Drakan: TAG in PCSX2 looks nice
Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2010 4:13 am
Hi all,
Recently, I was finally able to get the PS2 emulator PCSX2 to work on my computer (with the release of 0.9.7) and I have to say that Drakan looks really nice rendered in 1920x1080 with texture filtering enabled instead of in 720x480/640x480 (the native PS2 resolution (which practically could be even lower still; I don't know the actual rendering resolution for this game)) with regular textures! I have included Imageshack links so you can compare for yourselves. The images have not been altered in any way: they are untouched screen dumps from the game running in PCSX2 in fullscreen mode. The first one depicts the game in native PS2 resolution, w/o texture filtering, hardware upscaled to 1920x1080 (my display resolution) and the other one is the emulator enhanced version @ true 1920x1080 (technically, the gfx is actually internally rendered in ~3x (as per my settings) the original resolution and then output @ 1920x1080) with texture filtering on.
Emulating this title in high resolution requires a lot of raw power for the game to run smoothly but I was able to play it without lag all through the game, which was nice. To be more precise, I was actually able to run it @ 120+ FPS most of the times I tried, which can be a big time saver when you're feeling impatient; running the game faster than intended can be nice when you wish to save some time when you have large areas to run through or during saving and loading, etc..
Graphics-wise, Drakan is a lot more enjoyable to me now than it was before. Environments and characters are so much more detailed and crisp, which actually adds a lot to the overall experience, I think. Example at hand: In the screen from the hi-res. version of the game in the emulator you can easily read the text on the Blacksmith's store sign and see individual stones in the distant castle's walls; in the native res. screen you can do neither. [Sure, there are a few graphical bugs/problems with the emulated high res. version when you sit down and play the game as well, but I'd say they are of minor importance when you take the benefits into acount.]
Anyway, this was just meant as a tip from a fan to other fans, nothing else. I thought it'd be of interest, even though many of you may already know of emulation and Drakan:TAG and many of you have also presumably been doing it for some time now. However, it's always nice to have comparison screenshots to illustrate things, so I thought I'd share.
PS. Just a quick viewing tip: Open up the included links in separate tabs in your browsers, zoom to full size and compare by switching back and forth between the images with ctrl+tab. This will make comparison easier.
http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/724/drakan01.png
http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/6560/drakan02.png
Recently, I was finally able to get the PS2 emulator PCSX2 to work on my computer (with the release of 0.9.7) and I have to say that Drakan looks really nice rendered in 1920x1080 with texture filtering enabled instead of in 720x480/640x480 (the native PS2 resolution (which practically could be even lower still; I don't know the actual rendering resolution for this game)) with regular textures! I have included Imageshack links so you can compare for yourselves. The images have not been altered in any way: they are untouched screen dumps from the game running in PCSX2 in fullscreen mode. The first one depicts the game in native PS2 resolution, w/o texture filtering, hardware upscaled to 1920x1080 (my display resolution) and the other one is the emulator enhanced version @ true 1920x1080 (technically, the gfx is actually internally rendered in ~3x (as per my settings) the original resolution and then output @ 1920x1080) with texture filtering on.
Emulating this title in high resolution requires a lot of raw power for the game to run smoothly but I was able to play it without lag all through the game, which was nice. To be more precise, I was actually able to run it @ 120+ FPS most of the times I tried, which can be a big time saver when you're feeling impatient; running the game faster than intended can be nice when you wish to save some time when you have large areas to run through or during saving and loading, etc..
Graphics-wise, Drakan is a lot more enjoyable to me now than it was before. Environments and characters are so much more detailed and crisp, which actually adds a lot to the overall experience, I think. Example at hand: In the screen from the hi-res. version of the game in the emulator you can easily read the text on the Blacksmith's store sign and see individual stones in the distant castle's walls; in the native res. screen you can do neither. [Sure, there are a few graphical bugs/problems with the emulated high res. version when you sit down and play the game as well, but I'd say they are of minor importance when you take the benefits into acount.]
Anyway, this was just meant as a tip from a fan to other fans, nothing else. I thought it'd be of interest, even though many of you may already know of emulation and Drakan:TAG and many of you have also presumably been doing it for some time now. However, it's always nice to have comparison screenshots to illustrate things, so I thought I'd share.
PS. Just a quick viewing tip: Open up the included links in separate tabs in your browsers, zoom to full size and compare by switching back and forth between the images with ctrl+tab. This will make comparison easier.
http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/724/drakan01.png
http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/6560/drakan02.png