Shadow of the Colossus !!!

[Aether]

The game really crawls for me almost all the time at 30 fps. Using 0.9.7.3113 with stock settings (I had speedhacks on for another game but they didn't do much here), and with the following specs
Phenom II x4 955 OC@ 3.8
4GB ram
HD 4670

Any ideas?

[Stabby]

@eliot cool, thx for the pm - out curiosity was the hardware bloom fix not a viable long term thing?

[eliot_cougar]

@eliot cool, thx for the pm - out curiosity was the hardware bloom fix not a viable long term thing?

I don't quite understand what you mean... This fix is temporary, period... Devs have to figure out how to fix it properly... They have to rewrite GSDX plugin (which is a mess)... But I think now that the problem is actually in PCSX2 itself, somewhere in the GS or GIF, whatever... Strangely, ZZOgl and ZeroGS have exactly the same issue... I couldn't find the line in GSDX that could alter bloom behavior... The Bloom is actually a texture laid over the screen... I think it's not the GSDX that alters this texture's content, but rather the core...

Blame me if I'm wrong...

[Stabby]

I was refering to this post where you had a less bloomy bloom in hardware (I may be totally missunderstanding).

[eliot_cougar]

The game really crawls for me almost all the time at 30 fps. Using 0.9.7.3113 with stock settings (I had speedhacks on for another game but they didn't do much here), and with the following specs
Phenom II x4 955 OC@ 3.8
4GB ram
HD 4670

Any ideas?

Youg Graphics Card is too weak... You have to have at least GeForce 8800 or Radeon HD4870 to play fullspeed with (VU cycle stealing = 1) or above... Even at 2x resolution with occasional slow-downs...

[Aether]

I thought GPU only really mattered for scaling and all that?

[eliot_cougar]

I was refering to this post where you had a less bloomy bloom in hardware (I may be totally missunderstanding).

Ah... That one is actually my attempt to "fix" Bloom by shrinking the texture... It makes black (transparent) borders around it and makes Bloom to "leak" there as diffusion goes... The huge problem there is awful offset... Bloom and "dark creatures" appear totally shifted towards the center of the screen... It's even worse at higher resolution and makes "offset hack" useless... It's much better without bloom at all...
I sent you the link to that version, but it works well only in Native resolution...

---

I thought GPU only really mattered for scaling and all that?

GPU matters a lot for games that have a lot of geometry and textures on screen: FFXII, God of War, Devil May Cry 3, Okami, ICO, SotC and so on...

[eliot_cougar]

I've just completed this game using my "modified" GSDX plugin... Looks nice... The only proplem was transparent Dormin in the outro, in the very end... He consists only of "blackness", my mod cuts this... Switching to normal plugin was seamless...

I had to overclock my roommate's PC to play this game full-speed while he's gone... I've figured out that the minimum playable CPU clock-rate is 2.8GHz... It allowed me to play the game with VU cycle stealing hack = 2, but I've had occasional slow-downs... GeForce 8800GTS allowed me to play at 2x resolution... If you want more smooth framerate, you have to get 3.2+GHz CPU (2+ cores ofcourse) to be able to play at VU Cycle stealing = 1 or even without it...

I've had vtlb Miss issues two times:
First one during the cut-scene after the 8th colossus, and another one during credits - this one lead to PCSX2 crash... Maybe it's caused by speedhacks...

[Stabby]

Just to toss this in:
i7 920 (stock speed)
GTX 280
speed hacks 3 (both)
Other hacks all checked
constant skipping (2 draw 2 skip)

That gives me 60fps constant at 5x native res.

[eliot_cougar]

Just to toss this in:
i7 920 (stock speed)
GTX 280
speed hacks 3 (both)
Other hacks all checked
constant skipping (2 draw 2 skip)

That gives me 60fps constant at 5x native res.

Concerning SpeedHacks...
EE Cycle Hack is definitely NOT needed for this game, it does not increase fps, but makes input misbehave...
VU Cycle Stealing makes game's internal frame-limiter go mad... Option 3 is too much... Framerate goes down even if PCSX2 tells you 60fps...
Moreover, VU Cycle stealing causes vtlb miss errors and crashes in two places in the game (at least) - Cutscene after the 8th colossus and credits...

Pausing/resuming emulation may break game (r3185)... Save often to memcard...

Constant frame skipping is totally bad idea for almost any game... Why do you ever need 5x resolution?.. Even 2x looks excellent on big screen (1920x1200)...