PSXPERIA: How to increase compatibility of the native emulator with more games

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hairdewx

Senior Member
Feb 28, 2009
675
276
With the new PSXPERIA tool we have the ability to run other games on the native emulator. However, it has not been as compatible with as many games as most had hoped.

However, there are ways to increase games compatibility by changing certain settings within the native emulator.

Games are stored in /sdcard/Android/data

When the games are run for the first time on your phone, a folder called "ucc" is created containing another folder with a unique name with xml files located inside. There should be:

metadata.xml
preferences.xml

If preferences.xml is not there, you can get it from your Crash "ucc" folder. Also, changing settings in the settings menu of a game (like changing video settings to full screen) will automatically generate the preferences.xml file.

The file structure should look like this:

preferences.JPG


This is what my Star Ocean: Second Story file structure looks like:
so.jpg


This is what is inside the preferences.xml

Code:
<boolean name="Up-rendering" value="true" />
<string name="Screen Orientation">Landscape</string>
<boolean name="FPS-counter" value="false" />
<boolean name="SW-render" value="false" />
<boolean name="On Screen Controller" value="false" />
<string name="On Screen Controller Type Landscape">Type 1</string>
<string name="On Screen Controller Type Portrait">Type 1</string>
<string name="On Screen Controller Color Landscape">Color 1</string>
<string name="On Screen Controller Color Portrait">Color 1</string>
<boolean name="On Screen Controller Vibrator" value="true" />
<string name="On Screen Controller Transparency 0" value="100" />
<string name="On Screen Controller Transparency 1" value="100" />
<string name="On Screen Controller Transparency 2" value="50" />
<string name="On Screen Controller Scale 0" value="100" />
<string name="On Screen Controller Scale 1" value="100" />
<string name="On Screen Controller Scale 2" value="100" />
<string name="On Screen Controller Scale 3" value="100" />
<string name="Button Mapping">Type 1</string>
<string name="Screen Mode">Normal</string>
<string name="Save Progress">Off</string>
<boolean name="Frame Skipping" value="false" />
<string name="Controller Port" value="1" />
<boolean name="Analog Mode" value="true" />

What we want to pay attention to is

<boolean name="SW-render" value="false" />

<boolean name="Up-rendering" value="true" />

Up-rendering seems to only have a small affect on graphics, but I don't know what it does exactly.

By setting the SW-render to "true", many of the glitches in some games no longer happen because it is being emulated through software rather than hardware optimization.

The result is more stability, at the cost of some speed and slightly different graphics.

Here are some examples:

Star Ocean: Second Story

With default settings Star Ocean is unplayable due to constant graphic errors and continuous flickering:

Default options:
screenshot_1.png

screenshot_5.png

screenshot_10.png


Here is with SW-render set to true:

The game is playable and runs almost perfectly.

screenshot.png

screenshot_1.png

screenshot_2.png


You can see between the two sets of pictures that the graphics do appear slightly different because of the different rendering methods.

Here is another example:

Tekken 3:

With default options Tekken 3 is very playable with only a few slight graphical glitches.

Defualt options:
t2.png


Here is with SW-render set to true:
t1.png


While the glitch is fixed, it does not run as fast as it does without SW-render.

The graphics appear different as well.

Default graphics
t5.png


SW-render graphics:
t4.png


So the key is to play around with the options to see what works best for your individual game.

Some games from the other thread that were thought unplayable have been playable with SW-render set to true. I have tried:


R4 (works great but appears a little slower than with hardware ops on)
FF7 (no more slowdowns and sound distortions in my short playtime)
Final Fantasy Tactics (no more glitches and flickering)
Legend of Mana (FMV's still have issues but other graphic glitches fixed)
Chrono Cross (still won't work, main menu screen is high res which I suspect the emulator won't support)

FF7 running with SW-render set to true


About Memory Cards:
The memory cards of FPSE and PSXPERIA are interchangeable, just rename them to the proper names and put them in the proper path. (ie. rename 0.raw to slot1.mcd and vice versa.)

Compatibility List:
Continually updated
https://github.com/yifanlu/PSXperia/wiki/Compatibility
 
Last edited:

Scorbion

Senior Member
May 6, 2005
257
20
Riyadh
Amazing results. Now is it possible to set sw render to be true by defult?

Sent from my R800i using XDA Premium App
 

markphyton

Senior Member
Sep 14, 2010
964
2,693
37
Vienna
Btw the Problem is when you change this settings it make jo result! After change you will Start the game the settings will reset! From true to false. Can any One say what i make wrong?

Sent from my R800i using XDA App
 
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bubblegumballoon

Senior Member
May 8, 2011
334
181
Swansea
If your going to use software rendering then you might want to enable frame skip as well. alot of games will run very slowly with software rendering and frameskip will give you that well needed speed boost :D
 

yifanlu

Senior Member
Aug 1, 2011
279
228
Interesting. I've also found out, in the zPak, there is a file named params.bin and in the data folder, there is a file (that doesn't exist) named options.txt. I think they may be used to tweak the emulator. However, I havent figured out the format yet.
 

netorino

Senior Member
Mar 3, 2011
137
10
Tony hawk pro skater fixed some graphic bugs in character select, but the character still looks bad and still crashes when entering a map.

Marvel vs Capcom had serious issues with the graphics when char selecting and playing, they're gone 100% as far as I can tell, but it became a little bit slower when playing, but still very playable and much better than the graphics bug. Now if frame skipping would fix that... hehe

Thanks a lot for this trick!
 

hairdewx

Senior Member
Feb 28, 2009
675
276
Amazing results. Now is it possible to set sw render to be true by defult?

Sent from my R800i using XDA Premium App

Not at the moment, but possibly if we can figure out how it generates the unique folder name in the ucc folder. Then it would be a matter of updating the tool.

Btw the Problem is when you change this settings it make jo result! After change you will Start the game the settings will reset! From true to false. Can any One say what i make wrong?

Sent from my R800i using XDA App

Are you manually changing the preferences.xml file on your sd card after you run the game for the first time? The settings are not resetting for me... That's how I was getting screen shots of my games :)

If your going to use software rendering then you might want to enable frame skip as well. alot of games will run very slowly with software rendering and frameskip will give you that well needed speed boost :D

I only enabled it for Tekken 3, but I didn't notice any speed differences. Maybe the hardware optimization is making it run faster than normal, making the SW-render seem slow?
 
Last edited:

netorino

Senior Member
Mar 3, 2011
137
10
Maybe the hardware optimization is making it run faster than normal, making the SW-render seem slow?

Sounds like a reasonable explanation.

I just converted KOF '97 and had minor graphic glitched (still very playable) but this just fixed it completely. Also making it seem slower, but again that's comparing it to before. So maybe it's the way it's supposed to be.
 

Rogue Leader

Senior Member
Apr 4, 2011
1,087
166
New York
I only enabled it for Tekken 3, but I didn't notice any speed differences. Maybe the hardware optimization is making it run faster than normal, making the SW-render seem slow?

This seems to make sense. I have Air Combat running on my phone and I noticed the music in the game seemed to be a touch faster than I remember it, but admittedly its been a long time.
 

MechaBouncer

Senior Member
Nov 13, 2010
268
44
This is awesome! I'm going to re-test a bunch of games that make heavy use of sprites that were unplayable before. 3D graphics seem fine, but 2D is more problematic. There was far too much screen flickering, and I suspect it was because the sprites were being used as textures on polygons for scaling and rotation effects or to put them over 3D backgrounds. Perhaps the hardware-renderer just doesn't know how to deal with them?

EDIT:
Also, could the "Up-rendering" be upscaling? Many PSX games only had a resolution of 320x240 and it topped out at 640x512. The Xperia Play's screen is 854x480. Perhaps this setting is related to some sort of filtering after it scales the graphics?
 
Last edited:

awfulrofl

Member
Aug 7, 2011
22
3
Just to confirm the playability of a couple games I just recently tested.

Along with the OP, Final Fantasy VII now plays flawless, with perfect sound. I have yet to run into any slowdown, including any in battle.

Retested Suikoden II also. Seems to have eliminated the transition or zone graphic glitch. Game seems to run perfect so far.

EDIT: found that returning to the game from state save, causes a screen glitch on the left side. Simply going into the settings, zooming in, and then putting it back on normal fixes the problem.
 
Last edited:
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zerojay

Senior Member
Aug 3, 2010
633
119
I believe what is actually being done is that all the sprites and stuff are handled as normal, but instead of rendering the updated framebuffer by flipping video buffers, they're rendering the screen out as a texture mapped to a single, full-screen polygon. This also gives them a very quick and easy way to support user changing of screen size/zoom by just manipulating the single polygon. I could be wrong though.
 

Rogue Leader

Senior Member
Apr 4, 2011
1,087
166
New York
Just to confirm the playability of a couple games I just recently tested.

Along with the OP, Final Fantasy VII now plays flawless, with perfect sound. I have yet to run into any slowdown, including any in battle.

Retested Suikoden II also. Seems to have eliminated the transition or zone graphic glitch, but has been replaced with a strange glitchy border, albeit very small. This could also be from a bad iso, so this may be an issue on my end.

Re FF VII: I thought multi disc games don't work? Are you just playing the first disc?
 

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  • 13
    With the new PSXPERIA tool we have the ability to run other games on the native emulator. However, it has not been as compatible with as many games as most had hoped.

    However, there are ways to increase games compatibility by changing certain settings within the native emulator.

    Games are stored in /sdcard/Android/data

    When the games are run for the first time on your phone, a folder called "ucc" is created containing another folder with a unique name with xml files located inside. There should be:

    metadata.xml
    preferences.xml

    If preferences.xml is not there, you can get it from your Crash "ucc" folder. Also, changing settings in the settings menu of a game (like changing video settings to full screen) will automatically generate the preferences.xml file.

