I'm looking at the possibility of allowing PS2 runs with a hard drive installed allowed on the boards. Currently those such runs are marked as emulator and hidden by default (for CEs we do allow emulator). In an era where it's getting harder and harder just to find PS2's, having to rely on a disc reader working can be a burden for some.
PS2 with HDD does give very fast loads and doesn't rely on the disc drive. It does require a fat model PS2. While BC PS3 already being miles faster than the fastest PS2 on disc, it has stability issues. Though I have not tested a lot on a PS2 HDD, I would assume the stability would be better since it's not emulating PS2 on a PS3 nor reading a disc.
I say we allow this, but I wanted to get other's thoughts on the matter before we would allow this. We would allow this on here, Substance, VR and any CEs if there are no real objections or issues.
don't think this board needs any changes nor ways to "give more access". the best way to play is PS2 naturally, the fastest loading is a PS2 inside of a PS3. is that pay to win? yeah but so would be just adding more ways to enable I guess. not sure how much more value adding HDD would be for the 1-2 people that would consider running Sons of Liberty over PC Substance or even Master Collection. so
I'm not really opposed to the change, nor do I think that any change would necessarily be required so. whatever would happens next is honestly fine with me.
My main inquiry was for CE anyway. Main game doesn’t matter a lot to me but if it’s stable it’s just another way to play I guess.
As someone who has heavily ran the PS2 version this decision would be reassigning the arms race to something more attainable and overall a good thing IMO. Currently most competitive console is to get a BCPS3 which can be very unreliable especially as the years go on. While this doesn’t solve the overall “arms race” issue, FAT PS2s are plentiful currently and don’t even need a working disc drive for this modification. I’m willing to post video of load times comparing disc to SSD so we can have a more informed decision. In terms of separation I don’t think that will be necessary given we already have a PS2 Disc vs PS2 HDD/SSD currently with the BCPS3.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1d9GM5izB7Qb3doK1dL2zkr3l0_XqEEPs6DsVUXg04lA/edit?usp=sharing I updated my timing sheet from the Master Collection data. has now Brakk0n's Fat PS2 HDD run included. HDD comes down to be slightly worse than 90k disc in terms of loads.
BCPS3 still wins with that config, if we have more consoles, specific connector differences, I happily add more time data. just post a youtube video here for example so I can time it.
I added another run to the testdata (thanks Brakk0n) but OPL 1.0 and 1.1 barely make a dent vs BCPS3 which is still vastly superior when it comes to load times. Meanwhile, out of curiosity, I'll add a test run on PCXS2 1.6.0 and 1.7.X (latest) to see what numbers/percentages we're talking about.
