If you've been a reader or a watcher of Retro Dodo for some time, you know we're big fans of PS2 emulation; we've reviewed endless handhelds that emulate this console, and we also dabble with it on Windows and Mac. When doing so on desktop, our go-to choice is PCSX2, a renowned emulator that has been somewhat reliable for a while now, with many quality-of-life improvements as the years go by.
This new 2.8.0 update is one of the biggest yet, coming two years after the big 2.0.0 update, and 6 months after the 2.6.0 update that pushed a lot of features. This new update focuses on performance, and boy has it done just that, boasting better quality of emulation, enhanced graphics and added customisations to make your PlayStation 2 gaming experience more fluid and more customisable. Just take a look at the performance games on Need For Speed: Carbon!
There's a whole lot of changes in this update; you can read the full list on their website for specifics, but we've put together an easy list for you so that you can get a broad idea of what's been added and changed. To put it simply, it's a whole lot of graphical enhancements, bug fixes, better textures and better compatibility with certain drivers.
New Features
- Bundle FFmpeg on Windows
- Implement EyeToy camera support on macOS
- Train Mascon, Master Controller and Olympus Storage Devices support
- On-Screen Display Customisations
- Various visual improvements to Achievements menu
- FullscreenUI: Implement cover download support
- Add Icon Selection and Preview to the Shortcut Creator
- Revamp the status bar
- Add “Open XXX Folder” actions to Game List entries
- Add
-datapathlaunch argument - Miscellaneous UI Changes
Performance and Graphics Improvements
- Depth feedback loops and accurate AFAIL
- Support for HW AA1 lines/triangles
- Support for Rasterizer Order View (ROV)
- Default to Direct3D 12 on Nvidia/AMD and mark Direct3D 11 as Legacy
- Use Enhanced Barriers API
- Add SW (Shader Based) Anisotropic Filtering
- Merge together adjacent tristrips in drawlist
- Fixes to CRTC merging
- Improve depth target lookup behaviour
- Fix some target detection and format issues
- Adjust depth copies when doing Texture Cache moves
- Don't end render passes on enhanced barriers
- Improve destination alpha testing handling
- Framebuffer switching optimisations
- Further improve framebuffer copies
This new update is now live and is available to explore and download on their official website; just make sure you check the system requirements before doing so!
