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PS2 Cam Acolyte

This is a lightweight Windows exe for using camera hacks and other cheats/debugging tools on PS2 games running on the PCSX2 emulator. Just run ps2_cam_acolyte.exe while playing a game in PS2, connect a second controller and use it to fly the camera around, enable/disable lighting, etc.

Game Support

Support is currently focused on PS2 horror games(in particular early prototypes), and will expand over time. Every game supports a free cam mode, but some games have other cheats or debugging tools such as disabling shadows or pausing gameplay.

UUID Game Notes
901AAC09 Haunting Ground (USA)
F7557FA5 Kuon (Aug 2nd Prototype) https://hiddenpalace.org/Kuon_(Aug_2,_2004_prototype)
9AC63A2E Kuon (USA)
053D2239 Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (USA)
F3FD313E Rule of Rose (USA)
61A7E622 Silent Hill - Shattered Memories (USA)
D915592E Silent Hill 2 (July 13th Prototype) https://hiddenpalace.org/Silent_Hill_2_(Jul_13,_2001_prototype)
6BBD4932 Silent Hill 2 (Director's Cut) EU
3919136D Silent Hill 4 - The Room (USA)
A8D83239 Silent Hill Origins (USA) Includes additional "modern over the shoulder third person controls" mode
D6C48447 Siren (USA)

Additional games and functionality for existing games will be added over time.

Installation

Download the latest zip from the Releases(see the sidebar on the GitHub page), unzip into a directory of your choosing and double-click the .exe.

You may see a "Windows protected your PC" pop up about it being an unrecognized app - this is just because it's unsigned code. You can click More info -> Run anyway.

If you're upgrading from a previous version, copy over the preferences.ini from the last version.

Instructions

  1. Ensure you are running PCSX2 v1.7.2864 or later (i.e. the latest nightly from https://pcsx2.net/downloads)
  2. Make sure Settings -> Advanced -> PINE Settings -> Enable is on (slot should be the default 28011)
  3. Run a supported game in PCSX2
  4. Open ps2_cam_acolyte.exe
  5. If successful, the game UUID will be recognized and displayed in the title bar
  6. Connect a second controller - most common controllers should work(such as a DualShock or Xbox controller)
  7. Click on Controller and select the controller you want to control cameras with
  8. Click on Game - the controls are displayed(note that it currently always uses Xbox terminology, so button X will be displayed instead of Cross)
  9. Start exploring the game world!
  10. Your preferences, i.e. controller selection, are stored in preferences.ini next to the executable

Note: If you're only planning on using the "Modern Controls" mode of Silent Hill Origins, no second controller is required.

Troubleshooting

Q: It just says 'Connecting to PCSX2...'

A: Ensure PCSX2 is running, it's a version newer than v1.7.2864, PINE is enabled in PCSX2 Settings -> Advanced -> PINE Settings and the slot is set to the default of 28011.

Q: It says [XXXXXXXX] Unsupported Game

A: PS2 Cam Acolyte only supports the games listed in the table above. Some games have multiple regions or versions - the UUID needs to match exactly. The [XXXXXXXX] is the UUID of the current unsupported game.

Q: The exe is flagged as containing "Win32/Wacatac.H!ml" or "Variant.Lazy.432226" by my virus software

A: If your Windows Defender definitions are up to date, it should scan clean, but may trigger on older definitions or other antivirus software. Since it opens a IPC socket to talk to PCSX2 and contains a bunch of hardcoded hex values, it's easy to see why it might look suspicious to an antivirus. I have submitted the exe to several places, i.e. Bitdefender, as a false positive, so perhaps it will clear up in time. If you're concerned, you can inspect the code and build it yourself.

About the Code

PS2 Cam Acolyte uses:

  • PINE (Protocol for Instrumentation of Emulators) to write and read memory/opcodes in the running PS2 game
  • ImGui (running lazily on input) for the UI
  • SDL2 to host DirectX 11(for older Windows compatibility) and for controller support
  • glm for vector/matrix math

PCSX2 can be quite resource intensive, so some care has been taken to keep PS2 Cam Acolyte light:

  • Runs single threaded, with a blocking socket connection to PCSX2
  • Updates logic/commands at a maximum of 100hz and sleeps otherwise
  • Draws only when input is received, and only at a maximum of 60hz

Building

Building should be as simple as opening the project in Visual Studio and building for Debug or Release. Please create an issue if you run into problems. You will need to copy these two files to the output exe directory:

third_party/sdl_gamecontrollerdb/gamecontrollerdb.txt

third_party/sdl2/lib/x64/SDL2.dll

Future Work

  • Support for more games: Haunting Ground, Silent Hill 3 & 4, Kuon (shipping version), etc.
  • Reading PNACH cheat files and turning them into toggleable/bindable values using comments(i.e. // disable lighting(Y) would bind the Y button to all subsequent written values)
  • Correctly displaying bound controller button labels instead of always using Xbox labels
  • Record/playback smoothed camera inputs to help content creators create higher quality video essays, etc.
  • A fully allocation free IPC command queue - currently it uses the stock PINE implementation, which has a few API wrinkles that make this impossible

Contributors

Pull requests are welcome so long as the following requirements are respected:

  • No new cppcheck warnings or errors
  • No memory leaks when starting, playing or stopping a game
  • CPU/GPU usage remains 0% when not doing anything and under 0.5% when steering cameras on my system when I test it

Support

If you like this tool, you can support it by trying the demo for my game:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2006140/Withering_Rooms

Or following me on Twitter:

https://x.com/WitheringRooms