Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Readmeff
Readmeff
-=-=-=-=-=
Introduction
============
pSX emulates the Sony Playstation 1, pretty much everything is emulated
(to my knowledge) and most games run perfectly. It runs under Windows and
Linux.
One thing that should be noted is that pSX DOES NOT use plugins.
The emulator is completely self contained.
The emulator has been designed to be as easy and unobtrusive to use
as possible - in most cases you will not need to configure anything
to use it (except maybe the controls).
Installation
============
Extract all files from the .rar (or .tar.bz2 file under Linux) including
folders.
The emulator requires a PS1 BIOS file which should be placed in the
bios directory. By default the emulator will look for scph1001.bin
- this version is highly recommend because it is the only well tested
one although other bioses should work.
Once the emulator is running you can change the BIOS from the
configuration menu. In the event that you only have a different bios
file you can edit psx.ini to get the emulator running (run psx.exe
once, you will get an error message, now look for psx.ini).
Installation notes for Linux
============================
Under Linux pSX requires the following shared libraries/packages :
OpenGL
ALSA
GTK
GTKGLEXT
libxml2
pSX will store its settings in ~/.pSX (the memcards, saves and screenshots
dirctories will also be created here). If psx.ini is present in the
application directory it will be read from there instead (for backwards
compatibility with verions before v1.13 - you can also move psx.ini here if
you don't want per-user settings, remember to make it world writable though
otherwise users will be unable to save any settings).
Running games
=============
The emulator supports .cue/.bin, .ccd/.img/.sub, .iso, and .mdf/.mds CD
images, the easiest way to run a game is to run the exe then select "Insert CD
image" from the File menu. It is also possible to start a game from the
command line:
psx.exe c:\psxgames\mygame.bin
or under Linux :
pSX /usr/psxgames/mygame.bin
Note that you will get best performance running in full-screen mode.
Press ALT+ENTER to switch between full-screen and windowed.
CDZ images
==========
pSX supports compressed CD images which are called .CDZ files. They can
either be created using the built in converted (File/Convert .BIN to/from
.CDZ) or by using the cdztool.exe command line utility.
.CDZ files can be created from all image formats that pSX supports.
To create a .cdz file utils cdztool :
utils\cdztool.exe c:\psxgames\mygame.bin c:\psxgames\mygame.cdz
You can also convert a cdz back to .cue/.bin by reversing the order of
the parameters, eg:
utils\cdztool.exe c:\psxgames\mygame.cdz c:\psxgames\mygame.bin
Configuration
=============
The configuration menu is fairly self explanatory. This is a quick
run through of the various options.
Paths
----This tab allows you to set the default paths for state saves, memory
cards and cd images.
BIOS
---This tab allows you to set the BIOS image used by the emulator.
Memory cards
-----------This tab configures the memory cards inserted into the Playstations
slots. To create a memory card click ..., navigate to where you want
the file to be saved, and enter a filename (eg. "mycard").
Graphics
-------Bilinear interpolation - enabled/disables bilinear filtering when stretching
frame buffer to window.
Frame skipping - enables/disables frame skipping
Sleep when idle in windowed mode - when running in windowed mode this
option causes the emulator to use less CPU time but can result in
choppier performance.
Pause when not focused - when enabled the emulator will pause when its
main window does not have focus (note: sound is always disabled when
not focused).
Status icons - displays status icons (CD/XA/etc..) at the bottom left
Full screen mode: can be configured separately for PAL and NTSC. In
most cases these should be left on Default which will use the most
appropriate mode for the PS1 (Note: setting a mode that does not have
a refresh rate of 60hz for NTSC, or 100hz for PAL will result in less
smooth emulation). You can select which monitor fullscreen mode will use
(default = use whichever monitor the window is on). Aspect ratio correction
can also be forced in this dialog (the default setting is Auto which will
apply aspect ratio correction based on the resolution of your desktop - this
should do the correct thing for 99% of people).
Display adjustments: gamma, brightness and contrast can be configured. These
options only affect full screen mode (most cards only support a gamma ramp in
full screen mode).
Controllers
----------This tab allows you to configure joystick and keyboard mappings for
the Playstations controllers.
Note that you MUST configure the gamepad controls if you want to use
a joystick or gamepad (by default only keys are set up). Also note
that you must configure the analog axes if you want to use an analog
controller (eg. dualshock).
Default controls (for port1) :
Up
Left
Down
Right
Triangle
Square
Cross
Circle
Start
Select
L1
L2
R1
R2
Cursor up
Cursor left
Cursor down
Cursor right
A
X
Z
S
Return
Space
Left shift
Left ctrl
Right shift
Right ctrl
Sound
----From this tab you can configure sound settings.
