How to configure Wipeout Pure on R36S

One of my all-time favorite video game series has always been WipeOut, and I’ll soon publish an article ranking every game in the saga from best to worst.

So, to refresh my impressions, I’m replaying all its games, from the first PlayStation 1 title to the Omega collection on PlayStation 4.

It was time to play Pure, which I consider the first “modern” Wipeout, because it marks a huge and very necessary leap forward for the saga. But I ran into a problem: a few months ago I sold my PSP to a friend who wanted it to show his kid the games he played during his degree.

Yes, I could have gone on Wallapop and bought one for €30-50. But I could also use an emulator.

And that’s when the light bulb went on: let’s see how my beloved R36S handles this not exactly lightweight PSP game.

Knowing in advance that the console is not meant to emulate PSP, I set out to see whether I could get an acceptably playable experience.

I could have put it on the Steam Deck, but since I like tinkering and squeezing the most out of hardware, I had to try it.

The result? Spoiler: yes, the game is playable. It is not an optimal experience, but it is acceptable.  

Now I’ll explain how to get there, because I can already tell you that you will need to tweak several emulator settings -PPSSPP in this case- and the operating system (Arkos) to make the thing run.

Here is the best configuration I managed to get after several hours of trial and error.

Operating system settings

I’m using Arkos 2.0 (11072025) AEUX. I mention it because, if you use another operating system, you may not have the same configuration options or they may be named differently.

To change the settings, just press the Start button on the emulator selection screen.

Once the options are open, apply these settings:

• Emulator Settings > Playstation Portable:

• Emulator: Standalone
• Governor: Performance
• Advanced Settings:

• Power Saver Modes: Disabled
• Default Emulator Governor: Performance

With this we tell the OS not to use the RetroArch engine and, on top of that, to use the device’s maximum power instead of saving battery.

Emulator settings

By default, ArkOS comes with PPSSPP. To adjust its options, enter any PSP game and press R3, that is, press the right analog stick inward.

The emulator options will open. Go into Game Settings.

Graphics settings

In Graphics, set this:

• Backend: OpenGL
• Rendering resolution: 1xPSP
• Software rendering: Disabled
• Fullscreen: Enabled
• VSync: Disabled
• Display layout & effects:
• Stretch: as you prefer (choose to see the original PSP 16:9 format with black bars above and below, or stretch the image to fill the whole screen)
• Aspect Ratio: 1.00
• Integer scale factor: Disabled
• Replace textures: Disabled
• Frame skipping: 2 (I explain below why not 1)
• Frame skipping type: Number of frames
• Auto frameskip: Disabled
• Alternative speed (in %, 0 = unlimited): Disabled
• Alternative speed 2 (in %, 0 = unlimited): Disabled
• Skip buffer effects: Enabled
• Disable culling: Disabled
• Skip GPU Readbacks: Skip
• Lens flare occlusion: Off
• Lazy texture caching (speedup): Enabled
• Spline/Bezier curves quality: Low
• Render duplicate frames to 60 Hz: Enabled
• Buffer graphics commands (faster, input lag): Up to 2
• Hardware transform: Enabled
• Software skinning: Disabled
• Upscale type: Hybrid + Bicubic
• Upscale level: Off
• Deposterize: Disabled
• Anisotropic filtering: Off
• Texture filtering: Nearest
• Smart 2D texture filtering: Disabled
• Show FPS counter: Enabled (optional, in case you want to see the FPS on screen)
• Show Speed: Disabled
• Show Battery %: Disabled
• Debug overlay: Off

Let’s talk about a couple of these points:

Why disable Auto frameskip if in other PSP games it improves performance? Because enabling it automatically disables Skip buffer effects, and this has a bigger impact on performance.

We manually set Frame skipping to 2, so we can keep Skip buffer effects enabled.

And why 2 instead of 1?

This one is more curious. Selecting 1 actually reaches QUITE a few more FPS. Specifically, on complex tracks like Vineta K, if we choose 1, FPS will sit between 23 and 30, compared with the 20 we get if we choose 2.

The problem is that, with 1, they fluctuate MUCH more and the game clearly runs worse. The 20 FPS we get by skipping up to 2 frames are much more stable, and the game plays MUCH better. It is the difference between playable performance and mediocre performance.

System settings

Besides these settings, some people say that lowering the default CPU clock speed can give you a few extra FPS in certain games. In this case, I do not notice any change during races when doing it, although I do notice it when starting the game and in menus: if you lower the speed, everything loads more slowly, as you would expect.

If you want to try changing it, you do it from Game Settings > System > Change emulated PSP’s CPU clock.

I tested:

• 333 (the default standard).
• 200
• 166
• 111

And in my case, during the race I did not notice any FPS increase or greater FPS stability in any case, so I leave it at 333, but I’m telling you in case you want to test it yourself.

Results and conclusions

After spending a few hours with the game, the verdict is that, if you want to play it, it is worth doing even on the limited R36S.

Considering that on the original PSP the game was limited to 30 FPS and had occasional performance drops (with explosions and other effects), with these settings you will get roughly two thirds of the original speed, also with occasional drops.

In advanced game modes, where the speed increases and the real game begins, the difference is less noticeable than in the first mode, so there is even more reason to play it.

Of course, it plays better if you have a PSP (as I said above, you can grab one for €30 on Wallapop), or if you emulate it on a PSVita or on a Steam Deck —for handheld consoles— or on any fairly normal PC (laptop or desktop) from the last 10 years if you prefer a large screen.

What’s more, if that is your case, on those devices you can increase the original game resolution (480×272 pixels) by between 2 and 5 times, add filters, and still play at a stable 60 FPS.

Either way, I finished it again on the R36S. Without any suffering. And enjoying every minute of it, honestly.