PS2 video quality improvements?

[ASDR]

Hi all,

I never messed around much with GSM and ISO patching etc. to get better visuals from my PS2 games, but with those super fast paced bullet hell shooters it seems like an increasingly appealing idea .

Neither my TV nor the OSSC have a particularly good deinterlacer, so getting progressive scan would be huge. I tried simply setting DoDonPachi DDJ to HDTV 480p@60 and it worked amazingly well. The game runs & looks incredibly good in 480p, an easy success!

No luck with Mushihimesama and Ibara. It seems the way those games use the framebuffer prevents a progressive scanout. The 480p looks broken. Other GSM modes don't fare any better :/

Can I do something else? I've read the standalone GSM has some additional features the OPL-build-in one lacks. I've also read about people patching their games. After seeing DDP DDJ in glorious 480p and playing tons of 240p Saturn shooters I don't think I can go back to the blurry/glitchy interlaced look.

Please help

[cr4zymanz0r]

I thought I recall reading that Mushihimesama on PS2 displays in 240p, at least when in tate mode.

[BazookaBen]

You know GSM has a 240p mode right? It's called non-interlaced. You should use that for all low-res shooters like DDP

[ASDR]

Interesting, wish they would've called it something more descriptive!

I tried those non-interlaced modes, they seem broken on my TV. I only see the upper half of the screen when I select them. Which is strange, because my TV has no issues with other 240p content. Saturn, SNES, Genesis, N64, PS1 etc. all work perfectly fine without any of the usual 240p issues.

Is that a known issue? Anything I could try/tweak to make it work?

[BazookaBen]

I don't remember having that problem with PS2 games. I used GSM 0.23 I think.

[ASDR]

I found this:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=47752

So it seems the 240p mode worked in a rather old version but has been broken / changed since then? It didn't work for me with Ibara/Mushihimesama. Didn't try with DDP as it looks perfect in 480p and does seem too high res to look good in 240p vertical.

[Blair]

Ibara ps2 can be forced into 240p with a hex edit, (supposedly looks meh in yoko, but looks great in tate)

240p hex replace method to use with iso´s.
240p HEX Change:
HEX Code:
01 00 24 32 ff 00 45 32
to
HEX Code:
00 00 04 20 ff 00 45 32

AND

HEX Code:
01 00 24 32 04 00 06 a6
to
HEX Code:
00 00 04 20 04 00 06 a6

I suggest HxD Hexeditor 1.7.7.0
Put search and view to HEX, important. Use find and replace, save then burn to disc.
Original Threads: http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=17808 and
http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... 25&t=30389

Mushihimesama is a bit of a hard case. the ps2 version usually has to be de-interlaced the old fashioned way (with a video processor). alternatively, you could use PCSX2 for the ps2 version, or use mame for the arcade version. and the pc version can be easily played in 480p or forced into 240p.

User antron reported that the ps2force480p program worked for him (http://asmodean.reverse.net/pages/ps2force480p.html)

this thread also has another method that some users reported success with. (viewtopic.php?f=1&t=17808)

[ASDR]

Thanks, some more things to try. Great to read he had success with P3/4. I had really good success with Gradius V & DDP DDJ, they look awesome in 480p.

TATE is not an option for me and I also don't have anything powerful enough for MAME/PCSX2 hooked up :/

[Fudoh]

Ibara ps2 can be forced into 240p with a hex edit, (supposedly looks meh in yoko, but looks great in tate)
Mushihimesama is a bit of a hard case

this is just from memory, but I think to remember that both Ibara and Mushihimesama can be patched to 240p using the same hex mods and the results look about the same. Both are still filtered and Ibara doesn't exactly look great this way

[Blair]

this is just from memory, but I think to remember that both Ibara and Mushihimesama can be patched to 240p using the same hex mods and the results look about the same. Both are still filtered and Ibara doesn't exactly look great this way

thanks for the info Fudoh, I just tested out the ps2 version of Mushihimesama in few different scenarios and i've confirmed my supposition. yoko mode is completely broken from a graphical perspective. regardless of whether or not it's being played on a 480i crt, a 1080p HDTV or with a video processor. yoko mode is going to look absolutely awful. cave must have figured that most users would play the game in tate mode (or they just didn't care) but it's a pretty easy test (just look how ugly scrolling and animations are in yoko vs tate)

playing the game in 480i or 1080i via gsm looks fine in tate. and I assume the same is true of Ibara. I didn't get a chance to try the 480p patch or 240p hex edit, but i'm fairly certain that the results would also be the same. if you have to play the ps2 version of these games, should play in Tate if possible.

(somthing like the rotating IMAGE ANYPLACE processor would also be a good fix for this problem if you absolutely need to play in Yoko on a flat screen)

Thanks, some more things to try. Great to read he had success with P3/4. I had really good success with Gradius V & DDP DDJ, they look awesome in 480p.

