Tracking down floaty controls

[Ghegs]

Inspired by the Takumi-thread where the issue of floaty controls were brought up, I thought it might be a good idea to try figure out the problem. Night Raid is notorious for this, but some other games have it too. Yet, some people play these games without any control issues whatsoever. Though I can't speak for sure, I believe it's somehow related to the hardware you're playing it on.

As most people know, few PS1 shmups run at incorrect speed when played on a PS2. Toaplan Shooting Battle, Gradius Gaiden's Stage 7, Darius Gaiden, Gradius II. I think this could be similar, though the reason might not be as simple as PS1 games played on a PS2. Hopefully we can figure it out so that A) People won't waste money on games they can't play properly with their system and B) If they really DO want to play the games, they know what hardware to get.

The only way to get to the bottom of this is for people to list the games they're experiencing this problem with and the hardware they're playing it on. Then, people who DON'T experience the problem with the games tell what hardware they're playing it on.

If you're not sure whether you're getting floaty controls in a game, there are few ways of making sure. You can make rapid tap-dodges. You can move the ship in a small circle. If you notice the ship doesn't always respond to the controls accurately, sometimes doesn't respond at all or does excessive movements, if when tap-dodging the ship occasionaly moves much more than the slight intended tap...that's floaty controls.

Here's mine; all of them are played on a PAL PS2 with a modchip. Though I don't think the controller used is a factor, I use the Saturn-style PS2 pad and the problem happens just as well when using a standard Dual Shock 2 or a Namco Arcade Stick.

Capcom Retro Game Collection Vol.1 (1942, 1943 and 1943 Kai are all affected, but PAL Capcom Generations versions work just fine)
Night Raid
Soukyugurentai
X-Multiply (Image Fight works just fine)
Zanac Neo (The original Zanacs work just fine)

All JPN PS1 games.

[Zach Keene]

Zanac Neo - no floatiness for me on a US PSX using the PS X-Change disc.

[Randorama]

Night Raid test -

floaty controls on asian ps2, fine on japanese ps1. I used a joystick (Hori tekken 4) and a d-pad, same effects more or less.

[professor ganson]

I play Zanac Neo with a Jap. PS2 and a Logitech cordless controller and I don't recall any floatiness issues. I'll try to check it again tonight, though, just to be sure.

[professor ganson]

I play Zanac Neo with a Jap. PS2 and a Logitech cordless controller and I don't recall any floatiness issues. I'll try to check it again tonight, though, just to be sure.

OK, I tested it, and the controls were very tight.

I used to find Zanac Neo a bit painful because I would always play with Hammer-Duke, and it was just too slow to keep combos going. I played for the first time with the FC Custom, and it made a world of difference. Once I get a bit more familiar with some of these late-level bosses, a 1cc should be no problem.

[Damocles]

First off, I own no Sony hardware (moral thing), so all tests were done with Epsxe 1.60, running on a 2.4 GHz comp with Geforce 4 card.

X2

Epsxe 1.60
SCPH1001 and SCPH7502
Pete's Soft Driver 1.54
Happ's Comp/X-arcade ps2-usb adaptor

Result: Slight floatiness. Tried switching to a D3D or OpenGL driver, and floatiness _may_ have decreased. Note that this makes game look like shit. Bios switch did nothing.

Night Raid

Epsxe 1.60
SCPH1001
Pete's Soft Driver 1.54/ Pete's D3D Driver 1.58
Happ's Comp/X-arcade ps2-usb adaptor

Result: I'm not able to determine if floatiness exists, or if the ship moves so fast that it's hard to obtain precise taps. However, switching to a D3d video plugin DID result in a more floaty feeling. Coupled with the fact that D3D drivers occasionally make this game skip, I recommend the standard soft driver.

Soukyugurentai

Epsxe 1.60
SCPH1001
Pete's Soft Driver 1.54/ Pete's D3D Driver 1.58
Happ's Comp/X-arcade ps2-usb adaptor

Result: Raizing games have been known to feel floaty through emulation. This one is no different.

Gekioh

Epsxe 1.60
SCPH1001
Pete's Soft Driver 1.54/ Pete's D3D Driver 1.58
Happ's Comp/X-arcade ps2-usb adaptor

Result: A consistently floaty feel, whether on stick or pad.


Conclusion: I would love to be able to say that emulation produces these problems, however, Gradius Gaiden, Sonic Wings Special, Zanac X Zanac, R-Type Delta, and Raiden DX play perfectly spot on. We can also rule out the X-arcade in this manner, since profiles for both X-arcade and USB-native gamepad were created. Oddly enough, the gamepad (Microsoft Sidewinder) resulted in a more floaty feel on all games. As for the video plugin. Other than in X2, games showed no significant difference when running in D3D.

[zaphod]

playing on emulations is what introduces floatiness.

Many emualted compilations have floatiness in them.

The old namco museum titles however, enver have any of this, because they are not true emulation. they are simply VERY good ports form the source code.

The floaty controlls are present in many big name console emulation packs. it all depends on how well the emulator is programmed. when an original game is floaty, well.. i suepct dodge hardware.

[Zweihander]

Project S-11 for GBC. there's bullet-dancing to be done later, but your ship falls flat on it's ass trying to accomplish this. :/

[Damocles]

Project S-11 for GBC. there's bullet-dancing to be done later, but your ship falls flat on it's ass trying to accomplish this. :/

Inertia in that game is a bitch. Then again, that kind of makes up for the ease.

[Ghegs]

Inertia's not what I'm talking about here. In that GBC game and few levels in Aero Blasters, the controls are programmed that way. It's different in these cases, where playing the game on different hardware results in sloppier controls.

Don't know how to interpret the results so far, though. The fact that professor ganson can play Zanac Neo perfectly on his JPN PS2 but I can't do the same on my PAL PS2 is very odd indeed. Aside from that, it would seem getting a modded or JPN PS1 is the easiest solution.

Also, I don't know what to make of Damocles' results with an emulator. The control issues shouldn't be there at all since he's technically playing them on a virtual PS1, yet two of the games he listed are on my list as well. Guess that's gotta be chalked up to emulation quirkiness. My X2 and Gekioh (both PAL) work just fine for me, for what it matters.

Thanks for the input so far, keep 'em coming.

[Kiken]

When I wrote my review for Night Raid, I had been playing it on a Japanese DSX (Debug PlayStation, the blue model consoles). I find it interesting that I experienced floaty control on a debugging system but that those playing it on a standard retail PSOne experienced precise control.