- Details
- Written by rama
After many long years of development, debugging and testing effort, we have reached a point where PCSX2 runs a great majority of the games, and there are no important issues that could possibly be fixed without requiring major modifications to the emulator.
Because of that (and because we already felt it was overdue), we decided to stop thinking of new things to do for a bit, polish the stability, compatibility and existing features and release the result as the first major version of PCSX2!
There have been tons of changes since the last release, including improvements to Jake Stine's wxWidgets GUI overhaul, cottonvibes' new multithreaded VU core and improvements on the primary plugins.
This release is a big milestone that marks the way to new features and improvements!
Here is an excerpt of the latest changes:
Windows
Core:
- Video timing adjustments
- microVU fixes for Metal Gear Solid 2 and others
- General speedups
- microVU speedup
- New GIF unit that mimics the real one better
- microVU elementary function bug fixed (affecting Valkyrie Profile 2, Radiata Stories and Star Ocean 3)
- Implemented Multi-Threaded VU! A new speed hack with almost 100% compatibility with games, using a third core to run the VU1 unit separately
- CDVD fixes (Time Crisis boots now)
- Added support for progressive scan timings
- Path 3 arbitration and timing refinements
- Added Finnish, Malaysian, Korean, French, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese and Polish translations
SPU2-X:
- Configurable output volume
- Fixes to reverb
- Various sound looping fixes
- Improved time stretcher
- Reverse phase audio quality improved
GSdx:
- Fixed RGB mode movie recording
- Texture cache change that fixes some black screening games
- Implemented NVidia FXAA 3.10, page up key activates it
- Better multithreading
- Arc the Lad bad fog fix
- Fixed shadows in software renderer
- Implementation of GSdx "Shadeboost" project (saturation, brightness, contrast settings)
- User configurable hacks in the GUI
- Fixed flickering in many FMVs
- Implementation of GSdx "Cutie" project (various extra CRC hacks)
Lilypad:
- Pad state getting stuck with savestates bug fixed
USBqemu:
- Revamped it a bit
Linux:
OnePad changes:
- New dialog configuration panel
- Improved support of various pad (sixaxis)/mouse/wiimote
- Added support for more controllers
- Added support for pressure-sensitive buttons
GSdx:
- GSdx ported for Linux! Based on OpenGL 3.3 with some 4.x hardware independent extensions. Requires OpenGL 4.2 drivers and is still in experimental stages. Don't expect the hardware renderer to run properly, but the Software renderer should be fine.
- Added support for configuration and keyboard shortcuts from PCSX2
ZZogl:
- Added support for configuration and keyboard shortcuts from PCSX2
- Added a GLSL backend to replace CG. Like GSdx, it requires OpenGL 4.2 drivers. Only available with PCSX2 self-compilation.
PCSX2 GUI:
- Added thread timing information to see the CPU usage in the status bar
- Fix multiple frame/box letters sizing.
In addition to these changes we found a fixed several bugs that could lead to crashes in various situations.
The PCSX2 executable has been built and tested with PGO optimizations enabled so it will be an extra 10% faster over regular SVN builds.
We hope you enjoy this first major version release and have fun playing your games on it! 
- Details
- Written by bositman
The developer of the Mac port of PCSX2, zedr0n, came back with a bang after some time of silence! He has released a new version of his 0.9.6 port of PCSX2 for Lion with some additional compatibility fixes. Here is what he had to say about it:
I’m releasing a slightly updated version of pcsx2 0.9.6 – it should crash less because of the audio plugin. 0.9.7 is proving very difficult so no update for now.
From this version onwards this becomes a regular .dmg bundle with pcsx2.app separated from the required libraries package – which is still included in the dmg by default.
You can get it from Downloads or direct link – pcsx2.dmg
The package has been cleaned so that all libraries reside in /usr/local/pcsx2 and can be removed easily. The Uninstaller.pkg included in the dmg will do that for you.
Latest version of XQuartz and CG framework still required
In addition, he released an early 0.9.7 alpha port. This version should be considered unstable and pre-beta but you can give it a try. Here is what was posted about this:
And the day has come – I’m releasing a very early alpha version of 0.9.7 – it does play some games but you are advised to do a lot of save states.
I’m going to continue working on this so hopefully will get better as the time goes on.
You can grab it here: pcsx2 0.9.7.dmg
The installer includes another mandatory package – WXWidgets.pkg which should be installed after Libraries.pkg. Note that Uninstaller.pkg is going to delete the whole install but otherwise 0.9.6 and 0.9.7 coexist well.
You can download both files from our Mac Downloads section. Keep up the good work zedr0n
Click read more for some comparative screenshots.
