Suggestions for ports #3 - Pi5 edition

TPR

@sugarfree Is there a current walkthrough on how to get AetherSX2 installed on the Pi 5 or an updated scriptmodule? I'm about to do this myself on my build.

ExarKunIv

@TPR you install it from my GitHub collection RetroPie extras

When you go to my get home file the instructions and install it

From there you can select which of the script modules to put into retropie setup if you want them all you can do them all if yours only certain ones you want then you can pick and choose those

From there you install it like anything else

Do not edit the config file

All you do is find a good bias file the ones I've had working or posted above I believe place it into the BIOS / PS2 folder

Make sure you have the kernel8 edit done in your config.txt

And That's about it

TPR

@TPR Oh awesome. I was just looking at that repository the other day for something else, didn't even notice the PS2 core was in there. That's great though! I'll give it a try tomorrow. Thank you!

TPR

@sugarfree said in Suggestions for ports #3 - Pi5 edition:

@DTEAM
The PS2 BIOS files that I used are:

ps2-0230a-20080220.bin CRC32: 286897c2
ps2-0230a-20080220.mec CRC32: 054a6ec2
ps2-0230a-20080220.nvm CRC32: 57210b91

I can find the .bin file but I cannot find the .mec or the ,nvm file anywhere. I know you can't post them here but can you at least point me in the right direction? I can literally find every other file online but those two. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!

ExarKunIv

@TPR unless it comes up saying that it needs a different bios, the ones you found should just work fine

im using ps2-0230e-20080220.bin and its working for me.
you dont need to find the exact ones he has listed. those are just the ones he got.

there are a bunch of different bios files for the PS2, so some will work, and other have not.
i have not had the time to go through them all and list the ones that work and dont

TPR

@ExarKunIv said in Suggestions for ports #3 - Pi5 edition:

@TPR unless it comes up saying that it needs a different bios, the ones you found should just work fine

im using ps2-0230e-20080220.bin and its working for me.
you dont need to find the exact ones he has listed. those are just the ones he got.

there are a bunch of different bios files for the PS2, so some will work, and other have not.
i have not had the time to go through them all and list the ones that work and dont

Gotcha. Sorry looking at the post from @sugarfree above, I thought you needed all of those bios files to work. I most certainly have ps2-0230e-20080220.bin with the proper crc and in the right place:

/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/ps2

but I can't get the games to load. It just keeps kicking me back to es.

I've got kernel8 in my config and I've gone through the process to setup the core from the module in your repository so I'm not sure what else I'm missing. runcommand log only tells me this:

X.Org X Server 1.21.1.7
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Current Operating System: Linux retropie 6.6.28+rpt-rpi-2712 #1 SMP PREEMPT Debian 1:6.6.28-1+rpt1 (2024-04-22) aarch64
Kernel command line: reboot=w coherent_pool=1M 8250.nr_uarts=1 pci=pcie_bus_safe snd_bcm2835.enable_compat_alsa=0 snd_bcm2835.enable_hdmi=1 smsc95xx.macaddr=D8:3A:DD:B4:9A:AC vc_mem.mem_base=0x3fc00000 vc_mem.mem_size=0x40000000 console=ttyAMA10,115200 console=tty3 root=PARTUUID=5ecf2855-02 rootfstype=ext4 fsck.repair=yes rootwait cfg80211.ieee80211_regdom=US quiet loglevel=3 consoleblank=0
xorg-server 2:21.1.7-3+rpt2+deb12u7 (https://www.debian.org/support)
Current version of pixman: 0.42.2
Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
to make sure that you have the latest version.
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
(++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/home/pi/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log", Time: Tue Aug 20 13:49:29 2024
(==) Using config directory: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d"
(==) Using system config directory "/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d"
Set mode 1920x1080@60.00Hz on HDMI-1

Executing (via xinit): /opt/retropie/emulators/aethersx2/AetherSX2-v1.5-3606/usr/bin/aethersx2 -nogui /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/ps2/Shinobi.iso

/dev/shm/retropie_xinitrc: line 9: 5828 Segmentation fault /opt/retropie/emulators/aethersx2/AetherSX2-v1.5-3606/usr/bin/aethersx2 -nogui "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/ps2/Shinobi.iso"
xinit: connection to X server lost

waiting for X server to shut down (II) Server terminated successfully (0). Closing log file.

TPR

@ExarKunIv Nevermind. Just got it to load. I saw the note above about the kernel8 line being BEFORE the CM4 line and I changed that and it did the trick!

Thank you (and the entire community) for all your help!

Shinobi currently up and running on my screen!

TPR

@ExarKunIv I'm getting this error when loading up a game:

TPR

@DTEAM said in Suggestions for ports #3 - Pi5 edition:

Sure, Did you install aethersx2 from Retropie Extra as is and did the changes here ? Do you have the checksum of your BIOS?

In regards to those changes for vulkan, I made those changes for dolphin, but do I need to do something more for vulkan to run on PS2? How can I tell if AetherSX2 is using the Vulkan driver or not?

I have PS2 games up and running now so do I just assume Vulkan is working okay? or is there a way to double check?

