P.E.Op.S.

PS2 SPU2 Sound emulation plugin

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The P.E.Op.S. spu2 plugins are based on the P.E.Op.S. PSX DSound/OSS plugins
for Windows and Linux.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Windows requirements/installation:
----------------------------------

DirectSound, and a sound card which can do 48Khz stereo/mono

16 Bit sample playing.

Installation:
Just copy the file SPU2PeopsDSound.dll into your \plugins directory,
that's all.

Linux requirements/installation:
--------------------------------

Copy the file "libspu2PeopsOSS.so.x.x.x" into the main emus plugin

directory.
The files "spuPeopsOSS2.cfg" and "cfgPeopsOSS2" should be
copied together into one of the following directories:

a) a main emu sub-directory named "cfg" (recommended) or

b) directly into the main emu directory or
c) your home directory

If the main emu has a gui to select the plugins, there will
be propably a "Configure" button for the plugin. Use it... a
window with all possible options will appear. The options are
stored into the "spuPeopsOSS2.cfg" text file.

So, if there is no gui, you can use a simple text editor to

change the options.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Configuration:

There ain't much options in the spu2 plugin... only

a rough volume control, an option to turn off XA music and
some misc special options (well, there is no "XA music"
with PS2 emulation, still there may be already decoded
sound streams in the future, so I left the original XA
funcs in this spu2 plugin... maybe they will come handy
one day).

I've tried to combine a relative large sound buffer with

a technique to get short reaction times... the result should
be no stuttering when the emu gets very busy (for example
while heavily accessing the dvd drive), but also no delays
when starting to play a sound sample. Well, at least it
works fine on my system :)

1) General settings
-------------------

Mode:
The mode setting affects how the plugin will feed the sound data
to your sound card.

With "SpuAsync" the spu plugin will run completely synchron to

the main emu, which will usually produce the best timing... but
since PCSX2 is not up to running games/demos in full speed, I
suggest to NOT use the SpuAsync mode.

"Timer event mode": that mode is needed on some systems to fix

stuttering effects. It also helps with very timing critical games,
so you should enable the option, if your system is fast enough
to handle it. This mode is MSWindows only.

The "thread mode" will be a little bit faster, and OK with most
games, so you can use it on slower PCs. I recommend this mode for
current PS2 emulators.

Volume:
You can choose between "Low", "Medium", "Loud" or "Loudest"
depending on your speakers.
Of couse you can also adjust the volume with the Windows/Linux
sound mixer ;P

Reverb:
There are two different settings: no reverb (fastest mode,
but the sound will be very thin sometimes) and spu2 reverb
(fully emulated spu2 reverb effects - thanx to Neill Corlett).
Since I wasn't able to test the spu2 reverb yet, it might be
safer to turn reverb off for now.

Interpolation:
Four different modes: "no interplation" will be fastest, but
the sound can have some scratching effects. "Simple interpolation" will
smooth the sound somewhat, still the sound will be thin (or, as some
people claim: "clean"). The "gaussian interpolation" (added by kode54)
will prolly be the best choice for most users. But also the "cubic" mode
(added by Eric) is very nice, it offers a better treble than the gaussian
one (imho).

2.) XA Audio
-------------------

No, PS2 emus don't have "XA Audio" (or something similar) right now.
But maybe there will be already-decoded sound streams in the future,
so I left the XA funcs (and config options) in the spu2 plugin,
maybe they will be needed somewhen.

Currently it will make no differences if you enable or disable XA.

3.) Misc
-------------------

- "SPU IRQ - wait for CPU action": another yet more or less useless
option. Maybe needed somewhen in the future, though.
- "Mono sound" mode: if enabled, all sound output will be mono. Doesn't
sound that great, of course, but it can be helpful on slower systems/
sound cards, since only half of the usual data has to get transfered.

- "Developer debug mode" (MS Windows only): a window will pop up

when the spu gets started, showing the current spu usage of
the game.
I have enabled that mode for interested users, but keep in
mind that the debug mode will slow things a bit down, so
prolly you will need a fast cpu and video card. Also don't use
the debug window in a fullscreen window mode, and make
sure that your desktop has at least a 800x600 resolution.
Most useful is the debug window if you are trying to improve
the plugin yourself :)

- "Sound recording window" (MS Windows only): another small

window will be displayed on spu startup (don't try to use it in fullscreen
mode), you can use it to easily record the psx sounds into standard
WAV sound files.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

For version infos read the "version.txt" file.

And, peops, have fun!

Pete Bernert

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

P.E.Op.S. page on sourceforge: https://sourceforge.net/projects/peops/

P.E.Op.S. spu2 developers:

Pete Bernert http://www.pbernert.com

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Disclaimer/Licence:

This plugin is under GPL... check out the license.txt file in the /src
directory for details.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------