Meta: GSdx top left corner issue

[gregory38]

I'm trying to implement a solution to handle properly the top left corner post-processing effect. Let's centralize information here.

Game impacted (from the top of my head, likely more).

• MGS 2
• Prince of Persia
• Urban Chaos
• killzone
• destroy all humans
• Star wars battle front 1
• star war battle front 2
• horsez
• JamesBondEverythingOrNothing
• DeathByDegreesTekkenNinaWilliams
• Catwoman
• Mercenaries (unfortunately suffer of half screen bug)
• Summoner
• Stolen
• Hitman: Contracts
• Midnight Club 2 Midnight Club II - Top left corner issue #2708

Better but still broken

• MGS3 (codec might suffer from another tc issue)
• GSC_TouristTrophy (better but still has a couple of issue)
• kung fu panda (remain plenty of other effects)

Broken due to bad detection of the effect

• GSC_Manhunt2 => (will need dedicated CRC shader) Manhunt 2 [SLUS_21613] Performance Issues/Graphical Issues #2758
• Tekken5 => dedicated shader must be good now
• Ridge Racer V Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Post-Processing Issue #1327
• Ratchet & Clank Ratchet & Clank - Blurred Background only in top left corner #914
• Ghost in the shell Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Post-Processing Issue #1327
• GT4 (better but still has a couple of issue) Gran Turismo series PCSX2 Crashes #1313
• Steambot Chronicles Steambot Chronicles - Missing grey filter in tutorial #2722
• TalesOfAbyss => dedicated shader must be good now

Need test:

• GSC_BlackHawkDown (night filter)
• GSC_ZettaiZetsumeiToshi2
• tales of legendia

[refractionpcsx2]

having a scan through my games to see if i can find any others that do it.

Destroy All Humans - it's not overly noticable (due to the shadow mess on the screen)but its there.
Hitman Blood Money - Seems to have 2 levels of it? one shows more than the other (wrong colour though)

Edit: Totally O/T but you've nearly fixed Driver 3's graphics! The text is still a bit broken but it's readable and most of the texture flicker is gone, you just get the odd little bit now.

[gregory38]

I have a dump of this game, but I don't see it. Maybe not the good scene. However there are various postprocessing effect.

[refractionpcsx2]

ill try and get another one if you'd like, it even does it on the menu, but im not totally sure it's right.

I'm updating that post as i find games btw

[gregory38]

Ok. So far I have enough gs dump to implement somethings

[FlatOutPS2]

Stuntman also crashes with a RAM spike with OpenGL(this happens more often now than on 1.4.0).

[gregory38]

Ok. I'm nearly sure it is a variation of a similar effect. Currently my detection is based on FrameBuffer address == Texture address.
However Prince Of Persia. Copy the Framebuffer to another place. So my detection is dull. (and move is badly emulated in texture cache).
However detection work nicely for MGS and killzone.

[refractionpcsx2]

That's progress :)

[refractionpcsx2]

OK finished going through my DVD ISO's, there wasn't really many that weren't already mentioned that I could find. There might be more but I'm totally not going through all my discs ;)

[gregory38]

Ok. Let's me first try to correct MGS/KillZone. For PoP, I need to find a way to detect the mess. Or maybe we could rely on crc/option.

[refractionpcsx2]

For PoP, I need to find a way to detect the mess. Or maybe we could rely on crc/option.

That all depends how often that effect is used and what drain on performance it is. If this is the only game to use it, or there is a huge performance drop, then yeh, option it (so people have an option)

[gregory38]

Without CRC ;)

The trick is to properly detect the effect. My current implementation replace current draw call by an alternate draw call. Option or CRC will help to avoid side effect. Anyway, I need to find a way to correct the move first.

[gregory38]

@ssakash you need to check several open issues.

At all
I pushed my implementation on master. Time to give it a shot.

[refractionpcsx2]

Good job! ill give it a go :)

[refractionpcsx2]

Rachet & Clank - Don't think it ever had this issue, that has mipmapping problems.
MGS 3 - Yay looks much better now! :)
Prince of Persia - Screen is completely blue
GT4 - Still has the weird colours when transitioning between scenes (it was blue this time)
Urban Chaos - screen is completely pink tinted but now the box in the top left IS the correct colours and no longer wrong, nor is it sliced!
Killzone - has a half screen cut off now. bottom half being darker but you can see the game.
Destroy All Humans - Still has the box in the top left, it looks like it is used to fade the background when you have a menu open (this is probably why you never saw it)
Hitman Blood Money - Seems to be fixed now! :)

3/6(or 8 if you count possible different issues) fixed! :)
i might give you 3.5, half a mark for Prince of Persia ;)

[FlatOutPS2]

Killzone already had the half screen issue. The infrared view is now fixed.

Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow infrared view is also fixed.

