ePSXe v1.7.0 released!

[Foxik]

Finally! After almost five years of waiting new version of ePSXe released!

Changelog:
Multiple changes has been done in the Pad support.
The internal SPU plugin has been updated to the 1.7.0 version.
The iso support code has been rewritten.
The MDEC decoder has been rewritten.
A new version of the Pete's Software Plugin is included.
The XA/CDDA support has been worked in this new version.
Many things have been fixed in the cd-rom decoder and the core

I hope pSX 1.14 will be released soon, too

[Sune]

Thanks for the heads-up. Additional info from the readme:

ePSXe v1.7.0, released on 24.05.2008

- Multiple changes has been done in the Pad support. This version supports
the Axis LRX, axis with +/-/full ranges, and a important bug in vibration
support has been fixed avoiding crashes. In the sio emulation section,
this version includes better DualShock protocol support, including
vibration in more games, and adding 2 new pad types, "DualAnalog" and
"Negcon". Finally thanks to the new Pete's gpu plugins, a new type of
"visual vibration" has been included, shaking the image when the
game triggers a vibration effect. (Note: if you are using epsxe 1.6.0
or older, it could be necessary to reconfigure the pad plugin in this
new version).

- The internal SPU plugin has been updated to the 1.7.0 version. This
version includes new effects like better envelope, noise, interpolation,
frequency modulation, reverb and better synchronization between the core
and the sound. Thanks to this last fix, the following games work better now:
Metal Gear Solid, Valkyrie Profile, Eithea. Besides the spu API now
includes support for CDDA playing, getting better CDDA sound and core
synchronization, and compatibility with Vib Ribbon.

- In this new version, the iso support code has been rewritten. Now it supports
the formats BIN/CUE, BIN/CCD and MDS/MDF (and minor fixes to ISO/NRG
support). Besides, due to the changes in the internal spu plugin, now
the CDDA sound is supported even when you run a iso game.
Advice!!!: The files BIN/CUE, BIN/CCD must have the same name and
different extension or the games will not be loaded

- The MDEC decoder has been rewritten in the new version to get
new games playable suach as Area 51, Novastorm, Eggs of Steel
and Maximum Force. It also fixes other minor bugs in other games
like Rayman and Metal Gear Solid SM.

- In 1.7.0, thanks to Pete's help and his gpu plugins, the framelimit
management has been changed. Now the framelimit is always
enabled on startup and it can be toggled on/off with the F4 key.
It is recommended that you update your GPU plugins to the
version that will be released around the epsxe release date.

- In this new version, a new version of the Pete's Software Plugin is
included in the plugins directory with the name "gpu.data. With the
F7 key it is possible change on the fly between the selected gpu
plugin and that gpu soft plugin. The software plugin "gpu.dat" can
be configured in the GPU plugin configuration screen with the 3
bottom buttons.

- The XA/CDDA support has been worked in this new version, fixing sound
problems in the following games: Gamera 2000, The Putter Golf, Silverload,
The Firemen 2 Pete & Danny, Iron & Blood - Warriors of Ravenloft,
Chronicles of the Sword.

- Fixes to the CD-Rom decoder and the core, which made at least 50 more games
playable like, for example, Brigandine, Need for Speed 1, Harry Potter I&II,
Danger Girl, Wacky Races, Kidou Keisatsu Patlabor, Shadow Madness,
London Seirei Tantei-Dan, Monsters SA, Equestrian Showcase, Black Down,
Paca Paca Passion 1/2/special, This is football 2, Formula 1 EA 2000,
Winnie the Pooh, Formula one 99/2000/2001/arcade, Gegere No Kitarou,
Konohana - True Report, Yukyu Gensokyoku 3 - Perpetual Blue,
Tama - Adventurous Ball In Giddy Labyrinth, Future Cop LAP, Virus 2000,
Spot goes to Hollywood, Pop'n music disney Tunes, Cosmic Race,
Super Gals Kotubiran, Koran Karon, WWF in your house, Tales of Fandom,
Transformers best of wars, Simple 1500 vol57 - the maze, Initial D,
Jounetsu Nekketsu Athletes, Rise of Robots 2: Resurrecion,
Tora Tora Tora, Victory Boxing Championship Edition, Final Fantasy 4,
Vampire Hunter D and others.

- Note: for information about compatibility and games's configuration,
it is recommended that you visit the "Playstation Datacenter" at
psxdata.snesorama.us/. We want to thank Gladiator who has
been a very important help in betatesting the new version.

[Foxik]

Be sure to check Pete's homepage and download an updated OpenGL2 PSX GPU v2.9

[patrickp]

It's not out for Linux yet.

And if you think setting up ePSXe and configuring it in Windows is a pane, you haven't tried it in Linux.

That wasn't a typo BTW. Windows is a pane...

[Gamesoul Master]

Hmm... lucky how shortly after my complaint about the plugins being outdated, I see there are now some updated ones to go along with this new (and hopefully superior to both prior) versions of ePSXe. Obviously unrelated, but I think I'll grab all the new stuff and see if things run any better for me.

Of course, with my luck, this damn thing will run *worse* than the last two releases, plugins included. I suppose I'll put aside any possible pessimism though and just give this thing a test run...

[Sune]

ePSXe has Pete's Soft GPU built-in now, pretty cool.

If you press F7 while the emulator is running, you can toggle on the fly between the Soft GPU and whatever other GPU plug-in you're running.

It's fun to see the difference between the OGL2 plug-in with everything on max and the soft GPU.

[Gamesoul Master]

Gah... I should've figured. The new version of the emulator and plugin does not seem to address the problems I've been encountering in FFT at all. Still getting a lot of frames being skipped with frameskipping, and low framerates in many areas when it's off. And the background on the world map still blacks out randomly half the time. This last one especially, after all these years, should've been something relatively easy to fix for a game that is quite popular.

Well... maybe there are some improvements elsewhere (like Koudelka as hinted in their update before the release).

[Deleted]

Well, this certainly is interesting. Though I can't say that there is a lot of testing that I want to do, it's nice to see some more action in the psx emu front.

[smegforbrain]

I'm still debating whether to even give this version of ePSXe a try. After all, the reason pSX became so great so quickly is the distinct lack of plugins you have to screw around with just to get a game loading, much less your entire collection.

[Sune]

There's been lots of fixes to the built-in sound and CD emulation.

I remember having to change the sound and CD settings all the time to get my games working properly - the most common problems I had with with ePSXe was video and audio skipping and especially not syncing properly, or problems with CD reading.

So hopefully there's less to fiddle with this time around.

Though, one thing I noticed immediately is that the sample playback sound quality of the built-in sound emulation is not as good as it is in pSX - and there's no way to configure it! So here's where I would actually like to have some boxes to tick..

S

[zollex]

Now "Kamen rider" works with full sound!

[ouch]

Oh yeah the plugin got updated to 1.18b because of the crash from 1.18 gpu.........




That's about it..........

[hanman]

well, i had to give this a shot, and while it is pretty, i was instantly reminded of why i stopped using it in the first place: the amount of time it takes to setup and tweak settings.

therefore, long live pSX!

ePSXe will remain on my hard drive only for the rare instance that it plays a specific game better than pSX. the only game that comes to mind fitting this description is Brave Fencer Musashi, and that's only when played from an image instead of the actual CD.

[patrickp]

Yes, ePSXe was never as good at playing games from CD as it was playing from images - unlike pSX, which does both equally well.