Why is GSdx 10 so buggy compared to OpenGL?

[budyll]

Hello everyone ,

I am a PCSX2 user for a long time now and I was really happy when the OpenGL renderer was added to it along with the release of version 1.4 as it made the games look better than with GSdx 9 and have far better performance.
Now coming back on topic, GSdx10 makes games look even better than OpenGL (it works much faster than GSdx 9 as well) but for some weird reason it has so many graphical glitches that it makes the games virtually unplayable.

I'm currently playing Drakan: Ancients' Gates and would really want to finally use DX11 for it as it makes the games look much better and frankly that's the biggest reason why people use any emulators nowadays as these old titles look really bad on current TVs while using the consoles itself. Here are some comparison screenshots between GSdx 10 and OpenGL in Drakan;
Above will be a DirectX screenshot and then OpenGL one:
You can see torch light being visible through walls
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The biggest issue with GSdx 10 though are the completely broken shadows and lighting 90% of the time. This is simply game breaking in most games.
[Image: efm73s.jpg]
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Now I wouldn't be much bothered by it but the games really look much better with gsDX 10 over OpenGL (screenshots unfortunately don't show it) and the performance is the same, but the glitches really prevent me from using it which is even a bigger shame since OpenGL doesn't support custom shaders.
Games like Tenchu and Splinter Cell are literally unplayable with GSdx 10 as the shadows and some weird graphical artifacts go absolutely haywire and jump all over the screen.

Does anyone else have such problems with GSdx and have any fixes or is it an overall known problem which might never get fixed? GSdx 9 works flawlessly without those glitches but looks worse than OpenGL Native 3x even with 4-5x native resolution. Any help would be much appreciated  .

[gregory]

but the games really look much better with gsDX 10 over OpenGL

Except MSAA openGL got all Dx features. Even the external shader of Asmodean.

[FlatOut]

I would say it was due to the advanced depth and blending of OpenGL that resolve the graphical issues, but you say the issues don't affect Direct3D 9 so that doesn't make sense.

What makes Direct3D 10/11 look better than OpenGL though(are you referring to MSAA)?

[budyll]

I would say it was due to the advanced depth and blending of OpenGL that resolve the graphical issues, but you say the issues don't affect Direct3D 9 so that doesn't make sense.

What makes Direct3D 10/11 look better than OpenGL though(are you referring to MSAA)?

Not only MSAA, but the games overall are much sharper and look more detailed than when using OpenGL. It was especially visible in Final Fantasy X when I played it a while back. Obviously I wasn't able to finish it with DX10 due to all those glitches (finished it with OpenGL), but there was more detail in textures etc. with DirectX.

I'm pretty confused now. Was GSdx10 released and then abandoned or is it still worked on? Funny enough most of those glitches are gone in DX Software mode but it seems you need some sort of a super expensive CPU for it to run at least decently.

On top of that like I've mentioned OpenGL doesn't seem to be supporting any external Shaders since I've tried a few to no effect and these can enhance certain things that makes games look even better.

To Gregory:
I've tried using Asmodean shader and it works without any problems in both DX9 & DX10 modes, but doesn't at all with OpenGL.

[vsub]

Maybe something like this is happening here
On ppsspp(psp emulator)there is an option to disable the buffered rendering which gives you more speed but at the same time it's disabling some(or maybe all)of the post processing effects

For example God Eater Burst at least to me looks better when you disable the buffered rendering because it's disabling a bloom effect which makes the game brighter(like on the psp)but I don't like that effect

Some effects are disabled when you use from GSdx the skipdraw hack and at least to me some games look better when some post processing effects are gone(maybe some effect is not working in DX mode and to you that way it looks better)

[FlatOut]

Not only MSAA, but the games overall are much sharper and look more detailed than when using OpenGL. It was especially visible in Final Fantasy X when I played it a while back. Obviously I wasn't able to finish it with DX10 due to all those glitches (finished it with OpenGL), but there was more detail in textures etc. with DirectX.

As far as I know there are no major issues with DX10 in Final Fantasy X.

I'm pretty confused now. Was GSdx10 released and then abandoned or is it still worked on?

Yes, it is still being worked on. But the issues you describe don't sound familiar.

Funny enough most of those glitches are gone in DX Software mode but it seems you need some sort of a super expensive CPU for it to run at least decently.

You only need a decent desktop (quad-core) Intel CPU from the last 4 years or so.

On top of that like I've mentioned OpenGL doesn't seem to be supporting any external Shaders since I've tried a few to no effect and these can enhance certain things that makes games look even better.

To Gregory:
I've tried using Asmodean shader and it works without any problems in both DX9 & DX10 modes, but doesn't at all with OpenGL.

I don't know about that specific shader, but other shaders I've tested worked in DX9, DX10 and OGL.

[budyll]

As far as I know there are no major issues with DX10 in Final Fantasy X.

Yes, it is still being worked on. But the issues you describe don't sound familiar.

You only need a decent desktop (quad-core) Intel CPU from the last 4 years or so.

I don't know about that specific shader, but other shaders I've tested worked in DX9, DX10 and OGL.

I guess I'll just stick to OpenGL then as DX10 have too many problems. Yesterday I've tried playing SOCOM 3 with DX10 and the shadows were looking like in those Drakan screenshots plus they were artificating by turning into sort of an "arrows", like it happens in PC games when the GPU is overheating.
Anyways, again thanks for all the replies .
PS. FlatOut, could you possibly give me the name of the author of some shaders working with OpenGL then ? I've tried a few and none of them worked unfortunately and I'd really like to use some sharpness etc. to make OpenGL look even closer to DX . Thanks in advance!

[masterotaku]

OpenGL has had a lot more development and care the last 1 or 2 years (mostly thanks to gregory), so DirectX modes have fallen behind in accuracy.

It isn't a perfect situation for me, because I need the DX11 mode to force G-Sync and 3D Vision (not at the same time, and I need to use a specific old GSdx build for the 3D stuff unless this gets done: https://github.com/PCSX2/pcsx2/issues/1461).

[budyll]

OpenGL has had a lot more development and care the last 1 or 2 years (mostly thanks to gregory), so DirectX modes have fallen behind in accuracy.

It isn't a perfect situation for me, because I need the DX11 mode to force G-Sync and 3D Vision (not at the same time, and I need to use a specific old GSdx build for the 3D stuff unless this gets done: https://github.com/PCSX2/pcsx2/issues/1461).

This explains why it performs a little better and has pretty much no graphical glitches compared to a ton that DX plugin has.

Anyways, a few people mentioned custom shaders which are supposedly working with OpenGL. If there really are ones like that then why nobody was kind enough to tell which ones? I've tested few like I've mentioned and none of them work with OpenGL ...

Edit:
I just did some digging online and I've read in few places that PCSX2 Opengl doesn't support external shaders at all. Were you guys lying about them working in that mode then :/?

[FlatOut]

I just did some digging online and I've read in few places that PCSX2 Opengl doesn't support external shaders at all. Were you guys lying about them working in that mode then :/?

No, if it doesn't work than we were just wrong. Though I'm pretty sure I've used external shaders with OGL at one point. But I'm not someone who uses external shaders on a regular basis.

Could you make a few multi-frame GS dumps(hold CTRL + SHIFT + F8 for 1-2 seconds) of the issues in Drakan where DX11 doesn't work and DX9 does?
http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-How-to-cr...er-GS-dump
If I can reproduce the issue I might be able to resolve it.