Black Rock Shooter speed and overbright issues

[andutrache]

Using the latest v0.9.1-649-g515885e this game is now overbright with buffered rendering on.
0.9.1.502 good : http://postimg.org/image/lreynd9sh/
0.9.1.649 bad : http://postimg.org/image/v6acqzigr/

Also there is this very annoying problem where the game starts playing in 2x speed in cutscenes and while walking around which started somewhere between 0.9.1-502 and 0.9.1-580.
If you open the map the game resumes playing at normal speed until you change screens or about 3 minutes pass, the it goes fast forward again. Tried changing all settings to no avail nothing seems to fix it.

I would love to help you more but only 0.9.1-502(which works) and 0.9.1-580(which has the problem) are available for download. Apparently the buildbot was snoozing between these 2 revisions.

[unknownbrackets]

What does the FPS show when it runs too fast?

The bloom is a common problem in many games. I think it's due to stencil being enabled.

Additional builds should show up in that range within like an hour.

-[Unknown]

[andutrache]

Fps is always 100% and by that i refer to Speed: 100% being displayed on the corner at all times.

[andutrache]

Later edit: i set the fps display to Both in settings and now it shows 60/60 (100%) when its running fast and 30/30 (100%) when its running normally.

[solarmystic]

I can confirm every single one of @andutrache's findings.

Via bisecting:-

Issue 1:- The double speed issue

The responsible commit/build for the double speed issue is v0.9.1-505-ga8f100c a8f100c

Last one not to have it is v0.9.1-504-g7f1a615 7f1a615

Issue 2:- The overbright/excessive bloom issue

The responsible commit/build for the overbright/excessive bloom issue with Buffered Rendering ON is v0.9.1-610-g2e8b475 2e8b475

Last one not to have it with Buffered Rendering ON is v0.9.1-609-g3b323c4 3b323c4

@unknownbrackets

It shows 60/60 compared to the previously normal 30/30. But % wise 100% is being shown all the time.

Which is effectlvely double speed in this game, since it's supposed to run at 30 FPS internally, not 60 FPS.

Or in the older notation, Speed:60, FPS:60 as compared to Speed:60. FPS:30

[unknownbrackets]

So to confirm, if you comment out this line:

__KernelRegisterWaitTypeFuncs(WAITTYPE_VBLANK, __DisplayVblankBeginCallback, __DisplayVblankEndCallback); 

It goes away? The brightness issue like I said is probably bloom, most likely it was just missing the framebuffer/texture before by accident.

-[Unknown]

[andutrache]

after checking on my PSP, i can confirm that the game does indeed use bloom but not in the same way, it appears here everything is bloomed and is overbright because of it.

[solarmystic]

@unknownbrackets

Commenting out the aforementioned line as shown below, fixes the double speed issue:-

Bloom is still pretty much prevalent in that picture.

[unknownbrackets]

I think the "everything bloomed" thing is a stencil or depth handling issue. The fact that it's there is actually more correct than it being not rendered at all, even if it's not ideal.

Does it affect the speed at all if you remove these lines from Core/HLE/sceKernelThread.cpp?

    if (call->cbId != 0)
        g_inCbCount++;

...

    if (call->cbId != 0)
        g_inCbCount--;

It's a bit more involved than that, but I'm already preparing the changes necessary to do that correctly.

-[Unknown]

[solarmystic]

@unknownbrackets
Just those 4 lines? Or everything else in between,including those 4 lines?

Removing just the 4 lines (by commenting them out or deleting them) does nothing to solve the double speed issue. (still getting 60/60)

Only commenting out that line earlier on #3680 (comment) helps.

[unknownbrackets]

Can you export the map file? I'm wondering which vblank wait function it's using.

-[Unknown]

[solarmystic]

@unknownbrackets

In game map file from the latest 64bit release build based on v0.9.1-657-g865057c 865057c

https://gist.github.com/solarmystic/6481537

Direct download:-

http://www.mediafire.com/?8d2r4u705p87dvd

Hope I did it correctly, do tell me if there's something missing @unknownbrackets

[andutrache]

The intro of GTA Vice City Stories is also afected by the double-speed issue.

[andutrache]

well its v0.9.1-1114-g36fd5df which still has the problem
revert the code to what works already.

Also GTA Vice City Stories now crashes on the intro where you talk to Jerry, but i think i saw an issue on this already.

[raven02]

@andutrache , i think the code revert you mean this ?

