GTA PS4 emulated games are Android / iOS ports (with MONO sound) and run worse on non-US versions

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-grand-theft-auto-san-andreas-face-off

We've been looking at more PlayStation 2 titles running under emulation on PlayStation 4, and it now seems clear that all the UK code we've tested is running at 50Hz with a crude frame-blending 'upscale' to the 60Hz output. We made an error in the original analysis below - GTA San Andreas under emulation does have some frame-pacing issues, but much of the judder we encountered is actually a result of the frame-blending, registering to our eyes (and our analysis tools) as unique frames when in fact they are simply the interpolated results of two images - we did think that it may be an artefact of the emulator working with PS2's original motion blur effect, but this is definitely not the case. Credit goes to commenter Malek86 for noting that his copy of Twisted Metal Black is definitely European code, albeit outputting at 60Hz - a situation we have also confirmed with Dark Cloud. This was originally a 60fps game in NTSC territories, running at 50fps on the PS4 emulator, then frame-blended back up to 60fps. As you may imagine, this is not ideal.

We decided to produce a GTA San Andreas analysis highlighting the difference between our 'NTSC' and 'PAL' releases. We also cleaned up a short section of footage to confirm that the base frame-rate of San Andreas on our UK PSN code is indeed 25fps. And to conclude, we re-ran the original frame-rate test between PS2, PS3 and PS4 versions of the game, all using 60Hz code.

Obviously, for those of us in Europe, this is a somewhat disappointing state of affairs. The PAL territories were blighted with poorly adapted code that often featured letterboxing, slowdown or other artefacts in the transition from 60Hz to 50Hz. In terms of the PS2 titles emulated on PlayStation 4, performance is the only applicable issue here, but it does make a tangible difference. We've tested all three GTA titles now and it's clear that the situation isn't exactly optimal. In fact, we do recommend buying from the US store to get the best possible experience with the emulated PS2 titles. Now, there are perfectly good reasons why Sony has made this decision - foreign language translation for European countries for example - plus as Malek86 points out, there are some censorship issues to contend with. But it seems that Sony has had to get these titles re-certified by PEGI anyway, and we would hope that the firm does consider bringing native 60Hz titles to its current-gen 60Hz console in the future.

And then there's this:

It's a bit sad to see DF NOT mention anything about the audio here, the main downside to these remasters is that the games source audio is MONO! It's 2015 and here's a "remaster" throwing out terrible audio quality.

The original PS2 releases used 24Khz Stereo ADPCM for Cutscenes and Music and LPCM for SFX. The PC and Xbox versions used 32Khz Stereo OGG for Cutscenes and Music and LPCM for SFX. These "Remasters" use 48kbps - 64kbps MONO MP3 for Cutscenes and Music and 32kbps - 48kbps MP3 for SFX.

This presents a clear noticeable difference when playing the game, just listen to any weapon firing or any cop car with a siren, it sounds really bad on the "remaster". Plus there's also the fact that the original PS2 version could output up to a Dolby Pro-Logic II mix, the PC and Xbox versions could output up to a 5.1 mix but these "remasters" only handle a Stereo output. They were clearly designed for nothing more than a Mobile release, which was then lazily ported over to consoles.

And Richard, the "remaster" is also emulation. It isn't redone for consoles, it's literally the Android version of the game in a emulation wrapper. Crack open the files to see the Android based OBB files untouched from the Play Store version, just with extra files for emulation and an extra DXT Cache for additional textures added into this version (Legal Screens, console specific textures - e.g. PlayStation Network, etc).

There's also the fact that modders have fixed plenty of things wrong with this game and offered them to Rockstar Games, and were outright rejected, which is a shame as the work done on San Andreas was to restore the broken post process effects that's missing in the PC version onwards, and some even had an Xbox 360 SDK and got the game running perfectly fine at 1080p30!(Using the original PC version as the base). So the question being asked is why can a bunch of modders fix this game and get it running on consoles FAR better than Rockstar Games/War Drum can when they have the source and assets?

