PlayStation 2 cores: PCSX2, Play!

With forethought towards the core getting CHD support at some point does anyone know a good way to mass convert .iso files to .chd?

chdman can do it. there are some simple bat scripts floating around that just chd-ify all of the discs in the folder.

I tried to set up PCSX2 as instructed in the video(and by ETA Prime) but all I get is a “content failed to load” error. Any idea where I should look to fix?

Thanks to a helpful soul on Youtube I have figured out the issue. Retroarch had reset my video driver from d3d11 to Vulkan. Switched it back and now all is running beautifully.

@FormulaFox thank you for the feedback.

@3miliooo Can you try to switch to d3d11 or glcore video driver if it will help ? Settings tab > Drivers > Video > d3d11 or glcore.

Also you did install MSVC++ runtime as @hunterk suggested ?

Both cores working :partying_face: Thank you!

I had indeed installed 2019 runtime and as per my previous post, also the remaining runtimes sequentially from 2013 back to 2005 without luck; after this, I tried all the video drivers available to me and whilst none of them helped, I just realised that in between these two things, I’d also UNINSTALLED the runtimes after they’d failed… :man_facepalming:

Reinstalled 2019 runtime, switched video driver and voilà.

Musings so far:

  • Both d3d11 and glcore seem to work for me (the fomer is the better one) but with Play! core I get BIG slowdown and stuttering from the get-go, whereas pcsx2 seems to run v.well on both Gradius V and 1945, so I’ll be using that core for now for PS2.

  • Scanning for content only gives me Gradius V under PS2 playlist and even then when I assign pcsx2 core to it it doesn’t load the game, just brings me to the PS2 loading/file browser screen (maybe it’s trying to load my Gradius .cue file as opposed to the .bin ? :thinking:) I’ve got around this by first manually loading pcsx2 core, then the ROM content, then adding the running games as favourites. You can then rename and ‘hack’ the resulting favourite .lpl file to turn it into a PlayStation 2.lpl for your RA playlists folder. The games then show properly and run like they do when you load them manually.

Hope this may help somebody else.

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FWIW - I had terrible results with PCSX2 and Play! until I turned off rewind. I love rewind, but it’s been the culprit of several mysterious issues for me lol. I’ve gotten to the point I just suggest turning it off and seeing how cores respond for mysterious issues.

some question where is the save files of pcsx2 i play some games but dont see any game saves ??? no is this like psx cores ?

Look in <RetroArch_install_folder>\system\pcsx2\memcards\

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The core has been updated. Rumble and CHD are fixed. :slight_smile:

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Yep, great to see this; just converted my PS2 bin/cue roms to CHD (together with my PS1 and Saturn roms), it’s resulted in a tidy little space saving on my hard drive and they all seem to work great so far.

Having less luck with rumble however; not too fussed but would be cool to get it working if anybody’s got any pointers?

I’m using a Sony DualShock 2 connected via a cheap and cheerful USB converter; shows up as a ‘USB Gamepad’ in RA; hardware identifier shows as VID_0810&PID_0003. I researched and tried quite a few things but rumble doesn’t work in any of my compatible games / cores:

  • Controller Driver switched from xinput to dinput.
  • Enable Device Vibration switched on.
  • Once in game, Quick Menu > Controls > Port 1 Controls, Device Type switched to DualShock.

I think it may be down to the usb adapter or more probably the xinput/dinput thing and don’t really want to go and reset my controller config if I can’t be certain rumble will then work, as the controller works really well otherwise; I did briefly look into xinput wrappers but that too feels like a long shot; currently wondering whether this driver may help (even though the hardware identifier is slightly different)…

Anyone?

You might want to try XOutput.

Thanks, had a look at XOutput but seems similar to the xinput wrapper solution I’d already referred to?

Also wondering if the default Win10 game controller driver might be to blame, as I can’t even see the option to test rumble in my Windows game controller settings menu; found a few YouTube vids which suggest the Speedlink Strike Gamepad SL-6535-BK driver may help with this but apparently there’s some Microsoft driver signature enforcement ‘feature’ in Win10 64bit to circumnavigate first… :yawning_face: :sleepy: :sleeping:

I do have yet another question however: does in game-saving currently work in the same way in RA PCSX2 as it does in a standalone PCSX2 install?

I followed this video to convert some .psv save files I have for my PS2 games into the .ps2 saves which the emulator uses but can’t get them to load. As I understand it, standalone would normally save in-game save data to the ‘Mcd001.ps2’ and ‘Mcd002.ps2’ files in the the ‘pcsx2\memcards’ folder, so those are the ones I’ve been working on when following the vid, but for my RA install, PCSX2 core is also creating a file called ‘Shared Memory Card (8 MB).ps2’ in: C:\Users\User1\AppData\Roaming\RetroArch\saves\pcsx2\Slot 1

Why did Save States get Taken out of PCSX2 Core and will they be coming back?

Answered my own question: its the ‘Shared Memory Card (8 MB).ps2’ which RA uses for PCSX2 core.

The instructions and tools in the video I linked to in my last post work, however for an RA build, ignore the ‘Mcd001.ps2’ file in the ‘pcsx2\memcards’ folder and work on the ‘Shared Memory Card (8 MB).ps2’ file in \RetroArch\saves\pcsx2\Slot 1 instead.

Hope this might help someone else.

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First time I’ve tried to use a 2nd memory card in the PCSX2 / LRPS2 core, is it not possible yet or am I doing something wrong?

Have dropped a second 'Shared Memory Card (8 MB).ps2’ file into RetroArch\saves\pcsx2\Slot 2 , and made sure both slots in the core options are showing as PS2 8mb mem cards when I load and start the core (instead of ‘legacy’ or whatever; was easier to hack the core .opt file to make that setting stick, as changing it still seems to require a restart + RA process kill from Task Manager). But when I go into Browser from the PS2 bios screen, it still just shows me the one memory card in slot 1. What gives (I did try updating the core also) ? Any help appreciated, as always.

Got it working somehow by turning on ‘Boot to BIOS’ in the core options. Not certain why this seems to be defaulted to ‘off’ (compatibility? Loading speed?), nor why it needed switching on given I was already in BIOS after starting the core without content, nor the real difference between it and the other ‘fastboot’ option which is defaulted on, but whatever, it now works. Good to be able to manage memory cards and saves the oldskool way like I used to on the actual PS2 console :blush:

@3miliooo You managed to get the two memcards working? Where? Im looking where is the “Core options” but didn’t manage to found it

You need to have started a game first (or at least the core) in order to see the core options menu; just back out of the running game to the RA Main Menu and immediately scroll down to Options. Alternatively, from RA Main Menu > Quick Menu > Options.