I am experiencing some really odd performance issues ever since I moved to Windows 10 and I suspecting they are caused by PPSSPP. Usually, what happens is that after a certain time, my Xbox 360 controller will suddenly become unresponsive and PPSSPP will only acknowledge keyboard controls. The mouse and keyboard controls are almost perfect, but with a few sticking points that might tempt you to plug in a controller if you have the option.Here's an overview of how the controls work.
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This tutorial is to help you with PPSSPP for Windows. PPSSPP is the #1 emulator for the Sony PSP! It has the usual bundle of features we expect from an emulator. Its game compatibility is very good. PPSSPP's drawback is that it's too good of an emulator - it's resource demanding! Even if you have a pretty fast computer, PPSSPP may struggle to run at full speed.
*If you would like to download PPSSPP, I have it in my emulators page.
Included in the zip file for PPSSPP are two EXE's: “PPSSPPWindows.exe” and “PPSSPPWindows64.exe”. So what's the difference and which one do you use? That depends on which version of Windows you have:
What's 64-bit and 32-bit Windows? I won't drown you with technical jargon. In short: these are types of Windows systems. 64-bit is newer and faster, and 32-bit is older and slower. If you have 64-bit Windows, you need to use the 64-bit version of PPSSPP. And vice versa with 32-bit.
They stopped making 32-bit computers around 2017, so chances are you're most likely using a 64-bit computer. If you're not sure if you have 64-bit or 32-bit Windows, here's how you can check:
Using Windows XP? Here are directions for that .
PPSSPP is a standalone program so it does not have an install wizard. Installation is simple: just extract PPSSPP from its zip file. Not sure how to extract zip files? Here's a video tutorial showing you how: how to unzip files on Windows.
IMPORTANT! PPSSPP must be placed in a common folder on your computer. I recommend Documents, Downloads, or create a folder on your desktop. If you place PPSSPP somewhere else on your main C drive, then you may be restricting it to read-only access. Doing so prevents PPSSPP from saving anything.
To open PPSSPP, double-click on , or if your system requires the 32-bit version.
If you get one of these errors:
There are two reasons you might be getting these errors:
Press Alt+Enter or F11 to enter full screen. Press Alt+Enter or F11 again to go back to window mode. While in full screen mode, you can press the Esc key to access your save files or exit the game to the main PPSSPP menu.
If your computer is not that fast, you may encounter lag while your game is running in full screen. If that's the case, read the section below about improving slow performance.
The challenge with PPSSPP is that out of the box it's optimized for maximum performance. Slower computers may not be fast enough for it. Fortunately, PPSSPP can be tinkered with to improve its performance on your computer.
I think this is the best start toward better performance. By default, PPSSPP is automatically setting the rendering resolution depending on the size of the window or if you're in full screen mode. You can force PPSSPP to always render in a lower resolution. You can do so by going to Game Settings > Rendering Resolution > 3x. If 3x still doesn't improve your performance, try 2x. Look below:
See, it's not too bad. All that lowering the resolution does is make the screen look a little blurry and slightly more pixelated. Try even 1x if 2x doesn't help. But if even 1x doesn't help (or looks too ugly), keep reading.
Enabling frameskipping will allow you to keep optimal graphics, but animation will no longer be smooth. To enable frameskipping just go to Game Settings > Frameskipping > Auto. This should be enough to improve performance. If not, keep reading.
Now we're jumping into sacrificing graphic quality. Skipping buffer effects will disable any special graphical effects. It'll cause some pieces of graphics that were once beautiful to be solid black. See below:
To enable this, go to Game Settings > Rendering Mode > Skip buffer effects. If even skipping buffer effects doesn't improve PPSSPP's performance, then your computer isn't fast enough to handle PPSSPP.
Even if you lowered the rendering resolution and enabled auto frameskip (as explained above), you may find that the screen is refreshing awkwardly. It's most obvious when you turn a corner in a 3D game. Like this:
How do you fix this? With vertical sync! Enable it by going to Game Settings > VSync.
Save states is a feature that saves the exact spot you are in any game. You can use this feature manually by going into the File menu or by quick keyboard shortcuts.
PPSSPP offers two ways to use save states. You have quick saves and save state files.
If you want instant gratification, quick saves are the instant saving you want.
These saves require an extra step but allow you to save a state as a file with a custom name.
Fast forward is the feature that speeds up the game. To access it, press the Tab key. Hold it down and let go until you want the fast forwarding to end.
First, you need to decide how big you want the screen shots to be. PPSSPP will capture screen shots at the exact size you currently have the window. Or if you're in full screen mode, it'll capture screen shots at full resolution. You can change the window size by going to Game Settings > Window Size.
To capture a screen shot, just press the F12 key. PPSSPP will dump the shot as a JPG in memstick > PSP > SCREENSHOT, as shown below:
Do you prefer capturing screen shots as a lossless PNG? Well, you're stuck with JPG. To capture PNG screen shots you need a screen capture program. A good free one that I recommend is ShareX. Once installed, you can just press Ctrl+Prt Scr and hover over the game screen. ShareX will capture the game screen as if PPSSPP just took a screen shot. ShareX will dump the PNG screen shot in Documents > ShareX > Screenshots.
In my links page, I have some good links to sites where you can download PSP ISOs. If you want to try to find more sites than what's in my collection of links, just Google around. For example, if you want to download God of War just Google “download god of war psp”.
You may have some trouble finding a good site since most ROM sites do not have PSP games due to their large size. The same goes for trying to find ISOs for systems such as PS2/PS3/GameCube/Wii and beyond. Fortunately, people upload large games to cloud platforms all the time. You'll only find these links to such valuable resources on Reddit. You can find these Reddit links on Google with such keywords as “reddit download psp games”.
You currently have PPSSPP in a read-only location on your computer. You must move PPSSPP to a more common location such as Documents, Downloads, or a folder on your desktop.
If you're using PPSSPP for the first time and you're finding that you have all these problems:
Then your problem is that you currently have PPSSPP in a read-only location on your computer. You must move PPSSPP to a more common location such as Documents, Downloads, or a folder on your desktop.
Thank you for reading my tutorial! If you found it useful, you're welcome to return the gesture by buying something from my Amazon store. If have questions you're welcome to email me or message me on social media.
None of the controls work in the PSP emulator, so I can't even use the dialogue in PPSSPP to remap. I did find the following file, but don't know what to change to make the controls work: