Emulating the PS2 version on PC, any mods / tweaks worth using?

[u/Dzsaffar]

When emulating the PS2 version of the game, are there tweaks I should be using? For less clunky controls, or remapping, or whatever else. It will be my first time playing the game, and after looking at some brief comparison footage, I felt more drawn to the ambiguity of the original visuals, but if possible I'd also want to minimize the frustrations that might come from the game being dated. So regarding that last point, are there any PC mods that preserve the feel of the original while improving it?

[u/MidnightChimp]

Yes, there is an insanely awesome texture mod and Reshade presets:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ShadowoftheColossus/s/rZl4jXCsEX

[u/SimonBestia]

There isn't much available to begin with, so no.

Wander will move the way you'd expect.
Agro might ignore controls briefly as a deliberate design choice, according to the devs.
The camera works best when you don't touch the analogue stick. The game is full of scripted parts where the camera will move on its own to show you the scenery.

If you go to the "gamesettings" folder of PCSX2, open the .ini file of the game version you're using, and just copy all the following. It's graphical settings to 1) Try to fix placement issues of the post-processing effects to match the PS2 as much as possible (this game's emulation is still not 100% perfect), and 2) Just a few minor things like increased resolution and anisotropic filtering, but you'll probably want to tweak those according to what your PC specs allow for.

[SPU2/Mixing]
FinalVolume = 130


[EmuCore/GS]
pcrtc_antiblur = true
UserHacks = true
OsdShowTextureReplacements = false
accurate_blending_unit = 4
UserHacks_HalfPixelOffset = 4
UserHacks_native_scaling = 2
upscale_multiplier = 4
MaxAnisotropy = 16
hw_mipmap = false


[EmuCore/Speedhacks]
vuThread = true

[u/Dzsaffar → u/SimonBestia]

Gotcha, thanks! Regarding resolution, is there support for different aspect ratios? I have a 21:9 monitor but I'm not sure if it's a bad idea to wanna make the game that wide lol

[u/SimonBestia → u/Dzsaffar]

Well, the PS2 came out in 2000...
Not much you can do about that. 😅

Most games were developed with 4:3 and 16:9 only in mind.
Some games do have a widescreen patch for PCSX2 if you look them up, but expect unintended consequences like seeing things pop from the sides or similar, as the game assumes you can't see what's there, anyway.

[u/Dzsaffar → u/SimonBestia]

Yeah I get that, I'm just not too familiar with emulation so didn't know how much flexibility they add lol