It’s quite common for an emulator to run very laggy or slow when our device isn’t capable of running it due to poor configuration or lack of power. Today, we’ll improve all of this.
Install Every PS2 Game on Aether SX2
To be able to add games to this PS2 emulator, we need to consider two things. First, if we have the physical game (bought), we can transfer it to the PC and then to your Android, but this article is not about that. In this case, we’re going to talk about games obtained from a website. I’ll leave you several sites where you can download these games.
Unzip games for AetherSX2
Most of the time, games come compressed. To find out, just look at the file format or extension at the end of the file name, which is usually “zip, 7z, rar.” What we’re going to do is unzip these ROMs from our Android. NOTE: If your game is not in this format but is instead in ISO, CSO, CHD, BIN, CUE, you should skip the next decompression step.
To accomplish this, we’ll get the Zarchiver app from Google Play or you can also get it via APK, whichever you prefer.
ZarchiverWe search for our game and extract it into a folder. In this case, you can create a folder named “Games” and then “PS2“, and move the game there.
2) Search or add the games to Aethersx2
We open AetherSX2 -> App Settings -> Game List -> + and navigate to the path where we placed our games.
Setting Up Aether SX2 for Mobile
To address the configuration, we’ll focus on the emulator’s resource-consuming functions, optimizing them so that the emulator can run on both less powerful and more powerful mobile devices.
Preparatory Steps:
The first thing we’re going to do is set up an individual configuration for the game that is running slowly. Why individual and not general for the entire emulator? This is because not all games require the same configuration, as it can cause errors or look worse.
To do this, we go to the emulator → Long press on our game → Game Properties → Graphics Settings.
Best Settings for AetherSX2 on Very Low-End Devices
Rendering:
- GPU Renderer: This section is important; you need to know which processor your phone has. You can do a quick search on Google to find out if it’s Snapdragon (Qualcomm) or Google Pixel phones. Select Vulkan if it’s Snapdragon. If it’s not Snapdragon, it’s Exynos, Kirin, etc. In that case, select OpenGL, although you can try Vulkan and see which one works better.
- Upscale Multiplier: Normally it would be 1x, but for very low-end devices, set it to 0.75x.
- Bilinear Filtering: This visually smooths out the game but consumes GPU. Set it to Nearest.
- Mipmapping: Full
- Trilinear Filtering: Off
- Anisotropic Filtering: x16
- Blending Accuracy: You can normally leave it at “Basic.” However, setting it to “Minimum” can also improve performance. Use it with caution as it may cause some graphical errors.
- Texture Preloading: Full, as it greatly improves game performance.
Game Display:
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3, this will make the game look as it originally is, therefore, it won’t cover your entire screen and may consume fewer resources.
- FMV Aspect Ratio: 4:3
- Bilinear Scaling: Bilinear (Smooth)
- Enable WideScreen Patches: Disabled
- Enable No-Interlacing Patches: Enabled
- Host Vsync: Enabled
- Threaded Presentation: Enabled
Post-Processing
- Shader FXAA: Disabled, as it consumes GPU resources on our mobile device. Not much, but if our game is already running very slowly, enabling this will worsen it.
- Contrast Adaptive Sharpness (CAS): This makes the game look much better graphically and consumes few resources. I recommend that if you have already configured everything and the game runs stable at a good speed, activate this option, and check if the game still runs normally. On the other hand, if the game still runs slowly after configuring everything, leave it disabled.
- TV Shader: None
- Shade Boost: Disabled, although if your game lacks brightness or contrast, you can adjust it here. This option does not consume resources.
Advanced
You’re in the graphics section; you just need to move to the right until you reach the advanced section, where you’ll find only these two options:
- CRC Fix Level: This option, in aggressive mode, can remove effects in some games, such as fog or post-processing, which can increase game performance, but only in some games. The problem is that it can remove textures that will make the game unplayable. Configure it depending on your device.
- Skip Presenting Duplicate Frames: Enabled.
Settings for Mid/High-End Devices on AetherSX2
Rendering:
- GPU Renderer: Primarily Vulkan, but if you have a device that doesn’t have a Snapdragon processor or is not a Pixel device, and you feel it’s slow with Vulkan, then you can try OpenGL.
- UpScale Multiplier: Normally it would be 2x, but this greatly depends on how high-end your device is. If you feel the game is very slow, you can set it to 1.35x.
- Bilinear Filtering: Enabled, the game will visually appear smoother.
- Mipmapping: Complete.
- Trilinear Filtering: Disabled.
- Anisotropic Filtering: x16.
- Blendy Accuracy: Basic.
- Texture Preloading: Complete.
Game Display:
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9, this needs to be accompanied by a Widescreen code or enabling “Widescreen Patches.”
- FMV Aspect Ratio: 4:3
- Bilinear Upscaling: Bilinear (None)
- Enable Widescreen Patches: Enabled
- Enable No-Interlacing Patches: Enabled
- Host Vsync: Enabled
- Thread Presentation: Enabled
Post-Processing
- FXAA Shader: Disabled, as it consumes GPU resources on our mobile device. While it doesn’t consume much, enabling it may worsen performance if your game is already running very slowly.
- Contrast Adaptive Sharpness (CAS): Enabled (Only sharpen “Internal Resolution”). CAS Sharpness set to 20 or 30%.
- TV Shader: None
- Shade Boost: Disabled, but if your game lacks brightness or contrast, you can adjust it here. This option doesn’t consume resources.
Advanced
You’re in the graphics section; you just need to move to the right until you reach the advanced section, where you’ll find only these two options:
- Skip Presenting Duplicate Frames: Enabled.
