Title: Echoes of Sparta in the Palm of Your Hand: The AetherSX2 Save File Phenomenon
Micro-VU recompiler bugs: Specific sequences (e.g., the Hydra fight, Pandora’s Temple rotating blades) cause desyncs in save states.
Texture cache thrashing: The game streams textures aggressively. AetherSX2’s Vulkan backend writes extra metadata into save states to preserve texture cache coherence. PCSX2 does not include this metadata, so loading an AetherSX2 save state on PCSX2 results in corrupted geometry or black screens.
Audio granularity: The game’s SPU2 reverb and voice playback timing is stored in save states. AetherSX2 uses a custom audio buffer alignment that breaks on other emulators.
