PCSX2 - Widescreen Game Patches

[lightningterror]

Why do we have GSdx hacks in WS patches ?
Fatal Frame 3 for example has upscaling patches which shouldn't be present in here.

[Devina]

Because the archive is a useful, easy and accessible place to include them, and no one else seems to care about preserving these visual fixes (and I don't think the ones in the archive have been integrated into the emulator yet). That's why I made the archive in the first place since no one else seemed to care about organizing the patches in an up-to-date fashion.

I've had this on the archive notes for the longest time so it's not like I kept it a secret from anyone:

"Many of the patches in this archive also contain other useful features, making this archive a must for all PS2 gamers. For example, the Fatal Frame patches contain codes which disable extremely blurry cutscenes (due to poor upscaling). Other codes also fix visual glitches, and also contain "noise/grain filter" removal codes."

It's a free graphics boost which no one has complained about (except the noise effects being disabled by default which only like one or two people complained about, but let it slide since I prefer them disabled). You're the first one I've seen who has complained about their inclusion here.

If we kept it to widescreen hacks only, then we'd have to make a third archive, although I could make a GSDx hacks folder in the "useful cheats" section of the archive if it bothers you that much.

Keep in mind, I think there's only about 10-15 games which have gsdx fixes, and I'm not the one who made all of them. Some people have included them in their patches and I archived them. Unfortunately, I haven't kept track of them as I go, so it would take me so much time to find them all, but I could put the few I know in there. I also know there's a code to prevent the weird lines in KH's HUD:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFssbQ_ppP8

On another note, I'm probably going to enable the "optional zoom for cutscenes" for KH2 by default since I've noticed too much pop-in on the left and right during cutscenes, and it breaks immersion.

I'm also going to another archive update on the first day of the new year, since it's been like 4 months since I've last updated the archive.

[lightningterror]

Because the archive is a useful, easy and accessible place to include them, and no one else seems to care about preserving these visual fixes (and I don't think the ones in the archive have been integrated into the emulator yet).

While not updated regularly they are included which is how I noticed.

For example, the Fatal Frame patches contain codes which disable extremely blurry cutscenes (due to poor upscaling). Other codes also fix visual glitches, and also contain "noise/grain filter" removal codes.

This is not good, WS patches have one purpose and that's Widescreen support. They should NOT have any GSdx hacks. This defeats the purpose of accuracy. We have plenty of hw hacks and gamefixes that already deal with those issues.

We also have cheats folder for any kind of hacks like that, or the issue can be debugged and fixed properly.

A lot of times WS patches are overlooked thinking they are just WS patches.

[Devina]

I don't like how you said "WS patches have one purpose and that's Widescreen support". That's actually simply an opinion and you should add a "should" in there. It's an opinion that widescreen hacks should be limited to one purpose, when they have the easy potential of having other useful benefits for convenience.

And unfortunately, not every built-in HW hack and gamefixes currently in PCSX2 covers everything in the archive, nor do gsdx fixes come with the cheats folder. I'll separate what I can before the next archive update.

[pgert]

@lightningterror:
Some games (like Fatal Frame) require HD patches for upscaling.
Strictly having WS & HD patches seperated would NOT be appreciated by the end users.
If it is correctness you want, then consider renaming "Enable Widescreen Patches" into "Enable Special Fixes", or "Enable Fallback Fixes".

[Devina]

Yeah, separation is inconvenient. You could argue that a lot of these gsdx fixes actually make the game look more how it's suppose to, and in a sense, be more accurate. For example, if there's a giant white line running across Fatal Frame when it's not supposed to, then removing it is more accurate because it's an upscaling glitch.

I find it funny that people who use widescreen hacks would care about "accuracy", when they're using widescreen hacks in the first place. Some PCSX2 users refuse to use widescreen hacks because they want non-stretched HUD since the devs designed the game for 4:3.

Now that I think about it, I can just add a // in front of the gsdx fixes to disable them by default instead of separating, and just make a notepad list of all games with gsdx fixes. That would be a nice middle ground.

[Bositman]

The problem here is what happens when stuff get fixed in GSdx/PCSX2 and these patches still remove/mask the fixed effects. I think commenting out the gsdx fixes by default is a good solution as well

[lightningterror]

The problem here is what happens when stuff get fixed in GSdx/PCSX2 and these patches still remove/mask the fixed effects. I think commenting out the gsdx fixes by default is a good solution as well

Yes that is a good idea, plus making a list of the games that have the commented out lines is a good idea as well, people will know so if they want to use them they can uncomment them out and use them.

[Tetris5]

I tried to use widescreen patch on - The Nightmare Before Christmas - Oogie's Revenge [PAL] and pretty much at the beginning of the game when you enter a room the game crashes in the cutscene

[Devina]

Does it work with the widescreen patch disabled?

There's so many addresses in the PAL patch, you can edit the .pnach file using notepad and delete everything under this:

patch=1,EE,00368C38,word,3F206D2F //3EF0A3D7 (Increases hor. axis)

Save the file, and that may fix it. Sure, all the 2D stuff will be stretched, but that's just how it is for the vast majority of our patches.