PCSX2 generally slow with cel-shaded games?
#1
This is a question that's bugging me for quite some time already. Since my japanese PS2 is broken, I need to use PCSX2 to play all my japanese import games (I only have my german PAL console now), but there are some games that just won't work with acceptable speed. And all of them have one thing in common: Cel-Shading-Graphics.
The four titles I'm refering to the most:

1. Tales of Symphonia
2. Bleach - Blade Battlers 2nd
3. Tales of Legendia
4. Dragon Quest VIII

To Symphonia:
I can consider myself lucky if it reaches 30FPS. In battles, it can reach up to 50 (of 60) FPS, but only if just one character + enemy is on the screen. Every additional character slows the game down massively. (around 6-10 FPS). On worldmap it runs also only decently. 30-40 FPS. Also it seems to slow down as soon when there are textboxes on the screen. Speedhacks on 3, VU Cycle Stealing 2. Without those, it's even worse.

Bleach:
Well... it's playable... somehow. 20-30 FPS in battles, no more. In menus I get fullspeed. There's not much more I need to say about it. I use all speedhacks (speedhack 3, VU Cycle Stealing 2).

Tales of Legendia:
Runs when selecting DirectX 11. Other DirectX versions show black screens or garbage. The menus run perfectly fine with fullspeed. But then again, ingame it runs at 30, then 25, then 20 and it starts sinking down to around 8 FPS. Totally unplayable.

Dragon Quest VIII:
Tested my demo of it some time ago. I don't recall it completely, what settings I had and so on, but it didn't run with more then 25 FPS. Neither in battle, nor on the map.

Here are my PC specs:

AMD Athlon 64 2x 2,7 Ghz
4GB DDR3 RAM
Nvidia Gefore 9500GT (I believe?) with 1GB
Windows 7, German, x64

So, could it be my computer or is this really a general problem? I've seen people running Dragon Quest VIII fine on their computers, so I guess, maybe that was my bad luck. But Bleach, Tales of Symphonia and Legendia make the same problems for others, too.
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#2
DBZ Budokai 3 is also cell shaded and runs pretty good.

Neither your CPU nor GPU are the very best.
Intel i5 3450
AsRock B75-Pro3-M
Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X OC
8GB DDR3-1333 RAM
Sandisk Ultra Plus 256GB
Seagate 7200.14 1TB x2
Enermax Triathlor 450W PSU
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#3
Legendia has known bug that make it, no matter how powerful your system is, won't run right. And yes, your system is below recommended spec so slowdown is to be expected most of the time.
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#4
Well then, now that this is clear:
Could you tell me what part of my computer I should update? I don't want to buy an all new computer just for PCSX2, although it is by now my only chance to play imported PS2 games of US and JAP region.
I already thought that I should most probably go and buy a newer CPU, as this one really is rather slow. Although it works perfectly fine with Dolphin. Almost every game runs fullspeed, but that is another story that doesn't belong here.
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#5
We need more info about your system. AMD Athlon 64 seems very old, however Athlon 64s cannot be combined with DDR3...Say, do you have an Athlon II? Your GPU should be alright for most games @native res.
Intel i5 3450
AsRock B75-Pro3-M
Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X OC
8GB DDR3-1333 RAM
Sandisk Ultra Plus 256GB
Seagate 7200.14 1TB x2
Enermax Triathlor 450W PSU
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#6
Please try the cycle hacks and game fixes, like EE cycle rate acceleration between 33-50% (theres a slider in the latest public beta, but you can still do this with the .96 version) and VU cycle stealing from 1-3.

EE timing hack may help some.

In FFX I get like 30-40 FPS, and most games, but if i use speedhacks I get 60-80 FPS... and I'm just using a Pentium 4 with HT @ 4.25 ghz at the moment.
CPU: Pentium D 'Presler' 915 2.8 ghz 2x2MB L2 @ 3.5 ghz
GPU: eVGA [Nvidia] 8600GT 256MB SSC DDR3
Tested: FFX, FFX-2, FFXII, MGS3, KH, KH2, The Hobbit NTSC
PCSX2 FTW! Biggrin
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#7
buy a Phenom Black Edition..
i think it can be OC to 3.5Ghz on air..
try Dark Cloud and Rogue Galaxy yet? Tongue
[Image: 871087.png]

*Mio sees a ghost for the first time*
Mio: Aaaaaaah!! x_x
Seriously, the way she acts, you'd think she grew up with ghosts.
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#8
About my CPU:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5200+ 2,70GHz

That's all the information I can obtain so far.

@Dangerousd777

No need for that. As I said beforehand, I'm using these speedhacks, and Final Fantasy X runs fullspeed without problems. Even with just 1,5x EE hack (on PCSX2 0.9.6).

Just to have a list of games that run smoothly or close to smoothly:

1. Final Fantasy X [NTSC-J] (60 FPS constant, with EE Hack 1,5x)
2. Final Fantasy XII [NTSC-J] (45-60 FPS, with EE Hack 3x)
3. Tales of the Abyss [NTSC-U] (35 in battles, 50 normally, 60 in menus, with EE 2x)
4. Tales of Destiny 2 [NTSC-J] (50-60, with EE 2x)
5. Tales of Destiny [NTSC-J] (constant 60 FPS with EE 1,5x)
6. Tales of Rebirth [NTSC-J] (constant 60 FPS with EE 2x)
7. Tear Ring Saga 2 [NTSC-J] (constant 60 FPS with EE 1,5x)
8. Resident Evil Outbreak [PAL] (45-50 FPS, depends on the amount of zombies, EE 2x)

It's really just the cel-shaded games that are causing problems for me. Everything else is just fine. Except for Tales of the Abyss, a little.. Played it through on the emulator together with a friend, though. Also I have played through FFX as well as Destiny 2 just fine, too. There never were problems.

@RenShijo-Kun
Rogue Galaxy was the next game on my list, that I wanted to buy. PAL though, so I wouldn't have need to play it on PCSX2, but it'd be worth a try then.
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#9
I think it's just coincidence that all the game you've tried is cel-shaded (legendia is not though) AND heavy. I'm sure there are many non cel-shaded games out there that won't play nicely with your system (try MGS3, SotC and Tekken 5).

Your CPU is weak, that's the main problem. If you can (mobo support) get a Phenom II, that'll help you tremendously.
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#10
I figured it out! Perhaps the CPU pre-processes the cel-shading before it's passed onto the GPU? Perhaps PCSX2 just isn't very optimized with cel-shading or the associated algorithms yet.
CPU: Pentium D 'Presler' 915 2.8 ghz 2x2MB L2 @ 3.5 ghz
GPU: eVGA [Nvidia] 8600GT 256MB SSC DDR3
Tested: FFX, FFX-2, FFXII, MGS3, KH, KH2, The Hobbit NTSC
PCSX2 FTW! Biggrin
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