rollno:13: how to speed up pcsx2 emulator

now i gonna show u guys ,How to boost up pcsx2

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Configuring PCSX2

This is the main GUI(Graphical User Interface) of PCSX2.From here you can change the settings or plugins used by PCSX2 as you see fit.
Go to Config =>Configure to start configuring PCSX2.You'll see a screen like this:

First off you can use the Set Plugins Directory and Set Bios Directory to change the directory from which PCSX2 loads its plugins and bios respectively.
So if you are not using the default directories(/plugins and /bios) you should use these buttons to change them. The Configuration,Test and About buttons that you see under each plugin section are for Configuring the selected plugin,testing if a selected plugin works(kind of obsolete since if it shows up in the list it will work) and for checking out some info about the selected plugin.
Now onto the actual plugin configuring:

Graphics: For the time being you will be able to use the GSsoft v0.9 plugin,which is a sofware based plugin(doesn't use your graphics card) thus it's slow but more compatible.
GSdx9,a DirectX 9 based plugin by Gabest is highly recommended for DirectX 9 supporting graphics card owners.The speed is way better than GSsoft and with a compatibility usually better than GSsoft too,it's a must to try.For reference you can download GSdx9 v0.6

HERE.The new v0.8 is included in the PCSX2 v0.8.1 release pack. Other plugins like GStaris and GSmax will NOT appear in the graphics plugin list since their specifications are outdated and you should not expect an update to them soon.

With GSsoft v0.9 selected press the Configure button.
1. Under Full-screen resolution and Windowed resolution you can set in which resolution you want the plugin to run,if you have set full-screen or windowed display respectively.
2. Under Options,you can check/uncheck "Display FPS Count" to enable/disable the built-in FPS(Frames Per Second) meter of the plugin which shows you the speed each moment the emulator is running at.
  Check/uncheck "Use Frameskip" to enable/disable frameskipping,which is a method for increasing speed by skipping some frames(you will see very little speed increase with it enabled).
  Check/Uncheck "Use Fullscreen" to make GSsofts' display fullscreen or windowed.
3. In screen filtering,you will only be able to select Scale2x which will result in lower speeds but nicer display
4. Under Recording you can Check/Uncheck "Enable Recording" to enable or disable GSsofts' built-in recording ability.With this feature you will be able to record a movie of GSsofts' output in a movie file which will be saved in PCSX2's root directory(where pcsx2.exe is).The filename of the movie will always be gssoft.mpg so be sure to backup any previously existing movies before recording new ones.
5. Under this you will see a drop down menu where you can select which codec will be used to record the movie.For now you will only be able to select MPEG1.
6. Finally Texture Caching should NOT be enabled since it's still experimental and is known to cause problems
7. Hit Ok to save your changes,cancel to go back to the main Configuration window without saving or Logging to check/uncheck Log which should only be used from developers.
Select GSdx9 v0.8 and press the Configure button.
1. First of all GSdx9 comes in 2 versions,a normal one and an SSE2 one.Only IF your processor supports SSE2(Pentium 4 or Athlon64/FX) use the SSE2 version since it will be faster for you.Otherwise you must use the normal version or the plugin will NOT show up in the drop down list.Note that the SSE2 version of GSdx9 v0.8 is included in the SSE2 release and the normal one in the normal release
  
