Devil May Cry 3 (SE): Post Processing Issue

[Rezard]

If up-scaling is the only benefit you feel PCSX2 has to offer you, then I must agree.

But I though the hackfix was implemented after 0.9.8 (r4600)...

Were you using Boot CDVD (fast) with the recent SVN...?
(I think "full" bypasses CRC hacks...)

[Dark.Revenant]

I was always using the fast mode, though using full mode appears to have no effect on the visuals, meaning the CRC hack seems to be failing somehow.

[gamerX1990]

(software, being native res, obviously has no graphics glitches).

What about native res in HW mode, issue still there? Have you tried smaller custom resolutions such as 2x native and even less? Could be a game engine issue once beyond a certain internal res like Namco games but regardless as you said it works in SW mode its most likely a pure plugin issue since apparently the CRC is already in it.

[Dark.Revenant]

Yep, the issue is there in hardware native mode. This is what it looks like in hardware mode, native res:

If you look closely, you will notice that all sorts of post processing layers are off-alignment.

The bloom layer is done right (at this res, at least), but it's literally just a hack (on the developer's side) that takes whatever bright parts are in the scene that need to be given bloom, downscales the image and stretches it again, brightens it up, then moves it to a slight offset to simulate a bloom-like effect. It's probably impossible to make this look accurate at high resolutions, unless you hacked the game's code to downscale it by a greater factor depending on the resolution the image is being rendered at. The next best thing is to keep the pixel offset constant throughout every resolution so that you don't notice these problems too much (i.e. the bloom gets weaker when you raise your res higher).

The lighting layer and shadow mask, however, are off-alignment. It's hard to see in the screenshot, but Dante's coat has a weird faint double to the right of it. To the right of Dante's head is a weird shadow. These things are artifacts of a completely misaligned post processing effect that deals with some of the lighting and shadows in the game. (Most PC games just have baked textures and lighting effects where necessary and don't need a post processing filter to do this, but the PS2 has limited memory and needs hacks like this to avoid having to keep a huge baked image with the lighting, instead using post processing to save memory (so they can just use tiled textures and include a rudimentary low-memory thing to store the lighting information for the PP to interpret) and add some extra flair to the image at the same time.) Notice that in the below software render, the artifacts I mentioned are not there because the alignment is perfect. In the above hardware render, the alignment shows where Dante's head overlaps the lightmap, casting a mask over it to negate the lightmap according to Dante's head shape and profile, so that the lightmap behind it doesn't render on top of Dante's body. However, it's not in the right place so it just looks like some kind of retarded shadow. The effect is similar for Dante's cloak, which casts a faint glow to the right (same distance as the shadow from Dante's head) because the cloak overlaps the lighting map, but also needs to be brightened by some other parameters, causing the end result to be slightly brighter than the background rather than darker.


On software mode, it looks perfect: looks and plays exactly like on a PS2. But it offers no real benefit over using an actual PS2 unless you really want to use mouse/keyboard or an XBox controller, or perhaps record some videos. FYI to whoever googles this thread in the future, you can get used PS2s for like $50, and can get PS2 games for very cheap if you know where to look, so money and availability should not be an issue for anyone.

Software mode:

[DrHycodan]

Well that would be the point, as this is a PS2 emulator. If you want HD graphics, play a native PC game or a PS3. Emulating the PS2 accurately should and always be the top priority.

[Dark.Revenant]

Devil May Cry 3 is, in my opinion, one of the best PS2 games. It has no PS3 version (until April) and the PC version is far worse than the PS2 version. Considering I could play with keyboard, gamepad, etc. with the emulator with BETTER graphics and a BETTER framerate than the PC version, whereas the PC version only works with a very few controllers and the keyboard controls are nigh impossible to use, the only options are 1. a real PS2, or 2. PCSX2. PCSX2, however, lets you run on modern hardware and gives you a better framerate and the possibility of superior graphics fidelity.

P.S. I torrented the PC version just to see why it was so bad. I soon regretted that I wasted all that bandwidth, because it was uninstalled and wiped from my hard drive within the hour. Not many games are so horrible that I even miss the 30 minutes it takes to download them, but DMC3 for PC was one of them. The DMC4 port was pretty good, so why is the DMC3 port so bad?


P.P.S The HD re-release of the first three DMC games might be what finally convinces me to buy a PS3. Too bad we've got to wait at least 3 more months for that, so if the post-processing gets fixed before then, I'm a happy camper.

[sandra23]

It's weird.
Perhaps it's your monitor

[Dark.Revenant]

It's weird.
Perhaps it's your monitor

[ETPC]

I'm sorry to bump the thread, but I'm also having the same issues. However if I use the offset fix, which leaves big ol' ugly trails on the sides and top of the screen or just render in native res (which, while perfectly playable, is just plain icky ) the issues are completely gone and the bloom post-process thing renders correctly.

I'm using GSDx 5090 (MSVC 16.00, SSE41) 0.1.16 and SVN 0.9.9.5088.

[sandra23]

Sometimes you can find for the same games a version PS2 and version computer.
Then you comparate the both,which is better,which has few or not problem.