This is a guide for adjusting the graphics settings of the Beetle PSX HW emulation core, available through RetroArch. It will help correct some natural flaws in the PS1 architecture, and overall provide an improved graphic experience with little to no visual artifacts. If a particular setting isn’t mentioned, don’t worry about changing it. Note: Once in awhile the menu structure changes. If you don’t see a particular setting in the sub-menu we indicate, try another sub-menu. You can let us know something has changed by emailing us or tagging DrewUniverse in the LoD Discord Server > #website channel.
Graphics
To preface this section, we strongly recommend selecting the Vulkan rendering method. One of its big advantages include better CPU and GPU efficiency, i.e. more frames-per-second on both new and old hardware.
Main Menu
Enable Vulkan: “Settings > Drivers > Video” and select Vulkan. Also: “Settings > Video > Output > Video” and select Vulkan.
Aspect Ratio: “Settings > Video > Scaling > Aspect Ratio.” We recommend 4:3 in general, because widescreen just stretches everything unnaturally, but it’s your prerogative.
Choosing Fullscreen or Windowed Mode:
Fullscreen: “Settings > Video > Fullscreen Mode”
Windowed: “Settings > Video > Windowed Mode”
Extras: enable/disable VSync (prevent screen tear if you experience it) and Bilinear Filtering (smooth hard edges) in the “Settings > Video” section.
Graphic Settings for the Beetle Emulation Core
Where most of the important settings are. These options can be found while playing the game. Press F1 for the “quick menu” and select Options. First, let’s double-check that Vulkan is set as the video renderer. Options > Renderer > Hardware (Vulkan).
Options > Video
Internal Resolution: Recommend minimum 2x-4x, higher with a stronger/newer GPU. Start small, and don’t increase this till the other options below are changed. 8x-16x look a little better, but aren’t necessary.
Texture UV Offset: On
Dithering Pattern: Off
Texture Filtering: Nearest. All other options unfortunately cause significant visual artifacts such as blue lines or uneven text. The option with the least visual errors is xBR, but Nearest is still recommended in general.
Exclude 2D Polygons: **Opaque and Semi-Transparent. Only use this option if you do not use Nearest for texture filtering.
Multi-Sampled Anti-Aliasing: 2x-16x. Adjust based on your GPU’s performance. Start small and increment up one interval at a time.
MDEC YUV Chroma Filter: On
PGXP Operation Mode: Memory Only. Applies major fixes to wobbly polygons.
PGXP Primitive Culling: On
PGXP Perspective Correct Texturing: On
PGXP 2D Geometry Tolerance: 0px
CPU Dynarec: Disabled. Only set to Max Performance if the game struggles to run.
CD Access Method: Asynchronous
CD Loading speed: 2x. You can set it higher, but may cause instability and offers minimal gains.
Memory Card 0 Method: Mednafen (one memory card for all games). Makes it easier to carry savedata between discs.
Analog Self-Calibration: On