  Attention: GSdx9 v0.8 has a bug in both Fixed Pipeline and Pixel Shaders 1.1 which will cause color corruption.DO NOT use these modes,or if you need them,use v0.6
2. Resolution: In this drop-down menu you will be able to select "Windowed" if you want GSdx9 to run in a window,or choose the resolution/refresh rate you want for a full-screen display
3. Renderer: Here you can choose how the graphics will be rendered.
  By selecting "Direct3D",GSdx9 will use the Direct3D capabilities of your graphics card,boosting the emulation speed significantly.Also the compatibility of this mode is quite good,so it is higly recommended to use
  By selecting "Software(fixed)" or "Software(float)" GSdx9 will use it's built-in sofware renderer,which will not use your graphics card at all,but your processor instead.This way the emulation speed is greatly reduced but you get maximum compatibility.Recommended if you encounter graphics bugs with the Direct3D renderer.Note that "Software(float)" is the exact same thing as "Software(fixed)" but slower,so if you are going to use Software rendering only use "Software(fixed)".
  By selecting "Do not render" the plugin will simply not render anything,thus not giving any output on screen.Use it only if you want to eg.Hear some music since with this mode you get a dramatic speed increase.
4. Shader: Here you will be able to choose between 5 options:
  If your graphics card doesnt support some of the modes,they will not show up in the drop-down list
  Fixed Pipeline: Will not use Pixel Shader technology.NOT recommended for v0.8,since the colors are broken
  Pixel Shader 1.1: Will use Pixel Shaders v1.1,improving the graphics.NOT recommended for v0.8,since the colors are broken
  Pixel Shader 1.4: Will use Pixel Shaders v1.4,improving the graphics
  Pixel Shader 2.0: Will use Pixel Shaders v2.0,improving the graphics
  Pixel Shader 3.0: Will use Pixel Shaders v3.0,improving the graphics.Highly recommened for graphics card owners that have pixel shaders 3.Fast and compatible
5. Enable palettized textures(D3D PS v2.0+,slow): As noted,you need to have a graphics card that supports Pixel Shaders 2 or better and use Direct3D to use this option properly.Check/uncheck this option to enable/disable the use of palettized textures.This mode can provide a speed boost in some cases,when a game uses one texture with many different palettes.In most cases though,it will be slower.
6. Linear texture filtering: Check/uncheck to enable/disable Linear texture filtering.With this option checked texture pixels are filtered,making them look less "blocky"
7. Enable tv-out: Check/uncheck this option to enable/disable tv out.If your video card has a tvout the output window of GSdx9 is displayed on the TV.
8. Record State: When this option is checked,GSdx9 will record all the GS output data in the folder selected,until you exit PCSX2.Note that the file created will be HUGE but it can be compressed very well.Recommended for developers only since it is mainly used for debugging purposes.
9. Movie Capture: This is a hidden() feature.By pressing the Insert key of the Numpad while running PCSX2 with GSdx9 a message box will appear.In the first field you must show the plugin where the captured video will be stored,and type the filename too.In the second field you can choose a compression codec like DiVX or "Uncompressed" which will not compress the video at all.If you choose a compression codec,you will be able to change its settings by pressing the "Config" button.Note that only codecs already installed in your PC will show up. Press the Insert key of the Numpad again at any time to stop the capturing.The video produced will be automatically be sped up to 100% for your viewing pleasure
10. Delete key: By pressing the Delete key,you can move the information bar from the output window in the actualy display(like in GSsoft) and restore it on the window by pressing it again.
11. Hit Ok to save your changes or cancel to go back to the main Configuration window

Sound: For the time being you will be able to use SPU2null v0.4 which is a NULL plugin meaning it will not produce ANY sounds (that's why there is no configuration) and the PEOPS SPU2 plugin.
This plugin is still in early stages but in many cases it produces sounds and sometimes even music.Also it might help some games progress more if they get stuck in some SPU2 function.
Highly recommended to use,but you will notice a 1-2 FPS drop if you use it.Note that you must use the build included in the PCSX2 package as the one from Pete's site will not work.
Pete has saved me the time and has included a detailed description of each setting on his plugin in the included readme file,so use that to configure it properly

First Controller/Second Controller:

You'll see a window like this:

The only plugin selectable here will be PadwinKeyb v0.9.At this moment there are 2 other input plugins:
PADzenogais[DX9] made by Zenogais which you can get

