PSX5Central
Playstation/Gaming Discussions => PS3 Discussion => Topic started by: Ryu on March 19, 2001, 04:39:49 PM
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This is a column dedicated to the most overlooked feature of the Playstation 2: Backwards Compatibility. Although we all have our sleek black Playstation 2\'s with its plethora of awesome games and sweet graphics, we also hold the key to one of the largest videogame libraries ever created totaling well over 400 games in North America alone including some of the greatest games ever devised. Each week, on Monday no less, this column will bring you an old classic worth picking up at a cheap price for your PS2/PSX that\'s definitely worth exploring one more time. Now, on with it...
This week (03-19-01):
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Backstory:
2D, a phrase that will echo in gamers ears forever as the age when game characters and backgrounds moved from being built by a few rectangular blocks and dots on a screen into a true art form brought to life only by the artists and animators who painstakingly animated every frame of movement to bring you a smooth and life-like character that each and every one of us could identify with. Not only did these characters move super smoothly in multiple ways, but they also now had faces that we could all recognize and see that gave the characters that extra spice of videogame life. The biggest example of this rebirth in videogame graphics, as far as beauty and true artistic movement are concerned, is Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
You play as Alucard, a vampire hunter of sorts destined to fight the king of all vampires, Dracula. Oddly enough, you yourself are a part vampire seeking out Richter Belmont, descendant of Simon Belmont the first hero of the Castlevania games, and find out just why he dissapeared. Consequently, your entire search takes place in the Dracula castle which appears but once every century.
How it\'s played:
Gameply wise, this game is a dream. There is many weapons you can acquire and many abilities you can obtain to access new areas and expand the tons of moves you can do as well. The game is also incredibally long taking anywhere between 20 or more hours to complete. Abilities such as turning into a bat, or turning into mist are just but some of the different takes on the game Konami has opted for to increase it\'s beautiful style of gameplay. Hidden doors can be revealed, secrets can be sought out and special weapons can be obtained as well as the ability to use Richter Belmont himself. In addition, Alucard also has a load of magic spells he can perform by pressing the buttons in specific motions. Fans of the Street Fighter series will be able to relate to these moves rather quickly.
Playstation 2 Enhancements:
Turning on the texture smoothing and increased read speed is, unfortunately, pointless. The game itself already has pretty speedy load times in the first place and the 3D textures in the game are scarce to be sure since most of it is done in 2D. Using the features is pretty pointless with this title, but that doesn\'t hold true for all the others.
Overall:
The music and sound effects are amazing, the atmosphere is superb, the graphics are rich and smooth, and the gameplay is to-die-for. I\'d pick up this game in a heartbeat if I didn\'t own it already since it was released for the first time on the PSX long ago. What more can be asked for from a "dieing" graphics format in this 3D captivated world? How about a sequel that\'s equally as stunning for the Playstation 2 using those 2D/3D psuedo backgrounds utilized in Marvel Vs Capcom 2? Gamers can dream can\'t they?
Price: $19.99
Availability: High, PSX Greatest Hit Title.
Where to look: Pretty much in any bargain bin or on retail shelves with that green stupid "greatest hit" logo on the side bar.
Next week: Ape Escape
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Originally posted by Ryu
This is a column dedicated to the most overlooked feature of the Playstation 2: Backwards Compatibility. Although we all have our sleek black Playstation 2\'s with its plethora of awesome games and sweet graphics, we also hold the key to one of the largest videogame libraries ever created totaling well over 400 games in North America alone including some of the greatest games ever devised. Each week, on Monday no less, this column will bring you an old classic worth picking up at a cheap price for your PS2/PSX that\'s definitely worth exploring one more time. Now, on with it...
This week (03-19-01):
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Backstory:
2D, a phrase that will echo in gamers ears forever as the age when game characters and backgrounds moved from being built by a few rectangular blocks and dots on a screen into a true art form brought to life only by the artists and animators who painstakingly animated every frame of movement to bring you a smooth and life-like character that each and every one of us could identify with. Not only did these characters move super smoothly in multiple ways, but they also now had faces that we could all recognize and see that gave the characters that extra spice of videogame life. The biggest example of this rebirth in videogame graphics, as far as beauty and true artistic movement are concerned, is Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
You play as Alucard, a vampire hunter of sorts destined to fight the king of all vampires, Dracula. Oddly enough, you yourself are a part vampire seeking out Richter Belmont, descendant of Simon Belmont the first hero of the Castlevania games, and find out just why he dissapeared. Consequently, your entire search takes place in the Dracula castle which appears but once every century.
