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Hey everyone! I've got my copy of Tales up and running beautifully except for one small problem. It starts in the first forest area. There is a weird dark window around the border with some pixelation in the sky. Everything else runs perfectly. I've tried tons of different options and waded through many different threads but I have not come up with a solution.

Here is an image of what the problem looks like (sans pixelation):
[Image: pcsx2r46002012010315334.th.jpg]


I'm running an i5-2500k with a GTX 570. I have the emulator running the GSdx (SSE41) plugin. I am running a custom resolution of 1920x1080. The plugin is running Direct3D11 (hardware) with texture filtering. I have in pumped up to 16 AA with the Alpha Hack on. With these settings I get 60 FPS.

When I enable the Skipdraw Hack (any setting) the problem seems to disappear, but the entire game gets dark . Is there anyway to avoid this without the Skipdraw Hack, or a way to fix the dark colors with the Hack enabled?

EDIT: I've also found that this effect still occurs in the native resolution.
EDITEDIT: ACK well it seems like the Alpha Hack is causing it. Unfortunately with it off there are many light sources that are not lined up properly (as in the ghosting problem that this game notoriously has)! So the Alpha Hack fixes the ghosting and lets me play at a higher res, but now I can't seem to play without the problem the Alpha Hack creates.
You'll always look at a tradeoff for this game, I'm afraid.
Try disabling the alpha hack and using x2 or x3 upscaling.
Definitely go without hardware AA of any kind, as that really messes coordinates up.

Edit:
That said, your picture looks okay, too.
Might consider ignoring the glitches and going with that Tongue2
definitely not a game breaking visual glitch, but that would irk me too.
(01-04-2012, 01:02 PM)rama Wrote: [ -> ]You'll always look at a tradeoff for this game, I'm afraid.
Try disabling the alpha hack and using x2 or x3 upscaling.
Definitely go without hardware AA of any kind, as that really messes coordinates up.

Edit:
That said, your picture looks okay, too.
Might consider ignoring the glitches and going with that Tongue2

Yeah I figured there would be some kind of tradeoff. I went back and tried with 3x up scaling (any more than 3 and hoo boy the game just doesn't run) and all of the previously mentioned visual imperfections remain. I'll try lowering or removing antialiasing as well.

For science I thought I'd go ahead and share what settings I've found to work best. Here's what I've been able to get out of tales:

(I won't bother posting native resolution. It fixes the problem but it's butt ugly)

3x scaling

Antialiasing OFF, Alpha Hack OFF:

[Image: aaoffnoalpha3x.th.jpg]

[Image: aaoffnoalpha3x2.th.jpg]


Antialiasing ON, Alpha Hack ON:

[Image: aaonalphahack3x.th.jpg]

[Image: aaonalphahack3x2.th.jpg]




custom res (1920 x 1080)

Antialiasing OFF, Alpha Hack OFF:

[Image: aaoffnoalpha3x.th.jpg]

[Image: aaoffnoalpha1080.th.jpg]



Antialiasing ON, Alpha hack OFF (oddly enough this gets rid of some of the ghosting that happens on the characters, but not the misplaced bloom from places like the window in the start):

[IMG=http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/2364/aaonnoalpha10802.th.jpg][/IMG]

[IMG=http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/6151/aaonnoalpha1080.th.jpg][/IMG]


Antialiasing ON, Alpha Hack ON:

[Image: aaonalphaon10802.th.jpg]

[Image: aaonalphaon1080.th.jpg]


Antialiasing ON, Alpha ON, Skipdraw Hack ON (1) (NO alpha Hack problem but the screen is much darker):

[IMG=http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/8345/aaonalphaonskipdrawon.th.jpg][/IMG]

[Image: aaonalphaonskipdrawon10.th.jpg]


Antialiasing ON, Alpha ON, Skipdraw ON (1), TV colors/brightness tweaked (1920 x 1080 AND 3x):

1920 x 1080:

[IMG=http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/3186/aaonalphaonskipdrawonco.th.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG=http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/3186/aaonalphaonskipdrawonco.th.jpg][/IMG]



3x:


[IMG=http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/3186/aaonalphaonskipdrawonco.th.jpg][/IMG]

[IMG=http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/3186/aaonalphaonskipdrawonco.th.jpg][/IMG]



So in the end using all three (AA, Alpha and Skipdraw) in addition to tweaking tv brightness is working pretty well but the colors are still off. EDIT: TV color tweaking doesn't show up in these images. Duh on my part. I should mention that the Alpha Hack weirdness seems to disappear during battle so it isn't that big of a deal. However I couldn't capture the weird pixelation that happens when using the Alpha Hack since it happens during motion (skipdraw seems to eliminate or mask it).
thanks for the images, i plan on playing that game soon on pcsx2. will bookmark this for reference to figure out proper settings. thanks.
The alpha hack and skipdraw obviously fix glaring double images but they do that by simply removing those layers.
This could have really bad results in some game scenes as can be seen in the last intro pic.
That one really doesn't look anything like the original anymore Tongue2

Maybe Shadow Lady could filter out the exact layer that's causing most trouble and CRC hack it away, gonna ask her.
(01-05-2012, 12:39 PM)rama Wrote: [ -> ]The alpha hack and skipdraw obviously fix glaring double images but they do that by simply removing those layers.
This could have really bad results in some game scenes as can be seen in the last intro pic.
That one really doesn't look anything like the original anymore Tongue2

Maybe Shadow Lady could filter out the exact layer that's causing most trouble and CRC hack it away, gonna ask her.

yeah it looked alot closer before they were all lined up like this, sort of bumming me out now that I look back at it. Still though if it was just that weird windowed border I'd be less bothered than the annoying pixelation that comes with it. Oh well. At least the battle scenes are super pretty.

Also - interested in how that last bit works out!



shoreinetrance Wrote:thanks for the images, i plan on playing that game soon on pcsx2. will bookmark this for reference to figure out proper settings. thanks.


not a problem! I'm too stupid to really fix much but I can sure as hell click boxes and photograph the results.
Why not just use software renderer and save yourself the headache? Your i5 is fast enough to run this game in software mode full speed with 2 extra software threads.
Most people hate the low native resolution from sw rendering, and I agree here as well:
I'd rather play upscaled with a ton of bugs than in native res without further glitches.