PSSwitch – An easy-to-use configuration tool for PSEmu Pro by Vision Thing

PSEmu Pro is a very powerful Sony Playstation emulator. There are many plug-ins available for emulating the graphical display, the sound, CD-Rom and input devices. I found that some plug-in configurations are good for playing jump and run games, but others are better for racing games and so on...

Now it is very tiresome to change the emulator settings every time you want to play a different game. PSSwitch provides a good solution. You can store different configuration settings and start the emulator with the wanted configuration by just a double-click. PSSwitch supports PSEmu Pro 1.0.10, Beta 1.0.19 and PSEmu Pro 1.0.20 (maybe even version 1.0.4, but I haven´t tested it yet), if you have different versions of PSEmu Pro in different directories you can use PSSwitch to start the version which runs best with the game you want to play.

Compatibility

PSSwitch works fine with Win95 and Win98. I haven’t checked it with WinNT 4.0, maybe there are some problems because of the NT registry security handling.

Installation

Installation is easy: just copy the PSSwitch.exe and the PSSwitchTool.dll files in a directory of your choice. Done! OK, maybe you want to create a shortcut to PSSwitch.exe on your desktop, but that is really all!

Manual

PSSwitch is not hard to use. After you start it, the following window will appear:

In the main area a list of stored configurations is displayed. Just double-click an icon and PSEmu Pro will start using the selected configuration.

New in version 1.0.2: the version info window. If you select an icon, informations about the used plugins will be displayed. You can customize the display with the 'Tools' menu.

New in version 1.0.3: you can arrange your icons by simply drag and drop one icon to another. The dragged icon will be inserted before the new destination icon. The order information will be saved in the registry, on every start of PSSwitch the icons will be set on their user defined positions.

New in version 1.0.4: the group bar window. It is listing all defined groups. If you can grap it on its border (just keep trying), you can move it to a new position, resize it and so on. More infos about groups are descriped later on.

How to create a new icon? Choose ‚Configurations->Start & configure PSEmu Pro...‘ from the menu or click the first button in the toolbar. A dialog will appear:

Here you can type in the path and file name of the PSEmu Pro version you want to use. If you want to browse for the executable, click the ‚...‘ button. PSSwitch also stores a ,most recently used‘ list for the executables, so you can just choose a filename you used before.

Now click ‚OK‘, the emulator will be started.

Configure the emulator as it suits you best. Maybe you have to start it several times before you have found a configuration that runs well. As you notice, this part of PSSwitch is just a way to start the emulator, you still have to configure and test it manually. If you have games which stores data on memory cards, so check also the memory card manager of PSEmu Pro. You should create new cards for every game and select them in the memory card manager.

After you have made a configuration you want to store in PSSwitch, choose ‚Configurations->Store current PSEmu Pro configuration...‘ from the menu or click the second button in the toolbar. Another dialog will be displayed:

Here you have to type in a name for the current configuration. Choose also the executable emulator file (X:\XXX\PSEmu.exe) , which will be started with that configuration. If you want, you can also provide a bitmap file, it will be displayed as icon in the list. If the bitmap is larger as 32x32 pixel, only the upper left part of the bitmap will be used. If you don’t use a bitmap file, the default PSEmu Pro icon will be shown. Last but but least you could type in some comment about the configuration. It will be shown in the version info window.

Now click ‚OK‘, the dialog will be closed and you new configuration is added to the main PSSwitch list.

If you want to change the name, executable or bitmap of an existing setting, just right-click on it in the list. A popup-menu will appear, if you choose ‚Properties...‘ from it, the following dialog appears:

Here you can make the changes, clicking on ‚OK‘ stores the new informations. New in Version 1.0.1: the 'OK & Update' button updates also the configuration of the setting (what means, it takes the current PSEmu Pro configuration). To get it right: 'OK' just changes name, exe and bitmap. 'OK & Update' stores also the current PSEmu infos.

If you want to delete existing configuations from PSSwith, just select them in the main list and choose ‚Configurations->Erase selected configurations...‘ from the menu or click on the third button in the toolbar. You have to confirm this acion in the following dialog, when you choose ‚Yes‘ the configurations are gone.

In the ‚View‘ menu you can show or hide the toolbar and the status bar. You can also hide the version informations. Because PSSwitch gets this informations 'on-the-fly' by loading the proper plugins, it could take a little time. If you don`t need the infos, hide them. See also the remarks to the version infos in the history list at the end of this manual.

