
****************************************************

Contents:

1) Basics information

2) System requirements

3) Plugin setup

4) Some tips

5) Known problems

6) License

7) Contacts

****************************************************

1) Basics information

Blade_Arma_GPU_Soft_Plugin – video plugin for PSEmuPro-based emulators (ePSXe, 
SSSPSX, PSXeven, PCSX, AdriPSX, etc.), a part of the rbpse project.

Introduction:

I liked the Sony PlayStation 1, its games, and everything connected with it. I 
had some good memories left from my childhood. In general, I didn't like the 
accuracy of GPU emulation, so I decided to do something about it. The target is 
to make a plugin which emulates the PSX GPU with maximum precision, as well as 
use all methods to improve image quality; I don't care how much resources will 
be needed for emulation or that the plugin isn't fast enough.

Installation:

Unpack the gpuBladeSoft.tar.xz/gpuBladeSoft.7z archive to the emulator 
directory. (or where your distribution stores psx emulator plugins.)

Select the plugin in the emulator.

If you want to do everything manually, you should know this:
The GPU plugin «gpuBladeSoft.so»/«gpuBladeSoft.dll» and configuration GUI 
«gpuBladeSoftGui»/«gpuBladeSoftGui.exe» should reside in the plugins directory 
(«./plugins»). Settings file «gpuBladeSoft.ini» should reside in the 
configurations directory («./configs»). To captuire the screenshots and videos 
directories («./captured/screenshots» and «./captured/videos») should exist.

****************************************************

2) System requirements

Software:

– OS Linux, kernel 2.6 or newer / OS Windows 2000 or newer.
– GTK+ 3.8 or newer for gui.

Hardware:

– OpenGL-compatible video card.

****************************************************

3) Plugin setup

«SETTINGS» TAB

«MAIN» TAB

Display settings:

«Fullscreen»
Runs the emulator in fullscreen mode.
"Desktop settings" — uses your current display settings, aspect ratio will be 
set automatically.
"Native resolutions" — uses real PSX resolutions, most of VGA cards don't 
support them, use it only for ArcadeVGA cards or similar. If some emulated game 
changes the display resolution, it will be changed (instead of usual 
stretching).
"Standard mode" — you choose the needed resolution and refresh rate manually.

«Windowed»
Runs the emulator in windowed mode.
(Fields on the right let you specify a preferred window size.
Possible values: 0x0 - 8192x8192.)

«Wait for VSync»
Forces the gpu to sync the buffer swaps with the vertical synchronization of 
your monitor. This will be slower, but it can reduce a "tearing" effect. One of 
the most important settings. Screen updates without vertical synchronization 
make the picture tear so that it looks much worse than what it would look like 
on a real console and a TV set. You should disable FPS limit when you enable 
this.
For LCD users: LCD monitors are widely known for low refresh rates and high 
input lag, so you just choose "1/1" VSync mode for them and try to set their 
refresh rate to 50/60 Hz for PAL/NTSC games, respectively.
For CRT users: CRT monitors are, on the other hand, are almost unbearable at 50 
or 60 Hz, so you should find a resolution that would let you set them to 
100/120 Hz and then choose the "2" VSync mode in the plugin.

Framerate:

«FPS limitation»
Limits the emulator speed.
"Disabled" — games run as fast as your hardware lets them.
"Auto-detection" — sets standard values: 59.94 fps for NTSC games, 50 fps for 
PAL.
"Manual" — allows you to set the framerate to a custom value.

«FPS value»
A number of FPS for the Manual FPS limitation mode.
(Possible values: 0.10 - 9999.99.)

Processing:

«Internal resolution»
Allows you to improve the image quality in 3D games, requires a powerful system.
(Possible values: 1 - 16.)

«Use 32-bit renderer»
This makes picture quality approach that of hardware accelerated plugins by 
eliminating color banding and smoothly painting the polygons.
"Disabled" — disabled.
"Primitives with dithering" — enabled only for primitives with dithering.
"Gouraud shaded primitives" — enabled for all Gouraud-shaded primitives.
"All primitives" — enabled for all primitives.

«Dithering method»
This option is only actual when the "Use 32-bit renderer" setting is disabled.
"PSX" — original dithering method.
"Improved" — alternate dithering method, sometimes better than the original, 
sometimes worse.

«Progressive scan/rendering»
Disable interlace emulation. All of the odd or even lines of the frame 
(so-called fields) are rendered in turns. This noticeably decreases the picture 
quality as that line alternation is clearly seen, and at the same time this 
gives rendering quite a speed boost because the fillrate needed is cut in half. 
This option disables this drawing and output mode and vastly increases picture 
quality, but reduces perfomance due to increased fillrate.

