How do YOU play PS1 games on Duckstation? (or old games in general, both 2D and 3D)

[glokglakglak]

I've been having a dilemma whenever I decide to play or even while I'm playing a game already:
1. Do I play in native resolution?
2. Do I want to play with any CRT filters at all?
3. Do I want to turn on the PXGP geometry fixing thing?

It's been haunting me for the longest time and I honestly can't make peace with myself and stick to one universal option.

I really wanna know how you guys play PS1 games, because as stupid as this sounds, I myself don't know how I want to enjoy the game, whether the way it was ORIGINALLY intended being in the original tiny 220p-ish rendering resolution without PXGP, or raising the rendering resolution + turning on the PXGP because the PS1 literally wasn't strong enough to render 3D models at 1080p and higher and didn't have the tech to avoid the wobbling effect.

It's a dilemma because while playing it at native gives it a more authentic feel, at the same time, there's literally no reason to deal with the tiny resolution and wobbling effect now that we have the technology to fix that.

Please shed some light on me so that I don't have to keep swapping between my settings every time. I just wanna play and enjoy the game without having to tinker every single setting relevant.

 

[Izzy]

I've been having a dilemma whenever I decide to play or even while I'm playing a game already:
1. Do I play in native resolution?
2. Do I want to play with any CRT filters at all?
3. Do I want to turn on the PXGP geometry fixing thing?

It's been haunting me for the longest time and I honestly can't make peace with myself and stick to one universal option.

I really wanna know how you guys play PS1 games, because as stupid as this sounds, I myself don't know how I want to enjoy the game, whether the way it was ORIGINALLY intended being in the original tiny 220p-ish rendering resolution without PXGP, or raising the rendering resolution + turning on the PXGP because the PS1 literally wasn't strong enough to render 3D models at 1080p and higher and didn't have the tech to avoid the wobbling effect.

It's a dilemma because while playing it at native gives it a more authentic feel, at the same time, there's literally no reason to deal with the tiny resolution and wobbling effect now that we have the technology to fix that.

Please shed some light on me so that I don't have to keep swapping between my settings every time. I just wanna play and enjoy the game without having to tinker every single setting relevant.

I just look up a how to guide and go from there. Been doing that since emulation was a thing in the early 2000s.

 

[RageBurner]

I play them as pretty as I can get them. That means PXGP, higher resolution, the works. I had my fair share of authenticity back in the day, and chasing that look is a fool's errand on modern displays.

That said, Duckstation does have soft scanlines that are very good.

 

[omen]

I spent countless of hours trying to find the "perfect" way to play playstation 1 games, just to end up liking the barest essentials the best. I use software rendering, lotte2 crt filter, and that's it. maybe some cpu overclocking if i want to play front mission 3. don't find the "perfect" way to play something, just play the game.

 

[UnDubious]

Overly high resolution looks horrible with PS1 polygons IMO. I can't do it. With PS2 games I might play with 2x or something because native doesn't look good on a computer screen. Don't like filters of any type either. I've never tried the geometry fix thing, maybe I'll give it a shot.

 

[freebie#47]

I have a modded ps1 and ps2....but I play ps1 games on espxe and ps2 on pcsx2. I've been using epsxe since 2005 and the version I have hasn't had any issues with any game that I know.

 

[nobitakun]

I play them in Mednafen. Very low budget devices pcsx reARMed.

 

[Abecero]

Personally I just upscale the game's resolution, four time up for PS1 games, just twice for PS2. (mainly 'cus my PC can't handle more than that when it comes to PS2 games, lol)
I like the more crisp looking models, I imagine that's basically how they looked on the dev's PCs when working on them games, unrestrained by the console's limitations.

 

[Azazelivae]

To be honest if we're talking about Emulator personally i would play them in a better way if i can.

The reason for this is, if i really wanted to actually play it authentically then i'm just gonna boot up the actual console dude though my cousin's PS1 is broken so it's not like i can actually play PSX stuff nowadays.

Though i did say in a better way but certain games definitely looks fine without the Enhancement, and some games definitely needed that CRT effect to look right to begin with.

So in the end of the day, really dependent on the game, but yeah if you could and it's looks good why torture yourself lol.

 

[MetHy]

Native res with only PGXP when applicable.

Especially with 3D games, dithering is an essential part of the PSX look, and that only looks right at native res. PGXP and overclocking (again, when applicable) are the only reasons I use Duckstation over Mednafen

 

[legsrjust4show]

I'm one of those sick freaks that opts to keep the games looking as close to the original as possible.

