Sakura Wars 5 - better on older vesion?
#1
Hello!

My setup:

Win 7 64bit
Core 2 Quad 2.50ghz
Radeon HD4850 512mb
8gb ram

It's not the best, I know that. However I can run most games well on the *newest* versions of PCSX2 (latest official build and latest svn build).

But this game, for some reason, seems to work better on an old 0.9.7 build I found. On both the official 0.9.8 version and the latest SVN, the game runs at about 40-45 FPS once I get to the first 3D area with actual characters. I've tried many different things with the speedhacks and GPU settings, yes. It doesn't change much whatsoever.

Now, take a look at this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDN8vSCBSJc

In the description, there's a link to the old 0.9.7 version that he used in this vid. http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mmwhmqzytzz With that version, the game looks better and plays alot better.

Latest SVN build (same with official 0.9.8): http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/855/svnbuild.png/ It looks darker than it should, and plays slower.

0.9.7 build that the guy uses: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/225/097s.png/

Neither of these shows any character shadows, but from what I've read, the only way to fix that is to play in software mode.

Is it a hack/gamefix that makes it work better in this 0.9.7 version? Or is the 0.9.7 version just plain better for this game in general? I have no idea what's going on really.

By looking in the patches folder (0.9.7) I don't see any file related to this game, so I guess a gamefix is not the reason...? There must be a good reason though why the game works so much better with the old version.

I play with similar settings for GSdx in all versions. DX10 Hardware, native resolution, texture filtering on.

SHOULD I just play with 0.9.7 or is there a way to make it work the same or better with the latest PCSX2?



Thanks
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#2
I have a strong feeling that the slow speed is directly related to the fact that game also looks darker, as if everything has a shadow on it. GPU usage is way higher in 0.9.8/SVN than it is in the 0.9.7 version.

Take a look at this: http://code.google.com/p/pcsx2/issues/detail?id=643

At the bottom there's a hack of some sort, that perhaps is the solution that also seems to be used in the 0.9.7 version. But personally I don't know how to use something like this, I guess I'm quite inept.

"Around line 125 of GSRendererDX.h (in Draw(rt, ds, tex)) I added this:
[...]
if(!IsOpaque())
{
if(tex==0) return; // Durante Sakura Wars hack
om_bsel.abe = PRIM->ABE || PRIM->AA1 && m_vt.m_primclass == GS_LINE_CLASS;
[...]"

How would one make use of this in a new PCSX2 build? Or is it not possible?
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#3
btw, new shot looks like you are running GSDX in software mode, which the jagged line around the house in the background, the jagged characters and the high GS usage also tell this.

can you show us your GSDX settings on the new version please?
[Image: ref-sig-anim.gif]

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#4
Sure, here you go: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/155/svngdsx.png/

Yes, the GPU usage is for some reason alot higher in the newest PCSX2.
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#5
0.9.8/SVN, software mode: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/683...tware.png/

It's faster than HW, and the lightning + character shadows are correct. However, it's still slower than 0.9.7 on HW, so it doesn't really matter.

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#6
It sounds like incomplete emulation to me when it comes to 0.9.7.
The most likely reason that you're having trouble is that your machine is pretty low end. Your EE was already maxed out and the GS was close behind. Then you bring in correct emulation i.e. lightning + dynamic character shadows with the newer versions, which maxed out your hardware.
If you want to try and get the newer/correctly emulated version(s) to work you can try the EE cyclerate hack first in the emulation settings then speedhacks.

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#7
P.S. If you decide to stick with 0.9.7 for the speed you may want to keep a separate configuration for it. Make sure you keep build versions separate with their own plugin folders etc.
In order to make a game/build version start with it's own set of settings you will first need to navigate to My Documents and copy "PCSX2" then paste it back into My Documents so that you've made a copy. Rename your new copy to whatever you want (this will be your settings folder for 0.9.7) Then right click on PCSX2 0.9.7.exe and make a shortcut to it (this will be your 0.9.7 launcher). Right click on that shortcut and type this at the end of the target with a space after the quotation marks --cfgpath=C:\Users\AccountName\Documents\PCSX2copy\inis\ so you will end up with something like this "D:\Games\PCSX2 0.9.7\pcsx2.exe" --cfgpath=C:\Users\Administrator\Documents\PCSX2-0.9.7\inis\ .
Now you can fire up either your latest version or 0.9.7 without changing each others settings.
Good luck.
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#8
Yea, thanks. I had some problems with that before. Now I have 3 versions to run (0.9.8, latest SVN, 0.9.7 "beta").

I guess I'll just have to run 0.9.7 r2661 for this game, even if it's not ideal.
By the way, I've now tried the 0.9.7 r2661 that you can get from EmuCR. That one works just as bad as the new versions.

In other words, for some reason, the only one that gives me good performance in this game is the one linked on the youtube vid. Which is also r2661.

Does he actually have a hack in that one of some sorts, is there any way to find out? Because it would be pretty awesome to replicate that effect in a newer version...
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#9
(09-23-2011, 05:53 PM)Harlequina Wrote: Does he actually have a hack in that one of some sorts, is there any way to find out?

It''s possible and you'd have to ask the guy directly.
Core i5 3570k -- Geforce GTX 670  --  Windows 7 x64
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