PS2 setup effecting performance? (or am I too used to PS3?)

Howitzer

Howitzer

Howitzer

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Hey peeps,

I've recently gone back to play a whole bunch of my favourite PS2 games and I've even decided to give FFXII another bash as I couldn't get into it the first time, but totally absorbed this time!

Problem is, the picture is eyewatering!
I have a PS2, PS3, Wii and virgin box all set up and plugged into the TV, could that be effecting the signal strength and and effecting the picture?
The PS2 is using SCART into the back of the tv (36" LCD 1080p).

I remember the graphics always being stunningly awesome before (on my old flatscreen 34" tube tv), but now it's soo 'pixellated' it's unreal, I'm sure it was never this bad before so I'm convinced it's to do wtih my setup somehow... or is it even because of the type of tv itself?

Honestly, I have a PS1 set up in another room on a small LCD 15" that looks the same picture quality wise.

Any suggestions?

Cheers!
 
I bet it's normal. Going back to a PS2 when you're used to 1080p is a bit of a culture shock.

Maybe your HDTV isn't that great at upscaling low-res content? I can't imagine that having lots of stuff plugged in makes any difference.
 
It's just final fantasy 12, it looks horrendous, I tried playing that and it looks so damn bad, I thought it was just the PS2 being old but I put persona 4 on afterwards and that looked great
 
Check your TV to see if one of the Scart sockets is RGB capable (usually Scart 1) and make sure it's enabled on your TVs settings as this makes a big difference on SD pictures.
 
Thanks for the comments :)

I'll check out that Scart socket idea, Ysmalari. Cheers for that. Fingers crossed!

I suppose it could just be FF12 looking bad.
I had a couple of races split screen on GT3 and thought it looked pretty good for it's age and the downscaled graphics of splitscreen but it's something to keep in mind I guess... I'll have to compare it to some other games and see.

My PS3 won't play PS2 games, although it plays PS1 games (Albeit horrendously!) so I could try the smoothing with those & see but they work better on my PS2 (and ofc PS1) anyway.
 
PS2 picture is shockingly bad on a lot of LCD's and FFXII looks crap whether played on PS2 or PS3 although it looks much better on PS3 then PS2 because of the HDMI connection over SCART.

I'm currently playing FFXII myself on PC and it looks amazing in comparison to when I tried it on PS3.
 
Xink said:
how did you get that working mate? or is it shady?
Click to expand...

Same way you get every other console game running on PC and that sort of discussion isn't liked around here.

I only mentioned it because I've had the option to run it at the PS2's native resolution and upscale it etc and FFXII really does look like ass when running at it's default resolution even when coming over VGA/DVI, so it will look even worse over composite/SCART.
 
As mentioned before, make sure that the SCART cable (A proper one, not an adaptor kind) and input slot is RGB supported. Or you could try investing in a component cable though it would hardly make much difference really.

And yeah, because it is FFXII, the game is pixelated as hell anyway since it pushes the PS2 graphics to it's limits.
 
Phatjayunoi said:
As mentioned before, make sure that the SCART cable (A proper one, not an adaptor kind) and input slot is RGB supported. Or you could try investing in a component cable though it would hardly make much difference really.
Click to expand...

I bought a component cable a couple of years ago (official Sony PS3 cable) for exactly this reason to run FFXII on my PS2 and it still looked terrible on an LCD. It could have just been my TV, but no matter what I did the picture quality looked like crap, so I ended up playing it on PS3 instead where is was only slightly better.
 
Alrik said:
I bought a component cable a couple of years ago (official Sony PS3 cable) for exactly this reason to run FFXII on my PS2 and it still looked terrible on an LCD. It could have just been my TV, but no matter what I did the picture quality looked like crap, so I ended up playing it on PS3 instead where is was only slightly better.
Click to expand...

Yeah I bought a cheap component cable and it made everything look worse, even more pixelated (How the hell was that even possible!) and I tested it for every game that I had for the PS2. Ended up having to buy the official Sony one and it worked out in the end. TV is a 52" Sony Bravia LCD.

So yeah moral of the story, it depends on the cable and perhaps your TV's own settings too.
 
In FFXII's case it is mostly the game because as you said the PS2 can't handle it properly and that's why it looks like ass :p

Even the battle system doesn't work as intended because the PS2 just didn't have the power necessary to run the game as they wanted, I'm sure you've come across the problem when enemies are casting spells and you have your healing spells queued up, but you have to wait your turn just to cast the spell because the PS2 wouldn't be able to render everything going on. So while you are sat there waiting to heal the enemy is free to just keep hitting you over and over again until you're dead.

It's just a shame they couldn't fix it because it's stupid that you have to wait your turn to cast a spell in a real time battle system. Yes it only happens under certain conditions, but it was a big enough of a problem last time I played it that I just gave up playing when trying to spawn Ixion and I kept getting the crap kicked out of my by those damn toads all because my spell wouldn't come out even though the ATB bar was full.
 
You have to wait because whilst it is still turn-based either way. :p

It's real-time because you have freedom of movement but it's still a turn-based game. Hybrid of both.

And you sure your gambits weren't screwing things up also?

I think the battle-system was fine.
 
If it's turn based then why is it still okay for the enemy to keep hitting me over and over again while I have to wait upwards of 10 seconds (with my ATB bar full) for my turn to cast my spell?

It was down to the fact that the PS2 wouldn't have been able to render everything going on at once and as I said it only happens on rare occasions when there is too much on screen so your actions are delayed to compensate, I just wish I had a save at that point in the game and show you what I mean with FRAPS.

I was getting hit by 6 or 7 enemies for 1,000+ a time and I couldn't get my spells out because my actions were being delayed because the enemies were casting their spells. The only way around it is to use X-potions instead, but they only heal 2400 and when you're taking 1000+ damage per hit from so many enemies it's hard to keep your health up with just those and it's worse when they combo with multiple hits (which they often did).
 
With it being a computer hardware forum I just assumed people would know what I'm talking about - Emulation. But it's against the rules to discuss it so I can't help beyond that so use google.
 
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