- Details
- Written by bositman
After almost 3 months of under cover preparation, I present you the new PCSX2 homepage! The last PCSX2.net redesign was done 7 years ago by CKemu and Falcon4ever and now it is my turn to update it
The new website is based on the latest Joomla! platform with a custom modified theme for PCSX2, and is no longer bound to our forum. It uses PHP, a new database for the compatibility list and jQuery for various new features. Here's a short overview:
Design:
- Totally fresh design, taking into consideration higher resolutions and a self-adapting template, so the website will take up all your screen no matter what resolution you use.
- Detection for iOS and Android, in which case the website uses a more mobile theme.
- Tested and working in Firefox, Chrome, IE9, IE8 and Opera.
- Article-based, so you can link and like/share each news post or dev blog separately.
Content-Features:
- New main navigation menu, more user friendly with much more content and easy to follow
- Latest forum threads, youtube videos and SVN revisions, automatically updated via RSS every 3 minutes, for the most up to date overview of what's new with PCSX2.
- Compatibility list redesigned from scratch. New list look to easily find what you're looking for, more info like last updated and tester who updated and screenshots (not complete yet). Pagination is done via jQuery for faster and easier navigation. Added counters for each status and a user configured games per page, so you can limit the results for smaller screens or vice versa for larger ones.
- New, detailed Downloads section. This is the largest change of the new website along the compatibility list, which was enormous work. All downloads are now categorized in sections for easier and clearer navigation. They all have detailed descriptions, file size, date published and more info. Almost every plugin released for PCSX2 can be found in the windows plugin section, including Dev9gigarazi, Nuvee and more.
After endless digging on the internet since 2002 when PCSX2 had its first public release, the archive section was completed. There you will find ALL PCSX2 versions ever released, from v0.026 up to the current v0.9.8 with source code and Linux releases when possible. You will also find old GSdx versions and betas.
- One button google translate of the website, for our non english speaking visitors.
- Share box, so you can like on facebook, +1 on google and share on twitter and make PCSX2 known to even more people. You can also share news posts after you click on the title
- Compatibility overview, showing you the compatibility status of PCSX2 of our total game pool, updated daily.
- Search function, so you can find old news or blog posts easily.
- Read more button for news - blog posts which are too long and made the site look bad.
- Screenshots and videos section, with sexy lightbox pop ups for images.
- Article archive for a nice overview of our posts over the years.
- More stuff I probably forgot
Code and speed
- In general the new website should be a bit slower than the old due to the additional features, but should be barely noticeable.
- Vastly optimized compatibility list with the development of a new database for it, server side and client side caching for reduced server load.
- Search engine optimized, we should rank much higher in google now thanks to meta tags in each article and SEO URLs.
- Server side and client side caching for the whole website, reducing server load and decreasing load times.
- Script and CSS minifying functions.
I hope everyone enjoys the website and finds it as exciting as I do, even after working on it for so long You can post your feedback or any bugs you find in this forum thread (if you flame it you're banned! 
): http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-PCSX2-net-revamped
Finally, I want to thank Falcon4ever for helping with the server side of stuff and all team members for their valuable input on how things should look and feel. Dedicated to all our loyal user base! 
-bositman
- Details
- Written by bositman
Some days ago we were contacted by a Croatian gaming site goodgame.hr and were asked to give an interview about PCSX2 We were happy to answer all the questions and help make PCSX2 known to even more people, so here it is:
1.Hello. Can you tell us something about yourself before we get on with the interview?
I'm 'bositman', I've been with the PCSX2 team since 2003 and I am responsible for the site, forum, configuration guide, user support, documentation and testing.
2.Can you briefly tell us about development of PCSX2 emulator till this day?
PCSX2 has advanced immensely in the past 2 years. With the 0.9.8 release the compatibility and speed of the emulator got dramatically increased, to the point that almost every modern system can handle most games. With the latest addition of the MTVU speed hack (multi-threaded VU, runs the VU1 unit in a separate thread, taking advantage of a third core, since EE and GS already run in separate threads) many users got some nice ~15% speed up on their quad cores
- Details
- Written by bositman
It's already close to 2012 but here I am once more wishing on Christmas day to everyone following and using PCSX2!
So we all wish you will get what you want (and wish even more it's a new PC so you can run PCSX2 better!!), have fun and enjoy these few days with your loved ones because that's what counts in the end.
If you don't celebrate Christmas, Merry Sunday!
In other news, 0.9.9 is still in development with Gabest making a surprise comeback lately and working on the software rendering of GSdx. You can give the latest changes a try by going HERE
And finally, an image I ripp..err found on the internet which is appropriate for the day and place!