How it\'s played:
Gameply wise, this game is a dream. There is many weapons you can acquire and many abilities you can obtain to access new areas and expand the tons of moves you can do as well. The game is also incredibally long taking anywhere between 20 or more hours to complete. Abilities such as turning into a bat, or turning into mist are just but some of the different takes on the game Konami has opted for to increase it\'s beautiful style of gameplay. Hidden doors can be revealed, secrets can be sought out and special weapons can be obtained as well as the ability to use Richter Belmont himself. In addition, Alucard also has a load of magic spells he can perform by pressing the buttons in specific motions. Fans of the Street Fighter series will be able to relate to these moves rather quickly.
Playstation 2 Enhancements:
Turning on the texture smoothing and increased read speed is, unfortunately, pointless. The game itself already has pretty speedy load times in the first place and the 3D textures in the game are scarce to be sure since most of it is done in 2D. Using the features is pretty pointless with this title, but that doesn\'t hold true for all the others.
Overall:
The music and sound effects are amazing, the atmosphere is superb, the graphics are rich and smooth, and the gameplay is to-die-for. I\'d pick up this game in a heartbeat if I didn\'t own it already since it was released for the first time on the PSX long ago. What more can be asked for from a "dieing" graphics format in this 3D captivated world? How about a sequel that\'s equally as stunning for the Playstation 2 using those 2D/3D psuedo backgrounds utilized in Marvel Vs Capcom 2? Gamers can dream can\'t they?
Price: $19.99
Availability: High, PSX Greatest Hit Title.
Where to look: Pretty much in any bargain bin or on retail shelves with that green stupid "greatest hit" logo on the side bar.
Next week: Ape Escape
Brilliant idea. CastleVania: SOTN was an excellent game. One of the first games I tried with the PS2. I was rather dissapointed to see it offered nothing really. As for Ape Escape, I did see some nice improved textures...But, as anyone knows Ape Escape load time was also rather fast.
:)
Castlevania: SOTN and Ape Escape are two of the greatest PSone games ever. They was also maybe two of the most over-looked by the so called \'mainstream\' gamer..
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I still play games like Air Combat (damn that\'s an old game),G-Police and Gex the Gecko on my PS.2 not forgetting the GT series
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Well, next week will be Ape Escape so I\'ll talk about that in the same vein that I did with Castlevania above, but I\'m open to suggestions the weeks following that. Any comments or suggestions on how to improve this column would be nice. Please, constructive crticism only. :)
PS: thanks for the praise clip, much appreciated :)
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Out of all the games I\'ve tried(alot, 30+) the one game that seems to look the best with texture smoothing on has to be SD2. It look a helluva lot better. Try it for yourself.
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I *still* enjoy booting Metal Gear Solid up on the PS2 with the smoothing feature on. My lord, but that is a beautiful game (especially considering, what, its like 3 years old now?!). The first time I booted up on PS2 with smoothing I couldn\'t even make it alive to the elevator shaft at the beginning...just in too much awe looking around the joint. W-O-W!
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The texture effects are definitely overlooked as one of the console\'s features for the backwards compatibility and it\'s really too bad. Most people don\'t even know that the graphics CAN be enhanced at all. So much for the mainstream gamer.
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Suggestions huh...?
How about..Suikoden.
Thats a great game.
I would say Final Fantasy Tactics, but thats pointless.
Suikoden on the other hand was a Brilliant RPG that didnt sell as well as it should have.
You could also do Klonoa 1.
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here is a ps1 game that got no hype and was a really good game in my opinion, it was called
Galerians
i still play this game quit often its so cool, and i also play Dragon Ball GT
yes i have this game
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I remember wanting to get Galerians when it first came out, but I never had the money.
Now, you cant find it anywhere.
They are making a part 2 I heard.
I thought DragonBall GT was good.
It got a bad rap though.
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Soul Reaver also benefits from the smoothing feature.
I tried Warhawk with it, to no avail. Ain\'t nothing going on there! Also, Warhawk had non-existant load times, so the features go to waste on it!
Still one of my all-time fav\'s though! :)
Speaking of WH.......WHERE\'S MY WARHAWK2?
Hehe, just kidding!
But seriously, where is it??
