Judder with VU Cycle Stealing in Shadow of the Colossus?

[mag.py]

I'm trying to play Shadow of the Colossus at full speed. With default emulation settings it stays stable 60 most of the time, but in certain places it drops to 50 or below and it's very noticeable.

I read the wiki page and it recommends enabling VU Cycle Stealing. If I do this, and disable frame limiting, I do indeed see a massive increase in framerate (stable 100+ with VU CS set to 1), however with frame limiting enabled, the game looks and feels extremely choppy, much more so than with VU Cycle Stealing disabled despite the lower framerate in that case.

Is this common and is there any solution to this?

Edit:
In case specs are relevant:
Intel i5-4690K
Nvidia GTX 970

[Blyss Sarania]

Are you using the EE cycle rate hack too? If so, that would cause it.

If not, it's not really a problem with PCSX2. SotC drops a lot of frames on a REAL PS2. VU stealing will exacerbate this some due to reducing the available power for the EE(and because SotC skips frames if not enough EE power is available).

[mag.py]

Ah. No I'm not using the cycle rate hack. I guessed that skipping may be the cause because despite supposedly running 60 most of the time with default settings, the game definitely does not feel smooth. Wasn't that noticeable on the PS2 because the game ran like complete arse anyway.

[Blyss Sarania]

It's capped to 30 in game FPS, but regularly drops well below that both on real hardware and in PCSX2. You might try more aggressive cycle stealing. 3 is pointless, but 2 might do some good. Or it might make it worse. Worth a shot at least.

Also, in theory, emulating an overclocked EE would help some. In fact I know it does, as I modified a build of PCSX2 to OC the EE up to 50%. But it's like 2 more in game FPS for double the system requirements on an already uber demanding game. So not really worth it.

[Nobbs66]

Uhh, won't reducing the EE clock speed hurt SotC as it's already so incredibly demanding?

[Blyss Sarania]

Where did I say anything regarding reducing the EE clock speed?

And for the record, it's kinda double edged sword with SotC. It makes it easier to emulate, so you might get to 60VFPS and full speed when you otherwise couldn't. But the lower clock speed of the EE causes it to skip more in game frames, so the actual FPS suffers.

[Nobbs66]

Oh *****, I read cycle stealing as reducing the EE clock rate. OOPS

[mag.py]

You might try more aggressive cycle stealing. 3 is pointless, but 2 might do some good. Or it might make it worse. Worth a shot at least.

I only mentioned trying 1 in the OP but actually any cycle stealing only makes the game feel worse. It feels much choppier compared to no cycle stealing and only gets worse as I increase the value, however the wiki page seems adamant that it's good to have it enabled, which is why I'm confused.

Edit:

I guess I just haven't tried it on a lower spec'd computer so I don't know how bad the base fps is. The frame skipping with cycle stealing enabled is unbearable though. I don't know how anyone could put up with that. I'd rather play on a real ps2 with its drops to sub-20 fps than this.

[Nobbs66]

It's because it drastically reduces the requirements for running the game. It's nearly impossible to run the game without it

[Blyss Sarania]

Well, you don't HAVE to enable it. Do whatever you prefer

VU stealing helps the overall speed of SotC immensely. I can't run it at fullspeed without it, so I don't know how the in game FPS compares.