HERE SSSPSXPad made by nagisa,which you can get HERE. The second controller field is totally obsolete,since you can now configure both plugins from hitting configure with the PadwinKeyb v0.9 plugin selected in either First Controller or Second Controller field Now hit Configure to start configuring your first and second controller keys:

The picture is self-explanatory here i guess,you should just click in each button's area then press the button you want to assign to it.The button assigned will appear in the second field right under the button you pressed.Press the PAD1/PAD2 buttons to switch from the first controller's to the second controller's button configuration.When youre done hit Ok to save your changes.
Since release 0.7 Analog support has been added to PCSX2,which hasn't been mentioned anywhere yet
You will NOT be able to configure anything to analog movement and you can only use the defaults:
To move the left analog stick: Press and HOLD the left mouse button and move the mouse as an analog controller
To move the right analog stick: Press and HOLD the right mouse button and move the mouse as an analog controller.Note that this way BOTH PLAYERS' analog controllers will move simultaneously(like doing the same movement for both players)
Also you can use the left mouse click for the L3 button and the right mouse click for the R3 button
To emulate the Dualshock 2 pressure sensitive buttons press the left or right mouse button and simultaneously roll the mouse wheel.You can try this for games that controls seem to not respond and is known to be required from the games "Ace Combat 5" and "Euro Rally Champion".
Check/Uncheck "Enable Logging" to enable/disable the pad logging,which as the box says is for developers only
Note that there are problems with the PAD plugin and pads(kinda ironic eh? ).It is recommended that you not only not use your pad,but you should unplug it from your PC to be able to configure your keyboard properly.

Cdvdrom: Here you will be able to select which plugin will be responsible for reading your CDs/DVDs or images.By default,PCSX2 includes Linuzappz Iso CDVD v0.5 and CDVDnull v0.6.
1. Except for the default plugins there are 2 more CDVD plugins that can be downloaded and used with PCSX2 0.8.These two plugins are different from the others cause instead of reading off images of your games,they have the ability of reading the data directly from the game's CD/DVD.Ofcourse reading from an image is faster but this way you can test your games fast and efficiently.These 2 plugins are the PEOPS CDVD v1.2 plugin by Pete and CDVDraft v0.64 by Xeven.
  For information on how to configure these plugins,you can check out the included documents that describe all the options of the plugins.

Dev9: Here are the plugins that handle the HDD(hard disk drive) emulation.Only the Dev9null v0.3 is included in the release package and whoever wants to use the Dev9linuz v0.1 plugin should compile it by his own by downloading the sources from the main site.Note that the Dev9linuz plugin is far from complete and should only be used by developers.There are no other Dev9 plugins available or in development.
Dev9null v0.3 is yet another Null plugin which is exactly like all the other ones.

Usb: Here are the plugins that handle USB(Universal Serial Bus) emulation.Only the USB Null v0.4 is included in the release package and whoever wants to use the USB linuz v0.4 plugin should compile it by his own by downloading the sources from the main site.Note that the USB linuz plugin is far from complete and should only be used by developers.
USB Null v0.4 is yet another Null plugin.Press Configure to get a menu with a checkbox where you can check/uncheck "Enable Logging" which will enable/disable usb logging.As said,it should be used from developers only.

Firewire: Here are the plugins that handle the Firewire port of the PS2.Only the FWnull v0.4 is included in the release package and whoever wants to use the FWlinuz v0.1 plugin should compile it by his own by downloading the sources from the main site.Note that the FWlinuz plugin is far from complete and should only be used by developers.There are no other Firewire plugins available or in development. FWnull v0.4 is another Null plugin.Press Configure to get a menu with a checkbox where you can check/uncheck "Enable Logging" which will enable/disable firewire logging.As said,it should be used from developers only.

