Final Fantasy 10 - Is my PC up for the job?

[zuhane]

Hello people! I've been a good boy and read through the rules, etc. I was just hoping that somebody could possible help me. I've just freshly
installed pcsx2 on my PC. It's working fine and can play games. I just downloaded Final Fantasy 10 (I own the game and a PS2, but the resolution
just destroys my eyes) so I booted it as an ISO. It opens okay, but it runs at around 35-40 FPS getting slowed down music and framerates. I know
that you're meant to have a dual core and a good one at that, but I don't, so I was hoping there would be some way to play the game at standard
framerates withou all the bother!

My specs are:
-Windows Vista (32-bit)
-GTX 460 1GB memory OC
-2.4GHz Quad Core processor
-2GB RAM (DDR2)

-I've not used discs in the disc slot. I've used a downloaded ISO to run the game.

-I'm using version 0.9.8 (r4600) pcsx2
-As for plugins, I'm not quite sure what I'm using. I'm completely new at this.

Now, I'm not too bothered about running loads of PS2 games. I'd be more than happy if I could play FFX (main want), Tekken Tag and Ratchet and Clank!
Also, something weird that I've picked up on: I tried the game at native resolution, then increasing resolutions all the way up to 1920 x 1080. It gets the same
FPS at all resolutions, so I'd love to keep it in 1080p IF possible!

Thank you very, very much for your time and I hope for some useful feedback!

[Brian Coffey]

I run it on my Dual-core laptop with PCSX2 (there was a complete download on Demonoid.me that included all the best plugins) Currently demonoid is an invite only torrent site and also is currently down. so sorry for raising your hopes. but if you want i can invite you to the site and you can join and then you can get Final Fantasy X:International Edition (With all the black aeons!!) I'm a big Final Fantasy X junkie myself . I have only 2.0 GHZ and only 64MB dedicated graphics memory and 4GB of RAM. And the game runs jittery for me too. but is playable! (all the best plugins for the game are included in the torrent. If you don't want to join the site I could see if I could e-mail you the torrent file so you can use either Bitcomet or Utorrent or whatever your preference is to download it. (with bitcomet you can choose to just download the PCSX2 program and plugins without the FFX-International ISO. Reply if ya want it. (Hope this helps), Cheers!

[zuhane]

That'd be absolutely amazing! The tear-jerking intro keeps getting my hopes up, then it just stutters down to 35fps every time! Grrr!!!!

EDIT: I've just spent all day downloading it, and the version I have is the standard PAL version with all dark aeons included anyway! However, any of
those plugins would be great!

[meganova]

Since you have a Quad Core processor, why don't you try using the latest SVN?

Download it, and configure all your plugins/bios/memcard. Go to GSdx settings, and set the resolution to Native.
Then on Speedhacks, enable the MTVU hack.

This game doesn't need too much resource anyway, but even with 2.4GHz, slowdown on some areas/cutscene will still happen, so that's normal.
Also, the higher resolution you use, the more resource the game needed, thus makes the game runs slower.

[zuhane]

Thanks again for the reply, but I'm majorly new at emulation. What is an SVN and which link do I want to download? Cheers.

[Bennieboi20]

you want to download the 1st link, a SVN is basically an "unoffical" build that people are working on tweaking little bits of codes and trying to get it to work, only if a certain SVN gets a good response then it becomes an offical build sorta like a beta you could say

[meganova]

Lol, no.

A SVN will not be released as an official build whether it get a good response or not, but when it has significant improvement and stable enough compared to previous build.
and It mainly used by developer to record any changes made into the actual source, so that it won't get removed accidentally by other developers.

[Bennieboi20]

Lol, no.

A SVN will not be released as an official build whether it get a good response or not, but when it has significant improvement and stable enough compared to previous build.
and It mainly used by developer to record any changes made into the actual source, so that it won't get removed accidentally by other developers.

oh i thought that was the way it worked lol never mind cheers for clearing that up mega

[zuhane]

Okay, thanks for the help up to now! I've installed the top SVN and am using the pcsx2-r4897 exe to start the game. I've set both speedhack bars to 3/3. It's running around 35-40fps
at the opening scene, so it's not really that much of an improvement. Any suggestions from here? Special graphics plugins, tweaks, etc?

[Bennieboi20]

Since you have a Quad Core processor, why don't you try using the latest SVN?

Download it, and configure all your plugins/bios/memcard. Go to GSdx settings, and set the resolution to Native.
Then on Speedhacks, enable the MTVU hack.

This game doesn't need too much resource anyway, but even with 2.4GHz, slowdown on some areas/cutscene will still happen, so that's normal.
Also, the higher resolution you use, the more resource the game needed, thus makes the game runs slower.

Okay, thanks for the help up to now! I've installed the top SVN and am using the pcsx2-r4897 exe to start the game. I've set both speedhack bars to 3/3. It's running around 35-40fps
at the opening scene, so it's not really that much of an improvement. Any suggestions from here? Special graphics plugins, tweaks, etc?

do as meganova said in the above quoted post also tick the native resolution on your plugin settings this makes it run with the same screen resolution as the orginal ps2 this should speed it up at bit

[zuhane]

Right, I just followed a Youtube tutorial and I've managed to fix the instability. It shows a constant 50fps mark at the top, audio doesn't skip
and it runs without the jitters. However, despite the 50fps watermark, it still gets framerate drops during fights and large open areas. This usually
wouldn't bother me, but it's pretty game-destroying and takes ages to attack (especially special attacks)! Also, this is weird, but the resolution seems
to completely no affect fps whatsoever. Is that GPU-related or something?

[Brian Coffey]

Odd. Must be your ram.

[meganova]

Okay, thanks for the help up to now! I've installed the top SVN and am using the pcsx2-r4897 exe to start the game. I've set both speedhack bars to 3/3. It's running around 35-40fps
at the opening scene, so it's not really that much of an improvement. Any suggestions from here? Special graphics plugins, tweaks, etc?

Only max out the EE Cyclerate, you will only get fake fps if you turn VU Cyclerate at higher value. So best to set it to default or 0.

Right, I just followed a Youtube tutorial and I've managed to fix the instability. It shows a constant 50fps mark at the top, audio doesn't skip
and it runs without the jitters. However, despite the 50fps watermark, it still gets framerate drops during fights and large open areas. This usually
wouldn't bother me, but it's pretty game-destroying and takes ages to attack (especially special attacks)! Also, this is weird, but the resolution seems
to completely no affect fps whatsoever. Is that GPU-related or something?

Like I said, with your current specs, those slowdowns are normal, are you sure you have enabled the MTVU hack, and set the GSdx to Native?

Yes, the higher your resolution, the more resources it need, mainly your GPU.

Odd. Must be your ram.

RAM doesn't affect PCSX2's performance.

[zuhane]

Yeah, I've followed everything you've told me to do now, meganova. Okay, it's running at a constant 50fps with a few tolerable drops. The whole thing
seems a bit counterproductive though. The only reason I emulated it was to play at a higher resolution!!

EDIT: I know they run off different frameworks, etc, but it makes me want to scream when I'm running all the latest PC titles on max at higher framerates than
a 10-year-old game. Still, I know it's not all that black and white.

EDIT: This is weird, but I think it was just the intro that was majorly laggy! I'm playing at 2x native with no fps drops now. It was a long and arduous task, but we
got there in the end. Thank you all very much for your help!