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I think Fear effect looks much better on the PS2. I have tried others however FE seems to benefit the most.
________
Recall wellbutrin (http://www.classactionsettlements.org/lawsuit/wellbutrin/)
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The 60fps Ridge Racer that came with RR Type 4 looks a crapload better with smoothing turned on. Thats a cool game.
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Final Fantasy 9 looks pretty good with the texture smoothing on too. It kind of seems like Squaresoft made the game with that in mind.
Originally posted by unknown
and i also play Dragon Ball GT
yes i have this game
... You poor soul.
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I will not do any Final Fantasy titles, unless it is of course the FF anthology, which has a few small glitches when used on the PS2. All the three Final Fantasy titles, 7 8 and 9, will be re-released on the PS2 with improved graphics and whatnot so putting them on a backwards compatibility monday would be pointless.
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Vagrant Story is by far the most improved looking game for the PSX with the texture smoothing on. The speed loading doesn\'t do much because I think there\'s only like 3 seconds loading MAX between each room or dungeon. A lot of times you get close ups on character\'s faces and bodies and the smoothing really removes the pixelated look. What a wonderful game anyway though...
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my thanks go out to Ryu for yet another wonderful review. im sure i speak for everone when i say i really enjoy your reviews
p.s. i can only play FF9 with texture smoothing on, it makes a HUGE difference...at least it does for me
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I loaded Silent Hill tonight with Disc speed access on, and I noticed the voice was goin\' like 50 times faster. I checked to see if my disc was clean. It was. It worked perfect in the Psone. Anyone else have this "problem"?
Still, for the most part the mainstream gamer is a total idiot (no offense) which is why the extra PS2 features go un-noticed.
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I use it all the time...I play Twisted Metal 2 again because there aren\'t any load times, and a BIG improvement in the textures of the cars.
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I loaded Silent Hill tonight with Disc speed access on, and I noticed the voice was goin\' like 50 times faster. I checked to see if my disc was clean. It was. It worked perfect in the Psone. Anyone else have this "problem"?
My metal gear works great with the texture smoothing, but if I touch the disc speed, the textures flicker and dissapear into the ground on many occassions. Some games just weren\'t meant to handle the disk speed feature, but it all depends.
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Haven\'t had any problems with my MGS. It runs fine in both the Disc Speed and the Smooth Textures. You\'re right though...some games just were\'t meant to be tampered with...:)
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I`ve had problems with Pocket Fighter. If I turn on speed loading the graphics screw up something horrid.
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Haven\'t had any problems with my MGS. It runs fine in both the Disc Speed and the Smooth Textures. You\'re right though...some games just were\'t meant to be tampered with...
It\'s most apparent for me in the snow area just after the first elevator to the surface in the very beginning. You know, just after you see the Hind D take off to deal with the Americans diversionary F-16\'s. That area, just before you enter the vents and then the tank hangar, is full of glitches and texture defects with the disc speed up and I have seen the effect on several different PS2s with several different copies of MGS.
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Hi,
Are there any PS1 Star Trek games worth getting?
Ace
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Actually, yes. There is only one Star Trek games on the PSX, and it\'s the only one worth getting for that matter. The game is called Star Trek: Invasion. It\'s not your classic Trek game where you command high profile starships, or bulky large Galaxy or Sovereign class starships either, but rather small "new-age" 1-man attack craft designed for all sorts of missions. It\'s sort of like Colony Wars with the Trek treatment. Here\'s a review if you\'re interested:
http://psx.ign.com/reviews/14068.html?2301.79.1
Hope that helped.
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Haven\'t gotten any major screwy glitches in that area. It\'s just all been good to me. Maybe there\'s something wrong with mine...:) I\'m not doubting you though, because you sound like you know what you\'re talking about...
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Originally posted by Ryu
My metal gear works great with the texture smoothing, but if I touch the disc speed, the textures flicker and dissapear into the ground on many occassions. Some games just weren\'t meant to handle the disk speed feature, but it all depends.
I had the same prob...
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I first tested it with the fight against the Ninja and the disc speed and the texture smoothing were great, but as soon as I restarted my game from scratch and walked off the elevator and into the snow, the glitches were huge. In any case, it works great with some games and barely at allw ith others. In particular, as already mentioned, Vagrant Story has the best graphical improvement. Anyways, back to my nostalgia with Mega Man 8!
