[PARALLEL-GS]: Accuracy bugs in games

[LibretroAdmin]

Games with graphical issues remaining:

** Games with issues remaining:**

• Simple 2000 Series Ultimate Vol. 15 -Love - Ping Pong! (Japan)
• Stripe through FMV in some games

Games with SSAA bugs remaining:

• Burnout/Test Drive Unlimited
• Conan (PAL)
• Dog of Bay
• Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec
• Guilty Gear Isuka
• Klonoa 2
• Knights of the Temple - Infernal Crusade
• MotoGP 2
• Parappa The Rapper 2
• Vampire Panic
• Wrath Unleashed

Intel iGPU (HD 770) Bugs

UPDATE: Bug is gone, it's just not fullspeed and probably will never be due to bad compute performance.

Games that are unplayably slow with parallel-GS - sub-fullspeed -

Tested on i9 13900k + RTX 4090:

• 007 From Russia With Love (3)
• Area 51 (2)
• Call of Duty 2: Big Red One
• Call of Duty 3
• Driv3r (1)
• Driver: Parallel Lines
• Hitman Blood Money
• Hitman Contracts (2)
• Mercenaries - Playground of Destruction/Mercenaries 2 (2)
• Need For Speed Carbon (1)
• Pilot Down - Behind Enemy Lines
• Steambot Chronicles (5)
• Stolen (1)

LEGEND:

1. Software renderer is just as slow.
2. Software renderer is faster.
3. Slows down to a crawl in the opening level. Starts off running fine at like 100+fps on a 4090 then slows down randomly and suddenly to like the teens.
4. Massive slowdown in one of the menu screens before the start of a game
5. Performance is especially brutal in Tutorial mode

Games that are very expensive with parallel-GS and SSAA

• Alien Hominid (Startup screens)
• Blood Will Tell - Tezuka Osamu's Dororo (black/white tutorial)
• Crash 'n Burn
• Crash Tag Team Racing (Intro)
• DT Racer
• Ford Racing 2
• Ford Racing 3
• God of War II
• Haven: Call of the King (scene here)
• History Channel, The - Battle for the Pacific
• Knights of the Temple - Infernal Crusade
• Manhunt 2
• Matrix, The - Path of Neo
• Metal Gear Solid 3 (codec scenes)
• Nickelodeon Barnyard
• Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy
• Ridge Racer V (Intro)
• Stretch Panic/FreakOut
• SWAT: Global Strike
• XGRA - Extreme G Racing Association
• Wrath Unleashed (Ingame)

[LibretroAdmin]

The Mark of Kri (UPDATE: FIXED)
Update: Fixed here
https://pixeldrain.com/u/1Ug9qtae

What it should look like (software renderer) -

[LibretroAdmin]

Vampire Night (UPDATE: FIXED)
Update: Fixed here
https://pixeldrain.com/u/FwH1uQQP

wrong colors on this ADX/Sofdec copyright screen before title screen - the logos should be black and whiteish instead of all white with tiny black outlines

[LibretroAdmin]

Front Mission 4 (UPDATE:FIXED)
Update: Fixed here
https://pixeldrain.com/u/6g2zLn3C

What it should look like (software renderer) -

see the HUD in the software renderer and compare that to the parallel-gs picture above it, there's this whiteness in the HUD that is wrong and shouldn't be there
in the 'correct' software 1renderer pic you can also see a tiny white outline but in the parallel-gs pic it's way too big and leaks out

[LibretroAdmin]

Kessen / Kessen 2 (UPDATE: FIXED)
Update: Fixed here

This is what it looks like in parallel-gs

What it should look like (with gsdx)

[LibretroAdmin]

Burnout 1 (UPDATE: FIXED)
Update: Fixed here
https://pixeldrain.com/u/KhQrpVCy

something going wrong with the specularity here

What it should look like (real PS2 footage)
https://youtu.be/Ola1gKrV0ck?t=43

What it should look like (software mode) -

[LibretroAdmin]

