Speed: NTSC vs PAL
#11
No.
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#12
Nope, maybe you'd get better FPS/speed ratio but the game itself would be slower so you'd want the original speed anyway.
Core i5 3570k -- Geforce GTX 670  --  Windows 7 x64
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#13
FWIW, other than the 2 links you provided, I found another 2 threads with quite a few posts with some good insights about the issue and interesting discussions:

http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-PAL-or-NTSC
http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-Are-PAL-v...-emulation

Also, I've read a bit about the PS2 hardware architecture, and I understand now the issue is not as simple as I might have presented it (it never really is Wink ). For others interested in the subject, as far as I understand, the 2 VU processors, which can be considered as part of "graphics sub system" can be used for other co-processing tasks, possibly related to rendering, but not necessarily, and should be properly synchronized with the main CPU (EE). To properly isolate the "graphics-sub-system", one probably needs to intimately understand the software architecture used for rendering for each game, and even then, isolation would probably be quite impractical.

Which probably leaves this kind of optimizations to the GS plugin only. However, for one, GSDX already include similar hacks in the form of "Skip draw" hack, and also, as noted previously, the actual drawing code of the GS plugin probably consumes much less percentage of processing power. Except in software renderer probably, where this hack might actually be useful...


P.S.
Maybe the forum needs a revised search functionality? Searching either "NTSC" or "PAL" (at the search box at the top) bring tons of results, vast majority of them unrelated to the subject (as expected), while searching for "ntsc pal" brings only this thread... Yet, the subject seem to have came up many times before... and in all those threads both ntsc and pal were mentioned...
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#14
Yeah myBB search sucks, nothing we can do about that. But you can always use googe, in the search bar put site:forums.pcsx2.net and after that your actual query like 'site:forum.pcsx2.net NTSC'. That will yield results only from this forum and quite more accurate than the internal mybb search Wink
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#15
Then maybe it would be possible to replace the default search with google search? Search is so important these days, and especially on forums which contain much knowledge, such as this one. Proper default search might do wonders to reduce the number of "answered previously at..." threads.. would it not? I think it might also allow for searches without the 20s limit between searches, as it doesn't consume CPU load on the forum server..

In fact, the forum seem slow at times, it might even help this issue. Search, especially ineffective one which requires several searches to even get close, might consume just too much CPU..
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#16
I'd rather have the search as it is... if you're looking for something specific the default search is fine and if not enough then you have yet another way to search, google search brings too many irrelevant threads to my searching experience.
Core i5 3570k -- Geforce GTX 670  --  Windows 7 x64
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#17
NTSC and PAL are TV standards and the console MUST be built to follow the standards each country adopted, one main reason for "region" although not the only.

Resumed history:
NTSC was the first color standard for TV transmission, it's simpler but had an inherent issue. The signal phase tend to change in actual broadcasting depending on distance, weather, obstacles... many factors indeed... this translated to images with strange coloring and aberrations.

Because of it a new standard was developed, it was called PAL meaning Phase Alternation Line, that means the even numbered lines are transmitted in 180 degres phase opposition. That grants the phase distortion is canceled on receiver since the shift is compensated and the final result is the original signal is restored.

For that reason few countries used NTSC, and France developed a third standard named SECAM albeit NTSC and PAL became the de facto choices. NTSC because was almost impossible and securely inviable to change the extensive base already installed, which stuck USA in using it (and the few countries that early adopted it, like Japan).

Still it's not NTSC and PAL itself that dictates the Vertical sync signal, that was more related to the electrical alternate frequency adopted in the country. As example PAL has some variants, being PAL-N the most common in Europe and PAL-M used for example in my country, Brazil. Pal-N is that 50Hz while PAL-M is 60Hz just like NTSC.

There is much more about these standards but not meaningful here to extend too much, being the number the lines per frame the most significant.

NOW the really important part to understand why gaming consoles video output can't be compared with PC.

In the PC everything is synchronized with the real time while the console syncs everything with the video itself (the lines that makes the frame).

So in a PC, if a scene is rendered so an object takes 5 secs to move from the point A to point B it will do so in that 5 secs does not matter if the scene will be rendered at 25 or 100 FPS. There are advantages running at higher FPS but not as visual smoothness (some would be responsiveness and precision of aiming, as example).

In a console the same scene is sync with the video standard... that object is bond not with the real time anymore but, in NTSC case, with 300 frames. So it will take that 300 frames to get from A to B and since the FPS is 60 it will translate in the same 5 secs as above. Now the console slowdown and can output only 30FPS... becomes clear the complete movement will take 10 secs now... an actual, clearly perceptive slowmotion... add to it everything else including sound is sync the same way and the complete problem becomes clear as pure water.

Concluding. Yes, since PAL is only 50FPS it puts a smaller toll on the GS on an emulator but not the same amount for the CPU, the last will yet have to deal with all the same logic and NPCs scripts and so on.

PS: The reason consoles adopted TV standards should be obvious once they are designed to be coupled to TVs...
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