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Originally posted by Living-In-Clip
I loaded Silent Hill tonight with Disc speed access on, and I noticed the voice was goin\' like 50 times faster. I checked to see if my disc was clean. It was. It worked perfect in the Psone. Anyone else have this "problem?
actually i have had that problem living-in-clip, trippy aint it, they sound really fast, iwas like wtf!? i though it was the game, i didnt think it was a glitch, guess it is
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Some game sequences just weren\'t meant for the new effects provided by the PS2 and sony even states this. It\'s not your PS2, it\'s the technology in general. However, I hope that they can improve the hardware fixes even more with some new driver updates, if that\'s even possible.
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i hope they can as well, hey ryu or anyone that has MGS, i am going to buy it cause of what i have read, does it really look better witht he texture smoothing??, if so how much better rate from 1 thrue 10, 1 as cant even notice, and 10 as in very noticable, i really wana buy this game, and even if the texture smoothing isna ll that, im remembering how awesome that game was, im gonna get it this weekend.
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Thanks for the link Ryu,
Sounds like a good game.
Ace
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Well, with Sony\'s recent settlement and agreement with Connectix maybe we\'ll see faster and better upgrades to the PSX backwards compatibility. Here\'s hoping for an optional "high resolution" mode.
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There are way less glitches in MGS when you have the texture smoothing on. More objects stay smooth and together (not separated and continuosly moving). I love this game, and it\'s probably one of the best games I\'ve ever played. I laughed, I cried, I threw the controller at the screen, I was shocked, I was dumbfounded. This game kicks some major a**, which is why I\'m so looking forward to MGS2 - Sons of Liberty at the end of this year. On a scale of 1 - 10 on enhanced texturing, I\'d give it an 8 or 9. You\'d have to play without the texturing first to really notice the improvements. You should buy this game just on the fact it\'s one of the best games on PlayStation. Konami worked on this game since the first release of the PlayStation. It\'s worth every penny...
~Peace Out~
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i hope they can as well, hey ryu or anyone that has MGS, i am going to buy it cause of what i have read, does it really look better witht he texture smoothing??, if so how much better rate from 1 thrue 10, 1 as cant even notice, and 10 as in very noticable, i really wana buy this game, and even if the texture smoothing isna ll that, im remembering how awesome that game was, im gonna get it this weekend.
Everyone should own this game no matter what (people who hate it withstanding of course) but for 20 bucks, how can anyone resist? Anyways, on a scale of 1 to 10, i\'d give it a 7. It\'s fairly noticeable, not as stunning of a transformation as say Vagrant Story, but it\'s noticable and much improved nonetheless.
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thanks guy, i really wanted ot know, even if it didnt make much of a difference i would still get it, i was remembering when you have to sneak thrue in the begining, and i thougt.. my god that was so cool, i need it.
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Playstation 2 Enhancements:
Turning on the texture smoothing and increased read speed is, unfortunately, pointless. The game itself already has pretty speedy load times in the first place and the 3D textures in the game are scarce to be sure since most of it is done in 2D. Using the features is pretty pointless with this title, but that doesn\'t hold true for all the others.
I just wondering because when i played this game, there is this part where I turned into a wolf and start running really, really fast pace and there are too many special effects and monster show on screen. The game slow down like from 30 fps to 10fps or sumthing like that. So if the ps2 loading time could fix it to at a stable 30fps.
thanks.
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I just wondering because when i played this game, there is this part where I turned into a wolf and start running really, really fast pace and there are too many special effects and monster show on screen. The game slow down like from 30 fps to 10fps or sumthing like that. So if the ps2 loading time could fix it to at a stable 30fps.
thanks.
Unfortunately, no. The increased disc speeds only improve load times, not slow down. If there was slow down in any game on the PSX, then there will be slow down on the PS2. Generally, slowdown happens when ram becomes limited. Resources are allocated appropriately for all of the games for a limited amount of things to happen on screen, if it ets too cluttered, ram becomes short and the slow down begins. There is no more ram allocated for the backwards compatibility on the ps2 as there was for the PSX.
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This looks like it turned into a texture smoothing thread.
I hope this doesn\'t get overlooked but Ryu, you absolutely HAVE to do Square\'s brilliant Einhander for a fuure backwards compatibility monday. This is one of the best damn 2 d shooters for the Playstation period. The graphics, the gameplay everything.
I mean some of the attacks you\'ll be dodging in this game along with the bosses that you\'ll be faced with are absolutely mindblowing. The game will have you sitting in awe and wondering how the hell you just went through the insane barage of fighters the game sends at you.
