How to implement round sprite hack?
#1
Greetings from Norway!

My first post on this forum. A little background: I only got into PS2 a few years ago. I started checking out the PS2 Classics on PS3 and fell instantly in love. After a while I realized how many great games were out there but not available on PSN. So about a year ago I bought a PS2 Phat and a whole slew of old games. In time I replaced all my old PSN versions with proper physical copies too, to avoid bugs and glitches - Persona 3 was the worst on PSN. Migraine-inducing flickering wall textures in the last section of Tartarus and a save bug that cost me ... more hours than I care to remember.

Anyway, I just build a proper PC, ripped all my PS2 games to an SSD, and started experimenting with PCSX2. The first game I checked out was Dragon Quest VIII, and I was annoyed by the distorted text when running at higher than native resolution. I googled it and got wind of a "round sprite hack" that was supposed to solve the problem. 

But I can't find the hack! I am running the lastest release of PCSX2 that's available here on the site (1.2.1), but when I enable HW hacks and click Configure, the list of hacks ends with "NVIDIA hack" and "Disable CRCs" - I've seen screenshots of the HW Hacks dialog with several more, including round sprite hack, but I can't see find them in the version I'm running. I've googled every combination of key phrases I can think of, but I'm no closer to an answer. I hate to ask stupid noob questions on forums, but this is my last resort: Which obvious solution is it that I'm missing?
CPU: i7 4790K  GPU: MSI GTX980
RAM: 16 GB DDR4  OS: Windows 7 64-bit
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#2
You might want to try the newest Git release.
They're less stable but always get updated with the latest features.
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#3
So it's just that the latest hacks aren't included in the latest regular release? They will be coming later? If so, I'm more than happy to wait - I just thought I was doing something wrong Smile
CPU: i7 4790K  GPU: MSI GTX980
RAM: 16 GB DDR4  OS: Windows 7 64-bit
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#4
Get the actual latest version from here: http://buildbot.orphis.net/pcsx2/

It has the hack you're looking for as well.
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#5
Thanks!
CPU: i7 4790K  GPU: MSI GTX980
RAM: 16 GB DDR4  OS: Windows 7 64-bit
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#6
That worked great, thanks! I'm still trying to figure out which games I think benefit from emulation - and I'm really not sure DQVIII does. There's such a disconnect between the knife-sharp edges and the lo-res textures - and the black cel outlines seem too thin now for the art style. And also, those pre-rendeded, highly-compressed, lo-res, in-engine cutscenes are so jarring compared to hi-res gameplay.

Silent Hill 2 on the other hand is the poster child for emulation. All it does is smooth out the edges and bring out the details a little more, like James' facial features. Nothing else. It blows me away how much better this game is in emulated form than the disastrous "HD collection" that was released. Funny issue I encountered, though: Right after the first fight, where James gets his two-by-four and the radio, the camera pulls back so there's a piece of barbed wire in the foreground and James in the background. In the original on PS2, that barbed wire is blurred in a rare case (for videogames) of properly implemented depth of field. Emulated, that barbed wire is knife sharp and blocky as hell! Laugh  I guess no emulation will ever be 100 %, right?

I guess what I'm driving at is that for me, emulation is only for playing in hi-res. If a game doesn't benefit from that, I'd much rather play it on original hardware. Do people have other reasons for emulation? Just for the tech-fun-challenge of it? Original PS2 died? Other reasons?
CPU: i7 4790K  GPU: MSI GTX980
RAM: 16 GB DDR4  OS: Windows 7 64-bit
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#7
Higher resolutions, ability to use cheats easily without requiring a codebreaker or gameshark device, etc. You'll also get much faster loading times (assuming your PC can handle the game properly), and overall smoother gameplay. Grandia 2 for example on the normal PS2 suffers from massive slowdowns, but on PCSX2 you'll barely notice this, if at all.

Plus you can write your discs to ISO files on your hard drive, allowing you to easily swap between games that way, rather than switching 'discs' every time you feel like playing a different game.

Emulation is great not just for graphics, but also for those little things. Tongue
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 @ 3.60~4.20 GHz | Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2x16GB) DDR4-3200
MSI GeForce GTX 1660 Super @ 6 GB | Samsung 980 1TB | Windows 10 Pro x64 (22H2)
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#8
Btw we also have additional post processing. Have a look into Asmodean's shader suite. Possibly this will even increase your pleasure.
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#9
Ryudo: Gotcha. I think my PC can handle it Wink

Willkuer: Thanks, will check it out! Would any of those effects implement depth of field, like I mentioned in Silent Hill 2?
CPU: i7 4790K  GPU: MSI GTX980
RAM: 16 GB DDR4  OS: Windows 7 64-bit
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#10
As I recall the shader pack has(had? IDK I don't use it so who know if it's still there) a "fake" DOF shader.
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