Enter the Matrix Freezes on Videos. (Unplayable)

[AmbientMalice]

-PCSX2 version: 1.5.0-dev-1060-g6376e8d

-PCSX2 options: Defaults, no settings modifications affect the issue.

-Plugins used: Defaults.

-Plugin settings: Defaults, no settings modifications affect the issue

-Description: The game freezes and spams "IPU1 Normal Error!" in the log after playing the initial Atari logo video. The game will also freeze on all other videos if that video is bypassed with hacks. And since the game has a lot of live action FMVs, the story is incomprehensible

The game will also invariably freeze during the first mission or if you try to enter the Options menu if the FMV skip hack is used.

-How to replicate: Simply boot the game.

-Last known version to work: Never worked, AFAIK. All reports on the Wiki have this error.

-PC specifications: CPU: Q9400 @ 3.2Ghz. GPU: GTX 750 Ti 2GB OS: Windows 10 64-bit

Other- I only have a US copy of the game, but since nobody has actually reported the game ever working properly, I assume it's the same with the PAL versions.

[MrCK1]

Your CPU doesn't support the AVX or AVX2 instruction sets. I would check your settings.

Also, the game freezing with the FMV skip modifier enabled is irrelevant - the data isn't conclusive; that's why it's a hack to begin with.

[AmbientMalice]

Also, the game freezing with the FMV skip modifier enabled is irrelevant

It means the game can't be played by skipping FMVs.

And no, no cycle rate hacks were used.

[jcdenton2k]

To be fair, this game is terribly buggy and CRASHES a real-life Playstation 2 console! It was so ubiquitous and rampant that people would joke that you'd get to see the actual 'matrix' by watching a PlayStation 2 get the equivalent of a blue screen of death.

If your original console works you can try to give it a go but honestly I would recommend the devs not even bother trying to fix this game.

"The AI in the game is also a bit of a mess, so you can expect to see things like enemy cops running into a wall and staying there, enemies clipping through walls and doors instead of running around to get to you, and so on." "Enter the Matrix bears the additional weight of being a pretty buggy game." "The PlayStation 2 version suffers from serious frame rate problems and a bevy of audio errors, the most troublesome of which causes some cutscenes' audio to be played twice at slightly different times, creating an echo effect that renders almost all the dialogue completely unintelligible."

And it gets far worse than that. This was a game pulled from shelves and recalled because of the flood of demands for refunds for a broken CONSOLE game. PC gamers as usual got the shaft because 'piracy concerns'. Lol.

"I purchased this game the day it came out and it has serious issues due to rushing the game for release to coincide with the movie. The game voices echo. The game freezes 5 levels in and background disappear!! This game wasn't even beta tested for PS2! EVERY copy I exchanged it for did the same thing and I'm NOT alone. I was lucky enough to get my money back. Atari and Sony know of this problem and offer no resolution presently. I'd LOVE to have this game ONLY if all problems are corrected! BEWARE. If you don't believe me, rent it and see if the game doesn't freeze as Niobi approaches the plane in the "Catching a Plane" level. The screen attempts to load then goes black.. FOREVER. Thank you kindly for your time and patience."

I don't believe it would be a good use of developer resources on PCSX2 to attempt to get this game playable. Some things deserve to be forgotten and this trash can be considered one of them. We have more than enough terrible games flooding Steam Early Access to 'learn from' when it comes to game design and what not to do.

[AmbientMalice]

To be fair, this game is terribly buggy and CRASHES a real-life Playstation 2 console!

And so does Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine for the N64, or Uncharted 3 for the PS3. But refusing to improve emulation accuracy to get those games running because "they crash on real hardware" would be silly.

And it gets far worse than that. This was a game pulled from shelves and recalled because of the flood of demands for refunds for a broken CONSOLE game.

Citation? The game sold 5 million copies. It spawned a spiritual successor, Path of Neo. Mass refunds would be newsworthy, but I can't find anything. Nor can I find anything about a recall.

If you don't believe me, rent it and see if the game doesn't freeze as Niobi approaches the plane in the "Catching a Plane" level.

A brief google has people claiming that Enter the Matrix becomes prone to crashing on certain levels if you use any of the hacking features (cheats). Did you enable any cheats? I've only ever 100% completed the PC version of the game, which is easily the worst version because it has massive performance issues.

[jcdenton2k]

My local Gamestop at the time did do a recall and offered full refunds to anyone who purchased the game (even for the PC version!). Perhaps it was only a local thing rather than nationwide but I'd be surprised if there are absolutely no news stories about it.

The thing about the internet is that print media has to be scanned specifically and transcribed in order to show up in search results otherwise it is inaccessible. Even if it did show up in newspaper articles you wouldn't know about it unless it was also on a website somewhere or otherwise scanned-in.

