NTSC Vs PAL
#1
Most of my game collection are all PAL since I live in the UK, but there were a handful of games I've got which I imported because I was too impatient and it was faster to get them imported than wait however many months for a PAL release, all this done using a swapmagic so I could play them on my PAL PS2. I've been using PCSX2 on and off for a while now, occasionally trying the latest svn in case of any speed increases as there are a few games I have which my PC struggles with, a couple of PAL games but most of them are the NTSC ones I have. I don't know if this is just coincidence, but considering that the PAL games run at 50fps, and the NTSC ones run at 59.94 fps, would it be worth heading into town and seeing if I can find cheap second hand copies of the NTSC games I have, since that's running with almost 20% less fps.

But of course I have no idea if this is how PCSX2 works. Would a 20% decrease in fps due to the difference between PAL and NTSC equate to essentially a 20% increase in performance since the PC doesn't have to work as hard?
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#2
(11-19-2011, 03:03 AM)iviv Wrote: Most of my game collection are all PAL since I live in the UK, but there were a handful of games I've got which I imported because I was too impatient and it was faster to get them imported than wait however many months for a PAL release, all this done using a swapmagic so I could play them on my PAL PS2. I've been using PCSX2 on and off for a while now, occasionally trying the latest svn in case of any speed increases as there are a few games I have which my PC struggles with, a couple of PAL games but most of them are the NTSC ones I have. I don't know if this is just coincidence, but considering that the PAL games run at 50fps, and the NTSC ones run at 59.94 fps, would it be worth heading into town and seeing if I can find cheap second hand copies of the NTSC games I have, since that's running with almost 20% less fps.

But of course I have no idea if this is how PCSX2 works. Would a 20% decrease in fps due to the difference between PAL and NTSC equate to essentially a 20% increase in performance since the PC doesn't have to work as hard?


Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the PS2 actually runs the games at 50-60 FPS. Most of the time consoles run games at about 24 FPS, just as films do for NTSC (I think for PAL is 25 or so). The emulator can run the games at higher framerates because it doesn't really have the NTSC/PAL limitations (Said limitations also include the resolution being 480p, whereas you can play in 1080p using the emulator).
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#3
But even so, PCSX2 will run them at either 50 or 60 fps (See the config > Emulation settings > GS tab where the balues are locked in), so using PAL versions of the games should still be faster than the NTSC equivalent due to needing less resources to hit the playable rate?
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#4
(11-19-2011, 03:23 AM)iviv Wrote: But even so, PCSX2 will run them at either 50 or 60 fps (See the config > Emulation settings > GS tab where the balues are locked in), so using PAL versions of the games should still be faster than the NTSC equivalent due to needing less resources to hit the playable rate?

If it works anything like your regular PC game, probably not. In most games, particularly on PC ones, the amount of frames per second isn't fixed but instead the result of how fast your graphics card can render frames, meaning that I could be running a game at 24 FPS on my system while you run the same game at 40FPS on your system and the game would be just as fast in both PCs -- You'd be getting more FPS simply because your graphics card, being more powerful, can render more frames in a second for the game than mine can.

That's how it works on a PC though, not sure about how PCSX2 handles it.
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#5
Details in difference between PAL/NTSC in PCSX2 varries depending on the game.

- Some PAL games are working with exactly same speed at few fps less,
- Some(probably most or at least everyone around say that, couse not everyone can really compare both versions of the game at same pc;P) are just quick port which makes them slower.

Those first ones sometimes require less power to emulate at same speed in PAL(example I know for sure is Budokai Tenkaichi series, but there were at least a few other titles), and sometimes require exactly same power meaning you need same cpu for less fps(but same speed anyway), those badly ported will simply have slower gameplay and will have same requirements as NTSC version would have if running at 50fps. If you would use some uniwersal patch to make PAL from NTSC(or opposite), you would get same result as bad port + broken timings(different speed of animation and sounds etc.).

Speed is fixed on framerate, soo you need to run the game at it's original fps to get original speed, there was an exception to that of a game which with you could force lower native fps resulting in speedup, but I forgot the title/never had that game to try and it was only one game working like that I ever heard(or rather read, in one of Shadow Lady posts).
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#6
http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-PAL-or-NTSC
http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-PAL-vs-NTSC
http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-Speed-NTSC-vs-PAL

Quote:If it works anything like your regular PC game, probably not. In most games, particularly on PC ones, the amount of frames per second isn't fixed but instead the result of how fast your graphics card can render frames, meaning that I could be running a game at 24 FPS on my system while you run the same game at 40FPS on your system and the game would be just as fast in both PCs -- You'd be getting more FPS simply because your graphics card, being more powerful, can render more frames in a second for the game than mine can.

That's how it works on a PC though, not sure about how PCSX2 handles it.

No, PS2 games are not like PC games, their timing is tied to the PAL or NTSC standard so if you get anything below 50/60 FPS the game will work as running in slow motion.
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#7
PAL is generally easier to emulate i guess. Tongue2 (50 and 60)
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#8
All 3 of the above threads I pasted basically say it's the same thing Tongue
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#9
:o Yes i guess Tongue2
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#10
(11-19-2011, 01:29 PM)Bositman Wrote: http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-PAL-or-NTSC
http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-PAL-vs-NTSC
http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-Speed-NTSC-vs-PAL


No, PS2 games are not like PC games, their timing is tied to the PAL or NTSC standard so if you get anything below 50/60 FPS the game will work as running in slow motion.

Oops, sorry. I was lazy in my search and only searched for 'PAL NTSC' which returned 0 results, though I did think it was a little strange that something like this hadn't been asked before! Thanks!

In the meantime, I'll try and see if any of my friends have a PAL copy of the game to test it out with. Worst case, they don't. But if they do then its worth trying out!
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