coornio
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2 years ago 8th entry has been added.
Closed coornio closed 2 years ago
coornio
commented
2 years ago 8th entry has been added.
coornio
commented
2 years ago 9th entry has been added.
coornio
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2 years ago 10th entry has been added.
coornio
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2 years ago 11th entry has been added.
coornio
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2 years ago 12th entry has been added.
Describe the Bug
1) For Harry Potter: Prisoner of Azkaban. There appears to be misalignment of the reflections on mirrors and the like. Here's a dump to use:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/lxrphgxzwe7eaon/gs_20220527171906_Harry+Potter+and+The+Prisoner+of+Azkaban+_NTSC-U__SLUS-20926.gs/file
Software:
Current hardware:
Using Half-Pixel Offset: Special (texture):
Upon closer inspection, you'll see that the projection of the reflection on the window matches much closer to that of software. The change also seems to affect character shadows to a minor degree, but it doesn't seem to be off. I cannot tell for certain without a more suitable shadow that's thinner and closer to a bright ground surface.
Aside from the shadow, it also appears to offset the bloom effect from the lamps just barely. It can be seen accurately by upscaling to x8 in the dump and seeing the difference at the lamp edges.
2) For Need for Speed: Carbon now.
gs_20220527183113_Need for Speed - Carbon _Collectors Edition _NTSC-U__SLUS-21494.gs.zip
We currently use HPO: Texture (special) to better align textures as they're a bit blurry. However, it's not quite enough. If you review the black lines following the contour of the hood, by the front left headlight, you'll notice it's kinda "frayed":
This is how it looks like when we also enable Round Sprite: Full:
Much sharper now. This also has a very minor alignment effect on bloom effects out on bright building surfaces but it's impossible to tell how well they're aligned anyway, even when lined up and staying still on the street, much less when racing.
Ideally we should be using Half-Pixel Offset: Normal (Vertex) for this job, because without it there's a bunch of geometrical misalignments. Compare the picture above with the one that follows to understand better:
Unfortunately, this same option tends to cause problems in races because the bloom effect that applies to bright surfaces (including those illuminated by the headlights) becomes broken and bleeds all over the edges of the screen. The only workaround is to use Skipdraw 26,26.
gs_20220527181411_Need for Speed - Carbon _Collectors Edition _NTSC-U__SLUS-21494.gs.zip
Here's a BEFORE shot in a race (just HPO:Special here):
This is an AFTER shot in a race where we use HPO:Vertex, RS:Full. Notice the broken bloom around the edges:
Lastly, this is a shot in a race where we use both of the aforementioned hacks, but we also use Skipdraw 4,26 to remove the bloom effect:
You'll notice that the game's fog is also gone. Unfortunate side effect. We can keep it present with 6,26 but this introduces a slight misalignment of building seams (visible thin lines when up close and standing still) and also a thin column of green pixels on the bottom left edge of the screen. Bad. Then again, this is more of a showcase so far.
SO WHAT THEN?! Well, to be "correct" we should just add Round Sprite: Full to the game to smooth out the cars more. I'd like more, personally, by doing all the above with the skipdraw and all but eh, it's not a valid approach to remove effects from a game (even though we did it at least once with CB:TWoC but anyway).
gs_20220527183409_Need for Speed - Carbon _Collectors Edition _NTSC-U__SLUS-21494.gs.zip
Here's one last comparison of "HPO:Special+RS:Full":
Versus my "ideal" approach of "HPO:Vertex+RS:Full+Skipdraw:(no effect outside of races):
3) Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist of the Roses is next.
gs_20220328001435Yu-Gi-Oh The Duelists of the Roses _NTSC-U__SLUS-20515.gs.zip
Not much to change over here. The UI is fairly busted:
But a bit of elbow Round Sprite: Half grease sets it mostly right:
gs_20220527193707Yu-Gi-Oh The Duelists of the Roses _NTSC-U__SLUS-20515.gs.zip
Unfortunately there's still a lot that's wrong with this game that can't all be fixed. Here's a picture from the tutorial, showing a lot more HUD elements. RS:Half is still enabled:
Enabling the Wild Arms Hack distorts a few elements just a pixel, but it does get rid of a fair amount of stray lines from others:
The game generally suffers from precision issues with its sprites even in software, and those cannot be fixed in any way until the accuracy of emulation increases.
4) Dragon Quest VIII now has its turn.
Currently we're using HPO:Vertex to better align shadows. Which is fine. But it kinda breaks the sea-travel bit.
gs_20220425221631_Dragon Quest VIII - Journey of the Cursed King _NTSC-U__SLUS-21207.gs.zip
Observe current situation here:
And this is with HPO:Special(texture), which slightly helps in adjusting bloom surfaces and you'll also notice how it makes the background itself sharper (compare the trees):
I should clarify that the big grid lines on the water don't get completely eliminated no matter what you do, but without Vertex they are considerably less frequent in their manifestations, as in every several seconds as opposed to always.