The ‚Tools‘ menu contains some extra goodies:

If you select ‚Erase current PSEmu Pro configuration...‘ the current PSEmu Pro settings will be erased from the registry, so you can make a clean start. The next time you start PSEmu Pro (if you don’t use a PSSwitch configuration) the emulator will start with the NULL drivers and tell you that you have to configure it.

‚Erase all PSSwitch settings...‘ is a kind of un-installation of PSSwitch: all traces of PSSwitch (and all stored configurations) will be removed from the registry and PSSwitch will quit. If you now delete the PSSwitch.exe and the PSSwitchTool.dll, your system is just as it was before using PSSwitch...

‚Export/Import configuration‘: You can export an existing configuration, all configuration data will be saved in a standard Windows REG file. You can backup it, give it away to a friend or just examine it with a text editor, if you want to take a look at all the settings done by PSEmu Pro. If you want to import the config data there are two ways: double clicking on the file using the Windows Explorer (but beware if the file is given to you by someone you don't know, maybe there are some not-so-friendly keys in it) or, to be sure, use the import feature from PSSwitch, all keys will be transfered to their right place in the Windows registry and, of course, a new PSSwitch configuration icon will be avail.

Using ‚Tools->customize PSSwitch‘ a window will appear where you can select which infos you want to see in the version info window:

New in version 1.0.3: you can select memory card infos.
New in version 1.05: you can select 'INFO' to show your configuration comments.

Also new within version 1.0.5: select an additional image list bitmap. It will be used if you want to work with groups (see next chapter). This bitmap should have a height of 16 pixels, every image in the bitmap should have a width of 16 pixels. So if you want to enhance the group image list by 3 of your own images, create a bitmap file with dimensions 48x16. Paint the images in it: the first 16 pixels are used for image 1, pixel 17-32 is image 2 and the last 16 pixels contain image 3. If you want to have some transparent pixels, choose 'pink' [RGB(255,0,255)] as transparent color.

Groups: just wondering what groups are for? If you have made many configurations, the main list will be overcrowded. OK, you can order icons by drag and drop, but if you want to find special configs you have to look over a lot of icons. That's why groups exist! You can create a new group by right clicking in the group bar window. In the following popup menu choose "New...", a dialog will appear:

Here you can enter a name and select an image for your group. Click 'OK' and a new entry appears in the group list. If you left click on the entry, all configurations belonging to that group will be listed in the main window (oh yes, if you have created a new group, the list will be empty). How to add configurations to a group?
A) Select the group and create a new configuration. It will be added to the group (and to the 'all configurations' group).
B) Select a group which contains the configuration icons. Drag an icon and drop it to your new group.
Please note: a group is just another view of your configurations, or better to say, a filter for 'all configurations'. If you rename a configuration or select a new icon for it or update its PSEmu Pro settings (all done in the configuration properties), the changes will be done in ALL groups containing this configuration! If you erase a configuration from a group, it will be erased from ALL groups! Got it? If you just want to remove the icon from a group, perform a right click and select 'Remove from group...'! The configuration will stay in all others groups (at least in the 'all configurations' group). If you want to delete a group, do a right click on it and select 'Delete group...'. The group is gone... but its configurations will remain (again at least in the 'all configurations' group).
You can change the name or the image of a group by doing a right click at the entry and select 'Group properties...' from the popup menu.
Changing the group order is just as easy as ordering configuration icons: try drag and drop!
Last note: if you don't have many configurations, there is no need to use groups. The 'All configurations' group ever exists and you can use PSSwitch just with this one. You can hide the group bar in the 'View' menu!

New in version 1.0.6: Quick configure... If you select a configuration icon, you can select this feature be menu or clicking the button in the toolbar. A window will appear:

All available plugins will be listed, you can activate, configure and test them as in PSEmu Pro. If you choose 'OK' the new settings will be stored for the selected configuration. So you don't have to start PSEmu, do the changes, go to the PSSwitch configuration properties and choose 'OK & Update', in version 1.0.6 you can do it within PSSwitch! OK, there is one exception: some plugins don't let you make all the settings within their Configure dialogs, often are some hotkeys used to make relevant changes (hi Lewpy!). If you want to store such changes, you have to use 'OK & Update'.

Please note: 'Quick configure' is only possible, if you have given a PSEmu Pro executable filename on 'Create new configuration'. If older PSEmu Pro versions ( < 1.0.19 ) will be detected, only older pad plugins will be listed. Some pad plugins will be displayed twice if they are capable of using the second pad of the PSX.

New in Version 1.0.7: Memory card handling!

