Fatal Frame camera issue

[Foffy]

Hey there. Now, I looked into this before making the thread, but I've seen some conflicting stances on what solves the issue. The issue I'm having is not with the in-game camera, but the camera you use in the game (sounds confusing already, I bet) to take pictures of enemies. The issue is it seems sometimes I can take good shots, and other times it seems awfully impossible to do this, even if they're dead center in front of me. One of the solutions that used to be suggested was to enable Logarithmic Z to fix the camera issues, but it seems to barely work. One solution I know of is to run the game in software mode, but that causes me to lose the image quality and framerate. So, I'd like to ask is if there's any particular solution to this other than enabling software mode? I would have tried to download an older revision that was supposedly before the game became broken in PCSX2, but my Googling efforts are empty for me. Is there a particular setting in the newer editions of PCSX2 (I'm currently using 0.9.9.5277) that solves this issue? Because I can handle the visual issues the ghosts have in the camera mode, but I just wish I could actually shoot them if they're in my line of sight.

I'd like to apologize if I've asked a question that's being looked into, or has a very simple solution that I'm missing. Other than software mode, I mean.

[Bositman]

DX9 Hardware mode fixes the issue partially (as opposed to DX10 hardware mode which is completely broken). For a 100% solution you need to use software mode unfortunately.

[Foffy]

Thank you for the quick reply. Do you exactly know what causes the issue? Is it something that cannot be solved with a future revision? I know there's a lot of games available for PS2, so I'm just wondering if the changes that "broke" it were for the greater good of compatibility.

[Bositman]

It never worked properly as far as I know. The best bet is probably some kind of floating-point precision that is not emulated properly.

[pseudonym]

The game does a depth test to determine whether the subject (normally a ghost) is obscured by other objects by downloading part of the depth buffer from the GS rather than the more conventional method of raycasting. Depth download is not currently implemented for gsdx D3D hardware mode, it's on my short term todo list though.

[Bositman]

Thanks for properly explaining

[Foffy]

Hmm, I see. Does this issue exist in Fatal Frame II and III, or is it just in the first title?

[Bositman]

Yeah they all have the same issue, although I think in 1 it's at its worse. I can easily play 2 and 3 with DX9 HW mode (except for hidden ghosts which absolutely need SW mode)

[pseudonym]

Note that when you're playing in hardware mode currently and it seems to "work", you're actually cheating and can photograph subjects through walls or other objects.

[Ice Queen Zero]

Wow, now HARD mode is not even that HARD...