__KernelRegisterWaitTypeFuncs(WAITTYPE_VBLANK, __DisplayVblankBeginCallback, __DisplayVblankEndCallback);

[solarmystic]

@andutrache

Yep, the crash on intro is common to GTA Vice CIty Stories and GTA Chinatown Wars in the latest revisions is due to the atrac3+ decoder. The issue report is here #3805 and the comment for VCS is here #3805 (comment)

Play the game(s) without atrac3+ audio and it will not crash.

[andutrache]

@raven: yes that thing, the game worked before so if a change broke it then its not a good change, or does the doublespeed problem lie elsewhere?

[andutrache]

@solarmystic: yes i know disabling atrac3+ audio stops the crashes, but playing without sound sucks.
Don't get me wrong, i have a PSP and if i want everything to work 100% ill play on but that won't help the emu get better, that's why i am posting here in the first place.

Also it usually pains me to see that games that were working before get broken, i understand that can't be avoided since it's a work in progress, if there are other reasons to keep that line of code as it is and the problem lies elsewhere at least say so, then ill understand that the problem lies elsewhere and will be fixed in the future (as were a lot of problems i had before).

[daniel229]

Last Ranker has this speed issue too.

[solarmystic]

@andutrache

You're preaching to the choir mate, why do you think I'm responding to your issue report #3680 (comment) and helping you narrow down the issue further? We're all here to help improve this emulator further. I just suggested playing without atrac3+ audio as a temporary measure.

Also, as you've already mentioned, growing pains are to be expected with a project like this. You can always stay at an older build if you wish to keep previously working functionality in specific games that got broken in recent builds until the issue is resolved again.

[andutrache]

So it came out as preaching anyway XD . Sorry i couldn't express what i thought any differently or else i would have came out as bad bitching user, i have seen too many cases of that on the internet that i am now trying to avoid that like the plague.

I never said i am not thankful for your help, your help is appreciated and from what i have seen you do a 10x better job at reporting than me.

I also thought this issue was gonna be left out and no one will look at it and that's mostly the reason why i posted. Will wait for a fix :) .

[raven02]

Last Ranker double speed issue seems to be be fixed

[hrydgard]

Is the overbrightness still a problem?

[raven02]

@hrydgard , I didn't see any over brightness in-game.

@unknownbrackets , looks like the double speed issue because of this line in __DisplayVblankBeginCallback

if (vblankPausedWaits.find(pauseKey) != vblankPausedWaits.end()) {
    return;
}

[unknownbrackets]

@raven02, so that means it's got two in a row? The problem is handling the case that it waits inside a callback.

Can you do a log including the sceDisplayWaitVblankCB messages?

-[Unknown]

[solarmystic]

@hrydgard

The same commit 33efffe that heavily reduced the overbrightness in Gods Eater Burst and Wipeout also eliminated the overbrightness in Black Rock Shooter. Nicely done.

[andutrache]

reporting with the v0.9.5-848-g726327b :
overbright issues fixed, speed issue still not fixed.

Keep at it.

[hrydgard]

@solarmystic , excellent, thanks for testing.

[raven02]

@unknownbrackets , I logged the sceDisplayWaitVblankCB , __DisplayVblankBeginCallback and __DisplayVblankEndCallback with following messages

17:15:561 idle0 I[HLE]: HLE\sceDisplay.cpp:288 sceDisplayWaitVblankCB: Suspending vblank wait for callback
17:15:561 main I[HLE]: HLE\sceDisplay.cpp:308 sceDisplayWaitVblankCB: Resuming vblank wait from callback
17:15:561 main I[HLE]: HLE\sceDisplay.cpp:308 sceDisplayWaitVblankCB: Resuming vblank wait from callback
17:15:561 main I[HLE]: HLE\sceDisplay.cpp:308 sceDisplayWaitVblankCB: Resuming vblank wait from callback
17:15:563 main I[HLE]: HLE\sceDisplay.cpp:308 sceDisplayWaitVblankCB: Resuming vblank wait from callback

[raven02]

If i remove the following , it is running in this way (one suspend and one resume consectively)

// This means two callbacks in a row.  PSP crashes if the same callback waits inside itself (may need more testing.)
// TODO: Handle this better?
if (vblankPausedWaits.find(pauseKey) != vblankPausedWaits.end()) {
    return;
}

22:17:588 idle0 I[HLE]: HLE\sceDisplay.cpp:286 sceDisplayWaitVblankCB: Suspending vblank wait for callback
22:17:588 main I[HLE]: HLE\sceDisplay.cpp:306 sceDisplayWaitVblankCB: Resuming vblank wait from callback
22:17:588 idle0 I[HLE]: HLE\sceDisplay.cpp:286 sceDisplayWaitVblankCB: Suspending vblank wait for callback
22:17:589 main I[HLE]: HLE\sceDisplay.cpp:306 sceDisplayWaitVblankCB: Resuming vblank wait from callback
22:17:589 idle0 I[HLE]: HLE\sceDisplay.cpp:286 sceDisplayWaitVblankCB: Suspending vblank wait for callback
22:17:589 main I[HLE]: HLE\sceDisplay.cpp:306 sceDisplayWaitVblankCB: Resuming vblank wait from callback

[unknownbrackets]

I can't remember if I specifically tested waiting a vblank within a vblank wait or not.

