Anyone have experience with GSM + widescreen on PS2?

[bobrocks95]

I've asked around a couple of times in years past on PSX-Scene, but things are pretty dead over there, so I'll throw it out here on the off chance somebody else has tried this.

I play PS2 on a widescreen EDTV, and anamorphic widescreen has never bothered me, so I've been trying for years now to combine 480p forcing and widescreen patches.

One method works, but is annoying and not really how I'd prefer to use the system. You can use GSM to force 480p, and then OpenPS2Loader (OPL) to run an ISO from the hard drive that you've done a hex mod on to change the rendering viewpoint to a widescreen setting. This means I have to rip a game disc to the hard drive, hook up the HDD in my PS2 to an old computer with an IDE port, then go in with a hex editor and manually change several lines. Very time consuming, I want to use the original discs anyway, and there aren't hex mods available for a lot of games.

ps2rd is the other option for widescreen, and it uses patches meant for PCSX2 to force widescreen (and there are many more of them than hex mods, given the PCSX2 community being the driving force), but using GSM and it together causes the PS2 to crash...

People on PSX-Scene responded to me (again, years ago) with surprise when I mentioned this, like nobody had ever attempted 480p widescreen before. Seems silly to me that nobody had tried it, but I guess when it's so convoluted that's what happens, or maybe more people dislike anamorphic widescreen than I thought. My best guess here is that GSM is dead in the water anyway and this will never happen since it's been over 2 years since a release, but call me an optimist- anybody try something along these lines on a PS2?

[SGGG2]

There's a cracked Codebreaker ELF you can use with game specific widescreen codes to boot OPL titles. You'll have to enter the codes manually, though. http://psx-scene.com/forums/f293/ps2-wi ... ly-103096/

You might have to configure one of the settings in Codebreaker for booting OPL titles, I can't remember. Don't see why this wouldn't work with discs.

GSM > CB > OPL.

[ZellSF]

GSM is integrated with OPL now. That's where you'll find newer versions. For now, there's no stable builds.

I haven't tried any beta / nightly builds, but I did play Persona 4 in 480p widescreen when the tools were even less user friendly.

[bobrocks95]

Guess I'm behind on newer homebrew, thanks, I'll give both a try.

Do the newer versions of GSM that are integrated allow for widescreen patching or have the rendering issue fixed where it's horizontally squished? Or is there something I'm not thinking of that integrating the two will help me with (no more crashing with ps2rd?)?

Since both of these methods are through OPL can I use discs or is this strictly hard drive loading? I think I saw something like adding OSDSYS (or some other sort of acronym) to the loadable apps, is something along those lines right? Whether I can use discs or not both seem like improved methods.



EDIT: Poked around and see a couple things in OPL's changelog that answer one of my questions:
-"GSM Core is now IGR and CodeBreaker/PS2rd compatible!"
-"New PS2RD Cheat Engine port by Doctorxyz" (presumably fixes some notes I saw about compatibility issues with ps2rd + OPL)

So whether I can use discs or not this is definitely a huge improvement!

[SGGG2]

I had problems with the new OPL and went back to a stable release.

Squished image's due to the frame buffer the game uses, not GSM. You'll need a scaler or TV with adjustable image scaling to correct the ratio.

[BazookaBen]

If you have a 1080i TV, launching the game in 1080i via GSM will automatically stretch it to widescreen. There's a possibility that mode won't crash with PS2rd.

Just a suggestion though, I'm personally not interested in adding widescreen to games designed for 4:3.

[bobrocks95]

It looks like things still haven't really moved anywhere on the disc-based front. GSM + OPL works well from what I've tested so far (for the record, it worked fine before, you just had to load one after the other), but to add widescreen on top of that it looks like you have the option of either the old hex editing, applying a pnatch file to an iso (about the same amount of effort), or setting up some meticulously named folders and converting pnach files to RAW.

Maybe I'm just picky? The gist of it is that I won't be able to use my original discs, as everything revolves around OPL regardless. It's still a fair amount of work to load the widescreen patches too- why does the standalone version of ps2rd use pnatch files with automatic mastercodes while the version integrated with OPL makes you convert the format and put it in a needlessly specific folder?

I wanted to upgrade to a slim at some point too, but I guess I have to stick with the fat for the hard drive...

I had problems with the new OPL and went back to a stable release.

Squished image's due to the frame buffer the game uses, not GSM. You'll need a scaler or TV with adjustable image scaling to correct the ratio.

