Dance Dance Revolution - Another Look

[Kanpai]

I guess this place has probably switched forum software a million times since the last time i posted.

First let me say that I've been following you all since the .6 days and I appreciate all the hard work you have put in over the years for the community, you do an invaluable service ensuring that this part of gaming history is preserved forever. Onto my issue.

Obviously I'm having issues with DDR where the arrows don't line up with the beat. I've done some searching and what i've read is that this is apparently a limitation of the sound emulation. I don't believe this to be the case. I'm running an ivy bridge i5 and a GTX660, so my system can definitely keep up. The reason why I am suspicious is that the arrow outlines at the top of the screen DO correspond to the beat! The issue seems to be that the arrows come out too early, but they are the only problem, everything else lines up. If this were truly a sound latency issue, wouldn't that be reflected graphically across the board? I've also tested training mode and found the metronome also corresponding to the beat. Since others who have reported this issue have indicated this NOT to be the case, I wonder if maybe this is worth a second look. I don't mean to insult anyone by suggesting something stupid, but it seems to me that if a game patch could delay when the arrows start coming up to the top that this would be a 100% playable game. Again, thank you for your time and hard work.

[refraction]

The latency is more apparent in music games, go in to the SPU2-X config, make sure you're using xaudio2 and put the latency slider as low as you can get it without it sounding like crap, that should help

[Kanpai]

I've lowered it down to 3ms and unbelievably, while i still don't get any choppy audio, it's not any better. Again, the arrow outlines DO line up with the beat, so I don't think that this is, at least entirely, a latency issue. Are you sure that this isn't worth looking into again at all?

[refraction]

Okay souds like it could be a scaling thing then if the outlines match up. Try using the offset hack in gsdx hw hacks section.

[Kanpai]

That did it!!!! Ref, you are a god. Thank you so much.

[Kanpai]

Okay, upon further inspection it looks like the offset hack(s) haven't actually had any impact. I have tried a variety of other options now, including disabling speedhacks, changing video plugins, and running in software mode, and while i get a smooth 60fps in every case, none of them seems to affect the arrows. I feel like it must be a bug, because the game works flawlessly otherwise.

[fade2black001]

I guess this will be a bit off topic but why not use Stepmania instead?

[Kanpai]

I guess this will be a bit off topic but why not use Stepmania instead?

Stepmania doesn't match the look and feel of DDREX, acquiring the DDREX soundtrack for SM is illegal, and beyond that, it seems to me that this is a bug in PCSX2 that is causing an issue with game compatibility. I would think the devs would have an interest in that, especially as many believe that these games are only unplayable due to sound latency.

[fade2black001]

Yea sound synch is important with those types of games.

[rama]

Try different EE and VU rounding and clamp modes (start with full clamps for both and then try different round modes).
I think I remember some DDR games had floating point issues that caused this.