Tekken 4 - Parking_Area Stage (UPDATE: FIXED)
Update: Fixed here
https://pixeldrain.com/u/t5sn26cr

The ground is flickering/breaking up, either some texture or geometry problem (ground might be semi-transparent)

you can access this stage by going to Practice Mode and going to the garage parking area level
not sure if it can be reproduced in a GS dump because some frames it might render normally

What it should look like (software mode) - (note the actual flickering/breakup can only really be seen in motion so the screenshot doesn't tell us much)

[LibretroAdmin]

Manhunt 1 (UPDATE: FIXED)
Update: Fixed here and here
https://pixeldrain.com/u/qjwrcEaG

Bloom seems way too excessive - try comparing it to software renderer

What it should look like (software renderer) -

Link to real PS2 footage on CRT TV (low quality) -
https://youtu.be/-FHpVYbPPFA?t=737

[LibretroAdmin]

TimeSplitters 2/TimeSplitters Future Perfect (UPDATE:FIXED)
Update: Fixed here
https://pixeldrain.com/u/gE1P9FGY

Same issue in both games

What it should look like (software renderer) -

[LibretroAdmin]

Ico (SSAA bug)
https://pixeldrain.com/u/r8f3qvNi

NOTE: This seems like an SSAA inaccuracy/bug. If I set SSAA mode to native it looks like software mode

Notice the white line here, it's some kind of upscaling related issue that happens in several games. When you move the camera or the char the white line outline changes too

Fixed in:

• Black
• Ico (still slight outline near door entrance in first stage but not really serious)
• God of War 2 (still slight outline near door entrance in first stage but not really serious)
• Kaan - Barbarian's Blade
• Resident Evil 4/Biohazard 4
• Shadow of Rome (some slight tiny white lines near edges of the wall but not really serious)
• SSX3
• Turok Evolution

[LibretroAdmin]

Max Payne 1 (UPDATE: Fixed)
UPDATE: Fixed here
https://pixeldrain.com/u/uRsogq6U

What it should look like (software renderer) -

[LibretroAdmin]

Xenosaga Episode III - Also Sprache Zarathustra (UPDATE: FIXED)
UPDATE: Fixed here
https://pixeldrain.com/u/9UfGdES4

See the whiteish tiles close to the character, it's not supposed to be there (it renders correctly in software mode).

What it should look like (software renderer) -

[LibretroAdmin]

Xenosaga Episode II - Jenseits von Gut und Bose (UPDATE: FIXED)
Update: Fixed here
https://pixeldrain.com/u/4m2CCYsd

Might be the same issue as Xenosaga 3 - note the black tiles to the right of the character

What it should look like (software renderer) -

[LibretroAdmin]

Beyond Good & Evil (UPDATE: FIXED)
UPDATE: Fixed here
https://pixeldrain.com/u/rjuNxVQQ

Corrupt blocks shouldn't be there in this shot.

What it should look like - (software renderer)

[Themaister]

Kessen should be fixed.

Note by LibretroAdmin: Can confirm it's fixed

[Themaister]

Fixed Vampire Night.

Note by LibretroAdmin: Can confirm it's fixed

[Themaister]

Fixed The Mark of Kri.

Note by LibretroAdmin: Can confirm it's fixed

[LibretroAdmin]

Hmm issue with mark of Kri goes away when I start over and load the save on the memory card, it renders normally then.

If I instead savestate it and go directly to it, I get this instead -

Perhaps something not bookkept/restored on the parallel-gs savestate serialization functions on the libretro core?

[LibretroAdmin]

Don't know which commit fixed it exactly but just wanted to report the Quake 3 Revolution wrong sky is now fixed too (prob thanks to today's commits)

[LibretroAdmin]

Driv3r (UPDATE: FIXED)
Update: Fixed here
https://pixeldrain.com/u/zQEfooiY

What it should look like (software renderer) -

[LibretroAdmin]

Jurassic Park - Operation Genesis (UPDATE: FIXED)
UPDATE: Fixed here
https://pixeldrain.com/u/EBzTV4Cs

What it looks like (parallel-GS) -

How it should look like (software mode) -

[LibretroAdmin]

Guilty Gear X (UPDATE: FIXED)
Update: Fixed here
https://pixeldrain.com/u/CRJbfYz4
The portraits of opposite chars are flickering blue and other weird glitches.