New in Version 1.0.8: Importing memory cards, including *.psx and *.gme (DexDrive) formats!

New in Version 1.0.10: CHEATS...

You can use the add/delete/edit and import features with every version of PSEmu Pro, but only with versions above 1.0.20 of PSEmu Pro the activation/deactivation of cheats will work. PSSwitch stores the activated codes along with the rest of the configuration, every time you start PSEmu Pro using PSSwitch, the active cheats will be send to the emulator, you don`t have to go into its cheat manager!

Last but not least: ‚Help->About PPSwitch‘ just shows some version info:

How it works

PSEmu Pro stores all informations in the Windows registry database. After you have configured PSEmu Pro, a key "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Vision Thing\PSEmu Pro" contains all settings of the emulator. PSSwitch just copies this key under a new name "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Vision Thing\name_of_setting". By double-clicking an icon in PSSwitch, all informations will be copied back and the correct executable will be started. That`s all...

As long as Vision Thing uses the "PSEmu Pro" key for PSEmu, PSSwitch will work correctly.

About the author

At age of 12 I got an VC20 from Commodore, which I used for my first programming experience. Later I got a C64 and at the age of 18 my first PC. I studied computer sience in Mannheim, germany, where I made my "Dipl-Informatiker". Now I am working as a programmer since 6 years, writing mostly Windows programs (for example the "Siemens visualization instabus"). In my free time I play computer games (mostly the RPG-like), but because there were not many PC-RPGs in 1998 I got me a Playstation for "Breath of Fire III". But playing in front of my TV brought me some headaches (OK, that problem is mainly caused by my old TV), so I looked for an alternative and found... PSEmu Pro. Nice work, guys! Using the Kazz GPU, Seal sound and the DAO driver (reduces loading time a lot) for BOFIII, I was really amazed! Oh, some note to Lewpy: your Glide GPU is not bad, but please correct the sprite routines (BOFIII would be much smoother if I could use the glide driver)... Newer betas are a little bit better, but still some wrong pixels appear on the sprite edges and the lights are wrong..
If you are a Riva TNT owner, try Niks D3D driver, 'Spyro the Dragon' looks awful using Modulate2X mode and bi-linear filtering.

That’s all, folks! Have a nice day...and please excuse my english...

Pete Bernert

History:

Version 1.0 of PSSwitch:
programmed on 27/28 december 1998 with Microsoft VC++ 5.0

Version 1.0.1 of PSSwitch:
contains an 'OK & Update' button in the property dialog. Updated on december 30, 1998.

Version 1.0.2 of PSSwitch:
small changes in the menu and dialog wordings. Added a toolbar button for properties. Biggest change: the version info window. I thought it would be nice to see what plugins are used, and not so difficult to code. Just load the plugins, ask them about name and version and unload them again. Ha! That is right for some of the plugins, but others (for example the SEAL Audio driver) could be loaded and asked but not get rid off until you did quit PSSwitch. I think, this effect is the main reason you have to quit PSEmu Pro after you change configurations. It took me some time to figure out how to avoid this problem (I don't want to quit every time a new version info is displayed). I have tested my 'GetPluginInformation' routine on all plugins I got myself, but if someone detects an error using the version info window (for example Windows freezes when you select an special configuration), just hide the version info! Coded on January 2, 1999.

Version 1.0.3 of PSSwitch:
Added memory card informations. The version info window will display the state of the selected memory card, and, if some blocks are used by a game, a list of short block names will be given. Also implemented drag and drop of the configuration icons, so you can define your own order. Also done in version 1.0.3: little speed up reading the version info (but most of you will not notice that, I guess). I also tried what happens, if PSSwitch starts PSEmu Pro with a higher process priority than normal (Windows starts an application with priority 8, that means normal). When PSSwitch gave PSEmu an high or realtime priority, all other threads and processes (plugins!) of the emulator also derived this priority, but... no speed gained (sorry). I tried this startup on my PII400 and P166(no MMX), but the framerate keeps on the same level as before. So I fall back to the normal priority, because the WinSDK notes that higher priorities can cause disk caches not to flush or cause the mouse to be unresponsive, and as long there are no improvements I will stay on the safer side. Release date of version 1.0.3: January 4, 1999.

Version 1.0.4 of PSSwitch:
Included group bar. That's all (but it was some hack of work). Thanks to the guys at Vision Thing for supporting PSSwitch! Given to you on January 5, 1999.

