I'm interested in learning this run starting on emulator. As far as I can tell, the category rules don't have any stipulations on the emulator, settings, or game version used, but some of these things seem like they could make a pretty significant difference, so I wanted to ask some questions to clarify what is or isn't allowed.

1. I variously use either DuckStation or PCSX-Redux for PS1 emulation depending on my needs for a particular game. Does it matter which emulator we use?
2. I did some tests on door load times using the door between the room where you get the security card and the hall with the 3 doctors. I counted the load time from the first frame where the game starts to fade out in the first room to the first frame where it starts to fade in in the second room. In DuckStation, with default emulation settings, this load takes roughly 8 seconds in the US version and 7 seconds in the JP version (with some variance from run to run). However, in Ulver's WR run, this load takes only ~5 seconds. To achieve a comparable load time, I had to set the CD speedup setting in DuckStation to 3x. But if CD speedup is allowed, why stop at 3x? I tested CD speedup set to Maximum and this reduced the load time to ~2 seconds in both the US and JP versions. I only tested in the first few rooms of the game, so it's possibly there could be stability issues at some point in the game with this speed setting, but if not, this would save multiple minutes over the WR in load time alone. Personally, I don't really have a problem with reducing the load times like this in theory, but it does feel a bit unfair to the runs already on the board.
3. I was also curious about key bindings when playing with keyboard; specifically, binding multiple buttons to the same keyboard key. The US version allows running forward with L2 without having to hold square. I like this because it means I never have to press square, freeing up a keybind. But if I bind W to L2, then I can't navigate up in menus with it, which is awkward. So my solution is to simply bind W to both L2 and up on the d-pad. Likewise, X is the action button, but the main menu (and maybe others? can't recall off the top of my head) requires you to select an option with Start. So I've chosen to bind spacebar to both X and Start. This doesn't seem that crazy to me, but just wanted to confirm this isn't an issue.
4. Lastly, I wanted to clarify whether it makes any difference whether we play the US or JP version of the game. I see all the current emu runs are on the US version. Per Ecdysis' comment, I understand that that version is faster on PS2 for console, but it's not clear to me that that's the case on emulator. In DuckStation, on default CD speed, I repeatedly observed door loads being roughly 1 second faster on JP (although the difference was less clear in PCSX-Redux). Text is also faster on JP due to the lower character count. When picking up key items, the fade back to gameplay actually seemed to be generally slower on JP by 0.5-1 seconds, but given there are far more doors than key items, I would still expect this to work out in favor of JP. The only thing I haven't checked is the time difference between US and JP for spoken dialogue in the unskippable cutscenes, so I don't know whether this is a net gain or loss, but I'm still leaning towards JP being faster. If maximum CD speedup is allowed, the load time differences would become negligible, so all the difference would come down to text and dialogue.

Hi! I'm sorry I have kind of been neglecting this board and haven't really set up any ground rules for emulation, I rarely get people submitting. There are not set in stone rules so I'm open to discussion about all these topics. I see you also run RE2, so we can do something similar to how it is handled in the RE series.

1. My run is done on ePSXe, Ulver's PSXfin and Skunky I'm not too sure. I am for the idea of limiting the accepted emulator to just duckstation. I would have to seperate the categories to "Emulator (Legacy)" and "Emulator" which we be only duckstation

2. I prefer if only default setting are used. I don't really like seek speed + read speed x10 super fast load emu runs.

3. My issue is that a potential strategy that saves time could be discovered from having multiple actions set to one key and I think it's best to keep the emulation experience as close to console as possible. However, there isn't really a good way to enforce this rule, input display doesn't really solve the issue entirely. So I would prefer if someone didn't use this, but I can't really tell if they are or not.

4. I do not know which one is fastest for emulation, this hasn't really been tested to my knowledge. I don't think the difference will be substantial enought to warrent seperate categories for regions. So both JP and NA are allowed for the board.

tbh I'm actually not that familiar with RE2's emulator rules because I've only run PC. That said, your suggestions all sound fair and reasonable to me. Requiring everyone to use one specific emulator with default settings should ensure a level playing field. It's unfortunate to have to deprecate the existing emulator runs (WR doesn't hit the same when it's the only run 😛) but it probably is the only option. I'll also edit my keybinds to remove the multi-binds.

FYI not sure when I'll first submit a run. Despite the fact that my run would be the only run on the new board, I don't want to submit a garbage run for a cheap WR, so I do intend to grind at least a little until I have a somewhat respectable time.