Snowblind Studio games in 2024?

[Casul Scum]

Hello

I wanted to replay Dark Alliance as well as Champions of Norrath and their sequels using safefiles i made back in 2019 while providing feedback on problematic areas. I remember playing these games at full speeds (Mostly by enabling 8bit textures and the fast texture invalidation hack) except in a few selected areas like in Champions of Norrath whenever the fire golems showed up as well as inside the onyx tower or any boss room with a teleporter in Dark Alliance.
 
         

What might be the cause for this and is there a fix i don't know about? I can't find any threads made about this.

I remember changing to direct 3D helped in the past but not anymore. What am i supposed to do in recent builds? Enabling 8bit textures or fast texture invalidation hack is no longer a thing it seems.

I wish i could provide a more detailed description. Thanks for making it possible to play my favorite childhood games at HD on modern hardware.

[jesalvein]

You still have hose problems on recent builds with default settings ,?

[Casul Scum]

You still have hose problems on recent builds with default settings ,?

Yes i am using default settings on the most recent build. This problem was present in 2019 builds as well while using 8bit textures and fast texture invalidation.

This seems to be something very specific the emulator has trouble with that is linked to the onyx tower levels and the teleporters in most of the boss rooms in baldurs gate dark alliance.

In champions of norrath it happens whenever the fire golems show up in AKT II and only then. Oddly enough i didn't encounter this anywhere else in these games. I will provide screenshots once i get there on current builds.

Is there anything else in the emulator that might give a hint what exactly the emulator has trouble with? Like screenshoting logs etc? Maybe it happens in other games too.

I have no clue but would like to help. Its like the final puzzle and once that is solved somehow then those games are fully preserved.

[jesalvein]

Probably due to upscaling.
What are your specs, and how is it in software mode?

[Casul Scum]

Probably due to upscaling.
What are your specs, and how is it in software mode?

Primary PC

2070S
9700k
32GBs DDR4 RAM

Secondary PC

1070Ti
6700k
16GB DDR4 RAM

It happens on both.

The problem persists at native resolutions but ONLY once i get close to the fire golems in champions of norrath or the teleporters in most boss rooms in Dark Alliance as well as certain sections of the onyx tower levels.

There must be something within the snowblind engine that might cause this and using direct 3D helps a little.

Maybe we can swap the texture on the fire golems or the dark alliance teleporters and see if that helps?

[NarooN]

I read thru but am failing to understand what the actual issue is. It's been ages since I played thru Dark Alliance but I did a full playthru of Champions of Norrath around the beginning of this year and didn't have any issues. Is it errant performance drops in certain areas?

[Casul Scum]

I read thru but am failing to understand what the actual issue is. It's been ages since I played thru Dark Alliance but I did a full playthru of Champions of Norrath around the beginning of this year and didn't have any issues. Is it errant performance drops in certain areas?

If you encounter the teleporter like the one in most boss rooms in dark alliance my framerate goes down just to go back up once they are no longer on my screen which is why i had to make sure to specifically avoid those during certain bossfights. I oh so get those framedrops in a selected few places in the onyx tower like right before the final boss.

In champions of norrath i get those exact same framedrops (Regardless wether i use software mode, native resolution etc) whenever i encounter the lava golems in ACT II who appear to have an aura that resembles the texture inside the teleporters in dark alliance. I experienced those on my previous PC using PCSX2 1.5 back in 2019 and now on current nightly builds in 2024 on an upgraded PC.

I thought this might be an emulation issue since the source of said framdrops is something this specific. Maybe you just have to brute-force trough with way faster hardware than mine. Those games run fine 99 percent of the time but i need to play them all the way trough and check every nook and cranny on current builds to see if new issues emerged that weren't present in older builds.

In short the source of the sudden framedrops i was experiencing aren't tied to whole areas but specific objects. The teleporters in dark alliance and the lava golems in champions of norrath.

Ina%%

[jesalvein]

You didn't try software mode ?

[Casul Scum]

You didn't try software mode ?

Guess i just toggle software mode whenever i encounter those objects which my current CPU can actually handle now unlike my previous one. Its like 1 or 2 percent of the game.

Will try again in hardware mode with a more potent CPU or play the remaster on steam or PS4.

Thanks for the replies and for the work that went into this monster of an emulator.

[NarooN]

Yeah I don't remember getting framedrops in those areas in Champions of Norrath. My gear was/is: CPU: i5-11600k (ran at stock settings), DDR4 3200mhz 32gb, GPU: GTX 1080 OS: Win 10 1909. Game surprisingly ran pretty flawlessly.