[gregory38]

Try this hack for killzone UserHacks_ColorDepthClearOverlap = 1 If it doesn't work, I think I know the issue. Various game suffers of this half-screen issue.

[FlatOutPS2]

It doesn't work(yes, userhacks was on).

[gregory38]

Thanks for the test, so it is the 2nd bug ;)

GT seem to be a different issue. Urban Chaos effect is halfly detected. It also moves the RT as pop (but differently).

[refractionpcsx2]

Can confirm (checked with depth enabled on OGL as well, just in case) that the colourdepthclear line doesn't affect Killzone, so yeh, its the half screen issue, which is another one of those affects a ton of games bugs :P

[gregory38]

Oh nice, PoP is pink now. You can chose the rendering for boys or girls ;)

[refractionpcsx2]

Oh nice, PoP is pink now. You can chose the rendering for boys or girls ;)

lol xD

[gregory38]

Hum, actually I think it is working for PoP but it fails to handle the old texture shuffle. It is implemented very strangely (it is maybe not a texture shuffle).

[refractionpcsx2]

I'm sure you'll sus it :)

[gregory38]

My god, I don't know what they smoke but it must be very strong!

Here are the step

• copy the framebuffer 0x0 to 0x2300
• channel shuffle: move the red channel (0x0) to others channel (0x2300)
• change brigthness of 0x2300 to 0x0.
• texture shuffle: move RGBA_RGBA_... (0x0) to RRGB_ARGB_A...(0x2300) (I think, dunno if it wrap at the end)
• use alpha channel of 0x2300 to render into 0x0
• channel shuffle: move the blue channel (0x0) to others channel (0x2300)

....

[refractionpcsx2]

blinks...... blinks again...... tries rubbing eyes...... What the hell??? That seems an awfully long way around doing things.

[tadanokojin]

Notes about Raw Danger shuffle effect:
https://github.com/tadanokojin/gamedocs/blob/master/RD%20ChannelTexture%20Shuffle%20effect.md

[HeroponRikiBestest]

As seen in #4879, Blokus Club with Bumpy Trot (Japan) exhibits the same postprocessing issues as other IREM games (i.e. Steambot and Raw Danger).

[HeroponRikiBestest]

As described in #5212, Pachi Para 12-14 use the Steambot Chronicles engine, and thus suffer from the same postprocessing issues as Steambot Chronicles and Blokus Club.

[ps1freak26]

#5342 in Ape Escape 2 looks like the issue with Manhunt2 with it being light blue rather than blue. They are even the same size.

[SpaceAgeHero]

In PAL version of Summoner (SLES-82005) there is a transparent box in the top left corner.
Is that the issue of OP? And how can it be fixed?

[ZandigSlaytanic]

In PAL version of Summoner (SLES-82005) there is a transparent box in the top left corner. Is that the issue of OP? And how can it be fixed?

Same issue with the NTSC release (SLUS 20074).
The issue has been around a very long time, and to date is still an issue.

All hardware renderers are affected with this issue of the box in the upper left corner.
Software mode is fine and does not have the issue.

[Mbee2]

same thing in hitman blood money.

GS
Hitman - Blood Money_SLUS-21108_20230803202412.zip

[bigol83]

Need for Speed Underground 2 demo in Burnout 3 has the same issue. During the last months it has been fixed and then broken again many times. Right now, with build1.7.4869, it is broken.

Burnout 3 - Takedown_SLES-52585_20230804124438.zip

[refractionpcsx2]

Need for Speed Underground 2 demo in Burnout 3 has the same issue. During the last months it has been fixed and then broken again many times. Right now, with build1.7.4869, it is broken.

Burnout 3 - Takedown_SLES-52585_20230804124438.zip

That's a misfiring palette draw detection causing that, it's on our TODO :P

[bigol83]

Need for Speed Underground 2 demo in Burnout 3 has the same issue. During the last months it has been fixed and then broken again many times. Right now, with build1.7.4869, it is broken.

Burnout 3 - Takedown_SLES-52585_20230804124438.zip

This has been fixed by #10136

[Nerboruto]

This problem is also present on Peter Jackson's King Kong, can be observed during the opening lifeboat scene with hardware rendering.
also something like this happens in the angry monkey effect, transparent squares but all over the screen.

with software rendering it doesn't do this.

[TheTechnician27]

Looks like Hot Wheels: World Race also belongs on this list.

Hot Wheels - World Race_SLUS-20737_20240120021821.gs.zst.zip

edit by refraction: just rename not to have .zip on the end.

[refractionpcsx2]

Looks like Hot Wheels: World Race also belongs on this list.

Hot Wheels - World Race_SLUS-20737_20240120021821.gs.zst.zip

edit by refraction: just rename not to have .zip on the end.

doesn't look quite the same problem, but might just affect the top left, dunno