Back around the release of this game the internet wasn't quite yet at 'Web 2.0' fully and we were a decade away from really innovative things. Most people were still using Internet Explorer and Firefox was JUST getting off the ground with some stable releases.

That said, if the devs feel like taking the time to fix this game they are welcome to do so but with limited resources (time) available for much better games to improve their compatibility, I wouldn't see it as a useful expenditure of said resources.

[prafullpcsx2]

@AmbientMalice can you try this patch and report how better or worse it is than skipmpeg hack?

http://www.filedropper.com/enterthematrixslus20454u

[AmbientMalice]

@prafullpcsx2 Game freezes when I try to load saves. I'm getting a lot of TLB errors.

[FlatOutPS2]

@AmbientMalice can you try this exe(turn off patch and skipmpeg hack)?

pcsx2-IPU.zip

[prafullpcsx2]

@FlatOutPS2 : Good job, that fixes video hang issue. Even load screen is working now. This may fix all other games with the issue too. What's the code you changed? Even I was trying to have a look at IPU code to sort out this error. Make a PR :+1:

[AmbientMalice]

Like @prafullpcsx2 says, the videos are working fine with @FlatOutPS2's modded build. The log shows a single "IPU1 Normal Error!" for every video played, but there seem to be no stability issues.

The game has a second problem. After you press a button to open the rolling door in the Post Office, the game starts spamming "Vif1: Unknown VifCmd" errors, accompanied by some slowdown. They seem to stop after a while, though.

Anyway, after you follow the arrow for a while, you'll come to a door that freezes the game when you open it. Enabling the "Preload TLB hack" reliably fixes that freeze at least, based on testing the level four times, twice with, twice without. (The game seemed a bit prone to freezing anytime the Vif1 errors start, but I dunno whether the TLB hack reliably fixes that instability because I haven't tested enough.)

[FlatOutPS2]

@FlatOutPS2 : Good job, that fixes video hang issue. Even load screen is working now. This may fix all other games with the issue too. What's the code you changed? Even I was trying to have a look at IPU code to sort out this error. Make a PR :+1:

It should fix all other games with this issue, I tested it on two demo's with IPU normal errors(Rygar, Freestyle Metal X). The fix is really simple, but it gets the job done(see PR). :P

[prafullpcsx2]

@AmbientMalice : This game requires ee timing hack, I hope you have that enabled to avoid vif errors.

[AmbientMalice]

@prafullpcsx2 vif errors (and the crash at this door)

seem to occur regardless of timing hack being enabled. But enabling the TLB hack fixes it. However, the world geometry seems to flicker for a brief instant as she pushes the door past the point it crashes normally.

Why was EE timing hack enabled for ETM?

edit:

Are you able to get past the door without the TLB hack?

[prafullpcsx2]

EE timing hack gets rid of initial Vif1: Unknown VifCmd! errors for me. If the hack is disabled game would hang on the first cutscene itself. I played around a bit and game still hanged after sometime. How far is that elevator door from start of the game? A savestate will help.

Edit: I noticed enabling delay vif1 stalls helps to avoid the hang for some more time but it causes massive graphics corruption.

[refractionpcsx2]

1507 might fix the video issues in this game.

[FlatOutPS2]

1507 might fix the video issues in this game.

You obviously didn't read the PR or the earlier posts here. :P

[refractionpcsx2]

Nope :P Well, I did read earlier, just much earlier than that :P

[AmbientMalice]

The game still crashes for me during the first mission when you're following the waypoints, as mentioned https://github.com/PCSX2/pcsx2/issues/1494#issuecomment-238590710 If the TLB hack is enabled, the crash doesn't occur. But the video issue appears to be resolved, and perhaps a new issue should be made for the door opening freeze.

I'll close this for now.

[gregory38]

Which tlb hack? The one from goemon?

[AmbientMalice]

@gregory38 Yep.

[gregory38]

Honeslty I'm very surprised the hack as any impact on this game. Does the game start correctly with the EE interpreter and no tlb hack?

[willkuer]

Why do you always assume that goemon is the only game using that feature?

[FlatOutPS2]

Maybe because the hack is tied to a game more than any of the other hacks are, in both the description and the code( it's called the GoemonTlbHack ).

[gregory38]

First I'm the one that spent week to make the hack reality. Second, the hack intercept the memory allocator/deallocator tlb function. It is based on the hardcoded address of the game. However there is a potentially side effect on the jump instruction. IIRC, I forced a v2p translation on jump destination to solve code in virtual memory. So it is really unexpected that it get a positive effect on this game.

[AmbientMalice]

@gregory38 I'm aware how strange it is, but the game consistently crashes at that doorway without the hack, but seems magically fixed with that hack.

Has anyone managed to complete the first level with the default settings?

[Levan7]

Still an issue on latest dev build getting Vif1: Unknown VifCmd! messages and the game hangs for a while then starts