: Will use Pixel Shaders v2.0,improving the graphics
Pixel Shader 3.0: Will use Pixel Shaders v3.0,improving the graphics.Highly recommended for graphics card owners that have pixel shaders 3.Fast and compatible
Note: When running in Direct3D10 mode,this will be grayed out since GSdx is using Pixel Shaders 4 which you can't change - Interlacing: Here you are able to choose between None and 6 other interlacing techniques,which are used to remove the "shaking" of the display.
In parentheses you can see what kind of effect and maybe disadvantage (e.g. like the half FPS note in blend) each one of these modes have.
You can cycle through them when running a game by pressing the F5 key. - Aspect Ratio (F6): Self explanatory, you can select stretch to stretch the display to get rid of the black boarders,4:3 for a normal display and 16:9 for a wide screen display.
You can cycle through them when running a game by pressing the F6 key. - D3D internal res: Here you can specify the exact resolution you want your game to run at!
This way,if your pc is powerful enough (mainly your graphics card),you can play your favorite ps2 games in much higher resolutions making the graphics crisp and more detailed.
Note that the higher the resolution,the more resources the plugin will have to use,thus making emulation much slower. - Native: If you check this box,the plugin will render in the native resolution of the ps2 (that is why D3D internal res gets grayed out)
- SW rend. threads: This box is only usable when having selected a software rendering method.Here you can specify how many threads GSdx will use while software rendering,to take advantage of all cores you processor might have,e.g. set it to 4 for quad core processors.Boosts speed significantly in multi-core systems for software rendering with more than 2 cores.
- NLOOP 0 hack: This fixes some problems with Final Fantasy X. It is a very specific hack and should ONLY be used with Final Fantasy X.
You can also set it to the third state (gray-checked) which will let the plugin decide when the hack is needed and when it is not and enable/disable it respectively. - Enable tv-out: Check/uncheck this option to enable/disable tv-out.If your video card has a tv-out the output window of GSdx9 is displayed on the TV.
- Texture filtering: When checked,everything on screen both 2D and 3D will be filtered smoothing out the output and improving the visuals in general.When grayed,filtering will only be applied to 3D.Note that this can cause graphic bugs and increases the load on your graphics card.
- Movie Capture: This is a hidden feature.By pressing F12 while running PCSX2 with GSdx a message box will appear.In the first field you must show the plugin where the captured video will be stored,and type the filename too.In the second field you can choose a compression codec like DivX or "Uncompressed" which will not compress the video at all.If you choose a compression codec,you will be able to change its settings by pressing the "Config" button.Note that only codecs already installed in your PC will show up.
Press F12 again at any time to stop the capturing.The video produced will be automatically sped up to 100% for your viewing pleasure - Hit Ok to save your changes or cancel to go back to the main Configuration window
Sound:
SPU2-X
The latest and best sound plugin at the time of writing this. It was first based on Gigaherz's SPU2 and later modified by Jake Stine (Air) of the PCSX2 team.
This is the only SPU2 plugin that supports effects processing (like reverb) and Dolby if your sound card properly decodes dolby prologic
- Interpolation: Here you can select 1 out of 3 options:
1)Nearest: As the description says,no interpolation made in this mode and is the fastest one.
2)Linear: This is the recommended option,doing a linear interpolation on sound.
3)Cubic: Another type of interpolation,broken at this time so don't use it. - Disable effects processing: Checking this will disable any emulation of effects like reverb,lowering sound quality but increasing speed.
- Module: Here you can select 1 out of 4 settings,which are different ways of outputting sound in your system:
1)No sound: Will not produce any sound (mute) resulting in best speed.
2)X Audio 2: This is the recommended method,works better under Vista so XP users might want to try the third option.
3)DirectSound: Should be slightly worse than X Audio 2,use it if it works better for you.
4)Wave out: Not recommended,option 2 or 3 should always work better. - Latency: The lower the latency value the smaller audio delay you will have. Note that setting latency too low WILL cause cracks and pops in sound,so change the values until you find the lowest one that works with your game without causing cracks.
- Disable Time-Stretching: This will disable the time stretching feature which keeps in sync audio and video but also helps eliminate cracks and other sound problems. Gives a small speedup if disabled.
- Disable audio expansion: Configuration dialogue covers what it does.
- Use a Winamp DSP plugin: If you don't know what this is,leave it be.
Select Lilypad v0.9.9 and press the Configure button.
You'll see a window like this (click to enlarge):
- Lilypad is a very advanced input plugin supporting keyboards,mouse,gamepads and Xbox 360 pads. Also it includes some very handy hacks for use with PCSX2 like the ESC hack or the Disable Screensaver option.
