Optimizing PS2 games to 480p (progressive) and 240p gsm hdtv

[Lodestar]

I have a USB drive that I boot off of, I haven't messed around with this kind of stuff in a while, but there is an ELF that I can put on it that'll let me play the games installed on my HD in 480p? That's very intriguing.

[lwcook]

So this post was perfectly timed as I just upgraded the tv in my bedroom to a 27'' HDTV.

I just used GSM 0.36 and both Metal Gear Solid 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3 work great in 480p.
No problems booting either from the disc or from hdloader.

[d123456]

I have a USB drive that I boot off of, I haven't messed around with this kind of stuff in a while, but there is an ELF that I can put on it that'll let me play the games installed on my HD in 480p? That's very intriguing.

If you´re lucky. GSM´s support is not 100%, probably because that is impossible, but some games work.
Then there´s hdtv, but this elf only supports discs. If you try to load anything from a HD, bsod.
Both elf´s are worth it.

[d123456]

updated. Latest addition is Silpheed.
I accidentally tried it And found it it was pretty great. I expected something horrendous, but I saw a pseudo sequel to Taito´s Raystorm. Had I read the Silpheed bit here. Than I would have given it a chance long ago.:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/s ... google.com
The main website has some issues, guys. So I used this google cache to link to the awesome article.
Treasure was involved? no shi#! Figures. it looks pretty cool.
Anyway, when booting it you need to tap the start (or X) button as quick as you can. So controllers against your chest and ram away. Your reward? Silpheed in 480p. The way it was meant to be played (like all ps2 games!) 480p biyaatch.
Perhaps it could be time to get the word out on forcing ps2 games to 480p? A main article on Racketboy? I can do basic html.

[Lodestar]

I want to try this with the Champions games, particularly Return to Arms.

[elvis]

Excellent post with lots of detail. Thank you.

Some minor clarifications on the terminology:

Either deinterlacing them to 240p

You can't deinterlace 480i to 240p. Deinterlacing a 480i picture results in a 480p30 picture.

Sometimes GSM will make a 480i game look like a 240p game. Line doubling. It will have the resolution of a ps1 game.

You can't "line double" 480i to 240p. Line doubling takes what would be a single line, and draws it twice. It's a very cheap way of scaling 240p to 480p, but with very blocky results.

All of these terms ("deinterlacing" and "line doubling") happen AFTER a picture is drawn in a particular mode as post-processing. What these hex hacks and GSM do is prevent the PS2 from upscaling and interlacing pictures BEFORE the picture is drawn. The benefit here is that you actually remove 1/30th of a second worth of lag thanks tho the fact that the PS2 doesn't have to drawn two fields to the one frame to the screen.

Running games in native 240p on low resolution devices (TVs or arcade monitors), or running them on 480p on high resolution devices (PC monitors both CRT and VGA, or flatscreen TVs) has more benefits than just picture quality. Removing the interlacing means whole frames are drawn quicker, and there's 1/30th of a second less lag in processing at both ends.

Progressive scan is the ONLY way to play video games. Interlacing was added to televisions to fake a higher resolution on CRT TVs, but sadly it caught on in the video game market too. I've never generally bothered with console hacks and homebrew software, but the one exception is being able to force games into better resolutions for output on various displays that match those outputs.

[d123456]

Excellent post with lots of detail. Thank you.

Some minor clarifications on the terminology:

Either deinterlacing them to 240p

You can't deinterlace 480i to 240p. Deinterlacing a 480i picture results in a 480p30 picture.

Sometimes GSM will make a 480i game look like a 240p game. Line doubling. It will have the resolution of a ps1 game.

You can't "line double" 480i to 240p. Line doubling takes what would be a single line, and draws it twice. It's a very cheap way of scaling 240p to 480p, but with very blocky results.

All of these terms ("deinterlacing" and "line doubling") happen AFTER a picture is drawn in a particular mode as post-processing. What these hex hacks and GSM do is prevent the PS2 from upscaling and interlacing pictures BEFORE the picture is drawn. The benefit here is that you actually remove 1/30th of a second worth of lag thanks tho the fact that the PS2 doesn't have to drawn two fields to the one frame to the screen.

Running games in native 240p on low resolution devices (TVs or arcade monitors), or running them on 480p on high resolution devices (PC monitors both CRT and VGA, or flatscreen TVs) has more benefits than just picture quality. Removing the interlacing means whole frames are drawn quicker, and there's 1/30th of a second less lag in processing at both ends.

Progressive scan is the ONLY way to play video games. Interlacing was added to televisions to fake a higher resolution on CRT TVs, but sadly it caught on in the video game market too. I've never generally bothered with console hacks and homebrew software, but the one exception is being able to force games into better resolutions for output on various displays that match those outputs.

Thanks for the clarification.
Ah, so these hacks/programms actually prevent the ps2 from interlacing? Cool! That´s even better! I guess I should rewrite alot of stuff. Is that how I should rewrite it? (prevent the ps2 from interlacing) Or do you have another sugggestion?
As to this line doubling I tried to explain: it is a either the odd or even frame from a 480i signal and that gets line doubled. If you go into options of a game and put the screen 1 pixel higher or lower you will get the other frame which is line doubled. You will see that everything is slightly different.
The fake 480p I tried to explain is actually an odd frame doubled to 480p and then a even frame doubled to 480p. Which results in something like interlacing. The signal is 480p, but it flickers like hell, hardcore.
So you too are playing aruond with hdtv, GSM, hex edits?
Do you have any more suggestions, tips. List of games that can be forced into 480p?

[Lodestar]

I tried GSM from uLaunch, but I think I'm doing something wrong. After I select 480p, what should I be booting off of?

[d123456]

By pressing Select you can toggle between ps2browser, hdloader, etc.
Just pick ps2 browser and you´ll come back to the ps2 main menu (osdmain).
From there you can pick either esr or swap or go to hdloader. pick your poison.
I believe that when you pick dev1 you´ll go back to ulaunch and from there you can go anywhere. Do set up some shortcut keys in ulaunch so you can launch app quicker.

For first time users:
In the gsm 0.36 screen, just press SQUARE, SELECT, START
Square will set up the 480p mode, select will select to what you will boot and start will execute it!

Optionally you can press up 4 times. now it should say -16. Which in my experience, sets everything centered vertically in most games. If you are still having difficulty, please elaborate so we can help.

[Lodestar]

I tried a couple of them already and they led to black screens, but I guess going back to uLaunch would be the ideal thing. The app itself was straight-forward.


Question, I have my PS2 set on 16:9 display, will this conflict in any way with what I'm trying to do? Should I set it back to 4:3?