Version 1.0.5 of PSSwitch:
Group bar properties are avail. For those of you who wants to be creative: paint your own group images. And you can provide comments for your configurations, they will be displayed in the version info window. Uploaded on January 6, 1999.
What comes next? My christmas holidays are over, so the next update will be done when I have some free time again. But, of course, you have better things to do checking every day for a new version of PSSwitch!?! If someone has troubles using PSSwitch or detects some bugs (I found none) , post a notification to the PSEmu Message Board, I will take care of it. If a new PSSwitch version is done (I still have some ideas), I will also send infos to the board. Keep on emulating...

Version 1.0.6 of PSSwitch:
Got some free time this weekend and so I decided to do some more work on PSSwitch. Smaller changes: displaying time and date in the status bar (did you notice that?). Major change was the 'Quick configure' dialog, I think it is nicely done. I had to split PSSwitch, now there is a second file, PSSwitchTool.dll, don't forget to copy it in the same directory as PSSwitch.exe. Still some features are missing, I want to include some memory card handling and the im/export of configurations... but there will be ever some boring weekends... Last keystroke for this version was done on January 10, 1999.

Version 1.0.7 of PSSwitch:
Yesterday in the evening my girfriend went to her "Magic the Gathering" women circle, so I had some time to implement the memory card and options tab. I also got an E-Mail address for all of you who want to mail their comments, questions and problems about PSSwitch. Send it to psswitch@online.de, I will try to respond to every mail I get. If you have some cool configuration images or group list pictures you could also attach them to your mail, I will put them with your name on my homepage. That's all for now, January 14, 1999.

Version 1.0.8 of PSSwitch:
Smaller update: Importing save games in *.PSX and *.GME format. Choose 'Quick configure'->'Mem Cards'->'Import', a new memoy card file containing the save blocks will be created. PSEmu Pro just handles the *.PSX format within its mem card manager, so maybe you will find the GME feature useful. I could not check it with the games I own (I have not found any german saves yet in the internet), but you could look for save files at http://www.cheatcc.com/frames.html. Update done on January 16, 1999.

Version 1.0.9 of PSSwitch:
After a hard day spent with some 'real' work (I hate memory leaks in modules I haven't coded myself), I have done some more relaxing stuff: PSSwitch ‚Export/Import configuration‘. You can export an existing configuration, all configuration data will be saved in a standard Windows REG file. You can backup it, give it away to a friend (or maybe to a plugin coder, if he cares about your settings...) or just examine it with a text editor, if you want to take a look at all the registry settings done by PSEmu Pro. And, well, exported configurations can be imported again...
Some smaller technical change inside the 'Quick configure...' dialog: calling 'XXXinit'/ 'XXXshutdown' for the current active plugins when the dialog starts or ends. That's mainly for compatibility with PSEmu Pro, some plugins seem to need the calls, they are only reading their current settings on 'XXXinit', not on 'XXXconfigure'. Uploaded on January 19, 1999.
In the next version I want to include a comfortable cheat manager, I hope that Duddie or Kazz will add some interface to PSEmu Pro in their next release, so PSSwitch can tell PSEmu which cheat codes should be used.

Version 1.0.10 of PSSwitch:
Kazz told me that he wants to take care about cheat activation, so I added the cheat manager in PSSwitch 'Quick configuration'. Of course activation will only work right with PSE Pro versions > 1.0.20, but you still can use the add, delete, edit or import cheat features with PSE Pro version 1.0.19/1.0.20. PSSwitch can import cheats in PSEmu Pro or Action Replay format, many codes could be found in the archives of 'AR2PSEmu' or 'Cheat0r' on the PSEmu homepage (of course you don`t need this tools if you are working with PSSwitch, but if you like 'em, PSSwitch is fully compatible).
Also added some 'eye candy', for example the flat toolbar and menu images... not really important, but nevertheless nice styling...
Uploaded on January 28, 1999.

Version 1.0.11 of PSSwitch:
Small enhancement: group images can be added in hi-color (versions before were limited to 16 colors). Thanks to the Mage for some nice hi-color group images and testing. Uploaded on February 8, 1999.

Version 1.0.12 of PSSwitch:
Added new XA Audio/MDEC Video support in 'Quick configuration->Options'. PSSwitch will auto-detect PSEmu Pro versions > 1.0.20 and give you the new choices. Unlike the configuration dialog in PSEmu you can select 'Smooth MDEC Videos' even in the beta 1.0.21 ( I don't think it will work correctly, but you can give it a try) and you can also try to get smooth audio support and MDEC videos at the same time. Uploaded on February 11, 1999.