2B, if Im reading the options correctly. I think Emulation would benefit from being seperate from consoles, and also just goin in on streamlining the emulator to be the best version of the game that it can be.

I am happy for option 2 or 2B, which ever has the most crowd and easier to setup and deal with.
It kind of makes sense to treat emulators like consoles, in regards to fastest to run. If the stock settings of DuckStation ends up being faster than ePSXe, then people will move over to that and run that. Much like people running PSTV over PS1.

2B

Bathsaltedpeanuts made a good point that this will streamline which emulators are best, and overall, I think it's better to get emulators running as fast as they can. Also, it removes the need of having to find the best hardware to compete in non-PC categories.

My vote is for Option 2b

That would allow to any runner that uses emulation have the same ground, just like the All Bosses PC Tournament.

@bastianfrusciantebastianfrusciante

2a will probably achieve this just as well, if not more so depending on how we structure 2b. All emulators as they stand aim for similar loadtimes.

In reality, 2a is more simple than 2b b/c there is no possibility of a Disc Speed arms race. If we decide to limit FDS to only 4x speed (2x is default speed), then there should (very hard to predict several years out) be parity going into the future. It's possible though that 4x on DuckStation for example could still be faster in 3 years with more development. Standard Disc Speed emulation being slightly more accurate would be so minute that it would be hard to notice.

1. "Should emulators be kept to default settings as often as possible, even if that means sacrificing 'accuracy' in certain respects? Keep in mind that there are certain settings we'd still need to control for."

I will always value accuracy over everything else. With that said, Duckstation proves to have an underlying problem creating this kind of environment without specific tweaking on a per user basis. If we aim for accuracy of PSOne, we should have that follow suit with all emulator examples.

2. "Should emulators return to being a segregated leaderboard to create a platform for:"
a ) as similar to original hardware in terms of loads as possible
b ) aim for fastest load times, essentially disregarding how emulators have been handled for the past 4 years?

Overall, I feel separation/segregation is a solution most wouldn't disagree upon. How we enforce or decide on what to do with that is another story.

a ) This would be ideal as to keep the status quo of keeping everything relative to PSOne.
b ) This seems to be the choice most people want. I find it more acceptable if it is separated onto it's own board, if we do not separate I feel this wouldn't be the best.

3. "Should certain emulators be sunset (for example ePSXe, older versions of bizhawk/mednafen) to reduce the complexities of leaderboard management?"

As it has been shown in the past ePSXe is just a terrible emulator choice overall. Bizhawk and such have proven to be better as time has gone on and Duckstation will most likely follow suite. I feel getting rid of these runs won't be too much of a loss but if the people who originally did those runs are against it there should be an alternative.

== IN CONCLUSION ==

Option 2 Alpha: Maintain PSOne load speeds, but not in game CDROM frame lag.

This seems like a decent middle ground that compromises with those on both sides can agree upon for certain aspects. I would prefer separation in addition to this option as well as I feel it will be beneficial for the future.

We have now separated emulator runs from the Console category on the main full game leaderboard. All emulator runs will now be in their own category. There are a total of 22 new categories for runs. This does NOT affect ILs, as they will be in a Console/Emulator category together. Any full game runs marked as emulator on PSTV/PSP/PS Vita (using Adrenaline) will stay on Console and unmarked as emulator to avoid confusion.

We had the idea to just have a variable for Standard Disc Speed (SDS) and Fast Disc Speed (FDS), but with the board the way it is structured and speedrun.com limitations, we were unable to add this due to it would be on all the boards. Instead, we are requiring you put SDS or FDS in your description, along with your emulator and version as you have always done.

All current emulator runs have been marked as Disc Speed: SDS. You are more than welcome to run SDS if you wish, pending you follow guidelines for emulator, settings, etc. FDS runs can only be done in DuckStation. Settings and guidelines can be found here: https://www.speedrun.com/post/boy7m (SDS), https://www.speedrun.com/post/tt3qi (FDS).

Any questions, concerns, etc., feel free to reach out. Happy running!