Postprocessing:

«Deinterlacing method»
Useful only when «Progressive scan/rendering» mode is disabled.
"Field combination" — mixes odd and even fields, causes the "comb" effect, the 
best mode for static games.
"Clear" — clear previous frame data.
"Line doubling" — draws each line twice, causes a slight screen shaking, the 
best mode for dynamic games and the closest to a real TV picture.

«Screen filtering»
The entire frame buffer is filtered. You may choose a filter to your liking, 
but remember that they might be very CPU-intensive. 2D games usually look 
better with SuperSAIx2/SuperEagle, while HQ2x/HQ3x are more suitable for 3D 
games.

«Shader effect»
Use glsl shaders written for gpuPeteOGL2. Put each shader in its own folder 
inside the «./shaders» directory alongside the emulator executable.

«Shader level»
(Possible values: 1(Minimum), 2(More), 3(Medium), 4(Maximum).)

«Screen bilinear filtering»
Reduces picture blockyness. Bilinear filtering is hardware-accelerated, speed 
reduction is almost unnoticeable.

«Brightness»
Brightness level control.
(Possible values: -100 - 100.)

«Gamma»
Gamma level control.
(Possible values: -100 - 100.)

«Contrast»
Gamma level control.
(Possible values: -100 - 100.)

«Aspect ratio correction»
Use aspect ratio correction, choose the one which matches your display.
(None, 1/1, 5/4, 4/3, 3/2, 8/5, 5/3, 16/9, 17/9.)

«VISIBLE AREA» TAB

Visible area settings. Better don't touch anything and accept everything "as 
is", because a real console on a real TV in most games gives either black bars 
or a shifted picture.

Prefences:

«Prefences»
"Perfect" — the best picture possible. Whole window, no borders. You won't be 
able to tune the emulator output in a game's settings, imperfect aspect ratio 
is possible.
"Standard" — like an average modern TV. With the right proportions.
"Custom" — user-defined output mode, allows to define a custom output.
"Full VRAM (4-bit)" — for more precise results you should set the window size 
to 4096x512 and the «Aspect ratio correction» for the windowed mode to "None".
"Full VRAM (8-bit)" — for more precise results you should set the window size 
to 2048x512 and the «Aspect ratio correction» for the windowed mode to "None".
"Full VRAM (15-bit)" — for more precise results you should set the window size 
to 1024x512 and the «Aspect ratio correction» for the windowed mode to "None".
"Full VRAM (24-bit)" — for more precise results you should set the window size 
to 682x512 and the «Aspect ratio correction» for the windowed mode to "None".

«Overscan»
Allows you to view the larger picture, including the areas, which may be not 
visible on a standard TV.
(Possible values: -10 - 10.)

«Position»
Sometimes the border on the one side is larger than on the other. Use this 
parameter to center the picture and, after that, to zoom it, using «Zooming».
(Possible values: -100 - 100.)

«Zooming»
Zooming in/out the picture.
My display's aspect is 16/10, so in the fullscreen mode there are black stripes 
on the sides, also there are often black stripes on the top and on the bottom, 
so it's possible to enable larger part of the screen without changing the 
aspect or loosing the part of the picture.
(Possible values: -100 - 100.)

«Mirroring»
Screen mirroring (horizontal and vertical).

«Screen rotation»
Rotates the screen on a specified angle (in degrees).

«ADVANCED» TAB

«Polygon renderer»
"Standard" — standard PSX renderer.
"Quad" — draws triangle pairs as quads. Drawing as quads is meant to reduce the 
texturing distortions, caused by lack of perspective correction. Picture 
quality in this case depends on the game's usage of triangle pairs. So, if the 
game doesn't use them, this option won't have any effect. You can use it 
safely, since the chances of adding any artifacts are very low.
"Perspective-corrected" — draws triangles with depth and perspective 
correction. In case of perfect implementation should give a perfect picture 
quality. Currently, I'm unable to get rid of all the graphic artifacts.

«Improved coordinate accuracy»
A method of reducing vertex "shaking" by using more precise vertex coordinates 
from GTE. Possible graphic issues (holes between the polygons).

«MISC» TAB

Hot keys:

«Configuration dialog»
Set the button to call the plugin configuration dialog.
('Ctrl+Alt+G' by default.)