What it looks like (parallel-GS) -

How it should look like (software renderer) -

[LibretroAdmin]

Grandia II (UPDATE: FIXED)
Update: Fixed here
https://pixeldrain.com/u/i3SznVe2

What it looks like (parallel-GS) -

How it should look like (software mode) -

[LibretroAdmin]

Rumble Fish, The (UPDATE: FIXED)
UPDATE: Fixed here and here
https://pixeldrain.com/u/JGEDCKtJ

Shadows are not properly bound/aligned, they leak too much

What it looks like (parallel-GS) -

How it should look like (software mode) -

[Themaister]

Front Mission fixed by

commit 99cafd0faa284a9768e4cfd1be6c15eb494f75ee
Author: Hans-Kristian Arntzen <[email protected]>
Date:   Fri Aug 9 20:21:31 2024 +0200

    Reset internal Q on GIFTag.

Note by LibretroAdmin: Seems to have fixed Grandia 2 and Burnout 1 issue too

[Themaister]

Tekken 4 fixed by

commit ef6b315467ed6b5108b15aa0ba1497935ed68faf (HEAD -> main, origin/main)
Author: Hans-Kristian Arntzen <[email protected]>
Date:   Sat Aug 10 10:21:27 2024 +0200

    Don't consider ATST Z-mask to be opaque.
    
    This logic was bogus since we would end up committing a Z-write before
    ATST happened, which causes issues.

[Themaister]

Root-caused the Manhunt issue. I haven't solved it yet.

It's a combination of two very difficult issues:

• Relies on extreme accuracy in STQ resolve. It's sampling one pixel, but only due to what appears to be hardware rounding rules, it works out in game's favor. Straight FP32 does not work.
• Awkward synchronization problem with feedback rendering which is used to resolve the bloom effect.

[LibretroAdmin]

Gran Turismo 4 (SSAA bug) (UPDATE: FIXED)
https://pixeldrain.com/u/9h6u78Lg

NOTE: This seems like an SSAA inaccuracy/bug. If I set SSAA mode to native it looks like software mode

Messy text

What it looks like (parallel-GS) -

How it should look like (software) -

[Themaister]

Manhunt is fixed as of:

commit b2d6eb5a99e6a268245554e6ee6137d8cd1b7f13
Author: Hans-Kristian Arntzen <[email protected]>
Date:   Sat Aug 10 15:23:03 2024 +0200

    Try re-introducing the parallelogram optimizer.

commit 56a7adbe3add320c4f75bd7cba3dd14481929893
Author: Hans-Kristian Arntzen <[email protected]>
Date:   Sat Aug 10 13:35:12 2024 +0200

    Experimental attempt to match a hypothetical DDA STQ interpolator.

Both fixes needed.

[Themaister]

Time Splitters fixed in

commit 42aff8b1ba4662c006fc0370dab72bf3ba3fffcc (HEAD -> main, origin/main)
Author: Hans-Kristian Arntzen <[email protected]>
Date:   Sun Aug 11 14:10:30 2024 +0200

    Handle texture feedback with REGION_CLAMP being larger than texture.
    
    TW/TH are technically only used to scale perspective.
    In CLAMP and REPEAT, they are also used.

[LibretroAdmin]

Haunting Ground (SSAA bug) (UPDATE: FIXED)
https://pixeldrain.com/u/i8HdvyKH

NOTE: This seems like an SSAA inaccuracy/bug. If I set SSAA mode to native it looks like software mode

How it looks like (parallel-GS) -
note the black outlines around the tree

How it should look like (software mode) -

[LibretroAdmin]

Jade Cocoon 2 fixed now as of commit Arntzen-Software/parallel-gs@2e5cb9d

[Themaister]

Sonic Unleashed SSAA fixed by

commit 5ef002a15d8c62ab777bf2fbf6828279369139ce (HEAD -> main)
Author: Hans-Kristian Arntzen <[email protected]>
Date:   Sat Dec 7 11:30:07 2024 +0100

    Force single-sampling when channel shuffle has been used.
    