Anyway, this might overwrite the wait incorrectly, especially if two callbacks are called during a vblank wait. Is it actually calling sceDisplayWaitVblankCB in between the suspend and resume? Or Multi or anything?

There's no demo or anything of this game, is there?

-[Unknown]

[thedax]

A quick Google search didn't yield a demo, so I doubt it.

[unknownbrackets]

Hmm, there's definitely something broken here, I'll be able to look at it more tomorrow. It seems like vblank waits inside of callbacks running during a vblank wait should actually work, and aren't.

My quick 5-minute test:

#include <common.h>
#include <pspgu.h>
#include <psprtc.h>
#include <pspdisplay.h>
#include <pspthreadman.h>

extern "C" {
int sceDisplayWaitVblankStartMulti(int vblanks);
int sceDisplayWaitVblankStartMultiCB(int vblanks);
int sceDisplayIsVblank();
int sceDisplayIsVsync();
}

SceUID cb;
int vbase;
bool stop = false;

int cbFunc(int arg1, int arg2, void *common) {
    checkpoint("inside before vcount=%d", sceDisplayGetVcount() - vbase);
    checkpoint("inside: %08x", sceDisplayWaitVblankStartMultiCB(1));
    checkpoint("inside after vcount=%d", sceDisplayGetVcount() - vbase);
    checkpoint("cbFunc");
    return 0;
}

int threadFunc(SceSize args, void *argp) {
    checkpoint("threadFunc start");
    cb = sceKernelCreateCallback("cb", cbFunc, NULL);
    while (!stop) {
        checkpoint("before vcount=%d", sceDisplayGetVcount() - vbase);
        sceDisplayWaitVblankStartMultiCB(5);
        checkpoint("after vcount=%d", sceDisplayGetVcount() - vbase);
    }
    checkpoint("threadFunc done");
    return 0;
}

extern "C" int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
    vbase = sceDisplayGetVcount();
    SceUID threadID = sceKernelCreateThread("test", &threadFunc, 0x1F, 0x2000, 0, NULL);
    sceKernelStartThread(threadID, 0, NULL);

    sceKernelDelayThread(300000);
    sceKernelNotifyCallback(cb, 1);
    sceKernelDelayThread(300000);
    stop = true;
    sceKernelDelayThread(300000);

    return 0;
}

-[Unknown]

[raven02]

@unknownbrackets , it did use sceDisplayWaitVblankStartMultiCB() as well.

31:56:038 main I[HLE]: HLE\sceDisplay.cpp:764 sceDisplayWaitVblankStartMultiCB(2)
31:56:040 main I[HLE]: HLE\sceDisplay.cpp:764 sceDisplayWaitVblankStartMultiCB(2)
31:56:042 main I[HLE]: HLE\sceDisplay.cpp:764 sceDisplayWaitVblankStartMultiCB(2)
31:56:044 main I[HLE]: HLE\sceDisplay.cpp:764 sceDisplayWaitVblankStartMultiCB(2)

[unknownbrackets]

Oh right, that's just the problem where it doesn't wait inside callbacks still.

Anyway, d'oh, I'm super dumb, can't believe I didn't see the missing line...

-[Unknown]

[unknownbrackets]

Does that change help at all? It's definitely right, even if it doesn't solve this problem.

-[Unknown]

[raven02]

Thanks @unknownbrackets .I will test it out tonight .

[solarmystic]

@unknownbrackets

160ee74 did the trick and resolved the 60 FPS issue. The game now correctly runs at 30 FPS in the overworld, as it should.

Nicely done.

Now if we can get the @andutrache or someone else in here to verify my findings and confirm them, we can close this issue and chalk it up as a case closed, since the overbright issue has also been resolved.

[hrydgard]

Great!

I'm gonna close this then.

[raven02]

Thanks all !

[andutrache]

Tested v0.9.5-933-g4cd57b6, the double speed bug has been fixed.

Good Job :) .