Recently, myself and some other moderators and runners have been testing the PlayStation 3 emulator RPCS3. We've found that its good enough for speedruns and don't have any major objections against it. Testing started not long ago, but recently the Masters Collection was announced which is going to bring a Steam port of the HD Edition. It mostly defeats the point of running emulator.

RPCS3 ran with moderate PC specs basically produces no lag in the vast majority of sections in the game (with some exceptions) and very fast load times. It obliterates the PS3 hardware and is either on par with Xbox Series or a bit slower.

Recommended RPCS3 settings: Default settings and the following tweaks mentioned on the emulator's wiki (https://wiki.rpcs3.net/index.php?title=Metal_Gear_Solid_HD_Collection).

ASL File that tracks in-game time: https://www.speedrun.com/resourceasset/iacxw

You can use this thread to post your general thoughts and testing results using RPCS3 or any other emulator. This is not a vote or anything, but just a discussion thread.

Note: Emulators are already allowed on this leaderboard, but runs using them are hidden by default. This has been the rule for many years now.

I'll be doing some testing myself but I just wanted to touch on your point about Master Collection coming out. Master collection could either make this redundant or a still relevant way to play the game depending on what happens with Master Collection's release; if intended or unintended changes are made to Master Collection that make is substantially different from other versions of MGS2. It could even turn out to be distinct enough to warrant its own board as the Grand Theft Auto series on SRDC ended up doing for the remasters of three of their games that released fairly recently.

With that in mind based soley off the accounts i've heard, I would be in support of adding emulator for HDC in the same way TTS does (The way it's set up, idk SRDC terms).

It could be a great way for a new runner that doesnt want to deal with the jank of substance PC to get into MGS2 and implementing it in the way TTS does is the best way of displaying emulator runs on this site to avoid "segregating" or "disparaging" or otherwise making emulator runs less appealing in my opinion.

If we did anything it would be just make it so emulator runs are not hidden by default. I do not think it would warrant a separate category. Especially since every other console is lumped into one category as it sits and RPCS3 is not faster than Xbox Series at the moment.

hi @kingofthebeez we have the issue with Xenia currently, that its update tickrate is tied to miliseconds, not correct fps. so 16ms leads to slightly faster than 60fps updates and 17ms setting is around 58fps updates. so either way it won't match a flat 60fps which is the ideal case to compare it to rpcs3 and regular consoles.

It does however run way smoother.

for MGS3 we had the same issue and that led us to this weird state of having a new category, RTA timing method and time ending before credits begin. it was an attempt to revitalize the board while giving people more ways to play. now with the MC coming, this board is in question as well again. so for MGS2 here, my suggestion is to allow RPCS3 specifically and disallow xenia for clarity. RPCS3 stays IGT and gets unhidden. ultimately, if no one has an interest in doing a run on RPCS3, nothing needs to be done - but being proactive about this may help other people picking the HD version up before MC releases as warm up / practice grounds for the coming versions.

think that's all I have about that topic so far.

Yeah, having explicit rules for emulation is better than the current "hidden by default" rule we have now, which is something I never really liked. Like @Hau5test said, explicitly allow RPCS3 only for now and untick emulators being hidden.

Here's a rule draft for emu inspired by the MGS1 boards:

• Only the approved emulators listed below are allowed. If you want to run a different emulator, it must be submitted for approval regarding accuracy.
• No emulator tools (save states, overclocking, etc.) are allowed during the run. 

• RPCS3 (version 0.0.28 or later)
  • Recommended fixes: https://wiki.rpcs3.net/index.php?title=Metal_Gear_Solid_HD_Collection

well that didn't format the i wanted it to. But whatever lol

https://www.speedrun.com/mgs2hd/news/4459

We have approved RPCS3. This will be locked and eventually deleted.