PCSX2 for Mac OS X

speedofmac

http://speedofmac.com/images/icons/freeware/pcsx2.png

PCSX2 is the best PlayStation 2 emulator out there, and there's a working Mac port! Check out PCSX2.net for more information and news on PCSX2. The PCSX2 Mac website (http://pcsx2-mac.quant0r.com/) is down, but the PCSX 2 Mac forums at forums.PCSX2.net are up and running: http://forums.pcsx2.net/Forum-PCSX2-Mac.

Edit: the PCSX2 Mac site is up and running again. You can download a package installer of PCSX2 at http://pcsx2-mac.quant0r.com/binary-repository/.

M.I.K.e

Thanks for all the effort you put into making certain emulators easier to use.

One thing I noticed on your page is NVIDIA CG Framework. Does that mean that PCSX2 only works with NVIDIA cards? In that case I don't even have to try it...

speedofmac

Because the PCSX2 Mac site is down and there doesn't seem to be any other place to download PCSX2 for Mac, I've put up a download guide at http://speedofmac.com/pcsx2_download.html. Write back if you can get it running or if something isn't working properly!

Mucx

Sweet, watching other peoples responses to see how it goes...

Let them be the guinea pigs :p. Well cause I dont have any PS2 games or ISO's to test even if I did download the emulator :)

speedofmac

M.I.K.e wrote:

Thanks for all the effort you put into making certain emulators easier to use.

One thing I noticed on your page is NVIDIA CG Framework. Does that mean that PCSX2 only works with NVIDIA cards? In that case I don't even have to try it...

You're very welcome!

I believe that PCSX2 will work with non-NVIDIA cards. PCSX2 system requirements I've been looking at don't specify an NVIDIA graphics card. As far as I know, the NVIDIA CG framework deals with OpenGL and DirectX graphics effects and things, and it doesn't have requirements on which graphics card you have to have installed. If this isn't the case, let us know!

speedofmac

The PCSX2 Mac site is up and running again. Here's a link to the download page: http://pcsx2-mac.quant0r.com/binary-repository/.

Squishy Tia

I've installed PCSX2 and the related plugins from the repository, but upon launching I get...nothing. The Open menu item is greyed out even with a PS2 disc in the drive (FFX). Am I missing something? I've installed PortAudio and the two Z plugins as well. Does this port require 10.6 to run?

Here's my system setup for you check over:

Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro1,1
Processor Name: Dual-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz
Number Of Processors: 2
Total Number Of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per processor): 4 MB
Memory: 7 GB
Bus Speed: 1.33 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MP11.005C.B08
SMC Version: 1.7f10

ATI Radeon HD 3870:

Chipset Model: ATI Radeon HD 3870
Type: Display
Bus: PCIe
Slot: Slot-1
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 512 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x9501
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-B3390F-270
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.270
Displays:
L2410NM:
Resolution: 1024 x 640 @ 60 Hz
Depth: 32-bit Color
Core Image: Hardware Accelerated
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Supported
Rotation: Supported
Television: Yes
Display Connector:
Status: No display connected

Note: Display resolution is so I can read text. I prefer running in either 1600x1000 or 1920x1200 for games.

speedofmac

Squishy Tia wrote:

I've installed PCSX2 and the related plugins from the repository, but upon launching I get...nothing. The Open menu item is greyed out even with a PS2 disc in the drive (FFX). Am I missing something? I've installed PortAudio and the two Z plugins as well. Does this port require 10.6 to run?

PCSX2 shouldn't require Snow Leopard to run. Have you installed XQuartz and the Nvidia CG Framework (see http://pcsx2-mac.quant0r.com/running-pcsx2mac/)? Also, have you set up the plugin and bios directories? Although they're in the application bundle, PCSX2 sometimes doesn't know they're there.

Squishy Tia

I have XQuartz installed, but how does one get the PCSX2 app to "know" where the BIOS and Plugins are when it isn't providing a UI to do so?

Squishy Tia

OK, I have the app launching, and the BIOS properly detected, but now it refuses to read the CD/DVD drive at all and dies with segmentation faults. It's closer to working, but not there. Guess I'll head on over to the PCSX2 forums and see if there's a segfault fix.

spamguy

I'm not sure I understand the quality of PCSX2. How much of the Mac code is shared with the PC version? Are the compatibility lists the same? There is lots of recent chatter about getting it running, but nothing about how games look and play. (The screenshots thread is a year old.) If I shoved in FFX right now, could I get from beginning to end?

Squishy Tia

I've finally got the app loading ISOs, but no go on CDs (cannot read /dev/cdrom errors). Does this thing have the exact same problem plaguing PCSX-R? :P

The game I got to load was Wild Arms 3, which varied from 598 FPS to 25 FPS. Is there a way to make the game run in realtime instead of just the fastest possible speed your computer runs at? I mean it's nice and all to get past title screens fast, but the game(s) are unplayable this way.

And lastly, what's with the jitter in the PS2 built in UI menus? They give me a headache. A BIG headache. :D

Dale

Click config, then cpu
on the right you will see detailed settings for limiting frame speed. select frame skip, then enter 60 45 2 2 from top to bottom in the text boxes below. your frame rate will be limited to 60 per second, and will start skipping frames at 45 fps to speed things back up. 2 and 2 make it skip two then play two
play with the numbers if you want, get something you like, but i recommend leaving the 60 alone
Also, how did you guys get isos to open up?

speedofmac

Dale wrote:

Also, how did you guys get isos to open up?

What trouble are you having? I just choose File -> Run ISO Image..., then navigate to the ISO file. When navigating to the ISO file, you'll need to change the path to your root directory:

Does this work for you?

Dale

oh i feel dumb
i found this shortly after posting too. thanks for your help anyway.

now my FFX crashes after sin attacks zanarkand during the cutscene.
it seems its a bug with the emulator as no one else can get the PAL version to work past this point, unless they find a save point past that. Does anyone know where i can find savestatse for just after that cutscene? so maybe i can bypass it and still start with nothing like the game intended, not like all the cheating saves on the net

speedofmac

Dale wrote:

oh i feel dumb
i found this shortly after posting too. thanks for your help anyway.

now my FFX crashes after sin attacks zanarkand during the cutscene.
it seems its a bug with the emulator as no one else can get the PAL version to work past this point, unless they find a save point past that. Does anyone know where i can find savestatse for just after that cutscene? so maybe i can bypass it and still start with nothing like the game intended, not like all the cheating saves on the net

This is a pretty common problem, I think. I read here that changing the cpu settings should allow you to get past that point. Go to Config -> CPU and check the microVU options:

Does that do it for you?

Dale

thanks, but no dice
the graphics got better though, and the framerate too.
it stops in the same place, the white screen after the blitzball scene right after the waves from the beach start being heard

menace690

Try VUskip?

Dale

I cant find vuskip options in the mac version, but i booted up windows 7 and got past the point thanks to that advice. i then saved and switched back to mac and it worked great.
you see the frame limiting options in my screenshot? the windows version has a fourth option for vuSkip and that solved the problem. Do i not have the most recent mac edition? or has that feature not been ported over yet.

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

speedofmac

After a long time without any news, http://pcsx2-mac.quant0r.com/ has given us an update. We can all look forward to a Cocoa GUI to manage plugins and bios installation, and Snow Leopard support will be tested by the developers. You can check out the full announcement here: http://pcsx2-mac.quant0r.com/2010/04/26/new-mbp-and-other-news/.