I don't like how the shadows no longer perfectly line up where they should (easy to tell when there's a gap between where the shadow's edge and an object that is in front of it) due to the lack of the Vertex option but I feel that people would rather half slightly-off shadows than rainbow grids in sea travel.
Lastly, the game requires Autoflush in order to properly light up bloom surfaces.
gs_20220425221631_Dragon Quest VIII - Journey of the Cursed King _NTSC-U__SLUS-21207.gs.zip
Current state (observe the window behind the character):
And this is with Autoflush enabled:
5) dot hack infection part 1
This was a help request in May because it was blurry.
gs20220501080640.hackInfection_Part_1NTSC-U__SLUS-20267.gs.zip
Observe current state:
And this is with HPO:Special(texture) and RS:Half:
The HPO helps unblur the background which is ghosted to hell. Vertex doesn't work as it creates streaks across the edges of the screen. RS:Half is used to better align the font in some situations, like the minimap.
6) Armored Core 3 is here as well!
gs_20220518201636_Armored Core 3 _NTSC-U__SLUS-20435.gs.zip
While we could fix the lines around text with RS:Half, it causes the text to be blurry so no thanks. Rather than that, I noticed a small color inaccuracy.
This is software:
And this is hardware with HPO:Special(texture) enabled:
The reflection highlights on the mech's armor plates now properly match those seen in software mode, unlike before when HPO wasn't being used. That's all really.
7) Ace Combat Zero
Surprised no one caught this. gs_20220527231408_Ace Combat Zero - The Belkan War_SLUS-21346.gs.zip
This is current autoGS fixes:
And this is also enabling Merge Sprite:
Makes the main menu look a little cleaner overall. Doesn't seem to have any effect on the rest of the game. Ignore the lines on the bottom, those are just an effect.
8) Dynasty Warriors 6
gs_20220529195922_Dynasty_Warriors_6_SLUS-21774.gs.zip
Like many others before it, it suffers from menu stripe misalignment. It's pretty bad:
The proposed fix? Round Sprite: Half
You'd think that this isn't quite right, but that's the closest and only fix there is right now. The Full option doesn't make things any better. It merely stretches the font sprites vertically by a pixel or two (making them slightly taller effectively) and scales up some other sprites (like the green rhombuses on the right) a bit more compared to software, so I don't recommend it.
To actually get the menus to look mostly right, this game requires Texture Offsets of 500,500:
Small clarification that both of these (and yes I know we can't use T.O. in gamedb) have practically no effect in in-game elements, so no worries on that front.
9) Vexx
Borrowing the dump from a different issue with this one, but great at showcasing the issue. The game has misaligned surfaces when upscaling, as shown below:
water-weapon-lighting.zip
It can only be fully fixed with HPO:Special(texture):
10 Spyro - A Hero's Tail
The game has misaligned bloom effects really.
gs_20220531113152_Spyro - A Hero_s Tail_SLUS-20884.gs.zip
Enabling HPO:Normal(vertex) resolves them fairly well, though it does cause some trash on the left and top edges of the screen. Zoom of 101% recommended to hide that:
Some particles (like fire attack embers) appear with a boxy bloom effect rather than a round one. Nothing can fix those. In addition, HPO:Normal(vertex) appears to cause some trash shadows occasionally, as seen here:
gs_20220531114014_Spyro - A Hero_s Tail_SLUS-20884.gs.zip
Nothing will fix that currently. Either don't use HPO and live with misaligned bloom effects, or enable Merge Sprite and magically get rid of all dynamic bloom effects (those with varying intensities only).
11) Road Trip (Adventure)
The game is basically flawless, except for some very minor misalignment and ghosting:
gs_20220531125306_Road Trip_SLUS-20398.gs.zip
Changing Round Sprite to Full corrects all of that, and the game itself and the sprites are sharp:
The game also got a sharpness boost with the Interlace Offset PR <3
12) Legend of Kay
The game looks marvelous, a native 60 frames. Superbly minor sprite alignment lines present in a few spots but hardly noticeable. However, some shadows stretch to infinity when upscaling, like when doing the main attack combo.
https://www.mediafire.com/file/vnxb4sr3l8ey529/gs_20220531145526_Legend+of+Kay_SLES-52931.gs.zst/file
Using HPO:Normal(vertex) resolves the issue, nothing else will.
PCSX2 Revision
1.7.2815
Operating System
Windows 11
CPU
i7-8700K
GPU
RTX 2080