Outrun 2006 [US] fog & car select problems
#1
Hi all, I've only recently started using PCSX2 so apologies if this issue has been reported before. I've done plenty of searching and tried some troubleshooting on my own, but to no avail.

Anyway, I'm trying to play the US version of Outrun 2006 with a US BIOS - I haven't tried any other version because I only own the US version. In software mode, the game runs accurately - there are frequent frame rate dips, but graphically it's 100% accurate as far as I can tell. In all hardware modes (OpenGL, D3D9 & 11) there are a couple of graphical issues.

The first issue occurs on the car select screen - in place of the car, it seems that the last drawn 3d element is displayed. If you've just finished a race, it'll be a bit of gameplay. If you're coming from a cold boot, it'll be the title logo. In software mode, this runs just fine. I'm not sure if this is related to the transparency effects present in cars that haven't been earned yet or whether that's just weird speculation on my part.

The second issue occurs in certain stages with fog - particularly Cloudy Highland. Instead of drawing a smooth gradient, you end up with a white block a few feet in front of the car. Again, in software mode, this renders correctly. This occurs in all hardware modes.

I am using PCSX 1.4.0 and the included plug-ins, though I have tried a few unofficial builds - none of which fix this issue. I've read plenty of reports of similar fog issues in God Of War and Ico. Setting Skipdraw to 2 disables all of the fog elements and color post processing, but that's not exactly ideal. I've tried enabling Alpha & Alpha Stencil in HW hacks in GSdx but this doesn't seem to change anything. I've tried a combination of speedhacks in the emulation settings, none of which seem to break the game but none of which fix these problems, either.

I'm currently running PCSX on an i5 6400 with a Radeon R9 290x. In a way I'm sort of glad OpenGL doesn't fix the issue because it runs so poorly with my AMD card as to be totally useless.

I'd be happy to try any suggestions or provide more information. I can't take screenshots now as I'm at work, but would be happy to take some later if you'd like to see what I mean.

Thanks.

edit: I was able to try it with the latest build on buildbot (v1.5.0-dev-1939-gf3a89f5), same issue is still present. I was also able to take a couple of screenshots of the fog issue so you can see what I mean there.


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#2
This kind of fog ought to work in OpenGL. It is likely based on a depth effect. It could be yet another texture cache issue.
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#3
(03-17-2017, 03:05 PM)gregory Wrote: This kind of fog ought to work in OpenGL. It is likely based on a depth effect. It could be yet another texture cache issue.

Thanks for replying Smile

I've tried it in OpenGL but the effect is the same. It only seems to work correctly in software.
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#4
About the car select problem - I finally managed to get a couple of screenshots. The screenshot with the car intact is in software D3D11, and is how it should look. The screenshot with the car missing and the chunk from the prior menu in the centre is in hardware D3D11. As I mentioned above, it seems to replace that entire chunk of the screen with whatever 3D element was last rendered - not sure if that's the right terminology, but that's how it seems to behave. So, for example, if I were to enter a race, quit, and come back to the car select menu, the middle of the screen would be replaced with in-race graphics.

Interestingly, I have been reliably informed that the Japanese version (Outrun SP) does not have this particular problem, but does still have the fog issue. Unfortunately I don't have any way of testing this myself so take that with a grain of salt, I guess.


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#5
Could you provide me a gsdump of the bad fog ( http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-How-to-cr...er-GS-dump ). For the other issue, it is likely a texture cache issue (i.e. GSdx uses the wrong buffer to draw) which is a complex topic.
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#6
(03-17-2017, 10:06 PM)gregory Wrote: Could you provide me a gsdump of the bad fog ( http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-How-to-cr...er-GS-dump ). For the other issue, it is likely a texture cache issue (i.e. GSdx uses the wrong buffer to draw) which is a complex topic.

Awesome - well, here's the gsdump of the fog.

https://ufile.io/61c721

Thanks for looking into it!
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#7
Except some small upscaling glitches, the fog is working as expected.

No hack + openGL. + 4x
   

Just to be sure, don't use custom resolution.  Try to toggle F9 twice. Based on the other issue, I suspect bad stuff happen in the texture cache. Wrong textures/buffers are likely used in the rendering.
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#8
(03-18-2017, 11:37 AM)gregory Wrote: Just to be sure, don't use custom resolution.  Try to toggle F9 twice. Based on the other issue, I suspect bad stuff happen in the texture cache. Wrong textures/buffers are likely used in the rendering.

That's so strange, maybe it's an AMD specific thing? I'm running at the native internal resolution, no shaders or any additional stuff turned on. I've tried with OpenGL but it's the exact same problem here, toggling software on & off doesn't help. You say it might be related to the texture cache - could this be caused by any driver or hardware settings? Is there anything you'd like me to try out on the driver side of things?

I fully realise at this point I could just toggle software on & off for these particular spots, but this has got me all kinds of curious now! Thanks again for your help so far, I really appreciate it Smile

edit: hardware depth. That fixes it in OpenGL. I really have no idea how I missed that before. Enabling hardware depth in GSdx in OpenGL fixes the fog problem - doesn't sort out the car select problem, but one thing at a time I guess! Unfortunately this option isn't available in D3D. Ahh well, progress!
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#9
Yes is a depth effec. Hardware depth is enabled by default on 1.5, I don't know how you miss it. And yes it is only available for OpenGL.

Car problem won't be fixed soon. For performance reason GSdx keeps an internal cache of texture and frame buffers. However sometime it picks wrong data from the cache. Hence tons of bugs.
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#10
(03-18-2017, 12:42 PM)gregory Wrote: Yes is a depth effec. Hardware depth is enabled by default on 1.5, I don't know how you miss it. And yes it is only available for OpenGL.

Car problem won't be fixed soon. For performance reason GSdx keeps an internal cache of texture and frame buffers. However sometime it picks wrong data from the cache. Hence tons of bugs.

Ahh, sorry - I should have been clearer, I was using the latest stable version of 1.4 for the most part. I did do some quick testing with 1.5 to see if that fixed the issue, but OGL causes even more problems in 1.5 unless I set the blending unit accuracy to ultra (most of the screen ends up obscured with black boxes, otherwise) which causes the frame rate to completely tank. In 1.4 this doesn't seem to be an issue - OGL HW performance is far from ideal from a gameplay perspective, but it works fine otherwise.

I guess what I'm saying is that the fog effect is screwed in D3D across the board - D3D9/11 (though it's less severe in D3D9 with alpha correction enabled) and in 1.4 or 1.5 doesn't seem to make a whole lot of difference. GL in 1.4 works with hardware depth enabled. GL in 1.5 works with blending unit accuracy set to ultra, otherwise there are graphical issues all over the place. Performance with GL in 1.4 and 1.5 is (understandably) not so hot with my AMD card, but I guess that's more AMD's problem at this point. The car select page is screwed with D3D/GL HW, but works fine in software.

If there's any particular build you'd like me to try out, I'd be happy to give it a shot!
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