PPSSPP has issues with Intel HD Graphics since v0.9.6-59-g214cc01

[pal1000]

Evolution:
1st stage - between v0.9.6-59-g214cc01 and v0.9.6-99-gc301eb9: black screen on game boot followed by driver unresponsiveness and recovery;
2nd stage - between v0.9.6-100-ga9a15d5 and v0.9.6-117-g52cec1c and counting: black screen after auto-save dialog in FF4 (ULUS10560) which flickers a bit. Workaround: switch to non-buffered rendering, all the other modes are stuck with black screen.

System information:
. The driver is up-to-date.

[hrydgard]

I think I'll just blacklist Intel from using dual source alpha.

[hrydgard]

Try now.

[pal1000]

Yes, this made it work right, but the problem remains in the Intel driver. If I were to guess I'd say dual source alpha never worked right on Intel.

[pal1000]

I reverted the Intel blacklist experimentally on a Dell Vostro 2521 notebook with Intel HD Graphics 3000 with a custom driver pre-installed and it worked. Being a custom driver it doesn't allow me to replace it with generic driver, I can only replace it with Dell custom drivers, but there are no updates available at this moment.
System information:

There is a generic driver matching this one in version number that is compatible with the other computer, the one experiencing the issue, however it's gonna be very difficult to find because Intel wiped their older driver releases from download center leaving just the last 2. Older drivers can only be obtained if you have a valid direct link which is not easy to find on the web.

This is not the first driver regression on Intel drivers that I detected. JPCSP using shaders on hardware rendering only works with driver version 9.17.10.3071, if you try with other driver, older or newer it will go black screen soon after game boots.

Also, an important fact I noticed is that PPSSPP doesn't detect just the OpenGL and EGL versions supported, it also detects the driver version. For the screenshot from above the driver version is 9.17.10.2867.

[thedax]

Also, an important fact I noticed is that PPSSPP doesn't detect just the OpenGL and EGL versions supported, it also detects the driver version. For the screenshot from above the driver version is 9.17.10.2867.

It shows whatever's in those specific GL version strings(see the SystemInfoScreen source), so if a driver writer puts the driver version info in there, PPSSPP will display it. :)

[pal1000]

I tried re-enabling dual source alpha in PPSSPP on the same PC affected by this issue currently having this configuration:

and had the following results:
-FF4 CC(ULUS10560) still black screen after the auto-save notification in buffered rendering;
-ProQuake 4.71 is completely unaffected. So this might turn into a game specific issue. Laptops with Intel HD Graphics are not affected, only desktops as I stated in my previous comment.