I have an older version of GSM on my PS2 that doesn't squish things horizontally. In fairness, certain games with a lower resolution back buffer (Kingdom Hearts comes to mind) will cut off a bit of data, but the newer GSM squishes everything I've tried, regardless of either buffer's resolution. I guess it's a catch-22?

If you have a 1080i TV, launching the game in 1080i via GSM will automatically stretch it to widescreen. There's a possibility that mode won't crash with PS2rd.

Just a suggestion though, I'm personally not interested in adding widescreen to games designed for 4:3.

1080i is nice for the games with an interlaced back-buffer (or was it just half-res?) that look terrible in progressive scan since it just picks one of the interlaced fields and throws out the other one. Doesn't fix the crash with ps2rd unfortunately.

One of the big reasons for my wanting widescreen is that I'm on an old plasma, and I really don't want uneven wear on the cells. So my options are 4:3 with ugly grey pillarbars or 16:9. Combine that with the fact that widescreen patches exist for nearly every 3D PS2 game, and don't have many visual glitches, and it's a big plus. It's definitely a preference thing, but I think there's enough reasoning to want it, especially since right now you can either choose widescreen or 480p, but they just haven't been combined yet.

[D]

I think that all pnach codes can be converted to hex patches, so just patch the games with that and boot with OPL+GSM.
I never tried this program, but the feedback seems good. http://psx-scene.com/forums/f19/ps2-pat ... ost1088717

You will have all your widescreen games patched and ready to launch in 480p!
You can connect to your HDD via network or just with burning of discs or use an external HDD.
There are many options.
There is alot that could be improved for the real hardware. Seems as though there aren't too many people playing on ps2 hardware. Most people that want widescreen are emulating on pc's.

Thanks for this topic. I still feel like many gamers still don't really get what forcing to 16:9 and 480p really means. I can't imagine that the people opposed have ever actually tried it.

[SGGG2]

I don't remember the exact procedure (I switched to OPL years ago) but if you have Free MC Boot installed, you can put an ELF (?) file on the root of the memory card with the game ID and hex edits, select it in the fmcb configurator and it'll boot the game off your disc drive. So, force 480p, boot back into the browser and choose the ELF file.

[Fudoh]

I still feel like many gamers still don't really get what forcing to 16:9 and 480p really means. I can't imagine that the people opposed have ever actually tried it.

just for the record: I'm totally pro 480p patching. 480i were the dark days of video gaming. 480p is a must - no question about it. But I completely dislike 16:9 patches. If games have ingame options to chose between 4:3 and 16:9, I'll take 4:3 any day. The reason for that is simple: you get the same resolution for both 4:3 and 16:9 outputs and I think the 4:3 image gains drastically from the higher resolution.

[bobrocks95]

I think that all pnach codes can be converted to hex patches, so just patch the games with that and boot with OPL+GSM.
I never tried this program, but the feedback seems good. http://psx-scene.com/forums/f19/ps2-pat ... ost1088717

You will have all your widescreen games patched and ready to launch in 480p!
You can connect to your HDD via network or just with burning of discs or use an external HDD.
There are many options.
There is alot that could be improved for the real hardware. Seems as though there aren't too many people playing on ps2 hardware. Most people that want widescreen are emulating on pc's.

Thanks for this topic. I still feel like many gamers still don't really get what forcing to 16:9 and 480p really means. I can't imagine that the people opposed have ever actually tried it.

From what I've gathered, at this point you don't need to do any hex patches with PS2 Patch Engine, but you use it to convert .pnatch's into RAW format that OPL's integrated ps2rd will load for you. Not the solution I'm looking for, but still an improvement from before. Maybe when I check back in a couple years again the same improvements will have happened with disc-based loading (unlikely).

I don't remember the exact procedure (I switched to OPL years ago) but if you have Free MC Boot installed, you can put an ELF (?) file on the root of the memory card with the game ID and hex edits, select it in the fmcb configurator and it'll boot the game off your disc drive. So, force 480p, boot back into the browser and choose the ELF file.

I'm guessing there's more information out there for me to find on this so I'll take a look. Sounds like I need to make a listing for each game on the main menu with the configurator, or maybe go into uLE and find the ELF? Both sound annoying but would be worth it so thanks. If it's at that point I may take a stab at PS2 homebrew myself and just write something to automate loading the correct ELF (if that's what it is). Would be something useful to come out of my summer.

