Persona 3 And 4 - Certain enemies groups slow down game

[arcane12]

Did everything Greyknight suggested, and no, the GS did not hit around 90%

It was more like 50% at highest.

I tried the VU stealing, but that didn't really fix squat (it actually ran worse), and EE timing hacks are pointless.

As for how the scene looks, a screen shot probably wouldn't help much, as the game itself doesn't display any noticable graphical anomalies.

Also, I have been using Super VU with the the appropriate game fix.

P.S. - I generally try not to mess with my power settings, but does anyone think changing them from "Balanced" to "High Performance" might help? I saw it recommended on some other threads for laptop users and was wondering if a desktop PC would see any benefit?

[refraction]

It might help, it has helped others before, so it's worth trying if nothing else! can you put a screenshot of it being slow up for us to see?

also you could try the buildbot beta (latest one) and try the MTVU speedhack. It could have a negative effect as you're on a dual core, but it could also swing the other way.

[ecchiless]

Did everything Greyknight suggested, and no, the GS did not hit around 90%

It was more like 50% at highest.

I tried the VU stealing, but that didn't really fix squat (it actually ran worse), and EE timing hacks are pointless.

As for how the scene looks, a screen shot probably wouldn't help much, as the game itself doesn't display any noticable graphical anomalies.

Also, I have been using Super VU with the the appropriate game fix.

P.S. - I generally try not to mess with my power settings, but does anyone think changing them from "Balanced" to "High Performance" might help? I saw it recommended on some other threads for laptop users and was wondering if a desktop PC would see any benefit?

vu hacks in persona games dont do much(lvl 2 tends to give false fps), at least not in my system the ee hack is not pointless set the ee to 2, put the clamp modes to none, and dont use 8-bit, when my previus card die and i have to use the ati 4200igp of my mobo, persona fes was runing @60 fps with upscale of 2x when the only excection of the roullete and nyx.

[arcane12]

Wow, I tried that suggestion, and wow, it actually seems to work with no slowdown due to the double resolution. I haven't tried it everywhere, but thanks for the suggestion.

On an unrelated note, I did get the latest 4800 build and tried it out, and I can't be sure, but I think a bug that was in a earlier build was fixed.

The bug in question involves being on the game map and heading to Iwatodai Station with the Async music tweak on in the SPU plugin.

On occasion, it would crash when going there, so I usually had to set it to Timestretch to sidestep the issue, but I'm not sure why it happens on occasion, and I'm not positive that was what fixed things, as I first tried editing some emulation and graphics settings first, so as a companion to my other question (as I want, bare minimum, for the Persona games to be reasonably playable without game crashing bugs, and I'll live with some minor slowdown if I have to), has anyone else had this problem, and if so, what kept it from happening?

Also, for the record, I have beaten "The Journey" to the end, have yet to try "The Answer" and was wondering if there are any problems there I need to worry about.

Finally, I would like to thank everyone here for putting up with this ignorant noob and showing me all the courtesy and patience you guys have up to this point.

P.S. - I flipped on the MTVU speedhack to see what it would do, and I haven't noticed any real change in performance thus far.

[pablitox777]

when i get to that kind of enemies, i usually use the software mode in gsdx, it makes the battles less laggy....

[arcane12]

Update: I tried the newest build of PCSX2, and while it fixed some things (like the very first scene where Tartarus is first shown after the anime style cutscene which was usually at 50 fps, now played at full speed throughout), it actually broke a few others.

For instance, in Monad, the three white tank enemies always had smooth 60 FPS, now they dropped to the fifties speedwise in the r4890 build. The Divine Mother enemies (in groups of four) used to be at 60 FPS on the r4600 build, now they are around 55 FPS on the r4890 build.

All other enemies that were slow in the latest official build are about the same as before.

In short, the latest WIP build seems worse off by far than the official one for the most part.

...so far, I'm convinced that issue is in the emulation of the game, not my hardware, and from checking other threads with people having slowdown issues in other areas with vastly better computers than my own, does anyone know any PCSX2 build that actually plays nice with Persona 3/4 the best, or is this the wrong place to ask?

[StriFe]

I decided to start playing Persona 4 again, just to tryout my new hardware, and indeed your cpu can be the biggest bottleneck. In Persona 4 when the guys are sitting in Junes, it's the only time I get a slowdown of 8 fps (Normal 60.13/59.98 fps and there it's between 52 to 52.7 fps) Furthermore the game runs just great!!

On a sidenote Rpgingmaster (Not sure if I'm allowed to write it in this topic, but if u didn't know, in October the Anime of Persona 4 is coming out) xD

[arcane12]

How curious. For me, I get some minor slowdown whenever I fight the boss of Naoto's dungeon and some slightly noticeable FPS drop at the entrance to said dungeon. Aside from that and a few minor hiccups fighting certain enemy groups mentioned earlier in this thread and the Shopping District North at certain points in the game (like the part where you have to talk to people to find the location of the Steamy Bathhouse Dungeon), I generally have run (and beaten to completion) Persona 4.

Thanks for the heads up on the anime (I was aware of it but didn't know when it came out), but back on topic, I seriously am convinced, given what I've been hearing from people with better and worse setups than mine that it doesn't matter what hardware we have (your processor is somewhat better than mine, as is your graphics, but I've run both Persona games with the performance noted above on a somewhat older setup), it just certain points of the emulation just don't process well, and I don't think it has anything to do with the GS (what exactly does this stand for again?) or EE percentages topping out (I've had both fairly low and gotten crappy performance in certain parts of P3 and P4 regardless), but it just seems like flaws in the emulation the PCSX2 team has yet to iron out (given the complexity of the issues, I do wish them the best of luck)

However, I can say that at least both games are playable to completion even with the slowdown issues at present, and since it seems people with overclocked quad cores and the latest graphics cards seem to be getting the same crap I am, I still remain absolutely convinced were all victims of imperfect emulation (which I don't fault the creators of the emulator for and in fact am grateful they made it possible for me to avoid ruining my discs in my PS2), especially since I seen people with bare minimum requirements for PCSX2 run the same stuff with same or better performance than myself or people with far better hardware.

As for myself, from what I checked I'm actually fairly high on the system requirements (not the absolute top, but above average if I read the requirements page correctly), but as I said before, I've successfully emulated the same games on below average equipment with similar performance, so I don't believe my hardware is the issue here.

....I guess what I'm hoping to here is someone confirm that yes, it is a problem outside of my control regarding the emulation (which is what it looks like), and until the emulation is better, I'll just have to content with what I have thus far (which, given what I thought I'd get is far better than expected)

P.S. - Has anyone else had any other enemy groups besides the ones I mentioned have slowdown issues, and if so, any one else figure out a workaround?

[StriFe]

Well for me P3 runs @ 50 Fps and it's the normal speed, since PAL runs on 50 and NTSC on 59,97 So make sure to look which version u run

[belforrrr]

I have the exact same problem. FPS drops aren't that big like OP's having but nonetheless they happen. Like from 60 to 40-50 FPS. P4 suffers from them too. Aside from these slowdowns both games run fullspeed 99% of the time. I have 9600GT BTW.