[Discussion] 60FPS patches for PSP games that run at 30FPS

[Kabuto_Kun]

@VIRGIN KLM
Can you edit the first post of this thread and add LunaMoo's tutorial (THIS ONE) and the one I posted (THIS ONE)? This way it would be easy to find them for everyone.

@Mills
Check my reply above for the tutorials for unlocking framerate.
I've been trying your idea about the dither effect, but I will post some details that are very important.

I recompiled the same sample you uploaded with the sceGuEnable(GU_DITHER) and another one without the line. It was easy to identify what changes were needed to enable/disable the effect on the compiled ELF from the sample. I edited the eboot and tested it and yeah, I managed to disable the effect without recompiling.

Then I tried with some retail games:

Puzzle Bobble: the only PSP game I know that has debug symbols so it would be an easy start. Again, I managed to disable the effect. Check the screenshots, taken from a REAL PSP.



Killzone Liberation DEMO: Sucess again, check the screenshots.


But look closely, even with the dither effect OFF, the game looks bad, that's because of the 16 bit color depth.

LEGO Batman: One of the worst offenders regarding the use of this dither effect. But according to some binary comparisons, the sceGuEnable function is not used on this game. I still edited some hex patterns but I could not disable the effect.

Need For Speed Most Wanted: No luck.

"Technical" info:
According to some user from a different forum, the dither effect on PSP "It is done to save VRAM so that more textures can be loaded and helps to keep higher fram rate. It is same trick as used in PS1 games thats why you can see it on those games."
Another user says: "Blame it on the PSP's limited memory bandwidth, which forced a lot of games to run in 16-bit color or less."

Also, READ HERE about 16/32 bit color from PPSSPP devs.

The thing is, as I see it, the dither effect is helpful when the games are running with a 16 bit color depth so this lack of colors is harder to see for the users.

So, what we REALLY need to do is force the games to run with 32 bit color on a REAL PSP, identifying the code that set this. If you read the link from PPSSPP devs, you can see that Kingdom hearts has an option to choose 16 or 32 bit color and this could be a way to understand what function does this, and port it to other games. I have Kingdom Hearts and this is what I will try now.

Of course I am not an expert on any of these topics and I hope these things I'm posting are not misinformation. I will edit this post later if it's needed.

Questions:
- Is there any different way to enable the GU_DITHER while coding a PSP homebrew/game? maybe that's why I could disable it on some games and not others.
- Can someone mention other retail PSP games (besides Puzzle Bobble) that have debug symbols/labels? According to some forum, there are games from NAMCO that have debug symbols, but I don't know which ones.