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libretro / pcsx_rearmed

ARM optimized PCSX fork
GNU General Public License v2.0
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[All platform] Xenogears inaccurate/distorted sound effects #490

Closed jmaneyrol69 closed 1 year ago

jmaneyrol69 commented 3 years ago

This tracker is for pcsx-rearmed-libretro issues only.

If the issue also occurs in standalone PCSX-ReARMed, the upstream repo is probably a better place for it.

Description

Most of Xenogears sound effects (ambiance, gunshot, effects in the option screen, etc.) are inaccurate and distorted. Music, XA and video audio are not affected.

Steps to reproduce

Play the game :slightly_smiling_face: . Using dynarec or interpreter CPU emulation, and/or sound filter, does not change the result.

When did the behavior start?

This has always been present since early PCSX and still present with its various forks (Reloaded, ReARMed, PCSX4ALL, libretro core).

Your device/OS/platform/architecture

Android, Windows 10, Linux, x86_64, x86, ARM and ARM64

Logs (enable file logging and set log levels to DEBUG for core and frontend)

Not sure whether logs would help: this looks more like a lack of accuracy in sound emulation.

Others (save states and/or save files nearest to the affected area, compressed)

Mednafen and Duckstation cores are the only libretro cores that render Xenogears sound effects properly.

gameblabla commented 3 years ago

Does it still happen ? I know you said that only Duckstation and Mednafen fixed this but it would help to have sound samples along with it to compare.

jmaneyrol69 commented 3 years ago

Hi @gameblabla ,

Yes, it's still happening - I will make sound samples and send them here asap.

I know you said that only Duckstation and Mednafen fixed this

And Epsxe too. Imho, this is a sound filtering issue (using Gaussian filter helps a little). I've also heard that this does not happen on the "original" PCSX using the Eternal SPU audio plugin instead of the default one, but I haven't tested myself.

jmaneyrol69 commented 3 years ago

Here we are. First of all, I apologize for the sound quality - I recorded using my mobile phone and an Odroid Go Super to play the game. I recommend using headphones to hear the differences.

Best example; the sound effect in the menu screen, when navigating the options.

The sound effect in Swanstation is the one that we hear on real hardware.

For a longer example, the opening scene just after the intro movie:

It's less obvious here, except for the beginning of the recordings. In general, sound effects are a lot louder and sound "weird" on PCSX, especially the cursor sound in battles or when navigating the options.

gameblabla commented 3 years ago

To me, this doesn't sound like a filtering issue. I'm aware that PCSX rearmed has some sound issues specific to it as well as PoPoLoCrois Monogatari II's intro will output no sound on Rearmed but work correctly on Redux and Reloaded.

I should try that one on Redux to see if it fixes it too.

jmaneyrol69 commented 3 years ago

Just to let you know, @gameblabla, I have similar issues with sound effects on many Squaresoft games, such as FF7 and ParasiteEve. It's just a lot more obvious with Xenogears :slightly_smiling_face:

gameblabla commented 3 years ago

I know FF7 is a problem game also when it comes to the SPU (even Mednafen doesn't get it quite right unfortunately : P). Still have to try on Redux

notaz commented 1 year ago

Closing as per notaz/pcsx_rearmed#171