Device: set the device used for sound output, in most cases this should
be set to "Primary Sound Driver"
Frequency: normally you should leave "Same as emulated machine" checked
which will cause the emulator to use the same frequency as the PS1. To
change the output frequency untick the option and select from the combo
box.
Latency: This option controls how much delay there is in the sound output
in most cases the default setting will be fine, but if you experience
dropouts or choppy sound you can try increasing this.
XA latency: Controls how much delay there is in XA sound output.
Reverb: Enables/disables reverb emulation.
Sync sound: When enabled the emulator will try to keep the sound in sync
with the graphics (this should normally be enabled).
Interpolate: Enables/disables linear interpolation of sound output takes slightly more CPU power (not much) but reduces aliasing significantly.
Misc
---Allows redefinition of various miscellaneous keyboard controls.
CDROM
----Allows selection of CDROM driver (Auto detect, IoControl or ASPI) - normally
Auto detect should be used.
ASPI Drive letter mapping under Win98/ME
========================================
Under Windows98/ME there is no way to correctly map drive letters to ASPI
drives. Because of this the emulator makes a guess (it guesses that the
drives are in order of scsi adapter/target) - if you have multiple drives it
may guess wrong. For this reason it is possible to override the mapping.
To see what pSX thinks the mappings are run the emulator with the -x option:
psxfin -x
This will show a list of drives with the corresponding drive letter on the
left. If this is incorrect you can add entries to the [CDROM] section in the
.ini file to override it, for example :
[CDROM]
Driver=-1
SCSI4:1=x:
This tells the emulator that SCSI target 4:1 is drive x:
Crash dumps (Windows only)
==========================
If the emulator crashes it will ask if you want to save a crash dump.
There are two types of crash dump, mini dump and full dump - a dialog
box will ask you if you want to save a full dump. In most cases you
will want to say no to this because full dumps can be very large - a
mini dump is usually enough to debug problems.
Dump files can be included in a bug report (see email address below).
NOTE: crash dump saving is only supported if you have dgbhelp.dll installed
History
=======
v1.0 Initial release
v1.1 ALT+F4 now exits the emulatoer
Pressing F1/Shift+F1 switches back to windowed mode for file dialog
*.mcr files are shown in memory card dialog
Option to disable status icons (CD/XA/MR, etc..) - disabled by default
dbghelp.dll is now optional (required for saving crash dumps though)
CD drives (IoControl and ASPI) should now work
pSX now works under Win98/ME (hopefully ;)
Fixed save state loading bug
Fixed crash when entering non existant save state filename
v1.2 Improved ASPI and IoControl latency
Added SPTI support
Added support for 16bit rendering (including 565), only used if necessary
Full screen mode configuration (NTSC and PAL configured separately)
Fixed GTE bug that caused Valkyrie Profile to crash
Improved streamed ADPCM audio (Valkyrie Profile and others)
v1.3 Fixed several GTE bugs (Crash Bandicoot 3 + others)
More accurate SPU noise and FM (FF7 and ChronoCross sound correct)
Set mask bit for lines (MGS frequency display now works)
Fixed bug where primitive coordinates were not sign extended (ChronoCross)
Swapped analog sticks
Fixed pad force feedback crash (now properly enumerates actuators)
Disabled vsync in windowed mode to fix speed problems
Fixed SPU looping bug: -S option is no longer required (now ignored)
Fixed bug where starting in fullscreen would incorrectly resize window
Fixed debugger GPU capture
Added preliminary version of TheCloudOfSmoke's icon
v1.4 Added final icon and controller dialog graphcs from TheCloudOfSmoke
Fixed bug where joystick device selection was not kept after restarting
Implemented PPF patch support (command line only for now)
Added option to disable bilinear filtering
Added L3 and R3 buttons for dualshock controller
Added reverse axis option for controller analog axes
Option to disable controller rumble now works
Second controller now works
Fixed keys that did not work in controller config dialog (eg. cursors)
Integrated CDZ converter into main program
Added gamma, brightness and contrast controls (fullscreen only)
Added quicksave/load functionality
Fast forward now temporarily turns off vsync
ASPI DLL is no longer required if using IOControl
Fixed state save dialog (now uses save type instead of open)
Fixed window painting when paused (or in modal dialogs)
Removed log menu option in release version
Editing code in debugger memory window works even when using recompiler
Fixed some other debugger problems
Implemented breakpoint editing
Fixed save state loading bug