And the bosses, oh the bosses, thay are absolutely classic.
You gotta do it man! :)
Show these people the beauty of Einhander.
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There was massive slowdowns on Twisted Metal 2 for PlayStation when the screen got cluttered with missiles and vehicles, but not on the PS2. It ran smoother than ever. There was still slowdowns, but not as much...
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Well, it all depends on the situation. Duplicating the exact same scene more then once in a videogame that causes massive slowdown because of the action happening is pretty tough, especially in a game as random and as free flowing as twisted metal 2. In any case, slowdown is slowdown and for it to happen in any game is not uncommon. The PS2 was meant to play your PSX games, not make them play and look as good as ps2 games.
As for Einhander, I\'m taking all suggestion into consideration. Einhander in particular is more of a bargain bin niche title then anything else. However, it is pretty common on shelves nowadays, but I want to touch on the games that anyone and everyone can get into first. Ape Escape, for example, which will be next weeks topic is a title that rarely got the credit it deserved, but was a game that could cater to any gamer. Platformers are so incredibally mainstream that it\'s hard not to like this game. Besides, who doesn\'t love monkeys? Einhander may make it to the column eventually, but I don\'t think it will happen anytime soon. I\'ll announce the next title when I finish writing the column on Monday, but thanks for the suggestion anyways, it won\'t be left out.
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seeing as how i this is a backward compatability thread i decided to post this here, maybe someone has had this happen to them as well, i had another glitch, but this time its with THPS2, i found that i couldnt use the ps2 controller with it, it turn out that if i jump i wont stop jumping, i dont know why, but it like uncontrollable jumping, so i unpluged my ps2 control and pluged in my ps1 control no problems after that, tried it again with the ps2 control, and the same thing, has anyone else had this prob???
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Jiggs where you from in Colorado?
Fort Collins here
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Okay, SILENT HILL has major issues on my PS2. I don\'t know what the heck is wrong. Well, if I play it with smoothing it adds snow in the trees of the town that I guess for some reason didn\'t process on the PSX. If I play it with speed the voices go way fast, another understandable problem.
But what I don\'t get is that if I have any of the features on at all or both of them turned off the fogging does not work well. For some reason I guess it starts fogging further away then it did for PSX and you can see all of the major pop-in. It is so frickin annoying. I figured that it was just the speed loading so I turned everything COMPLETELY OFF!!! Still had the problem. I go and play it on my PSX and it\'s fine. Just the way it\'s supposed to be. Anyone else have this problem?
And on another note, I can only play using the smoothing because if you put the speed loading on for some reason the cinemas in the game run skippy. Perfectly smooth with it off though.
Overall I love backwards compatibility. Especially since a week ago my younger brother just broke my PSX. He basically tripped and ended falling on the ground and my mom ran over my PSX and his knee (he\'s fine by the way). Kinda sux but atleast I still have my PSX. Only if it wasn\'t for that dang Silent Hill not working right...
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Unfortunately, no. The increased disc speeds only improve load times, not slow down. If there was slow down in any game on the PSX, then there will be slow down on the PS2. Generally, slowdown happens when ram becomes limited. Resources are allocated appropriately for all of the games for a limited amount of things to happen on screen, if it ets too cluttered, ram becomes short and the slow down begins. There is no more ram allocated for the backwards compatibility on the ps2 as there was for the PSX.
the ps2 have 4 mb of vram. So does that help? I heard psx have like 1 mb of vram...but sony only gives two option for ps2 for psx enhancement, speed and texture...so...it sucks.
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Originally posted by know-it-all-wanna-be
the ps2 have 4 mb of vram. So does that help? I heard psx have like 1 mb of vram...but sony only gives two option for ps2 for psx enhancement, speed and texture...so...it sucks.
.............???
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EviscerationX
what i meant is that the ps2 have 4 mb of vram. The reason that ryu told me was because the psx have only 1 mb of vram, that\' s why frame rate drop thus causing slowdown when there is too many function going on than the vram can handle (like many character show on screen or too many special effects.)
The ps2 have have 4 mb of vram, meaning 4 more than psx. So, if only sony included the refresh rate option for the psx enhancement on the ps2, then there probably won\'t be much slowdown.
remember, ps2 have two enhancement for psx (texture and speed.) but no constant framrate...
hope that help