Persona 3 speed issues
#1
Hello all.
First of all, thanks for your hard work. Being able to play PS2 games on PC is an achievement thanks to you guys.
Now, recently I remembered that there might be some good games on PS2 I'd like to play on my PC but since I never used PCSX2 I wanted to test it first. I borrowed Persona 3 from my friend and downloaded PCSX2. I had no major problems with configuration but it boggles my mind that the game can run awfully slow sometimes (especially when there are more people on the screen). I tried everything, previous versions of PCSX2, different plugins, CPU/speedhacks and other advanced things configs and still nothing.
I thought it was weird because I found this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om6bOBvQ14Y and this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKQcIsb-bHg on youtube. In these videos the game runs flawlessly and they were done almost a year ago. Especially the second one surprised me because its author is able to run it on over 200 fps while I sometimes get 30 max and the game is really slow then.
So I think the only problem here can be my PC.
My specs are:
AMD Phenom 9650 quad-core 2.3GHz (this might be the problem)
3gb ram
Geforce 9800gt with the newest drivers.
Am I correct to think that it's the CPU's fault? And if so, can it be fixed?
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#2
I'm also going through Persona 3 for the first time myself. Smile

Your system isn't bad overall, but the CPU likely is the limiting factor. For the sake of argument, though, let's check your settings.

Firstly, make sure MTGS and recompiler options are all checked in CPU config. Next, ensure that you have the VU Clip Hack gamefix checked in Gamefixes.

For Persona 3, you'll need to go to Advanced and make sure that "Chop/Zero", "Flush to Zero", and "Denormals are Zero" are all checked for the game to run properly.


Finally, go to Speed Hacks. The following settings have worked well for me with P3:

x1.5 Cycle Rate
INTC Sync Hack
Enable IOP x2 Cycle Rate
WaitCycles Sync Hack

If you're running one of the newer svn revisions, VU Cycle Stealing at the first tick and Idle Loop Fast-Forward seem to smooth things out greatly when the framerate would otherwise drop due to certain bosses.

If none of this helps, you may want to look into overclocking your setup. If you go this route, make sure to keep voltages and temps as low as you can without sacrificing stability.

Edit: Also, ignore the flickering ground textures. There doesn't seem to be a fix for it at the moment.
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#3
Hey, thanks. It seems I'm getting few additional FPS though it still is a pain in the neck when there are more objects/people/etc on the screen.
I don't want to go into overclocking, never done it before and knowing my luck I'd just burn my room.
And about this svn versions- sorry, no idea what are you talking about though it's probably important seeing as you say it can boost speed and in one of the videos I linked the author also shows great difference. So what's that and what do I do with it?
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#4
lower the native resolution even lower than native (ie. 512 x 512) in the gsdx plugin and it will gain some fps. hope it works
My Laptop:
CPU: intel T4200 @ 2.0 ghz
GPU: Intel GMA X4500M
Ram: 3 Gb DDR2
SO: WinVista Home Premium // Windows 7 Ultimate x32
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#5
(04-24-2009, 02:49 AM)SoundWave Wrote: Hey, thanks. It seems I'm getting few additional FPS though it still is a pain in the neck when there are more objects/people/etc on the screen.
I don't want to go into overclocking, never done it before and knowing my luck I'd just burn my room.
And about this svn versions- sorry, no idea what are you talking about though it's probably important seeing as you say it can boost speed and in one of the videos I linked the author also shows great difference. So what's that and what do I do with it?

I still get 48-52FPS with a couple of bosses (which is odd, because their models seem to be pretty simple compared to some other more detailed enemies that give me 60FPS).

Yeah, better not to bother with overclocking if you're unfamiliar or uncomfortable with it. Especially if your machine wasn't built with the resulting heat in mind.

If you're interested, there's a guide on the forum about compiling your own subversion here (additional guide here).


ETA: Solved my framerate drops. Apparently 1920x1200 internal resolution in GSdx10 is a little too high in some instances.
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#6
Ok, thanks for your help guys. I'll pass on compiling and overclocking since it's really not my cup of tea. P3 is playable now and thank god the combat is turn-based. Maybe I'll have more luck when/if PCSXE2 gets to use quad-cores better.
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#7
A note about the seemingly "simple" or "hard" to render stuff:
With emulation you can never assume a simple looking scene means its easy to render.
We provide just the emulated hardware, what the games do with it (ie: how crazy they're coded) is entirely out of our control.
Could be the game designers didn't care for optimizations at all (since the game may run well enough on a real ps2).
In that case a simple 3d object could be using the whole ps2 rendering capacity all by itself.
That's the point where pcsx2 slows down then. Not because the object is so detailed, but because the game is coded in such a (for us) bad way.
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