- For a very detailed description about what each setting does and how to properly configure it,visit the official thread of the plugin HERE. You can also download the latest version from there or from our plugins download section
Cdvdrom:
Here you will be able to select which plugin will be responsible for reading your CDs/DVDs or images.By default,PCSX2 includes Gigaherz's CDVD v0.7.0,Linuz Iso CDVD v0.8.0,CDVDnull v0.6.0 and PEOPS CDVD v1.3.0.
Note: Older plugins like CDVDbin or CDVDdraft will NOT work with v0.9.6 since they are outdated
Select EFP Iso CDVD v0.6.0 and hit Configure
- Here you can press the Browse button to pre-select an image that the emulator will run.If you do that,then you will be able to run the image selected by both using Run =>Execute and File =>Run CD with the difference that with Run =>Execute you will see the bios at the start then run the game(just like on the ps2) and with File =>Run CD you will skip the bios intro and run the game at once.
- Show configure screen when starting emulation: When checked,the EFP Iso configure screen will pop up whenever you press File =>Run CD or Run =>Execute where you will be able to browse for the desired image you want to run and press ok.If not checked,the plugin will run the image you have pre-selected before pressing File =>Run CD or Run =>Execute.
- Show configure screen when restarting emulation: Same as above,but with restarting.
- Get from Disc: This will pop up a new window where you can create an ISO from your PS2 disc.
Source CD/DVD Device: Input here the cd/dvd drive letter in which your PS2 disc is in that you want to create an iso from.
Iso file: Input the path and filename your iso file will have(or press browse and find it yourself to save you the typing)
New file compression: You can select a compression method you want for your new iso image file.No compression will not compress it,compressions noted as "for speed" are faster but make bigger images and compressions noted as "for size" are slower but create smaller images.
Multiple files(all under 2GB): Check this box if you want your image to be split in multiple files which will be each less than 2GB.Very useful if you don't have an NTFS partition that supports large files or when you want to split an image for storage purposes
Finally,press make file to create the image you have selected - Convert: This option lets you compress or uncompress images.
In the new screen,first select the image you want to get modified.
Then select the kind of compression(or uncompressed to decompress it) you want and finally hit Change file.The Multiple files checkbox does the exact same thing as described above.
Dev9:
Here are the plugins that handle the HDD(hard disk drive) and ethernet emulation.There are 2 plugins included in the release package,Dev9null v0.3.0 yet another Null plugin which is exactly like all the other ones and Dev9 Giga-raziel which partially emulates the PS2 ethernet (HDD emulation not working).
Also there is a newer Dev9 plugin in development by NHerve,MegaDev9 plugin which is still in early stages but very promising.For the time,it partially emulates the ps2 HDD.You can get it here.
Usb:
Here are the plugins that handle USB(Universal Serial Bus) emulation.The release package includes the USB Null v0.4 which is yet another Null plugin and Qemu USB driver v0.1.0 by Gigaherz.
In USB Null press Configure to get a menu with a checkbox where you can check/uncheck "Enable Logging" which will enable/disable usb logging.As said,it should be used from developers only.
Qemu USB driver was developed to work with Monster Hunter for the online play so it will not work with almost nothing else.Since it emulates more than the null plugin,it might help in game compatibility when you use it.
Firewire:
Here are the plugins that handle the Firewire port of the PS2.Only the FWnull v0.4.0 is included in the release package.There are no other Firewire plugins available or in development.
FWnull v0.4 is another Null plugin.Press Configure to get a menu with a checkbox where you can check/uncheck "Enable Logging" which will enable/disable firewire logging.As said,it should be used from developers only.
BIOS(Basic Input Output System)
In this drop down menu you will find your bios image,if you have one and have put it in the selected bios folder.Note that the only LEGAL way of obtaining a bios is dumping it from your OWN Playstation 2 console.DO NOT ask where to get the bios in the PCSX2 forum,because it's against the rules.That's because the ps2 BIOS is a copyrighted material of Sony and that makes its' distribution illegal,meaning we could get in trouble if it was found out that we were supplying people illegally with bios files.You can find out if your BIOS image is valid or not by checking if there is a percentage besides it in the BIOS drop down box of the main configuration screen.If it does,your BIOS image is NOT valid.Also if it does not even appear there even after you have selected your right bios directory,it is once again an invalid image.
Attention: It is recommended that you have all files for BIOS newer than the SCPH-10000.bin.You will probably be able to run the bios or games without having them but there may be a chance that these affect compatibility somehow.This includes rom1.bin,rom2.bin,erom.bin and a SCPH-XXXXX.nvm file where XXXXX is the version of your bios(eg SCPH-34004.nvm).This last file can be also created from PCSX2 after you configure your bios(set time zone,language etc) but it's better if you have this file directly ripped from your Playstation 2.Once more DO NOT ASK where to get these files,since they are part of BIOS too.
