GTA LCS/VCS non-transparent alpha bug and blurry look

[AjdarFan]

For some reason I cannot get rid of non-transparent alpha bug at the radar and in-game text, yeah it's not a game breaker thing but it looks bad and annoying. Some guy said download latest Git build of PCSX2 and enable large framebuffer, but I didn't even knew what it means, (sorry for my newbie-ness) so I downloaded latest Git build and installed, it looked like a standart PCSX2 version with all of my custom settings absent, so I had to re-customize it. I tried to look at large framebuffer, but it was already enabled by default and with no-way to disable it even if I want to for any reason, it was greyed out. I checked my game to see if alpha bug was still there, but it was still there, large framebuffer didn't worked for me. Is there any way to fix that?

Another thing is I noticed my games on PCSX2 looks blurry, yet same games looking perfectly on PPSSPP emulator, are these blurriness happening due to PCSX2, or is it from LCS/VCS's playstation 2 versions? What can I do for making my game less blurry? Here's comparison pics with PSP/PS2 versions:

Vice City Stories PSP


Vice City Stories PS2


Liberty City Stories PS2


Liberty City Stories PSP


Please right click on pics and open them in new tab to actually see resolution differences, at resized smaller version of them, it's nearly unnoticeable.

[ssakash]

with no-way to disable it even if I want to for any reason, it was greyed out.

It's only used for upscaled resolutions. (2x,3x... Custom)

On the other hand, is the blurriness present on the 1.4 stable build?

[gregory]

You don't need large framebuffer anyway. Just a recent git to handle the alpha trick correctly.

Edit: was PSP a CRT display or an LCD display ? Maybe it could explain the issue blurriness. I'm still interested on the 1.4 status.

[AjdarFan]

It's only used for upscaled resolutions. (2x,3x... Custom)

On the other hand, is the blurriness present on the 1.4 stable build?

Yeah, it's present. PPSSPP version seems to looking perfectly with absolutely no blur.

---

You don't need large framebuffer anyway. Just a recent git to handle the alpha trick correctly.

Edit: was PSP a CRT display or an LCD display ? Maybe it could explain the issue blurriness. I'm still interested on the 1.4 status.

A PSP has a LCD display, but I'm running it through an emulator. Like I said, I'm pretty new, so I don't know how to fix alpha bug correctly

[ssakash]

The PS2 devs did various tricks on the merge circuit to present the images in a way which will look fine only on the CRT. (Example: Minor offset in full screen process step , constant x/y offset on display circuit). Minor offsets like these wouldn't be noticeable on a CRT due to its phosphor decay whereas it isn't the same for modern digital TV's/Monitors.

We already have tons of hack on code to avoid such minor offset issues when merging the output rectangles. (which prevents the blurring issues)

FWIW, could you provide a GS dump of the blurring issue ? Would be worth logging the display register states.

[AjdarFan]

The PS2 devs did various tricks on the merge circuit to present the images in a way which will look fine only on the  CRT. (Example: Minor offset in full screen process step , constant x/y offset on display circuit). Minor offsets like these wouldn't be noticeable on a CRT due to its phosphor decay whereas it isn't the same for modern digital TV's/Monitors.

We already have tons of hack on code to avoid such minor offset issues when merging the output rectangles. (which prevents the blurring issues)

FWIW, could you provide a GS dump of the blurring issue ? Would be worth logging the display register states.

OK, just looked up what it is and I guess made it, here you go with dropbox link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/etj3h7hn327r9...hbTHa?dl=0