Great news for PS2 (not to be confused with PlanetSide 2) fans as the best emulator for Sony’s console has hit a milestone. PCSX2 has released its first publich version, 1.0. According to the team behind it, PCSX2 runs a great majority of the games, and there are no important issues that could possibly be fixed without requiring major modifications to the emulator.

And that’s precisely why the team decided to stop thinking of new things to do for a bit, polish the stability, compatibility and existing features and release the result as the first major version of PCSX2.

As the team stated:

“There have been tons of changes since the last release, including improvements to Jake Stine’s wxWidgets GUI overhaul, cottonvibe’s new multithreaded VU core and improvements on the primary plugins.”

Those interested can download the emulator from PCSX2’s official website.

Here is the changelog for version 1.0:

Windows

Core:
Video timing adjustments
microVU fixes for Metal Gear Solid 2 and others
General speedups
microVU speedup
New GIF unit that mimics the real one better
microVU elementary function bug fixed (affecting Valkyrie Profile 2, Radiata Stories and Star Ocean 3)
Implemented Multi-Threaded VU! A new speed hack with almost 100% compatibility with games, using a third core to run the VU1 unit separately
CDVD fixes (Time Crisis boots now)
Added support for progressive scan timings
Path 3 arbitration and timing refinements
Added Finnish, Malaysian, Korean, French, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese and Polish translations

SPU2-X:
Configurable output volume
Fixes to reverb
Various sound looping fixes
Improved time stretcher
Reverse phase audio quality improved

GSdx:
Fixed RGB mode movie recording
Texture cache change that fixes some black screening games
Implemented NVidia FXAA 3.10, page up key activates it
Better multithreading
Arc the Lad bad fog fix
Fixed shadows in software renderer
Implementation of GSdx “Shadeboost” project (saturation, brightness, contrast settings)
User configurable hacks in the GUI
Fixed flickering in many FMVs
Implementation of GSdx “Cutie” project (various extra CRC hacks)

Lilypad:
Pad state getting stuck with savestates bug fixed

USBqemu:
Revamped it a bit

Linux:

OnePad changes:
New dialog configuration panel
Improved support of various pad (sixaxis)/mouse/wiimote
Added support for more controllers
Added support for pressure-sensitive buttons

GSdx:
GSdx ported for Linux! Based on OpenGL 3.3 with some 4.x hardware independent extensions. Requires OpenGL 4.2 drivers and is still in experimental stages. Don’t expect the hardware renderer to run properly, but the Software renderer should be fine.
Added support for configuration and keyboard shortcuts from PCSX2

ZZogl:
Added support for configuration and keyboard shortcuts from PCSX2
Added a GLSL backend to replace CG. Like GSdx, it requires OpenGL 4.2 drivers. Only available with PCSX2 self-compilation.

PCSX2 GUI:
Added thread timing information to see the CPU usage in the status bar
Fix multiple frame/box letters sizing.

Enjoy the following videos!

John Papadopoulos

John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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