|
Post by samiam on Oct 31, 2006 19:08:47 GMT -5
BIOS: scph1001.bin Game ID: SLUS-00067 Name: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (US-NTSC) OS: Windows XP SP2 Hardware: 1.8GHz laptop, 512mb RAM Disc image: Bin/Cue pSX version: 1.9
Problem: Approximately 10% of the time the game tries to load something from the CD, it hangs. About half of that time, it recovers after about 5 seconds, but the rest of the time it freezes permanently. It happens frequently when going through the CD-load transition room, but it also happens when going in and out of the menu. Very occasionally, it will freeze upon leaving a save-room, probably because it has to start the music back up again.
On that note, there are also about equally occurring happenings of the music simply failing loop back properly. The game continues, only without music. When it does this, or when it hangs temporarily in a loading section, the chances of it freezing permanently seem to rise drastically.
This is my first attempt at using this emulator, so it could be that either I am doing something wrong or my computer is causing a problem and I haven't realized it. Can anyone else verify this?
Love the program, BTW. ;D
|
|
|
Post by patrickp on Oct 31, 2006 19:28:00 GMT -5
You say "load something from the CD," samiam, then you say you're playing from a "Disc image: Bin/Cue." I think you need to explain a little more what you're doing.
Are you playing from a CD - in which case, is it an original Playstation CD or one you've burned from an image? Or are you playing from an image, in which case, are you playing directly from the image, or are a playing a mounted image as a CD?
I should point out that, if you're using a downloaded image, there's a fair chance it's faulty; also bear in mind that downloading images of Playstation games is most emphatically _not_ supported here, because it's illegal.
Regardless of that, it has to be said that the only way of making sure you get a good Playstation game image is to rip it yourself from a known good original Playstation CD.
And, of course, you should consult the compatibility lists.
|
|
|
Post by samiam on Oct 31, 2006 19:41:59 GMT -5
I did check the compatibility list, but I am aware that a few games seem to go in and out of proper functionality with every pSX release, and I thought that perhaps this one had gone out.
I'm sorry that I used such poor descriptions. I am using an image, and have not tried it with a real CD.
What I meant is, the emulator may freeze anytime it has to load something into its virtual PSX system RAM by accessing the virtual disc. This is the point at which, if I were using a real system, the real drive would be reading something off the real disc. Usually starting to read, in this case. I have played this game on authentic hardware, and I have a pretty good idea of where the loading points are.
The only thing I will say in addition about the game is that my image is quite verifiably non-corrupt. If you don't want reports from people who do not have the original discs in hand, however, I will cease making them.
Thank you
|
|
|
Post by smegforbrain on Oct 31, 2006 20:35:33 GMT -5
The problem here is that this specific issue, the game freezing up for a bit, was a problem with earlier versions of pSX. And then we've gotten a report from only one version saying the problem was no longer a problem. So, I don't want to dismiss it out of hand.
|
|
|
Post by samiam on Oct 31, 2006 20:46:51 GMT -5
At the rate that it stalls and/or freezes, it's not unusual to start playing and go for 10-15 minutes without seeing a single thing out of the ordinary. If a previous tester was in a hurry, he may well have missed it...assuming there is a real problem in the first place
|
|
|
Post by patrickp on Nov 1, 2006 13:29:46 GMT -5
The only thing I will say in addition about the game is that my image is quite verifiably non-corrupt. If you don't want reports from people who do not have the original discs in hand, however, I will cease making them. Thank you Oh no, your report is valuable, samiam, it's just that information about the source can be important for evaluating the results. How do you know your image is "quite verifiably non-corrupt," if you don't mind my asking?
|
|
|
Post by samiam on Nov 1, 2006 18:34:38 GMT -5
I'll tell you, but the explanation would amount to an admission of doing something illegal. If that's all right, I'll give you the details. However, if you don't want me to say such things because allowing that kind talk may compromise the neutrality of this board and emulation project, then I won't. I don't know exactly how things work around here, and I don't know how hawkish Sony is in regard to PSX emulation and piracy talk, so I'll hesitate just a little longer.
I will say this: I didn't download it, and the image was verified upon its ripping.
Of course, if you and/or the forums want to take a personal moral stance against what I'm doing, then I really do respect that. But I don't want to get into an argument about it, either, so just let me know in the most comfortable way possible if I should buzz off or just be hush-hush about it, and I'll do it.
|
|
|
Post by samiam on Nov 1, 2006 19:04:47 GMT -5
Sorry to be posting so many replies, but I was wondering how you would like reports of games that DO work fine. I just tried Harmful Park (SLPS-00498) with a real disk on the same setup, and it seemed to work 100%.
|
|
|
Post by patrickp on Nov 1, 2006 19:12:12 GMT -5
No, that's cool; you're quite right, samiam. You shouldn't bring the forum into disrepute by discussing downloading copyrighted games. And, reading between your lines, it does sound like you've got an image you've been able to verify properly. Edit: and yes, we do want reports of games that work properly, please.
|
|
fbx
New Member
Posts: 3
|
Post by fbx on Nov 3, 2006 16:04:04 GMT -5
Just wanted to confirm the issues with Castlevania SotN here. I have the actual commercial copy, and noticed it was hanging on speach and other sound loading sequences. I made a .ccd image and played that, only to discover the problem became much worse. Music will sometimes stop altogether after the frist loop-point, and dialogue scenes can sometimes hang indefinitely, causing the emulator to have to be shut down.
|
|
|
Post by samiam on Nov 3, 2006 19:02:16 GMT -5
Thanks, fbx. You're right about the way the emulator is more likely to hang when there is voice dialogue. As I'm playing through the game now, many of the dialogues with Maria have taken a good 20 seconds to kick in, and many times the game and emulator will completely freeze.
|
|
|
Post by ssjkakaroto on Nov 4, 2006 23:40:31 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by smegforbrain on Nov 6, 2006 0:17:25 GMT -5
Would you guys mind going back and testing versions v1.6 to 1.8? At last check, the game was reported to work ok for v1.6, but nothing after that until your report. This way we know a bit better whether this was an issue that was actually fixed, and then we've had regression, or something else. And, by this point, if it seems I'm a bit anal about asking people to test older versions of pSX, well, you'll just have to bear with me.
|
|
fbx
New Member
Posts: 3
|
Post by fbx on Nov 8, 2006 3:43:01 GMT -5
Tested 1.6. Problem happened again on frist try. The dialogue scene between Richter and Dracula at the beginning hanged.
Again the hanging problem seems to be much worse when using a disc image as opposed to the real disc.
|
|
|
Post by Shaolian on Nov 8, 2006 14:53:49 GMT -5
pSX 1.8 Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (SLUS-00067) Image (bin/cue) Windows XP Pro SP2 P4 1.8ghz, 1g ram
I encountered the exact same problems playing this game. But when you enabled the command line switch of '-r' (enable event rescheduling), most of the hanging in dialogues, menus, etc. is gone. You get a smoother ride.
But this does not eliminate the music freeze and the dreaded transition room's permanent hang. What I do when it hangs after the transition room is to 'Eject CD' from the top menu of the pSX window. Then 'Insert CD Image', that is you reload your game image. Now, the game will recover from the hang and you'll find yourself coming out from the transition room. But the game graphics would be messed up, so you'll have to reenter the transition room and come back out. This works everytime for me.
The above steps can be done if the game starts to hang indefinitely during a dialogue as well. BTW, the command line switch above can be applied automatically when you use Ultima's pSX Frontend. Hope this helps!
|
|