Star Ocean 2 TSS gfx/sound problems

[Panda Man]

I downloaded Star Ocean 2 TSS from the tracker here at ep, and when I run it in ePSXe the graphics are distorted somehwat, with textures missing, vertical black/white lines apearing here and there, etc. The sound is also distorted. I've tried changing the video plugins and the config for the plugins, I also tried to change the sound plugin, both of which didn't change anything. Then i tried changing the BIOS, thinking it was PAL. I tried 2 US BIOS', 2 PAL BIOS' and a JAP BIOS, and nothing helped. I tried burning the ISO, running it on both this crappy dell and the comp I built, and even polling back to ePSXe v1.5.2. I also tried downloading it from 3 other trackers, all 3 of which yeilded the exact same results (I'm about 99.9% sure it's the exact same torrent with the exact same ISO, just with another name). Sex with skinner didn't help either.

Here are screenshots of the in-game picture. The first on has the text at the bottom completely screwed up.

http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/8533/so13hy.jpg
http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/3472/so24ox.jpg

Any help is much appreciated! (I'm pretty sure its the ISO, so if any1 could link me to a different torrent, with seeds, that would help also)

[Raype]

Which ISO and What plugins do you have? I downloaded the one part StarOcean TSS ISO from the BT (it's a pretty old one by Ragnar that still has many seeders/downloaders). I think you may want to try a software plugin (it tends to run graphics without a lot of glitches) or an Open GL plugin (usually a high version Pete's, it'll improve the sound and graphic glitches are minimal). If it was the same torrent, then it is NTSC. I'm running it off my HD with ePSXe 1.6 if that helps.

EDIT- Oh and for sound plugins, use PEOPS and Eternal. They tend to have high compat. My settings PEOPS 1.7 (sometimes I switch to Pete's OpenGL 1.7 when I play other games) with Eternal SPU plugin 1.4

[Panda Man]

Which ISO and What plugins do you have? I downloaded the one part StarOcean TSS ISO from the BT (it's a pretty old one by Ragnar that still has many seeders/downloaders). I think you may want to try a software plugin (it tends to run graphics without a lot of glitches) or an Open GL plugin (usually a high version Pete's, it'll improve the sound and graphic glitches are minimal). If it was the same torrent, then it is NTSC. I'm running it off my HD with ePSXe 1.6 if that helps.

EDIT- Oh and for sound plugins, use PEOPS and Eternal. They tend to have high compat. My settings PEOPS 1.7 (sometimes I switch to Pete's OpenGL 1.7 when I play other games) with Eternal SPU plugin 1.4

PEOPS for sound and Pete's OpenGL for video. I also use Pete's DX6 something every now and then for some reason. All i can tell you is that i got the torrent with the 26 seeds . Thnx for the fast reply btw.

EDIT: It must be old :O added at 11-09 17:57 and had 11600 complete transfers

EDIT2: tried another emu, same result.

[Raype]

It's most likely the torrent I have since the other ones were all multi part I think. Plus the one I downloaded was the largest and most popular by a large margin. I have some errors with the OpenGL, but nothing that seemed that serious. You may just need to play around with the settings a little. Mine are more or less set up according to this graphically, and It helped a lot with most ISOs

Hmm, I was considering doing a stickied thread for the Final Fantasy and Chrono games settings, but since there's enough stickies as it is, I said screw it. Bottom line, the best settings for 90% of the games ePSXe runs is as follows:

Plugin: Pete's OpenGL Driver 1.1.76
Author: Pete Bernert

Resolution/Color:
- 1024x768 Fullscreen - NO desktop changing [32 Bit]
- Keep psx aspect ratio: off

Textures:
- R8G8B8A8
- Filtering: 0
- Hi-Res textures: 0
- VRam size: 0 MBytes

Framerate:
- FPS limitation: on
- Frame skipping: off
- FPS limit: 60.0

Compatibility:
- Offscreen drawing: 3
- Framebuffer texture: 2
- Framebuffer access: 0
- Alpha multipass: on
- Mask bit: on
- Advanced blending: on

Misc:
- Scanlines: off
- Line mode: off
- Unfiltered FB: on
- 15 bit FB: off
- Dithering: off
- Screen smoothing: off
- Screen cushion: off
- Game fixes: off [00000000]<----this is a variable, some games need a fix, and the ones that are available in ePSXe are very self-explanatory.

You may also want to try upgrading your graphics plugins or swapping in the software plugin (I recommend using software plugins mostly because I hate having to spend a lot of time going back and forth through menus to fine tune a game with other plugins. Software plugins will generally work with almost anything with minimal work). Also with some of the problems described, playing with the special game fixes may also help (I can't remember what one it was right now, but one of the settings helped remove bars and colored giltches). You should also enable the SPU IRQ hack if not already enabled. It may help with this game. Also, Star Ocean is a pretty large game so it really sucks up resources. Make sure you have as little as possible running in the background (this is a rule for RPGs in general if you have a low grade computer)

If all else fails, sex with skinner again may solve things.

[Panda Man]

It's most likely the torrent I have since the other ones were all multi part I think. Plus the one I downloaded was the largest and most popular by a large margin. I have some errors with the OpenGL, but nothing that seemed that serious. You may just need to play around with the settings a little. Mine are more or less set up according to this graphically, and It helped a lot with most ISOs



You may also want to try upgrading your graphics plugins or swapping in the software plugin (I recommend using software plugins mostly because I hate having to spend a lot of time going back and forth through menus to fine tune a game with other plugins. Software plugins will generally work with almost anything with minimal work). Also with some of the problems described, playing with the special game fixes may also help (I can't remember what one it was right now, but one of the settings helped remove bars and colored giltches). You should also enable the SPU IRQ hack if not already enabled. It may help with this game. Also, Star Ocean is a pretty large game so it really sucks up resources. Make sure you have as little as possible running in the background (this is a rule for RPGs in general if you have a low grade computer)

If all else fails, sex with skinner again may solve things.

I've already tried the specail games thingy. but who cares, switching to a software plugin worked!!! SHWING! You are incredibly awesome, and many thanks for the help!

the default ePSXe SPU plugin cleared up the distorted sound. both P.E.O.P.'s and eternal's plugins phailed, any recommendations on a different SPU? or just go with the ePSXe's default one?

[Raype]

whatever works is whatever you use . If the default core sound works, go with it.

[pkt-zer0]

You don't need to use a software rendered, it's simple framebuffer texturing and emulation. Just increase those settings in the GPU, and it'll turn visible. The game loads the last frame of the intro MDEC into the framebuffer, and prints the menu on top of THAT.