Finally the BIOS(Basic Input Output System).In this drop down menu you will find your bios image,if you have one and have put it in the selected bios folder.Note that the only LEGAL way of obtaining a bios is dumping it from your OWN Playstation 2 console.DO NOT ask where to get the bios in the PCSX2 forum,because it's against the rules.That's because the ps2 BIOS is a copyrighted material of Sony and that makes its' distribution illegal,meaning NGemu could get in trouble if it was found out that we were supplying people illegaly with bios files.Refer to

this section of the FAQ for finding out if your bios image is valid or not. Attention: Since v0.7 it is recommended that you have all files for BIOS newer than the SCPH-10000.bin.You will probably be able to run the bios or games without having them but there may be a chance that these affect compatibility somehow.This includes rom1.bin,rom2.bin,erom.bin and a SCPH-XXXXX.nvm file where XXXXX is the version of your bios(eg SCPH-34004.nvm).This last file can be also created from PCSX2 after you configure your bios(set time zone,language etc) but it's better if you have this file directly ripped from your Playstation 2.Once more DO NOT ASK where to get these files,since they are part of BIOS too. Here's a quick explanation about what these files do by auMatt:

Basically the first jap ps2 had a single bios and the dvd player etc were installed on the memcard. The Ps2's after that first model had the Dvd Player software installed in a seperate ROM (EROM) which is encrypted. The ROM1 is an additional part of the BIOS that contains some extra stuff like ID's for DVD Player version etc. ROM2 is the same really but I think only available in Chinese PS2's. Hope this helps. A new Bios dumper is already available that can dump your PS2 Bios,ROM1,ROM2,EROM and NVM.Get it HERE

Note 1: From v0.7 and on the Internal HLE bios has been removed since it was mostly used to run demos and since the emulator has progressed quite a bit the team thought not many people will still try to run demos

Note 2: For maximum compatibility it is recommened that you use a BIOS image different than SCPH10000.BIN which is the oldest one.That's because with this BIOS there are problems in memory card emulation and in other sections.

How to extract the bios files from your PS2:

So now we are done Configuring all plugins for PCSX2
Next are the CPU settings which can be found under Config =>Cpu.You'll see a window like this(will vary depending on your CPU):

First,check the information of your processor that is automatically detected by PCSX2:
CPU Vendor: Shows the vendor of your CPU(AMD or Intel)
Family: The family your processor is in
CPU Speed: The real cpu speed of your processor
Features: Shows the features that your processor has.These are very improtant since they are used in PCSX2 for extra speed.If you dont have some,you wont be able to select some features below

Now from this radio box,you can only choose one option each time.

"Interpreter": As described in the GUI it is the slowest mode but most compatible.It also has no processor feature requirements,so it should work will all processors.Try it if the Recompiler doesn't run your game,maybe you will get better results.

"Recompiler": As described in the GUI this mode is quite faster than the previous one,but mainly in 2D.Most times you will see a slight to no speed increase compared to Interpreter when PCSX2 is rendering 3D.Note that this mode requires the MMX processor feature,which is included in: K6/2,Athlon and higher and Pentium MMX and higher.If your processor does not have this feature,its really old and this mode will be greyed out .This mode is strongly recommended since it has been greatly improved and has almost the same compatibility with Interpreter.

"Recompiler+VUrecs": Even faster than recompiler,but mainly for 3D.With this mode on,you will get way better speeds when PCSX2 is rendering 3D,if you're lucky enough and it works that is.This is the less compatible mode since it can cause crashes and major graphics corruption.Note that this mode requires SSE AND SSE2.The only processors that support both are the Athlon64/FX and the Pentium 4.If your processor does not have these features this mode will be greyed out.

