Resolved: [Bug Report] Super Monkey Ball Adventure [NTSC-U/PAL]

[The Blue Blur]

# PCSX2 Version: v1.5.0-dev-1977-gdf32564 (tested on versions as old as v0.9.7 r3877)
# Cpu Options: EE/IOP Defaults, VUs Defaults (tried on ALL EE/IOP and VUs settings)
# Plugins Used: GSdx 20170401140540 (MSVC 19.00 SSE2/SSSE3) 1.1.0
# Description: This game has some serious problems; both graphical and non-graphical. 


The graphical bugs are (as far as I've seen, that is) the fog and the grey screen. 

1. The fog always emulates bad. It whether appears as a series of light-blue vertical lines, or as a full light-blue layer in near distance.


       


 This is the result on Dx11 , though. Funny thing, each backend produces different result. on Dx9 it's a combination of both (vertical line, and full layer, in near distance), and on OGL, it's the layer applied on the lower half of the screen.

               

2. At some point in the game, the screen should turn grey, but instead goes almost fully black with grey vertical lines surrounding the characters on-screen.

   

Both of these bugs happen in HW mode. Changing to SW mode on any backend fixes these bugs.

       

 The fog bug can also be fixed by setting the Skipdraw HW hack on 3; but this causes another bug where the colors appear dark and burned at times.

   

Now, the non-graphical bug is about the character textures. All characters have parts of their textures incorrectly gone black. This appears to be a texture alpha problem, but no graphical settings on any backend can fix this bug; not even SW mode.

           

I tried disabling all of the speedhacks and patches, and changed all EE/IOP and VU settings. I even tried setting the EE and IOP on Interpreter and both VUs on both Interpreter and SuperVU. Nothing seems to fix this problem.


Now, these bugs have been present for a really long time. I tested this game on 0.9.7 r3877, Official 1.0.0 build, Official 1.2.0 Build, and so many dev builds. Same result on All of them.

Also, these bugs are present on PAL version, too; but I've used the NTSC-U version for the screenshots.

My PC Specs if necessary:

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit
CPU: Intel Pentium® Dual-Core E5700 3.00GHz
GPU: Nvidia Geforce GT 520 2 GB
RAM: 4GB DDR3

I know it's a bit low for PCSX2, but it still does good for my games. There are some fps drops in this game which is probably because of my system. And also, I have tested it on 2 other PCs and same result occures there; so the problem's not from my system.

That about covers it up. I hope I've provided the necessary information and enough screenshots. I'm very eager to see this game working.

And in case it's needed, here's GS dumps of each bug:

  SMBA Characters' black texture.7z (Size: 1,42 MB / Downloads: 339)
  SMBA Fog problem.7z (Size: 3,2 MB / Downloads: 366)
  SMBA Grey black screen.7z (Size: 4,5 MB / Downloads: 346)

And thank you developers for all of your support.

P.S. Sorry for my bad English.

[jesalvein]

what if you enable hardware depth in OGL renderer ?

[CK1]

Also, these bugs are present on PAL version, too; but I've used the NTSC-U version for the screenshots.

I find it hard to believe that you legally own both versions of the game. Usually it's one or the other.

[Ulblast]

You can get a used copy for the game for less than 10$ on both Amazon and Ebay. Not exactly a rare game.

I can confirm the bugs existing too on my NTSC-U copy. The misaligned texture on character models happens even in 1.4.0 with both hardware depth enabled and disabled.

[gregory]

Fog and Vertical lines are depth of field effect. They should (mostly) be emulated right in latest dev version with openGL. (except the bottom half of the screen).

However what you do you mean by misaligned texture? Who mean the part that become black ?

[Ulblast]

I don't know how else to describe this thing. Happens in the software renderer too but it doesn't happen on real hardware. The lighting on his face and tummy is off. Found a video of it on youtube

   

[The Blue Blur]

The misaligned texture on character models happens even in 1.4.0 with both hardware depth enabled and disabled.

I don't know how else to describe this thing. Happens in the software renderer too but it doesn't happen on real hardware. The lighting on his face and tummy is off.

Finally... Someone who cares.

Same going on here. The OGL HW Depth Emulation will remove the fog completely from the upper half (the half that isn't covered by the light-blue layer) if disabled (checkbox ticked), and will produce the same result as explained above if enabled (checkbox unticked). But the layer is still present and is applied on half of the screen (upper half on the title screen and in-menu, lower half in-game).

The grey screen bug's result on OGL is interesting; the upper half is turned correctly grey while the lower half is still black. The Depth Emulation doe't have any effect on this one.

That texture misalignment sure isn't a graphical bug, as I've mentioned before. If it was, the SW mode could fix it, but no SW mode of any backend fixes this. It's gotta be something related to the core emulation; maybe EmotionEngine or something else.

This is similar to the bug in Sega Superstars Tennis, where characters' geometries appear incorrectly. That one is also not a graphical bug, as the SW mode can't fix it. I know the bugs are way different from each other, but still.


For the record, I brought my old PS2 just today and tested the game on it, and the texture misalignment bug didn't occur. Now we can be sure that this is a bug with the emulator.

Also, I experimented the bug a little more today. Looks like the bug has something to do with characters' facial expression animations. If a character has facial expressions like eyes and mouth opening and closing, misalignments will occur on the character's textures. The main playable characters always have this bug, as they always have their face animated. The NPCs don't have this bug so long as you don't talk to them. As soon as they begin to talk (which is a facial expression), the bug happens on them too.

I checked to see if the bug happens when you play as NPCs in Party mode (you can buy them to unlock them for the Party/Multiplayer). The NPCs' textures appear correct while playing with them (where apparently there's no facial animations), but on the results screen (where there are facial animations), they appear buggy again.

I hoped that the GS dumps provided above would be of any use, but apparently no one cares about this game. Not that I'm ungrateful; not at all. I really do appreciate all of your support. I just want to see this game working on my PC just right.


If anyone needs more information of screenshots, just let me know.

Once again, thank you for all of your support.

[gregory]

I hoped that the GS dumps provided above would be of any use, but apparently no one cares about this game

Reality is that game uses complex feature that are complex to emulate.

That texture misalignment sure isn't a graphical bug, as I've mentioned before. If it was, the SW mode could fix it, but no SW mode of any backend fixes this. It's gotta be something related to the core emulation; maybe EmotionEngine or something else.

I fixed various SW issue https://github.com/PCSX2/pcsx2/issues/1562 but some remains. There is a pending option that we must enable for the SW renderer. But it could also be a core issue.

The grey screen bug's result on OGL is interesting; the upper half is turned correctly grey while the lower half is still black. The Depth Emulation doe't have any effect on this one.

The list isn't yet complete but lots of game suffer of this half screen issue https://github.com/PCSX2/pcsx2/issues/1339
The day someone fix it, we can open a Champagne bottle

[The Blue Blur]

Hello again. Just bumping this thread to make sure it's not forgotten and sent to Fixing Hell.

I'm still trying newest git builds every once in a while. Still no luck. Has anyone been able to fix this?( Of course not; if anyone fixed it, they would've reported it here...duh.)

Thanks again everyone.

[CK1]

Retested the GS Dumps.

The fog issue doesn't exist in OGL HW/SW and DX11 SW. I can't test DX11 HW.

For the 2nd dump, a half-screen issue still exists in OGL HW. Again, I couldn't test DX11 HW.

As for the black textures issue, I can't tell from the dump.