«Show status»
Set the button to show/hide the in-game plugin status display.
('Insert' by default.)

«Show info»
Set the button to show/hide the information, displayed by the emulator and 
plugins.

«FPS limitation»
Toggle FPS limitation mode.
('Delete' by default.)

«Fast forward»
Define a button for a temporary (while it is pressed) fps limit cancellation.
('End' by default.)

«Toggle fullscreen»
Set the button to switch between fullscreen and windowed modes.
('Alt+Enter' by default.)

«Show/hide cursor»
Set the button to show/hide the cursor.
('Ctrl+H' by default.)

«Toggle screen bilinear filtering»
Set the button to enable/disable the screen bilinear filtering.

«Decrease/increase internal resolution x/y»

«Change renderer color mode»

«Change dithering method»

«Change visible area mode»
Set the button for switching visible area modes.
("Perfect", "Standard", "Custom".)

«Toggle shader state»

«Reload shader»
Shader reloading, for clarity during the shader editing on the fly.

«Decrease/increase shader level»
Set the button for decreasing/increasing shader level.

«Decrease/increase brightness»
Set the button for decreasing/increasing brightness.

«Decrease/increase gamma»
Set the button for decreasing/increasing gamma.

«Decrease/increase contrast»
Set the button for decreasing/increasing contrast.

«Rotate screen»
Set the button for rotating the screen.

«Move screen left/right/up/down»
Set the button for moving the screen.
('Alt+D/A/S/W' by default.)

«Decrease/increase zoom»
Set the button for decreasing/increasing screen size.
('Alt+Q/E' by default.)

«Flip the screen horizontally/verically»

«Decrease/increase overscan»

«Reset screen settings»

«Change polygon renderer mode»

«Toggle improved coordinate accuracy»

«Toggle texture replacement collect mode»

«Toggle texture replacement replace mode»

«Change rendering mode»
"Standard"
"Wired"
"Non-textured"
"Non-textured+Wired"
"Standard+Wired"

«Toggle show frame drawing process»

«Screenshot»
Set the button for saving a screenshot. Screenshots are saved in the 
«./captured/screenshots» directory.
('F8' by default.)

«Video recording start/stop»
Set the button for video recording start/stop. Videos are saved in the 
«./captured/videos» directory.
('Alt+F8' by default.)

Other:

«Show status»
Enable plugin status display on startup.

«Show info»
Show the information, displayed by the emulator and plugins on startup.

«Screen rumble»
Enable visual dualshock effect.

«Hide cursor»
Hide cursor on startup.

«Disable screensaver and DPMS (Energy Star)»
Disable screensaver and energy saving functions, while running the emulator.

«Enable logging»
Enable debug output logging (logs/gpuBladeSoft.log).

«Save dialog parameters»
Enable saving of the dialog window position and size on exit. (If disabled 
dialog will show up in the center of the screen with the default size.)

«Save the settings on exit»
Save all the settings on exit, like brightness, screen orientation, window 
size/coordinates, showing additional on-screen info, etc.

****************************************************

4) Some tips

The default plugin settings are optimal and give a picture as close as possible 
to a real PSX. If you don't understand what the setting does, better not 
touch/change it.

16-bit modes are much faster and require less resources than 32-bit ones. If 
you experience low framerate, try to switch your desktop into the 16-bit mode.

If you don't have enough money to buy a modern PC - buy a used PlayStation, 
those things are cheap. :P

****************************************************

5) Known problems

In certain cases, quad renderer may cause the graphic artifacts, for example, 
in Hogs of War landscape, currently there's no way to fix these.

Increased internal resolution causes artifacts in Doom, can't be fixed and this 
game can't have any benefits from increased resolution, anyway.

When set to "Power saver" profile some systems experience a noticeable drop in 
fps due to CPU frequency restricted to low values even under heavy load. It 
makes sense to try to switch to "Balanced" or even "High Performance" modes, or 
to turn the power saving off at all.

The GPU plugin needs a closer interaction with the emulator core than this. The 
current API is insufficient for a full-fledged emulation.

****************************************************

6) License

This program is freeware and cannot be sold. Also this program cannot be 
distributed without written permission. This program cannot be used for any 
commercial purposes. You may not reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble 
the enclosed software. Authors are not responsible for any damages that this 
program may cause, and are also not responsible for anything this plugin will 
be used for.

****************************************************

7) Contacts

http://forum.emu-russia.net
irc://irc.newnet.net:6667/emu-russia
mailto:edgbla@yandex.ru

****************************************************
