Prisoner of War (2002) seems to run slow, even with dgVoodoo

[AlphaYellow 6]

So I checked this game and seems to be a port of the PS2 version that ran at 30 FPS, but ingame it doesn't feel like 30 FPS at all, even with dgVoodoo2 properly configured. Most times seems like the game is running in slow motion or something like that when moving around, but the framerate never drops from 32 FPS (capped), really weird. Anyone can confirm this as well?

[Genesis 1]

I have no clue if that'll work, did you try with the "Fast video memory access" option enabled in dgVoodoo?

[Aemony 118]

This thread might be relevant: https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=87842

[AlphaYellow 6]

It doesn't help at all, it seems like a sloppy PS2 port, maybe someone more advanced can fix the game and unlock the 30 FPS cap as well.

[diegoelcapo123 0]

7 hours ago, AlphaYellow said:

No ayuda en absoluto, parece un puerto de PS2 descuidado, tal vez alguien más avanzado pueda arreglar el juego y desbloquear el límite de 30 FPS también.

the game works perfectly for me on windows 10 on a pc with a gtx1050ti and an i5 7400 and I don't think it's a good idea to disable the 30fps limit

[scagent 1]

On 6/22/2022 at 4:12 AM, diegoelcapo123 said:

the game works perfectly for me on windows 10 on a pc with a gtx1050ti and an i5 7400 and I don't think it's a good idea to disable the 30fps limit

Why would it be a bad idea to disable the 30fps limit? First time I see someone prefer low fps in a game,

game plays smooth 60fps on PCSX2, if someone wants to emulate, it doesn't seem to be an engine issue, as people said before, lazy pc port.

[diegoelcapo123 0]

13 hours ago, scagent said:

Why would it be a bad idea to disable the 30fps limit? First time I see someone prefer low fps in a game,

game plays smooth 60fps on PCSX2, if someone wants to emulate, it doesn't seem to be an engine issue, as people said before, lazy pc port.

that the pcsx2 emulator says that it goes to 60fps does not mean that the game works internally at 60fps

for example the game black in the pcsx2 emulator says that it goes to 60fps but actually the game works at 30fps

(214) Black - PS2 - Frame Rate Test - YouTube

[scagent 1]

4 hours ago, diegoelcapo123 said:

that the pcsx2 emulator says that it goes to 60fps does not mean that the game works internally at 60fps

for example the game black in the pcsx2 emulator says that it goes to 60fps but actually the game works at 30fps

(214) Black - PS2 - Frame Rate Test - YouTube

I didn't even have to use a framerate counter, I later launched the game again using  rivatuner, to 100% confirm and not the built in counter, because you are correct its not always right, but I also didn't have to  I noticed the difference in smoothness immediately , the pcsx2 version is way above 30fps, not only is the difference felt and seen but on top of that rivatuner confirmed it. and it ran at 60fps.

 

I don't know if you want to try pcsx2 yourself, but here is a vid as well, it doesnt have a framerate counter, but you can notice how smooth it plays here during gameplay, compared to BLACK which is very  choppy and indeed runs at 30fps, dont even have to look at the graphs to see how choppy it runs

 

[magikgimp 1]

Game runs fine for me. Not sure why you guys are bothering using dgvoodoo though as this game is not running under 3dfx Glide. I installed from an ISO and used a replacement for the launcher and the fix found here on this website. I can't talk about the first two as I'll get another slap on the wrist for breaking "piracy" rules so I'm having to continue that part of the discussion on the Vogons thread instead.

[AlphaYellow 6]

Quote

Game runs fine for me. Not sure why you guys are bothering using dgvoodoo though as this game is not running under 3dfx Glide. I installed from an ISO and used a replacement for the launcher and the fix found here on this website. I can't talk about the first two as I'll get another slap on the wrist for breaking "piracy" rules so I'm having to continue that part of the discussion on the Vogons thread instead.

The game actually uses DirectX 8.1, and yes it makes sense to use dgVoodoo in older games like these to fix performance, add visual effects like anisotropic filtering and anti-aliasing, and set other things like Vsync or a custom refresh rate. I don't know why someone wouldn't use dgVoodoo actually, it's one of the best tools that was ever made for old games, no doubt. But this game doesn't feel smooth at all, even with dgVoodoo, I know what I'm saying, have finished literally hundreds of PC games to know it quite well.

[magikgimp 1]

OK, I was a bit rash but I don't understand half of the options it allows you to tweak so I don't usually use it all that often. I can't see the image quality going up all that much, can it? I've also had better results using nGlide with certain things (demoscene, some games) as well. Not that I don't appreciate the work gone into dgv too of course.

I'm perhaps not the best person to look into this stuff TBH. I only have a basic 60Hz 1080 monitor and a very slow PC (an advantage sometimes??) so I guess I'm used to crappy frame rates in general! I expect if you saw my screen you'd say it was slow too. 😕 I just like to investigate myself now and then even if I'm not really going to be playing the game much.