By Chongchen Saelee
Recently got a new Windows 11 mini PC with however many cores, a powerful little beast for crunching graphics editing. But it’s still newish technology, so you can’t rely on it to run older tech like video game emulators fully. In this case, I’m trying out the latest version, as of this writing, of PCSX2 version 2.2.0 which is a PlayStation 2 emulator. (Mind you, I use PCSX2 version 1.6.0 on my much older, decade old Windows 7 machine and it runs perfectly on it, no additional tinkering)
The installation went smoothly. And I’m testing out Grand Theft Auto 3 ROM. Everything boots up smoothly with the default settings. However, it’s a subtle gripe, but I notice there being some delay in the audio. You can test this for yourself, maybe your results will vary.
When you shoot any gun or pay attention to the footstep and hopping sounds, or crash cars into each other or into a wall, or pay close attention to explosions, the audio is coming in slightly late. Maybe a few frames late. However many milliseconds late. It means there is something wrong with the timing of the video and audio.
Video output clearly isn’t the problem. As it is very responsive to my controller inputs.
So it’s an audio problem. It’s coming in too late, a fraction of a second too late. So here are the best settings for the most “accurate” synchronized audio results for PCSX2 version 2.2.0.
First things first. I was impressed PCSX2 version 2.2.0 came with a recording feature that recorded both video and audio. In PCSX2 version 1.6.0, it could only record video. However, upon trying to record a clip in version 2.2.0, there was a popup and freezing/crash that said I was missing a bunch of plugins or drivers. Oh, well, that means we not downloading additional junk, fam. Shit should work out of the box. So onward, ho! (It would defeat the purpose if PCSX2 recording worked if the audio was still out of sync, right?)
Since it’s an audio sync problem, try to use their out of the box settings first. Set “Output Latency” to “Minimal” by checking the box next to the slider. And for the sake of testing, I just changed “Buffer Size” to 100 ms from their default 50 ms. Buffer size increase doesn’t hurt unless it’s implemented incorrectly LOL.
Now the “dangerous” settings are the Emulation Settings. This will brick some games, including Grand Theft Auto 3, if you change them prior to running the game. So here are the default settings for peace of mind first. PCSX2 version 2.2.0 gives you a specific warning about these settings when you run the ROM.
And here are the changes you want to make to the Emulation Settings to get proper audio/video sync, at least as close to perceptibly possible. They worked for me, so I assume these will work for you. The point is you’re trying to emulate physical hardware of the original PlayStation 2. These modern PCs have so many cores and are so powerful, things can get wonky emulating old tech. Remember, older games were made specifically for specific hardware, so they took advantage of all the original hardware quirks. Side note: you’re gonna want to play these emulation games with hardware gamepads/controllers that resemble the original button scheme as much as possible too. You’ll learn the hard way. LOL
And because we won’t be using PCSX2 version 2.2.0 built-in recording feature, we want just the pure video output in a separate window. I didn’t screencap the On-screen Display (OSD) Settings, but just to be safe, you’re gonna want to turn off any of that text if you don’t want it captured in the final video. You can find the OSD tab in the Graphics Settings section.
And for the sake of running the game as fast as possible and to retain the original PlayStation 2 look, set “Internal Resolution” to Native and set “Renderer” to Vulkan. Most modern multi-core computers come with an integrated GPU or can accept a dedicated GPU that are powerful enough to have Vulkan pre-installed, otherwise you have to use DirectX or OpenGL, which are all GPU libraries. Avoid using software rendering if you can because that’s rendering on the CPU. Hardware acceleration happens when only one piece of hardware is dedicated to only one task of rendering graphics, which should be a dedicated GPU. I’m using a super powerful mini PC with an integrated GPU, it means the CPU is divided up in a way that part of it is dedicated for graphics processing only. I don’t have a physical dedicated graphics card (it’s a good way to save money LOL).
And finally, since I’m using Windows 11, it comes with Microsoft GameBar, which allows you to record video games and make screenshots or record audio. It’s a really convenient and powerful tool. You can bring up GameBar if you have an official XBox360-like USB game controller by pressing the equivalent of the XBox Logo button. Just make sure you clicked on the game window to give it focus first before you bring up GameBar. After you bring up GameBar, press the Record video button and another smaller window with the recording time should pop up to indicate that it is recording. As soon as you finish, press Stop and you can find the recorded video saved to your Windows Video folder.
Voila! Most importantly is that the audio syncs with the video during realtime gameplay AND recording. Otherwise, as a video game purist, you’re not going to fully enjoy the experience. At least not how your remembered it if you’re an OG gamer like I was. But recording it with accurate sync not only validates if you’re seeing or hearing things wrong, that you’re going crazy, it proves on a technical level that it’s now technically accurate. Feel me, son? A’ight, peace out.
Hardware: Beelink Mini PC SEi14 with Windows 11, TCL 43 inch Series S 4K TV
Tags: 2.2.0, audio, fix, grand theft auto 3, pcsx2, playstation 2, sync