Does anyone use the software renderer exclusively?

[Bositman]

I on the other hand can't stand playing PS2 games on their native resolution at my PC, they look so bad I just don't want to play them. I never cared about small glitches here and there and actually preferred the removed waterbrush effects in okami than how it actually looked

[synce]

I don't think the main point of emulators is improved graphics, to me it's more about convenience and I'll always take accuracy over graphics... the problem with pcsx2's sw mode is that it requires at least a 4ghz quad for good results. When laptops get a little more powerful I'll probably stop using hw mode except for a few games that look too damn good

[Eloris]

I can see where you guys are coming from, but it does perplex me. The extreme aliasing and blurry pixelization (just look at the desk legs in the P4 pictures above, or the banding around the butterfly or even the main character's legs - you can't even correctly see the stripes on his pants) are just as much undesirable graphical artifacts as glitches resulting from imperfect emulation.

Heh. Oh well. Both options are there for people to use, so it's probably moot to argue too much over it

[Dr_Hycodan]

You're totally missing the whole point of emulation if you want to sacrifice accuracy for "better" graphics. The point is to replicate the emulated hardware as accurately as possible. The blurry textures and aliasing is what it actually looks like on a real PS2, not graphical artifacts, due to the low vram the PS2 has (4mb). If I want to play a pretty game, I'll just play a game native to the PC or play my PS3.

[Saiki]

the problem with pcsx2's sw mode is that it requires at least a 4ghz quad for good results.

maybe for a laptop.. currently, except for Rumble Roses (which does't get 60 even with speedhacks on i3 3.3 GHz, hw mode), I got 60/50 fps on every game I'm played in SW mode.

[VIRGIN KLM]

I on the other hand can't stand playing PS2 games on their native resolution at my PC, they look so bad I just don't want to play them. I never cared about small glitches here and there and actually preferred the removed waterbrush effects in okami than how it actually looked

^That.

On the contrary, I see people arguing what they want from an emulator, but I see what they all really want to say...

The Power & Freedom Of Choice

This is what makes emulators good. You get more options than what you are given from the actual real hardware. This is what all people will and should agree (whether they like it or not) that emulators is all about. It's always nice to have more choices in your life when you are able to. It's OK if people prefer one choice over the other about their personal taste but the one that offers those chances SHOULD ALWAYS provide the others with as many possible choices he can. When -he- on the other side limmits you because of his twisted ego about thinking he knows what's best or just because he said so then this is what is wrong and should be judged harshly because he is failing on doing his job...(...if you get what and whom I point with my example)

[Eloris]

You're totally missing the whole point of emulation if you want to sacrifice accuracy for "better" graphics. The point is to replicate the emulated hardware as accurately as possible. The blurry textures and aliasing is what it actually looks like on a real PS2, not graphical artifacts, due to the low vram the PS2 has (4mb). If I want to play a pretty game, I'll just play a game native to the PC or play my PS3.

We're just gonna go in circles here, but I can't quite let that stand.
They are graphical artifacts - they're unwanted, they're not there because the designers wanted them there, but, as you rightly pointed out, because of the limitations of the hardware. And they're made worse by emulating because you have to blow up the tiny picture to multiple times it's native size in order to have a sufficiently large picture with today's high resolution displays.
Your last point is just rather off base - the PS2 has a massive library with a lot of very good games that are not available on other platforms.

There is something to be said about accurately emulating a console to preserve it for when the hardware base eventually dies out. This article goes into a bit more detail there, and into the requirements and complexities involved with that. And that's all fine and good. But PCSX2 is not that emulator, and I don't think it will ever be. Especially since the raw processing requirements needed to do for the PS2 what has been done for the SNES up there are simply not there.
And even then I'm fairly sure you will find that by far the majority of people will continue using the more inaccurate emulator because the overall experience tends to be more enjoyable.

[spike1977]

Software render mode is the best way to "emulate" (with a powerfull CPU) a PS2, but only with an old CRT monitor.

[naoan]

I don't care about perfect accuracy, I have my (still working) PS2 if I want everything to be dead accurate. Sorry to say that to pcsx2 devs, but they do seems understand that some users prefer "better" to "accurate" if not they won't even bother adding graphic enhancing options.

[nosisab Ken Keleh]

The better of many worlds is the one that is better "now" (Translating: use whatever works better at the moment... and avoid absolutes and exclusives whatever is that you are going to do)