PCSX2 is a Playstation 2 emulator for Windows and Linux. It was started by the team behind PCSX (an emulator for the original PlayStation) back in 2002, and as of early 2012 development is still active. The emulator achieved playable speeds only by mid-2007 and subsequent versions have improved speed and compatibility making it both the ultimate solution for PS2 emulation and the instrument to keep and preserve the PS2 legacy in the modern world. Though not yet perfect the program can successfully emulate most commercial PS2 games at playable speeds and good visuals (often better than the original PS2).
The emulator uses plugin architecture making it possible to expand its capabilities by installing additional plugins. Although the plugins are numbered and unlikely to increase their quantity in the near future the plugin approach is still solid - it's possible to change to new updated versions of the plugins without changing the version of the main program and vice versa. As of late 2010 the program runs on both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows OSes and uses no more than 2 cores on multicore CPUs (1 core is used for the main emulation purposes and the second is for plugins' purposes like rendering graphics, output sounds or PAD works). While the increase of number of useful cores may happen in the future it still remains unknown when this will happen because the division of the general emulation thread into two or more is a very hard and complex task - the original PS2 hardware has multiple CPUs and the correct timing between emulated CPUs is complicated enough without further dividing every CPU into more than one thread.
Mac OS X is not officially supported but you can still run PCSX2 under it.
Current PCSX2 notable features:
- Recompilers for Emotion Engine (EE), Vector Unit 0 (VU0) and Vector Unit 1 (VU1). They are used to translate some parts of the original PS2 machine code into x86 machine code, speeding up emulation. Due to the fact that PS2 machine code is an entirely different language from x86 machine code these recompilers are probably the most complicated parts in PCSX2.
- Dual core support allows PCSX2 to use up to 2 CPU cores speeding up the emulator significantly.
- Proper SPU2 emulation helps reproduce PS2 audio or even enhanced audio on the PC which is not a trivial task considering the lack of documentation and the fact that it has to synchronize with many other emulated processors.
- Full gamepad support makes it possible to emulate every Dual Shock 2 feature.
- Patch system to create cheats easily. It can also be used to skip code where emulation is still broken (which ultimately can make the game playable). This feature is quite user-friendly and easy to use.
- Additional optimizations (hacks) to speed up emulation. You will be able to play certain games on lower-end machines thanks to this feature.
- Fully working memcard support.
- Fully working IPU support responsible for FMV - video cutscenes should mostly run correctly.
GUI:
* New, threaded GUI using wxWidgets.
* New menus, for improved usability and faster configuration.
* Convenient Memory Card editor.
* On the fly pause and resume, perfectly stable, safe and fast.
* On the fly setting switching and even plugin switching.
* Powerful new configuration that is more user friendly with its first time wizard, reset to default buttons and a global presets system.
* A plethora of new options that make playing games more fun!
* All options have tooltips explaining what each of them do.
* Comes translated, with many languages to select from.
* Compatible with Aero Glass and Windows eye candy.
* Looks and works great on Linux, too!
Core:
* Entire emulation core has been overhauled. Many components are rewritten.* Countless code generation and runtime execution bugs fixed.
* Added microVU, an improved VU0/VU1/COP2 recompiler.
* New VIF recompiler
* Multi-threaded GS rewrite: Faster and more stable than in 0.9.6.
* Better BIOS splash screen skip method, better ELF support, host fs support.
* New Game database detects the game you run, displays compatibility info, and auto applies special game fixes/patches if needed.
Plugins:
* GSdx is faster, more stable and has more configuration options than ever before.* SPU2-X is the preferred SPU2 plugin now.
It has matured into almost completely emulating all the SPU2 quirks, making many more games work!
(And it sounds nice, too Smile )
Download Bios and Plugin from here
And download 7 zip from here (to extract it)
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