Though only for that era. I'll gladly upscale PS2 and GameCube games if it doesn't mess with the 2D assets, but I'll play with the godforsaken sub 360p native resolutions and LIKE IT with N64 and PS1 games.

 

[anonimo123]

2x internal resolution, windowed mode 360p instead of the 1x 240p, 2x window size (480p) in fully 3d games with no pre rendered graphics maybe doesnt look bad but i didnt even try

 

[Vexicrypt]

I've spent countless of hours toying with PS1 emulators, Duckstation in particular, with the same exact dilemma in mind. I also have a need to capture footage which by itself also raises the question: "What people want to see? Do they want the original look from back in the day or the best you can get with all the bells and whistles?".

One day I noticed how a lot of content creators capture footage with original hardware using upscalers and thought that I actually prefer that crispy but still pixely look so I desided to replicate it with Duckstation as close as possible. That means running the games in native resolution and *then* upscaling the output which doesnt work the same with an emulator but you can get pretty close.

So my go to setting are: whichever renderer you like (it doesnt matter that much) -> Native resolution -> Texture/Sprite Filtering set to Nearest Neighbor -> and then Scaling (which is the most important part) also set to Nearest Neighbor. I prefer Geometry Correction ON as well, because I have no particular nostalgia for that wobblyness, I just find it distracting. Usually I dont use CRT filters because they dont work like those found in different upscalers (that implement them in the picture itself and not just tape it over the screen), however with some games, especially with pixel art, I sometimes use a plugin you can download, called "CRT Guest NTSC" that gives me that authentic CRT look that I sometimes long for.

In general I dont like upscaled PS1 games that much because there is not much to upscale in the first place, which is completely opposite with PS2 games, where you can see all the details that were buried under the hardware limitations. Also upscaled 3D models tend to look weird and out of place in games with pre-rendered backgrounds. Anyway sorry for the essaying, its just a topic that I'm very passionate about

 

[Advil Lavs]

I usually play at 720p (or so because I'm playing on my phone) with PXGP and a good CRT shader to further hide the weird polygon wobble. I think it looks good.

 

[PSP-Knight]

I use my PSP for PS1 games.

Silent Hill 1 lags a little when camera zooms out during day time.

Syphon Filter 1 lags a little in specific areas during mission 3 because of all the fire in the subway.

I don't mind.

That's all I know so far. I don't think I can't tweak the graphics, so it's pretty much vanilla for me.

EDIT: I've just realized this thread is about Duckstation, not PSP.

Oops. Didn't read it right.

 

[beefbowl]

I like my older games the way god intended, raw with crt filters only. No upscaling, no fixes or anything. Straight 240p action on my modern displays.

 

[moonbits]

Vulkan Renderer
3x internal resolution
Texture Filter Nearest Neighbor
True Color Rendering
PGXP Geometry Correction ON
4:3 Aspect
Scaling Nearest Neighbor
Scaled Dithering ON
Disable Interlacing ON

Post Process
I added my a scanlines filter from Dolphin.

 

[WesternYokai]

I just put some scanlines or a CRT filter to smooth pixels and blend 3D characters on pre-rendered backgrounds better.

Sometimes I crank up resolution but only when I'm on the mood.

 

[Pandaprewmaster325]

I play using EpsXe just stretch the resolution nothing else is needed no need to recreate the original hardware looks the difference isn't huge you won't get ultra high details really.

Don't try to play widescreen i picked it when playing parasite eve 1 and wondered why collision is so messed up it's not the game fault it was widescreen option messing up the game just stretch.

This insane pursuit of recreating the original "authentic" experience feels like a waste of time to me if the game looks the same and sounds the same then that it nothing else is needed

 

[_oBSOLEte_]

Modded with Geo-11 for stereoscopic 3D with a VR headset. PGXP+CPU, 8X resolution, widescreen aspect ratio, adaptive downsampling keeping 3D and post-process with Lottes CRT shader. Played with Desktop+ and SteamVR.

 

[Mini_Man.XW]

Cranked to the max, 1440p, all the enhancements I can reasonably put on it. Boosted cpu clock speed to kill all slowdowns, widescreen if it has it. Nostalgia on steroids.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

I just play, unless it’s running weird like Rival Schools, then I mess with resolution