This video is long outdated but was the done from the first WIP build of the render fix:

Since then even more things have been fixed and corrected and this patch was released under the name "SkyGFX" (SKY being the render engine name that RenderWare Used), along with SilentPatch (fixes most of Rockstar's broken code in the PC version) and GInput (Brings Xbox 360 controller support to the game PROPERLY) you have a perfectly ready base to take and port to consoles which Rockstar wanted nothing to do and instead give console users a bit of a, well, rubbish port, an emulation of a version designed for Mobiles.

What do you think? Worth $15 price of admission?

I don't get it, why would they use an Android port in a PS2 emulator... so they ported from MIPS to ARM to MIPS again. Sounds like a bit of a cluster **** to me if true, you'd expect it to be an untouched PS2 ISO.

@ten_pints: Because android versions are highly portable, hell of a lot easier than building a real emulation for the old versions

And they're charging $15 for these?

This is just outright terrible.. So they're not PS2 games, they're android games? Android games running on a PS2 emulator.. Wtf SONY

On PC, PS2 emulators are surprisingly demanding for the visuals it offers. Not so demanding as to require top of the line stuff, but you'd still need some modest gaming hardware. It should be noted that these emulators are mostly made via reverse-engineering, so they are far from the most efficient.

I had not considered this since it's a given that a first-party emulator would be capable of achieving maximum efficiency, but perhaps they've been inexcusably lazy and the first-party emulator on PS4 is actually less efficient than the relatively hack job third-party emulator on PC.

Dont worry some cows will still defend sony over this

Wow, just wow, that is all. :P

Wonder what @Shewgenja thinks about this blatant anti-consumer behavior from Sony, we all know (and hear about it, over and over) how he feels about it when other companies do shit like this...

@Snugenz: it's hard for me to get emotional over bc. I take care of my consoles.

@Shewgenja: So what you're saying is you're ok with this, shocking.

And it doesn't even come with the touchscreen controls!? What is this nonsense?!??!

But seriously, that's weird and off-putting. The audio being awful is just gross.

I think that Digital Foundry article is a clusterfuck and they originally did a comparison of PS2/PS3 versions and after 2 days they did an update and added a PS4 comparison to the article. That comment (the second quote in the OP) might have been refereeing to the PS3 port. However, there's still a problem with framerate / refresh rate.

@Snugenz: I'm saying I don't care. I have no involvement on the subject. These are very old games, and ultimately, Rockstar/Take 2 are the publisher.

I'm curious. Are you mad at Sony or are you mad at the publisher of the software? Where should I direct my rage? I'll write a letter.

Whatever, if this was MS you'd be on their case in a second. I just think Sony are being a bit lazy and greedy with this.

Incoming MS hate.......

Clearly this is Microsoft's fault for being such a greedy and anti consumerist piece of shit company

And you'd be clearly in the right for calling me a moron if I did so. MS nor Sony are in a position to bite the hand that feeds them. GTA isn't a franchise you want to put a head on a pike over.

So, if we're all properly pitchfork and torched up, can we direct this where it should go? The publisher who has ported these games to everything under the sun who chose of their own volition to reskin an Android port?

Or are we going to pretend that Kaz Hirai met with the board of Take 2 over fresh sacrificed virgin with merlot wine and decided that this is their second step to setting up a laser on the moon for 1 MILLION DOLLARS.

Not like the 360 re-release was great either. Frame-rate while driving was terrible.

Fixed that for you?

Jfc, that's pretty sad :/

it can't be Sony's fault. Sony is untouchable. Unimpeachable. Of gamers, for gamers, by gamers. They selflessly dedicate themselves to the pursuit of the advancement of gaming, with nary a selfish thought in their body.

Not like that scummy Microsoft, who exist only to make profits. The nerve of them!

PSA....

Heil, somebody high-jacked your account. :P

lol$ony.

Thanks, but no thanks. If I'm gonna pay I want something that at least runs decently like the PS3 versions of those games.

@Shewgenja: Yeah whatever helps you sleep at night you disgusting hypocrite.

That's the worst thing about the PS2, almost all games run in 50Hz mode. Don't know why they just don't give people the US version.

Nintendo were fucking us over with 50Hz for a while too. Here's what the difference looked like:

So basically very nearly all PS2 games are over 17% slower than they should be. And instead of fixing it they just upscale it.

