Hi, as some of you might know, Silent Hill got a bit of mixed up content across the different regions. A quick rundown: - The PAL and NTSC-J versions, got enemy models replaced that (for some) represented little children with knives. In the these regions, the enemies look like headless teddybears with claws. - The NTSC-U version kept the children like looking enemies, but is missing a document near the end of the game, that is present in the PAL and NTSC-J versions. Now the thing is, there is a patch for the PAL versions, to restore the children like looking enemies. The PAL version is also a Multi 5 release, so I can read the texts in my native language (which can help with certain riddles), the perfect combination it seems. My biggest issue however is the loss of 60hz from the NTSC-U version, which is awesome for a game like SIlent Hill. So I tried to patch the PAL image with all the well known region patchers out there (PAL4U and Zapper2k), but for the love of god, none of them managed to get the game to 60hz and on top of that, lowered the screen a bit, so it appears cropped (black bar at the top and missing content on the bottom). The mentioned tools, have support to fix the y-Position of the picture, but it only allows me to even further lower the picture and not raising it, where I actually need it. To fix that, would be an awesome start And as I said, none of them got the game to 60hz, the game is always running in 50hz no matter what I do. The "Import Player Light v2.1" boot CD allows me to force the video mode to NTSC and therefore output the game at 60hz, but that also gets me the cropped image. My intention however is to actually try and automate this process by patching the game to 60hz, so I don't have to rely on a boot CD everytime. If anyone here can help me out with that, I'd be forever thankful, as I'm lost here and tried everything I can think about. Thank you all! Kindest regards, iCEQB
Might be a rookie suggestion but have you tried gamebreaker codes? http://www.mogelpower.de/cheats/Silent-Hill-_GB-PSX-PAL_9619.html PAL2NTSC 3424 C5D5 BBC9
Hey thanks for that ! The PAL2NTSC patch does indeed work ! The game is now running in 60hz I also tried the Y-Position fix below and at first it seems to work correctly in the first screen for like 2 seconds and then switches again to a cropped image. I have to say, that I tried this with an emulator now (because I already wasted a lot of discs on this ), which might be the problem for this image crop after a few seconds. But let's say on real hardware it doesn't cause these issues ... is there a way to hardcode these cheats into the main executable ?
You need to conevert the code in hexadezimal and than replace it directly in the silent hile image...but I need to pass on this one. Perhaps some experts here can help you out
Ok so I'm using these cheats: Code: PAL2NTSC 3424C5D5 BBC9 Y-Fix 842474D4 1CC8 With the tool "xpcrypt" I was able to decrypt these codes into something ePSXe should understand: Code: PAL2NTSC 30013E36 0040 Y-Fix 80018F00 0000 But with these enabled, ePSXe behaves just like my other attempts I stated in the first post -> 50hz + cropped image. How come boot or cheat CDs can get the emulator to 60hz but nothing else???
Have you also tried patching the .bin to be the region of choice? For example, theres a tool to convert .bin PS1 roms to PAL NTSC-U and NTSC-J. THe emulator might be reading this part of the rom as well which could be causing the conflict. If need be I can zip up a copy of that tool for ya
You mean this tool that changes the license region ? Just tried that, doesn't work :/ I simply can't get the emulator to execute it at 60hz on its own and I don't know why. I bet ePSXe just checks the filename of the main executeable, if it's something like SLES_***.** it just forces the image to 50hz. EDIT: Trying mednafen now, let's see how this one behaves. EDIT2: Same thing here, I don't understand what the problem is :/ @TriMesh @rama @krHACKen do you guys know why only the resolution changes but not the frequency ? EDIT3: Ok so something else seems to be wrong here entirely. I tried all the PAL to NTSC patching methods on Mednafen, which seems to be the most accurate PS1 emulator ? None of the patches cause the switch to 60 hz, but the image cropping is available on Mednafen as well. So I looked around a bit and tried one of these NTSC/PAL selector trainers for a different game (Wipeout 3) and the latest ePSXe doesn't react at all when selecting the NTSC video mode, it just keeps going at PAL 50hz. On Mednafen however I can see the fps coutner rising up to 60 fps, but the renderer outputs the message "VIDEO STANDARD MISMATCH". Next I'm going to test if I can implement the cheats above in mednafen for Silent Hill or how to change the discs and go the action replay route (this emulator is a mess to use ). EDIT4: Ok Mednafen eats the PAL2NTSC cheat code, but still displays "VIDEO STANDARD MISMATCH" ... but seeing 60 fps for once is a welcomed change Now let's see if I can force the output despite the video mismatch. EDIT5: Ok, so I can't get the "VIDEO STANDARD MISMATCH" to go away Next emulator I tried is no$psx which also seems to be very accurate. I can imput the cheats manually in the RAM editor and they indeed work. The Y-Pos fix however behaves strange, it sticks the image to the top but there is still a lot missing on the bottom (cropped). Now this is what I don't understand, how come it's such an issue to display a NTSC picture on a PAL display ? The NTSC picture should be smaller than the PAL counterpart and therefore fit inside perfectly (and even cause black bars somewhere correct?). This is very frustrating.
Could you please direct me to that patch? I have been looking for something like this for quite some time.
http://silenthillcommunity.com/viewtopic.php?f=3335&t=437619 It doesn't say anywhere what format it expects the image to be in prior to patching it, but I had no problems with the SLES-01514 copy dumped with the redump methods. You can check their site for checksums.