ExarKunIv

@TPR that error will probably always come up. AetherSX2 is dead and no one has taken up the work or made anything different. that i have found

as for vulkan, see comment above. unless you find a option saying video drivers or something like that. your guess is good as mine, and i dont know of a way to force it to use vulkan

TPR

@ExarKunIv said in Suggestions for ports #3 - Pi5 edition:

@TPR that error will probably always come up. AetherSX2 is dead and no one has taken up the work or made anything different. that i have found

as for vulkan, see comment above. unless you find a option saying video drivers or something like that. your guess is good as mine, and i dont know of a way to force it to use vulkan

Ok great. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't doing anything wrong.

I did just started playing around with the settings and it did show that Vulkan was my graphics driver so that all seems to be working well.

The first two games I loaded up: Shinobi and GTA both seemed to work well, and then the next two games: God of War and Call of Duty Big Red One were both really sluggish.

are there some basic tweaks people are doing to get a bit more performance out of some games or is it just what you see is what you get?

TPR

@DTEAM said in Suggestions for ports #3 - Pi5 edition:

@DTEAM said in Suggestions for ports #3 - Pi5 edition:

@ExarKunIv

To play PS2 games like God of War II at fullspeed on Pi5 with Aethersx2, you must set EE Cycle Skipping at Maximum Underclock (major impact) and Disable Cheats. Affinity Control Mode is set on Performance Cores. I don't see major changes with the last two settings.

I also overclocked my Pi5 . Don't know if it has a positive impact.

I forgot to say something. With that setup, the Enable Speed Limiter menu option must be activated. For the sound quality, you can play with the interpolation mode. Nearest is faster but worst quality. If your sound still choppy, you can use that one

How can I save these settings per game? I did exactly what you suggested on Call of Duty: Big Red One and now it plays much better, but when I exited out of the game it saved it as a global setting for all games and not game specific.

How can I save a game specific configuration?

I went into the editor and made the changes:

but when I go back into the game from emulationstation, the changes didn't save:

I don't want to load my games from the editor or the Aether list, I want to be able to load them from the emuationstation menu.

ExarKunIv

@TPR said in Suggestions for ports #3 - Pi5 edition:

How can I save a game specific configuration?

this is a new system, so its up to you and @DTEAM to see what we can and cant do with it.

i have not messed around with it much other then getting it working

TPR

@ExarKunIv Got it! Currently messing with it now! Thank you for the scriptmodule which worked like a charm!

ExarKunIv

@TPR said in Suggestions for ports #3 - Pi5 edition:

worked like a charm

glad it did.

once i get my current project done with. ill be getting back on my Pi5 for my scripts

TPR

Ok so I think I was looking in the wrong place for the game specific settings. Once I made the change in the editor I noticed that the "Game Properties" button was now active when you load up the game:

and there it looks like the game specific settings are working:

Also, I should mention that to get into the game settings editor I followed @DTEAM's instructions of adding this line to my emulators.cfg:

aethersx2-editor = "XINIT-WMC:/opt/retropie/emulators/aethersx2/AetherSX2-v1.5-3606/usr/bin/aethersx2"

and that worked perfectly.

TPR

I just noticed that once you have checked "enable per-game settings" in the global menu for whatever game you have loaded, then the "Game Properties" option will be active and you can edit game specific properties within the game without needing to load up the Aether front end editor.

Sorry if this is all newbie information but I just loaded the emulator for the first time today and going through all my findings.

I will say that the instructions above to get a little more speed out of games like God of War worked pretty well!

TPR

@DTEAM said in Suggestions for ports #3 - Pi5 edition:

@ExarKunIv

To play PS2 games like God of War II at fullspeed on Pi5 with Aethersx2, you must set EE Cycle Skipping at Maximum Underclock (major impact) and Disable Cheats. Affinity Control Mode is set on Performance Cores. I don't see major changes with the last two settings.

I also overclocked my Pi5 . Don't know if it has a positive impact.

Have you come up with any good setting hacks for Katamari? It just seems to chug at about 2fps during the opening sequences and then crashes.

TPR

@TPR said in Suggestions for ports #3 - Pi5 edition:

@DTEAM said in Suggestions for ports #3 - Pi5 edition:

@ExarKunIv

To play PS2 games like God of War II at fullspeed on Pi5 with Aethersx2, you must set EE Cycle Skipping at Maximum Underclock (major impact) and Disable Cheats. Affinity Control Mode is set on Performance Cores. I don't see major changes with the last two settings.

I also overclocked my Pi5 . Don't know if it has a positive impact.

Have you come up with any good setting hacks for Katamari? It just seems to chug at about 2fps during the opening sequences and then crashes.

So I've actually found the best results for Katamari so far is to switch to the software renderer than the do the underclocking that is mentioned above.

and the "best" results I've had is went from 1fps to about 10fps. So still not playable, but an improvement. Had the exact sane results with Ratchet and Clank. So if anyone finds a config that works better than this please post it!

ExarKunIv

@TPR Just do remember there are going to be games that are just not going to be playable. This emulator is not optimize for the PI. There is limitations on what it can do