Puppeteer [BCES00935] incorrect lighting & render

[Parotaku]

The game goes ingame correctly but the render is incorrect and the screen is often black (see included image comparison for map/act selection) or missing rendered objects... Same results with both Vulkan & OpenGL

RPCS3 v0.0.7-8677-53e7f6c5 Alpha | HEAD | Firmware version: 4.83 Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-5820K CPU @ 3.30GHz | 12 Threads | 15.90 GiB RAM | TSC: 3.30GHz | AVX+ Nvidia RTX 2070 Super

Incorrect render on rpcs3:

Internet screenshot from real PS3:

RPCS3.log.zip

More infos : https://forums.rpcs3.net/thread-177684-post-306458.html#pid306458

[Parotaku]

I don't know which recent commit is responsable, but there's some progress with the broken rendering... Far from perfect but it's... less dark... RPCS3 v0.0.7-9203-c3862b74 Alpha | HEAD | Firmware version: 4.83 Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-5820K CPU @ 3.30GHz | 12 Threads | 15.90 GiB RAM | TSC: 3.30GHz | AVX+ RPCS3.log.gz

[Parotaku]

Rendering has improved a lot with 10518. The characters are now clearly visible and a lot more of the world is shown... The broken motion blur is fixed too! Some effects like fog or bloom are still broken but it's a great improvement!

EDIT: don't know why exactly, but it seems to be fixed ONLY with vulkan renderer...

[Asinin3]

I just tested, OpenGL is still dark, even with WCB and other settings. Vulkan seems okay with default settings. But i never tested it against real HW.

[Parotaku]

It's better but some effects are still missing or incorrectly rendered (shadows, etc)... For instance, on the first intro on real hardware, there are some foggy clouds on the foreground which are completely missing for the moment on rpcs3: look at 1m20 here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slYdCfWVtno

[kd-11]

This ticket needs an update and new RSX captures.

[Parotaku]

Sorry, not much to report... Vulkan, with or without Multithreaded RSX, still has broken (spiky) shadows and missing some effects like the purple fog/smoke on the intro... (there's some tiny purple haze appearing briefly on the right of the screen but nothing like on real PS3) OpenGL rendering is still mostly pitch black... kd-11, if you need something specific just tell me...

[RainbowCookie32]

He needs new RSX captures

[Parotaku]

Sorry, don't know how to capture this... I thought that meant screenshots with Multithreaded RSX enabled...

[RainbowCookie32]

Boot the game, get to a point where the issue is on screen, then go to Utilities on RPCS3's main window and click Create RSX Capture.

The capture will be saved to the captures folder on RPCS3's directory, you can then compress it and then upload it here.

[Parotaku]

Thanks for the help, RainbowCookie32. Here it is... BCES00935_20210809221450_capture.zip

[Parotaku]

On a more positive note, the shadowy tadpoles under the water in the swamp level are now displaying correctly... it looks very nice!

[digitaldude555]

10823 retest with this pr. @Parotaku

[sampletext32]

Please refer to this article, if you don't know how to test a PR.

[Xcedf]

Tried demo, no difference with https://github.com/RPCS3/rpcs3/pull/10823, but the issue itself perhaps was already fixed the game itself is pretty dark, see here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSR5XCKrAas&t=256s The only issue I noticed for now is missing purple smoke/mist on Vulkan, aside form that colors are fine to me

[Parotaku]

No change on my side either with the full game... As @Xcedf already said, the purple smoke/mist is still missing, and many projeted shadows are still blocky/spicky (see the capture I've done of the castle from the intro on my previous post... the shadows on the floor are supposed to be smooth, not blocky... same with the plateforms' shadows in the swamp level...) Colors are OK indeed...

[Parotaku]

With recent builds, some flickering lighting errors have started appearing in cutscenes & ingame... (the purple band on top of the screen in my capture) EDIT: It's supposed to be the searchlights, following the characters movements...

[Parotaku]

Here's an RSX capture of it on screen: https://www.dropbox.com/s/po7sdipuvosdj7t/BCES00935_20220423085720_capture.zip

[Jonathan44062]

Not sure if this issue is related or not, but, there's an small issue, let me show an comparison PS3

RPCS3

Those sheets of paper that are floating to teleport you to another area, are not rendered correctly.

RSX Capture: https://www.mediafire.com/file/nr2w1m2bzjkz6ho/BCJS30078_20220503184055_capture.rrc/file

RPCS3.log.gz

[Linear524]

With recent builds, some flickering lighting errors have started appearing in cutscenes & ingame... (the purple band on top of the screen in my capture) EDIT: It's supposed to be the searchlights, following the characters movements...

Parotaku, you need to use WCB+RCB+WDB+RDB and if needed - also activate Force CPU blit. This will help to render some deep layers FX, but not all unfortunately..

[Linear524]

Pupeteer is a truly brilliant game and unique title in terms of used technologies in rendering. Right now RPCS3 is almost reached the correct image rendering state, but some functions are still broken or unimplemented... Here I'm made some overall issues compilation for this title: 1) - Broken light shader or color clipping: Something similar was some time ago in GoW Ascension flame pots issue, and KD-11 fixed those shaders.

2) - Broken geometry wave effect: Looks like broken vertex shader or broken geometry animation.