    The file structure should look like this:

    preferences.JPG


    This is what my Star Ocean: Second Story file structure looks like:
    so.jpg


    This is what is inside the preferences.xml

    Code:
    <boolean name="Up-rendering" value="true" />
    <string name="Screen Orientation">Landscape</string>
    <boolean name="FPS-counter" value="false" />
    <boolean name="SW-render" value="false" />
    <boolean name="On Screen Controller" value="false" />
    <string name="On Screen Controller Type Landscape">Type 1</string>
    <string name="On Screen Controller Type Portrait">Type 1</string>
    <string name="On Screen Controller Color Landscape">Color 1</string>
    <string name="On Screen Controller Color Portrait">Color 1</string>
    <boolean name="On Screen Controller Vibrator" value="true" />
    <string name="On Screen Controller Transparency 0" value="100" />
    <string name="On Screen Controller Transparency 1" value="100" />
    <string name="On Screen Controller Transparency 2" value="50" />
    <string name="On Screen Controller Scale 0" value="100" />
    <string name="On Screen Controller Scale 1" value="100" />
    <string name="On Screen Controller Scale 2" value="100" />
    <string name="On Screen Controller Scale 3" value="100" />
    <string name="Button Mapping">Type 1</string>
    <string name="Screen Mode">Normal</string>
    <string name="Save Progress">Off</string>
    <boolean name="Frame Skipping" value="false" />
    <string name="Controller Port" value="1" />
    <boolean name="Analog Mode" value="true" />

    What we want to pay attention to is

    <boolean name="SW-render" value="false" />

    <boolean name="Up-rendering" value="true" />

    Up-rendering seems to only have a small affect on graphics, but I don't know what it does exactly.

    By setting the SW-render to "true", many of the glitches in some games no longer happen because it is being emulated through software rather than hardware optimization.

    The result is more stability, at the cost of some speed and slightly different graphics.

    Here are some examples:

    Star Ocean: Second Story

    With default settings Star Ocean is unplayable due to constant graphic errors and continuous flickering:

    Default options:
    screenshot_1.png

    screenshot_5.png

    screenshot_10.png


    Here is with SW-render set to true:

    The game is playable and runs almost perfectly.

    screenshot.png

    screenshot_1.png

    screenshot_2.png


    You can see between the two sets of pictures that the graphics do appear slightly different because of the different rendering methods.

    Here is another example:

    Tekken 3:

    With default options Tekken 3 is very playable with only a few slight graphical glitches.

    Defualt options:
    t2.png


    Here is with SW-render set to true:
    t1.png


    While the glitch is fixed, it does not run as fast as it does without SW-render.

    The graphics appear different as well.

    Default graphics
    t5.png


    SW-render graphics:
    t4.png


    So the key is to play around with the options to see what works best for your individual game.

    Some games from the other thread that were thought unplayable have been playable with SW-render set to true. I have tried:


    R4 (works great but appears a little slower than with hardware ops on)
    FF7 (no more slowdowns and sound distortions in my short playtime)
    Final Fantasy Tactics (no more glitches and flickering)
    Legend of Mana (FMV's still have issues but other graphic glitches fixed)
    Chrono Cross (still won't work, main menu screen is high res which I suspect the emulator won't support)

    FF7 running with SW-render set to true


    About Memory Cards:
    The memory cards of FPSE and PSXPERIA are interchangeable, just rename them to the proper names and put them in the proper path. (ie. rename 0.raw to slot1.mcd and vice versa.)

    Compatibility List:
    Continually updated
    https://github.com/yifanlu/PSXperia/wiki/Compatibility
    2
    RAM Manager is just C+P clone. Original, and the best is = v6 Supercharger :)

    Sent from my R800i using xda app-developers app
    Sure, v6 Supercharger is good but not everyone wants to make changes to their device this way. I for one prefer an app with a UI, which with 1 simple touch of the screen can revert all the changes it made.

    As for being a clone, just because two tools achieve the same thing, and one pre-dates the other, doesn't necessarily make the other a clone. Unless there is some substantial proof to prove stealing of another's work, its hearsay and I call bs.
    2
    It was only a mistake... He want to say PSX games. Regarding to playstation pocket - all I believed is that there wait for release Sony tablets and then they make lots a more ports of old psx game (mayby even a final fantasy seria ? ) . Cannot wait...

    Nice tablet IMHO.

    No he didn't. Nobody from Sony ever refers to it as the PSX. PSX was never even it's real name anyway it was the proposed original name that Sony dropped but the game mags held on to. They refer to the games and system now as PSOne.
    2
    FYI

    The memory cards of FPSE and PSXPERIA are interchangeable, just rename them to the proper names.
    1
    Btw the Problem is when you change this settings it make jo result! After change you will Start the game the settings will reset! From true to false. Can any One say what i make wrong?

    Sent from my R800i using XDA App