EDIT: Looks like I have to again plug the PS2 HDD into the computer, then extract the ELF from a game's .iso, convert a .pnatch into an ELF modification (with limited success rate), then put that on my memory card and load it individually. Ugh. Guess I'll just never get around to PS2 stuff, unless someone in the homebrew scene suddenly decides they like discs. Oh well, there are plenty of other games to play anyway.

just for the record: I'm totally pro 480p patching. 480i were the dark days of video gaming. 480p is a must - no question about it. But I completely dislike 16:9 patches. If games have ingame options to chose between 4:3 and 16:9, I'll take 4:3 any day. The reason for that is simple: you get the same resolution for both 4:3 and 16:9 outputs and I think the 4:3 image gains drastically from the higher resolution.

I'm curious Fudoh, do you happen to have any anamorphic widescreen comparisons handy that really show this off? I can easily do a direct comparison myself, I just haven't ever bothered, so only if you know of some comparison pictures already. Not that I don't believe you to be clear, I just want to see how drastic the difference is out of curiosity.

[Xan]

Metroid Prime Trilogy: http://www.avsforum.com/forum/144-ninte ... ogy-3.html

RE4 across platforms: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=69171

Difference in detail is bigger for RE4 because it already renders in a smaller than usual 512x448 res (GC/Wii, PS2 not sure right now).

[bobrocks95]

RE4 is definitely a huge difference, though the comparison doesn't exactly seem fair. I don't notice much of a difference with Metroid Prime Trilogy, but the shots aren't exactly the same so it's a bit more difficult to see. Debatably it may come down to preference, but I probably need to just do some comparisons myself first. Would any emulators help me out by doing this with direct screengrabs? I feel like you could set PCSX2 up with the same rendering resolution then change the window to widescreen and apply a widescreen patch.

[Fudoh]

All you need is a AR button on your remote. Just to see the differences, you don't even need a game that supports widescreen. I think it's quite obvious (in reality, not on the Metroid screenshots). I mean we're talking 33% more screen. That's 25% less resolution compared to 4:3.

[Xan]

Well, do you play Wii in 4:3 as well? Not making use of nearly system-wide Hor+ 16:9 availability seems like a waste despite the lower sharpness, especially when not even owning a proper 4:3 EDTV. Running 4:3 on plasmas in particular isn't that great.

RE4 is a somewhat unique case as the widescreen mode there was an afterthought and just does the same what good zoom controls on a TV would achieve. Gains nothing in viewport at all. I actually prefer that game on classic 480i TVs compared to modern widescreens.

[bobrocks95]

All you need is a AR button on your remote. Just to see the differences, you don't even need a game that supports widescreen. I think it's quite obvious (in reality, not on the Metroid screenshots). I mean we're talking 33% more screen. That's 25% less resolution compared to 4:3.

I was thinking that something fancier would be needed to test this. I haven't looked all that closely, but stretching to 16:9 hasn't caused a significant PQ loss to my eyes. I'd say it's worth it in my position with a 16:9 plasma.

Well, do you play Wii in 4:3 as well? Not making use of nearly system-wide Hor+ 16:9 availability seems like a waste despite the lower sharpness, especially when not even owning a proper 4:3 EDTV. Running 4:3 on plasmas in particular isn't that great.

I'm assuming you're talking to me since Fudoh has at least three 4:3 EDTV's? The grey bars are very annoying, so the lower sharpness is probably a fair tradeoff- on a 480p display it's probably not even that noticeable given the low resolution I'd think?

[Fudoh]

I was thinking that something fancier would be needed to test this. I haven't looked all that closely, but stretching to 16:9 hasn't caused a significant PQ loss to my eyes. I'd say it's worth it in my position with a 16:9 plasma.

you're lucky. I get the idea of 16:9 and appreciate the effort people put into this. If you don't mind the lower "per inch" resolution, then enjoy your 16:9 upgrades!

Same experience with DVDs for me: anamorphic widescreen is a great concept (compared to letterbox that is), but enjoying a genuine 4:3 program once in a while was almost like a HD upgrade for me.

[SGGG2]

I couldn't get over the loss of resolution either. However, if you're playing from a good distance the difference is minor. Strangely enough, I love 16:9 for 240p 3D games. Nights and Panzer Zwei look amazing in widescreen. I guess because the level of detail is so low to begin with stretching it out doesn't really lower it.

IMO, 480p Original Xbox titles look much better at 16:9 than PS2 games.

[bobrocks95]

For anyone interested or anyone who finds this via google:

As posted here, you can change the setting for the memory range of ps2rdmod to 0x000A0000 and it will no longer conflict with GSM. Then you can boot GSM followed by ps2rdmod and play disc-based games in 480p widescreen.