Sudden Drop in Speed

[goblinbee]

nothing

Is that 'nothing' like you don't know or 'nothing' like the problem can't be solved and there's nothing I can do?

I mean, the disappearing of the window seems to make the emulator unusable so unless this version never worked there has to be a workaround, right?

[recoder]

the post was my fault. I was reading your post while the pressed post reply.... So i cannot delete my post and so i typed nothing.

[RafeIx]

EDIT: Leaving this here so the thread makes sense to readers, but do not in fact recommend the advice here, as other advice in the thread seems more sensible. See Ecchiless' suggestions on page 1.

The main window always disappears. What you do to get access to it is hit ESC on your keyboard. That'll close the game window, and reopen the main one. Then from the Run menu, choose Execute and it will resume. There is an easier way however: Hotkeys.

F1 -> Save to currently selected state
F2 -> Cycle through states
F3 -> Load currently selected state

You can see the currently selected state at the top of the game window (after all of the other statistics).

Unfortunately, there is a problem you'll sort of have to accept: You can't move states between emulators/versions. It's basically a snapshot of machine state, and that will vary per version. Even something like changing which plugins you're using would cause it to refuse to load a state with various errors (changing flags on a plugin doesn't cause this issue, only changing the actual selected plugin.

You should, however, be able to move the MCD files (memory cards) between emulators. I think. So just open the previous emulator, find a save point, save, then try moving the card to r1888.

[Bositman]

Please stop suggesting to people to use an almost 3 year old build just because you got better speeds with it. It is unsupported, buggy and has extremely lower compatibility than the current 0.9.8 release. Of course people are free to use it, but then they revoke any right for support in this forum.

[RafeIx]

EDIT: Leaving this here so the thread makes sense to readers, but do not in fact recommend the advice here, as other advice in the thread seems more sensible. See Ecchiless' suggestions on page 1.

Of course it's buggy. It's old. However, there seem to be no serious bugs affecting Persona 3 FES. Now, I understand that there are issues, and any user should understand that (and obviously forget about getting reasonable support for something as ancient as r1888), but if the current version doesn't allow for a comfortable play-through of a particular game, while an older one does, I think it is worth mentioning.
For all my other games, I use the current version, but Persona 3 FES has such a ridiculous amount of lag on the current version that it is at times unplayable without upgrading my computer (and I'm not about to do that). This is after spending a good amount of time refining configuration. Something changed after r1888 that has made Persona games in particular run more slowly. This is normal in emulation: emulation is complicated, and the more technically accurate the emulation, the more power it takes to run it. That said, as a user, I find the most functional (from a user's point of view) configuration for each game, and sometimes it doesn't involve the most recent version of the emulator. When it works better in the current version, I will use the new version, and gladly recommend it as well. But until then, for this game, I'm going to use the one that works better.
I made it clear it was an old version, and the user seemed the sort (despite his claims of ignorance) the type who would recognize what that means.
I will however, as you request, cease and desist, and just hope a future version improves the situation.

[refraction]

Id be curious to see some fps readouts from the new version and r1888, using the same settings on both of course. if something has been added/removed, it needs to be disabled for the comparison. I cant believe the difference was that huge. Everybody hyped it up to be the fastest build ever, but tbh it wasnt that different, any massive speed boost you think you might have is placebo.

[RafeIx]

Id be curious to see some fps readouts from the new version and r1888, using the same settings on both of course. if something has been added/removed, it needs to be disabled for the comparison. I cant believe the difference was that huge. Everybody hyped it up to be the fastest build ever, but tbh it wasnt that different, any massive speed boost you think you might have is placebo.

I have no problem collecting some data for you if you'd like, but a lot has changed since r1888, so it may be best for me to send you a zip of my configuration instead, so you can disable whatever you need. If you give me a contact email, I can send you the r1888 setup I have, and an mcd of some early game saves from Persona 3 FES, with explanations of how to reach slowdown points. That way you'd be able to muck around to your heart's content. I wouldn't be able to send you the iso or bios, for legal reasons, as I'm sure you understand.

In the meantime, during the specific fragment the initial player complained about (first boss):
Current Version, frame rate drops to 50 just before the fight, then 45-50 during, with occasional spikes in both directions (35-60 is the full range). Graphics are clearly slower, and the audio is distorted to match.
r1888, no issues before the fight, and a fairly steady 55-60 once inside. Audio issues are as good as gone.

There are also issues at other points in the game with the current version. During lectures things slow down pretty significantly, for example. Similar situation in Persona 4, though I haven't fiddled with P4 too much yet, so I'm not as confident it can't be resolved within the current version.

[ecchiless]

The only big problem that i have in persona series is certain fights agains some mid-bosses, in pes 3 fes only one fight actually(the roulette dog), and persona 4 none so far, so hey wait no rly big problems with last beta and svn, the settings i "post" before works perfectly for ppl with low end machines, thats who i gain my thumbs up, i was expecting that the guy would be trying that but seems like he doesnt, any way, i dont see any gain for using and old version, for some weird reason i still have the installations from 0.9.6 to 0.9.8.

o/

[RafeIx]

The only big problem that i have in persona series is certain fights agains some mid-bosses, in pes 3 fes only one fight actually(the roulette dog), and persona 4 none so far, so hey wait no rly big problems with last beta and svn, the settings i "post" before works perfectly for ppl with low end machines, thats who i gain my thumbs up, i was expecting that the guy would be trying that but seems like he doesnt, any way, i dont see any gain for using and old version, for some weird reason i still have the installations from 0.9.6 to 0.9.8.

o/

Just tried your settings to make sure I hadn't overlooked anything. I have to admit it is better than anything else I've done with the current version, and indicates I may still need to do some tweaking with it. The notice at the top of the speedhacks page combined with what I've seen speedhacks do when I was playing with settings in 0.9.6 made me view those settings a tad too harshly, I guess. Maybe I gave up on this build too soon (and in that case made something of a fool of myself here as well, in which case I owe and offer a few apologies). Still need to check a couple things to fully get rid of my worry/skepticism, but I must admit it is already severely reduced.

[goblinbee]

Ok, ok, thanks to everyone that has contributed to this thread. I've really been trying to make sense of everything and it looks like I should try ecchiless's original suggestions. I probably should have done that first but the idea of the game magically working on an older version of the emulator was just so appealing.


I got through this part

Try this, open ur pcsx2, go to config tab, then in EE/IOP set clamp mode to none, do the same thing in VU's section, now go to Speedhacks section, enable the hacks and select the recommendend ones, plus Set EE Slider to 2 and VU to 1,

But after that it says to download a new version and extract my C: drive, but I THINK it means that I only need to do that if I don't want to set up the settings like he suggested. So, I skipped that. After that it says.

in the hacks section check the mtvu hack too

Where is the hacks section? Is that the speadhacks tab he was talking about earlier within the core GS settings? Where is the box to check the mtvu hack? there are two selections for mVU hack, one is already selected because it was 'recommended' but the other is not. Does this mean taht I should check that second unchecked box? Or is there another option in some other menu that says mtvu?

The last part says

now go to GSdx plug in, and set ur resolution to native(u maybe wanna check if the game dont die with 2x or 3x upscale first)

and I did that, so I think all that is left from his suggestion is the mtvu thing. RafeIx said that he tested what ecchiless suggested and it worked well so I'm really hoping I can get the game working if I follow it was well. Just from the changes I've made so far there doesn't seem to be any change in the gameplay at all.

I'm sorry if I sound like a complete fool here but I really don't know what any of these terms or acronyms mean and in terms of where things are in the menus I am completely at a loss.