Radeon 9600: not enough???

[Gott]

Sorry about this question, but I'm quite clumsy with this kind of things.

I'm using a radeon 9600 video card, but no video plugin works!
All plugins I tried yield the "error opening GS plugin" message, along with:

"GIF reset
NTSC
ZeroGS: failed to create hardware device, creating software.
ZeroGS: failed to create software device, switching to reference rasterizer"

I read the guide, but it seems that my video card supports Shader Model 2.0 so I don't think that is the problem.

Any suggestion? what should I check?

Thanks for helping

[Zeydlitz]

Hard to tell, 9600 ancient videocard and although it seems to be o'k, videodrivers could be brocken or bad.

[Waro]

I'd go with a driver-related related issue here, too. Try to update DirectX and your graphics card drivers.

[Register]

I think 9600 doesnt have ps.2.0 it only compatible with ps.1.1 so you can only use very old gsdx and directx.9 only.

[refraction]

every radeon from the 9250 up should have pixel shader 2, id go more for the driver issue.

[Gott]

Hmm I'll check some update out and tell you.
Thanks for now

[Gott]

So, I managed to solve *that* problem: oddly to say, i had to downgrade the drivers: I was usingthe latest released (04/2009)- and by installing 2006-released ones games started to run.

But they all run slow as hell, usually at 33% speed!

My computer is a Pentium 4 2400 Mhz, 768 Mb RAM.
I know it's not on the edge of technology, but I'm surprised not to see simple PS2 games (like Metal Slug anthology) running!

Is my problem due to hardware limits, or should I try adjusting something?
I also tried to toggle sound and many graphic options off but nothing seemed to change.

[Bositman]

Well simple ps2 games does not mean emulating them with completely different hardware than the ps2 on a completely different architecture is anything but simple.
Here's a nice read for you:
http://forums.pcsx2.net/thread-2330.html
http://forums.pcsx2.net/thread-2331.html

[Gott]

That's very kind of you, thanks
I can only apologize for having you linking those threads: I reckon it's been the 12345th time you had to.

Well, since my PS2 is dead and I'm not very willing to buy a new one, I reckon I'll just go for a new plutonium-operated PC

After reading Thread-2330 I'm just amazed in seeing how hard you worked to build this emulator: it may still have lots of compatibility problems, but it does wonders anyway compared to all those asynchronic units °_°

[Waro]

i had to downgrade the drivers: I was usingthe latest released (04/2009)- and by installing 2006-released ones games started to run.

The latest release for the 9xxx series is numbered 9.3.1 and dated 07/06/2009.
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/wi...ng=English


As Bositman pointed out, emulation is a very complicated thing. Metal Slug might not appear complex to emulate per se, but since we're talking about a version of the game that were specifically coded for the PS2, then it makes it hard to emulate. This very same game on its original platform is far easier to emulate, because the Neo-Geo's architecture is less complex by far. Hell, I remember playing it at full speed on my first computer, which had a Pentium II 350 MHz.