TATE is not an option for me and I also don't have anything powerful enough for MAME/PCSX2 hooked up :/

you'd be surprised how little processing power you need to play 2D ps2 games on a emulator. also instead of vanilla mame, give retroarch a look. seems like the 480i processing of your TV is not at fault in this scenario. it's just a bad ps2 port. (if you have access to a modified xbox-360, "Mushihimesama HD" might be the the ticket).

[Fudoh]

cave must have figured that most users would play the game in tate mode

or Taito or SquareEnix or whoever was in charge back then. The fact that the two PS2 ports by Arika are so much better is almost absurd. It's a shame that Cave didn't supervise those ports back then.

[Blair]

or Taito or SquareEnix or whoever was in charge back then. The fact that the two PS2 ports by Arika are so much better is almost absurd. It's a shame that Cave didn't supervise those ports back then.

ugly graphic and scaling anomalies still get past a lot of people. since composite video was still fairly common during the ps2 era, perhaps that masked the poor job they did in yoko mode.

Cave is a strange company with a lot of neat games (and some fairly rough ports). i'd actually like a chance to see the characters and worlds they've come up with outside of the shooter genre. (I'd watch an OVA/movie based on Death Smiles or Akai Katana) or even just other types of games (they do have a Mushihimesama puzzle game, meh). but it seems like they've been focusing on mobile lately. (and thats been helping them stay afloat financially I guess)

regarding ps2 video quality. I found that having a good scart or component cables is an absolute must as the cheaper no name cables on ebay and amazon usually have problems with the ED/HD video output from a ps2 (lots of noise and dropouts). and the Portta YPbPr Component RGB + R/L to HDMI Converter, does a good job digitizing all the different ps2 signals to HDMI (all except 240p, but you could use GSM to force 240p games into higher resolutions).

[ASDR]

you'd be surprised how little processing power you need to play 2D ps2 games on a emulator. also instead of vanilla mame, give retroarch a look. seems like the 480i processing of your TV is not at fault in this scenario. it's just a bad ps2 port. (if you have access to a modified xbox-360, "Mushihimesama HD" might be the the ticket).

My only emulation box is an RPi, PS2 is out of reach and I think most MAME stuff is also rather poor. My TV has fast but poor deinterlacing and the only video processor I'll hopefully have soon is the OSSC. I guess I'll have to live with bad deinterlacing for those few games on PS2/GC that are interlaced, everything older/newer is progressive anyway.

[Blair]

My only emulation box is an RPi, PS2 is out of reach and I think most MAME stuff is also rather poor. My TV has fast but poor deinterlacing and the only video processor I'll hopefully have soon is the OSSC. I guess I'll have to live with bad deinterlacing for those few games on PS2/GC that are interlaced, everything older/newer is progressive anyway.

for ps2 games that can't be forced into 480p or 1080p, via gsm (or pitched / hex edited ). 1080i gsm is usually a good compromise. it's still interlaced but it has better compatibility and most HD televisions do a better job with 1080i then 480i. for gamecube almost anything that doesn't have a native 480p mode can be forced into 480p (or 240p) with Swiss. give this list a check and see if it helps. https://www.gc-forever.com/wiki/index.p ... ility_List

the OSSC also has a alternating scanline mode that I think looks nice for some 480i content, I also have a 13" crt (KV-13FS100 with component inputs) I keep around as it does a good job of hiding interlaced flicker.

[ASDR]

My only emulation box is an RPi, PS2 is out of reach and I think most MAME stuff is also rather poor. My TV has fast but poor deinterlacing and the only video processor I'll hopefully have soon is the OSSC. I guess I'll have to live with bad deinterlacing for those few games on PS2/GC that are interlaced, everything older/newer is progressive anyway.

for ps2 games that can't be forced into 480p or 1080p, via gsm (or pitched / hex edited ). 1080i gsm is usually a good compromise. it's still interlaced but it has better compatibility and most HD televisions do a better job with 1080i then 480i. for gamecube almost anything that doesn't have a native 480p mode can be forced into 480p (or 240p) with Swiss. give this list a check and see if it helps. https://www.gc-forever.com/wiki/index.p ... ility_List

the OSSC also has a alternating scanline mode that I think looks nice for some 480i content, I also have a 13" crt (KV-13FS100 with component inputs) I keep around as it does a good job of hiding interlaced flicker.

I just ordered a GC modchip and want to get into Swiss/Homebrew etc., but despite owning the right model of GC I don't have the component cables and likely never will at these prices :/ I'll likely pick up an HDMI adapter when the issues are worked out.

Thanks for the 1080i tip, I'll give that a shot on the games that didn't work in 480p.

I'll see how that bob deinterlacer looks on the OSSC, probably not worse than whatever my TV is doing.

[BazookaBen]

If you have PC CRT or other monitor and have a game with compatibility issues at 480p: 960i is the way to go. It's basically line-doubled 480i, and it's compatible with 30Hz-minimum displays. Looked almost identical 480i on a PVM (tested with FF12).