At the same time, Xbox gave us a blanket Pal-60 mode.

Nintendo are guilty of this too. The 25th Anniversary Mario All-Stars on the Wii, is just the same old 50Hz SNES version.

Do not care about bc wether is free or with a fee.

Proof that all that shit I got in the NPD thread is just a dog and pony show. Some people have every bit as big a boner for crapping on Sony as I do MS but get a free pass.

I'll just stand on the mountain of butthurt I have caused for the blind idiot fanboys of this forum and just enjoy the view from here, thank you. It's actually quite lovely. This thread couldn't have happened at a better time, all things considered lol

Didn't they do this for the GTA San Andreas HD version that came out for Xbox 360 and PS3?

Seem they're just doing the same thing here. Seems to me they should just release it as a normal PSN title not a BC catalog title.

HEHE

might as well get the pc version even low end laptops can run it

I don't care if it ran correctly, stupid to buy these.

And boy do you spend a lot of time talking about a console you hate.

LOL this is so bad. I love my playstation, but I want the drugs that sony is doing.

So because other people do it, it's ok. Wow.

Or is it the "iz jus trolling guize" defense that you're going with?, do you even know anymore?.

Neither. Just pointing out I get dogpiled for the same behavior and it's highly amusing to me. Makes tomorrow's victory that much sweeter.

Salty is wrong? Shocked!

Ah so it's the "woe is me" victim complex then, gotcha.

Not even. Ya'll are mad as all eff right now. It's not lost on a single soul here. The only one throwing kitchen sinks are the ones blaming Sony for something a third party publisher did. It's okay. Stay mad.

Finally a reasonable person in the lot of you.

Well done, noble effort really

@Heil68: He was being sarcastic

I'm glad I have my original PS2 version. I think the lighting looks better than the Android/iOS port.

Sony the gift that keeps on giving. I am sure though some cows will defend this

No he wasn't.

Corporate GREED tried to change the industry on THEIR OWN this gen and gamers fought back and won.

Thanks to SONY, gamers can now enjoy retail disks the way they was meant to be.

Power to the gamer.

Power to the People.

Thank you SONY, current gen 8 console leader.

I can see people at Neogaf and Gematsu will defend this BS.

I think his point was that this was 100% on Rockstar. I mean it's fine to blame Sony for something they actually do, but what the heck did they have to do with this? The 360 mysteriously got San Andreas on XBL a year or two back - and it also turned out to be a port of the IOS version. So it seems that Rockstar decided to do the same again now for both San Andreas and Vice City ports to PS4 as "classics".

Not sure why they didn't use the PS2 version - but let's remember the PS2 version had all kinds of issues of it's own - and was grossly inferior to the improved Xbox Version. It would have been great if Rockstar made a proper remaster of these games, but they obviously couldn't be bothered on any platform - even the PC version has/had all sorts of issues. Now are these so bad that Sony should have not allowed them to pass their quality assurance, or blocked Rockstar from calling them PS2 classics? Maybe, but it's still Rockstar's fault that they went that route.

TC did you even read the article, they even mention the PS4 version is based on the PS2 version in these quotes:

"the original PlayStation 2 code operating at 1280x896 via PS4's emulator"

"The remaster clearly has a range of tangible advantages when stacked up against the PS2 code - whether that's running on original hardware or under emulation on PlayStation 4."

"However, of more interest is San Andreas' status as one of the first PS2 classics to arrive on PlayStation 4, running under emulation."

And besides, they are the PS2 versions with missing songs.

This is for the players bro!!!! LMAO what a fucking rip off. thanks sony

Sony dropping the ball yet again.

MS is offering true backwards compatibility with select titles and Sony is trying to SELL gamers bullshit mobile copies of their games.

LOL right? I say Sony owes anyone who bought PS2 digital classics on PS3 an apology for not carrying purchases over. But I guess an apology for the PS4 version of PS2 games just being shit should be given first. No way Shew, the hate can towards Sony for obviously not using PS2 versions instead using Android versions. Are you saying Sony didn't have Access to their own PS2 versions of these games and couldn't work from there?