Framerates of certain PSX JRPGs

[Rolf N]

Looking for some information for a writeup that involves, among other things, the three 3D Final Fantasy games on the PSX. At this point I don't want to get involved so much in opinions about the relative quality of these games. One of the reasons I'm writing this after all is that there's so much bickering and disagreement! So please try and not bring that up so much

What I want to know is how the battle framerates and load times stack up between these three. I get the distinct impression that FF IX is pushing the PSX very hard, maybe a little too hard for comfort. It feels slow and sticky to me in combat (even the music tends to stutter somewhere along the transition animation). I can only assume and seek confirmation (or that other thing that is the opposite of confirmation) that FF VII and FF VIII had more tolerable in-battle framerates (at the implied expense of polygon counts) on the PSX. I still seek because ...

I have FF IX for PSX right here and can play it on a PStwo in emulation which I will assume to be faithful. OTOH FF VII and FF VIII I have only ever seen on the PC. Another "problem" I have is that I have a PAL version of FF IX and I can't rule out that the 60Hz=>50Hz conversion made stuff worse than they are in the NTSC release of the game. Right here it looks like it's locked to 8 fps or something.

Please be gentle.

 

[Shark Sandwich]

FF VII's battle scenes ran at constant 15 frames per second. I believe VIII and IX both ran at 30 fps.

 

[PeterT]

It's been too long since I played these, so I can't help you with your specific question. Also, I wasn't too sensitive to framerate back then

However, if you just want to play the game then I would strongly suggest doing so with ePSXe. Use the OpenGL 2 plugin and the highest level of AA and AF your card supports, looks quite a bit better than the original. Also, if you have a somewhat recent PC you shouldn't have any framerate issues at all.

 

[Shark Sandwich]

As far as load times, I don't recall them being very substantial in any of the PSX FF games.

EDIT: And as far as FF IX goes, I don't recall any slowdown/choppiness/stuttering music. Are you playing it with fast load/smooth textures turned on or off?

 

[pegisys]

wasn't FFVII on the PC IIRC it looked better on the PC as well, I don't know how hard it would be to find the PC version but it may be worth looking into if you want to play it and not have to bother with emulators

 

[vazel]

Looking for some information for a writeup that involves, among other things, the three 3D Final Fantasy games on the PSX.

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I have FF IX right here and can play it on a PStwo in emulation which I will assume to be faithful. OTOH FF VII and FF VIII I have only ever seen on the PC. Another "problem" I have is that I have a PAL version of FF IX and I can't rule out that the 60Hz=>50Hz conversion made stuff worse than they are in the NTSC release of the game. Right here it looks like it's locked to 8 fps or something.

I think he wants to know how it ran on the original hardware. I don't remember any framerate issues but like another person said I too wasn't sensitive to framerate issues back then.

 

[Rolf N]

Yes, VII and VIII are on the PC. I have them, they are sitting here on my shelf as we speak. I don't really need any help getting the games up and running in some form because I've had them for a while and played through them all, multiple times. 7 and 8 perform very well on the PC, but that's not what I need to find out. It's the performance of the PSX versions I'm concerning myself with here.

I'm really only just looking for someone who has FF VII, VIII and IX for the PSX and can confirm/deny that the battle performance got lower with the later installments. That way we don't even need to guess absolute framerates.

 

[Rolf N]

As far as load times, I don't recall them being very substantial in any of the PSX FF games.

EDIT: And as far as FF IX goes, I don't recall any slowdown/choppiness/stuttering music. Are you playing it with fast load/smooth textures turned on or off?

The settings don't seem to make an appreciable difference. I figure the game must be doing some heavy processing on the data it loads, because fast drive simulation really should accelerate the transition into battle and it just doesn't.
The battle music is barely holding together while combat is actually going on, it's not just a loading issue. Again, that might be the result of a terrible PAL conversion.

The game had many of the same problems when I was playing it on ePSXe. I will attribute these issues to the faithfulness of the ePSXe emulation.

 

[PeterT]

I just went rummaging through a box I haven't openened in years, and I managed to find both FF7 and 8 (both german PAL, covered in layers of dust). Sadly, I couldn't locate 9. I'd have a look now, but my PS2 is running FF12

If nobody else turns up (preferably with all 3), I can do a quick comparison later.