[jbreckmckye]

Oh yeah. The sword you pick up in Memoria. The problem there is that the PAL version runs slower; the way PSX games "translated" between the two video systems was just to have longer VSync pauses for PAL. So the game is actually slower, not interpolated

[reactordev]

Longer vsync pauses but larger frame time deltas so it’s basically the same speed of play. The only thing that was even noticeable was the UI lag.

[fredoralive]

Erm. No, like lots of games during the era quite a lot of stuff is tied to the frame rate, so the 50Hz region game just runs slower than the 60Hz one as next to nobody bothers to adjust for it. The clock for the hidden weapon does run at the same rate for both unfortunately, hence it being harder to get in 50Hz regions.

[reactordev]

Incorrect. I’m looking at the source code. It’s not perfect but it’s not just “slowed down to 50hz” like people claim.

[jbreckmckye]

When you say looking at the source code, what do you mean here?

AFAIK the source for FF9 PSX (and all the PSX ff games) has been lost as Square just used short term archives

Also, FF9 does not run at a constant framerate. Like all the PSX FF games it runs at various rates, sometimes multiple at a time (example: model animations are 15fps vs 30 for the UI)

In terms of timers, the bios does grant you access to root timers, but these are largely modulated by a hardware oscillator

(Incidentally, the hardware timing component is the reason a chipped PAL console cannot produce good NTSC video. Only a Yaroze can support full multiregion play)

[anthk]

FF VII-IX were reimplemented under a custom engine.

[reactordev]

Except I’m looking at the original source, not the remake, the crappy C/C++ Square engine. Not C# unity code.

There are a number of timers and things used. But the claim that it runs slower is absolutely false. It’s just perceived that way because it’s “drawn” slower.

[reactordev]

It’s definitely not lost…

[jbreckmckye]

What code are you looking at?

FFIX for PSX would have been written in C (or possibly C++) with PSY-Q. It will not be one program - those games were composed of multiple overlays that are banked in / out over the PlayStation's limited memory.

From what I know the PC release was a port to a new framework, which supports the same script engines, but otherwise is fresh code. This is how it can support mobile, widescreen, Steam achievements etc.

[mungoman2]

Wouldn't a slower tick make it easier as you get more wall time to do the same challenge.

[fredoralive]

No? Wall time (that the challenge runs on) is unchanged, game time (Vsync) is running at 83% of full speed (50Hz vs 60Hz), so if something tied to frame rate (animation, walking speed etc.) takes 1 second to do on NTSC, it'll take 1.2 seconds to do on PAL etc.