So finally we are done configuring PCSX2

Now to descibe what the rest of the options do:

File =>Run CD: If you press this the emulator will run the image you have selected in your CDVD plugin or will ask you to find an image if you haven't selected one in the CDVD plugins' configuration.If you are using PEOPS CDVD or CDVDraft plugins this will instantly run the CD/DVD of the selected drive. Note that this option skips the BIOS intro and runs the game instantly.
File =>Open ELF File: You can use this to run demos which are almost always in .elf format. Also if you're getting a message like "This is not a PS2 game" when trying to run a game you can use this to work around this problem.Press it and browse your games' CD/DVD until you find(it's usually in the CD/DVD root directory) a file named something like SLUS_XXX.XX or SLES_XXX.XX where XXXXX are numbers different for each game.When you find it,select it and most times you will get around this problem
File =>States =>Load/Save/Other: Here you can load/save states after you've pressed ESC to return to the PCSX2 GUI while running a game.With "Other" you can specify yourself a different filename from the defaults PCSX2 uses.It is NOT recommended to load states this way because plugins like GSdx9 have problems resuming.Instead you can save/load states by pressing F1 to save,F3 to load and F2 to change slot.
File =>Exit: Closes the emulator
Run =>Execute: This way you can run only the BIOS that you have selected in the Configuration.If you haven't selected the CDVDnull plugin but another CDVD plugin you will either get a browser window asking for an image file,where you should just press cancel or you will get an error message saying "Error opening CDVD plugin" if you're using PEOPS CDVD or CDVDraft plugins in which case you will have to change them. Also this can be used to resume the emulator if you have paused it by pressing ESC.Note that GSdx9 has trouble resuming this way so you shouldn't pause the emulator when using it.
Run =>Reset: Simply Resets the emulator
Run =>Arguments: If you dont know how to use this DONT CHANGE IT
Run =>Process Priority: In this menu you can select Normal,High or Low depending on the priority you want PCSX2 to have in your processors' queue.This means that the higher the priority,the more your processor will use its power to run PCSX2 and leave the rest programs in queue.Setting this to High might cause problems so it is recommened you leave it to Normal.The option checked is the option that is active at the time.
Config =>
1. Configure: Will open the plugin configuration screen
2. Graphics/Controllers/Cdvdrom/Dev9/USB/Firewire: Will open the configuration screen for the selected plugin respectively(graphics/pad/cdvdrom/dev9/usb/firewire)
3. Memcards: Will open the memcard manager which can't do anything for the time being
4. Cpu: Will open the Cpu configuration screen that we saw earlier
5. Patches: Will open the patches browser.This will read all your .pnach files(your patches) in the /patches directory of PCSX2.Here you can create,edit or simply browse patches.
Language =>*Insert Language Here*: Will change the language PCSX2's GUI is in.The language checked is the language that is currently displaying
Debug =>Enter Debugger/Remote Debugging/Memory Dump: These options are ONLY for debugging so if you are not a developer don't bother using them
Debug =>Logging(can be selected only in devs version): Here you can enable various advanced logs which will be written in /logs/emuLog.txt.This is only for debugging and is meant only for advanced users.Enabling logs here can severely slow down the emulator.
Misc =>
1. Check/Uncheck Enable Console: This will enable/disable a second window that will appear behind the PCSX2 display and is mainly used for debugging.There you will be able to see various messages that can help you identify a problem or when running a game what is being done each moment by the emulator.Recommened only for advanced users since it can slow down the emulator quite abit.Everything displayed in the console output will be stored in /logs/emuLog.txt after the emulator is closed(only with devs version).Note that if you close the console output,the emulator will close with it.
2. Check/Uncheck Enable Patches: This will enable/disable game patches.Patches are mostly used to skip game videos which are not properly emulated yet and can stop the emulator from progressing sometimes.Also more advanced patches can be used to increase compatibility but can't be created by normal users.If you have a game that you believe stops before an intro video or any other video and there is no patch for it yet,you can create one by yourself.Check out CKemu's Guide for creating patches to do this.
  Also if you enable the console output you will be able to see the game's CRC(after the emulator has loaded the game's ELF file) which you will need to create your patch.
Help =>About: The about window.Here you can see who the emulators' authors are and some thanks.
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