EU PS3 = Software PS2 Emulation

Yes, that's what I've been thinking too.
I don't have disc-based PS3 games yet, just the Gran Turismo and Ridge Racer demos. A disc spinning in the drive will probably add a couple more watts, and who knows, maybe there are ways to stress the machine harder. These two racing games seem to excercise mostly the graphics chip, if anything. I could try Lemmings

 

Resistance demo is on the EU server as well. For GT:HD it calls it version Concept 2.0. Wonder what that means ...

 

Force Feedback support for Logitech wheels, if reports from other users are to be believed.

 

force feedback works here in Finland with the logitech gt4 wheel. Some competition maybe for the time trials? - though, I suck... for the first time trial track with the default car barely under 1.30 for now.

With f1 demo wheel doesn't work. By disconnecting the regular pad you get to see that car actually responds to logitech ff wheel, but you get disqualified from the competition as soon as race starts... funny, or not... Didn't like much the controls with pad in F1.

 

In FFVIII could you test the Diablos fight? Let him cast Gravija on you, that pretty much always kills the PSP version. Some other boss fights result in lock ups, like the Comm Tower if you set the camera to move 100%. It'd be interesting to know if the PS3 also has trouble handling that.

 

Here are the EU ps3 board scans. I don't see the partial GS anywhere....

 

Ouch, Diabolos, that's triggered by that magic lamp, after the grave of the ancient king or somesuch, right?
I don't think I'm ready to go that far into the game just to "quickly" try something out

 

I'm not really sure because I read somewhere that it will be integrated into the SCC, but the 4th picture looks like the GS.

 

No, you get the magic lamp quite early. After the first mission where you fight the big robot in the Comm Tower. It should be about 2 hours of playtime at most. But I understand if you don't have the time.

 

Don't get me wrong, I love the game, but I've finished it four or five times already. I'm somewhat done with it, and would rather play something that's still new to me.
If it's that early in the game though, I think I'll have a go at it this weekend. Reader satisfaction ftw

 

Ooooookay. I've just rummaged through the opening stretch, and Diablos has cast Gravija on my party three times now, with no problems. The game is stable, and with the exception of the odd distorted battle swirl, the graphics are entirely correct.
(i.e. 320x240 with lots of dithering but no glitches; half-video/half-3d sequences, magic effects, summons, everything seems to render just fine)

 

Thanks for the test, I really appreciate it, +rep for you. Here's to hoping they can add those improvements to the PSP emulator.

 

The Resident Evil 4 Collectors Edition (or whatever it is called) that comes in the tin box works flawlessly on PS3. You can run it in NTSC / 60hz mode also, which is nice.

 

I actually have to select the NTSC (60 Hz) mode to avoid visual artifacts. If I select PAL (50 Hz) or in-game progressive scan (triangle+X method during game boot) I get these ugly vertical pin stripes all over the screen. Now if I boot the game and select NTSC (60 Hz) mode the vertical pin stripes disappear.

I've noticed that the PS3 doesn't send an interlaced signal to the TV when you play PS1 and PS2 games over HDMI or Component. Does the PS3 actually upconvert 480i/576i to 480p/576p or is it just deinterlacing before sending the signal to the TV?

 

I think it just takes the whole frame buffer and sends it over the wire as a progressive signal. I wouldn't call that "upconversion" though.

As far as I'm aware it never emits a 480p signal, even though that would be the best thing to do for a few titles. It packages them up as 576p signals with nice fat letterboxing
Somebody needs to inform Sony that European HDTVs accept 480p signals. The European PS3 doesn't seem to support that resolution at all.

 

Interesting. Then it must be some kind of upconversion since not all PS2 games support a full framebuffer.

Actually I think the PAL PS3 does support 480p correctly. My telly definitely recognize a 480p signal sent the PS3 and display the image accordingly. I can see a clear difference when playing Ico in 50 Hz or 60 Hz. The black borderes above and belov the picture are larger when running the game in 50 Hz.

Because of the way most PS2 games are rendered some black borderes (underscan) are unavoidable on LCDs and Plasmas even when playing PS2 games on a regular PS2.

 

Hmmm.
I'll have to try again with an analog video connection. I've been using HDMI so far, and many of the games that I know output 480 lines (on the PS2) are letter-boxed, in what I think is 576p.
Do you have a 480p (or 480i) resolution listed in your display settings?
(because it's not even listed for me, when using the HDMI connection)

 

Voted thread five stars for Rolf's excellent game testing!
Please keep the good work up!

Peace.

 

No, 480p (or 480i) is not listed in my display settings. I use HDMI, but the results are identical with Component.

I can definitely see a difference in Resident Evil 4 (original PAL release) if I select 50 Hz or 60 Hz. In 50 Hz mode I get an ugly vertical pinstripe pattern all over the screen. In 60 Hz mode the picture is normal. As I mentioned earlier, the strange thing is that the vertical pinstripe pattern also show up if I enable in-game progressive scan (triangle+X during game boot).

I'll test ICO again to see if there're any letterbox differencies between the PS3 and my PS2.

Update:
Tested Shadow of the Colossus. Black borders are visible above and belov the screen even in 480p. I guess the PS3 doesn't fully support NTSC modes then. The PAL PS3 runs som kind of PAL60 mode with PAL resolution and a 60 Hz refresh rate, but my telly indetifies it as "480p/60Hz". Strange.