3) - Missing dynamic particles volumetric fog: Puppeteer uses high quality dynamic particles fog, and RPCS3 currently doesn't have this function implemented yet. I bet some SPU/PPU instructions are missing...

4) - Dynamic shadows are pixelated/broken shadow filtering:

5) - Particle rendering are missing.

• Candles are not receiving light (subsurface scattering lighting missing ? or just light shader).
• MLAA are not working.

[Linear524]

I think KD-11 very close to fixing all this remaining issues, and once it will be done - a lot of other titles will have benefits too. (Like TLoU, Uncharted 2,3, e.t.c.) PS3 RSX:

[ThiagoAnd]

Is there a fix for the hidden gem (the one that we need to reach to jump to next screen)

[Jonathan44062]

Sadly no, just waiting for more improves in the emulator

[TryingToLove]

Sadly no, just waiting for more improves in the emulator

Does the hidden gem issue prevent you from finishing the game? Would love to start this on my Steam Deck but don’t want to bother if I can’t complete.

[Jonathan44062]

I completed the game in the past, the only problem is some visual effects are not rendered correctly (Like R&C A Crack in Time did), are invisible, like those sheets of paper that are floating to teleport you to another area for example, is hard to see where they are, it's like playing puppeteer in hard mode

[TryingToLove]

I completed the game in the past, the only problem is some visual effects are not rendered correctly (Like R&C A Crack in Time did), are invisible, like those sheets of paper that are floating to teleport you to another area for example, is hard to see where they are, it's like playing puppeteer in hard mode

Ok thanks. Are there any settings adjustments you recommend? Should I just use the latest default RPCS3 settings or are there any things I absolutely must change? The Wiki doesn’t really recommend any changes.

[Jonathan44062]

It works with default settings, no need for special configuration

[TryingToLove]

It works with default settings, no need for special configuration

Sounds good…thanks.

[ThiagoAnd]

Any news on these issues? About the hidem Gem maybe?

[Jonathan44062]

Updating status, the papers that were not visible before, are now rendered correctly

[ThiagoAnd]

Updating status, the papers that were not visible before, are now rendered correctly

Great to know that!!! Almost perfect. Besides having this paper problem I was also having problems with upscaling and anti aliasing. I will download again to test. No special configuration is needed correct? Thanks for sharing buddy.

[Parotaku]

The paper warps are indeed fixed, as are the lights... I think the only things remaining broken now are the blocky shadows and the missing fog effects... Thanks for your work, devs!

[TryingToLove]

This is all great news, thanks! Playing the game on my Steam Deck and it runs flawlessly and looks gorgeous. Thank you Devs, you are the best! Keep up the great work!

[ThiagoAnd]

Thanks @kd-11 !! Awesome work!!

[TryingToLove]

The game has frozen on me on Steam Deck several times, often right at the end of an act, meaning I have to start all over again. Most recent is the end of Act 6, Curtain 1.

[Parotaku]

Looking amazing (and much faster!) now with the 'Disable MLAA' patch (but missing fog effect & blocky shadows bugs are still there) : https://twitter.com/Parotaku/status/1657467822040072193 On the other hand, the patch for '60 FPS' seems to break the lights in some places (intro & first level are almost in full darkness)

[SixelAlexiS90]

Thank you for all the works on adjusting this game, hopefully these few remaining issues will be fixed as well since this forgotten gem deserve it's full preservation <3

[Parotaku]

Effects still missing as of v0.0.28-15316-8d54ddf4 Alpha.

I don't know how to help devs fix that so here's a fresh RSX capture from the map with 2 effects incorrectly rendering: the purple fog is missing from the map & the earth globe light seems to be cropped (it's darker where it should be glowing). https://www.dropbox.com/s/2foh8q45tx68yy1/BCES00935_20230707190517_capture.7z

Here's how it's looking on RPCS3:

And how it should look with the fog & light effects, from a PS3 captured video of the game:

[Parotaku]

If you can, could you have a look at the shadow/lighting bug on the RSX capture, @kd-11 ? It might be related/similar to the TLoU shadow bug (https://github.com/RPCS3/rpcs3/issues/14142) you're currently working on (it looks like light is clipped)...

[Parotaku]

Two more problems I noticed while testing the game:

• the 60FPS patch has a side effect on the game physics: the hero character cannot jump as high as on the original 30 fps framerate... In consequence, some plateforms might be difficult or impossible to reach when the patch is active.

• the 'right eye' rendering when displaying the game in 3D is a bit broken compared to other games which can be rendered in 3D (like ICO): in a similar way of the 'blocky shadows' bug still present, some part of the 'right eye' rendering is duplicated or cropped which results in the 3D depth not looking correct on characters... It's a bit hard to explain but, for instance, if you compare (in original size) the white spikes on the ennemies' back on the foreground of my screenshot, you can see the triangles are a bit broken on the 'right eye' rendering and correct looking on the 'left eye' rendering. ...

[Parotaku]

The top of the screen seems to be glitching since RSX tilling was implemented...

[Jonathan44062]

@Parotaku I can't repro, works fine on my own, the new setting is not enable either, I checked to see and everything looks fine

[Parotaku]

@Jonathan44062 Indeed, you're right... My mistake... I deleted all the caches and that fixed it... Now it's looking like it was before (missing effects included)... no more, no less...