    Sometimes, channel shuffles might be used with more "normal" color masks.
    Force single-sampled if we've seen channel shuffle-ish effects at all.

[Themaister]

God of War SSAA bug was fixed quite a while ago btw.

[Themaister]

Haunting Ground SSAA issue resolved with

commit f80b89e65b257c9b617008a57a02d1617b18a075 (HEAD -> main, origin/main)
Author: Hans-Kristian Arntzen <[email protected]>
Date:   Sat Dec 7 13:50:04 2024 +0100

    Be a bit smarter how we handle FBMSK and opacity.
    
    If all FBMSK values match, a pixel can still be considered opaque,
    since there is no risk of previous pixel values leaking through.
    
    Also, improve the heuristic for when to decay SPRITE only passes to
    single-sampled. Z testing should be allowed in these passes, as long as
    there are no Z writes in the pass.

[Themaister]

SSAA UI bugs in Champions of Norrath fixed with

commit 76644cf1c5e9337ebc67c16759cc7c019bd8e18d
Author: Hans-Kristian Arntzen <[email protected]>
Date:   Sun Dec 15 21:02:43 2024 +0100

    Ensure sprite + scanmsk is done at native res.

[LibretroAdmin]

SSAA issue in MotoGP 2 -

MotoGP 2

go to Time Trial, select weather type 'wet'
then select Start
the out of place pixels are supposed to be some kind of raindrop effect I believe
it renders normally with SSAA set to native

[Themaister]

MotoGP fixed by:

commit 7fc3399cbe4ddb7110a6e5036b5708e616bbea86
Author: Hans-Kristian Arntzen <[email protected]>
Date:   Thu Dec 19 13:03:58 2024 +0100

    Fix off-by-one error in FBW wrapping code.

It is broken in GSdx SW as well. The game was also broken on 1x, but I guess it happened to work for you due to race condition.

[LibretroAdmin]

There's a new weird bug that happens in MotoGP 2 -

it's like the road protrudes sometimes and covers the grass in some strips

[LibretroAdmin]

First big regression I found since the ssaa-textures branch has been merged (UPDATE: Debatable if it's a regression, see 'EDIT' note below) -

Tekken Tag Tournament (NTSC-U) (UPDATE: FIXED) -

Character models and all other graphics don't show up. Characters dont show up on char select and after you have selected them and go ingame, you just see black while the sound and input still responds.

This happens irregardless of settings. I've tried with SSAA at native, 16x, high-res scanout enabled/disabled, SSAA textures disabled/enabled, etc, it don't matter, result is the same.

EDIT: Just noticed PCRTC Anti-blur needs to be turned ON for this game or this behavior happens.

It seems the new high-res scanout code doesn't play ball with the sharp backbuffer pnach patches or the widescreen patches I had previously. I might need to take those out of the core and/or find new widescreen codes.

[LibretroAdmin]

Tekken 5 (NTSC-U) ((SSAA issue with new SSAA-textures branch merged) (UPDATE: FIXED)

Moonlit Wilderness, Secret Garden stages have misaligned postprocessing layers. These glitches used to happen on hardware renderers before per-game hacks were made for them.

To test this real quick, go to Practice Mode, select any character and then select these stages.

It seems the previous SSAA implementation handled this better. This happens both in the game's normal mode and progressive scan mode.

The other stage with a specific postprocessing is Acid Rain but it doesn't look as bad as the previous two.

Burning Temple might also need a look, compare the native output vs. SSAA.

[LibretroAdmin]

Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec (SSAA issue)

Upscaling through high-res scanout seems to work fine with the latest SSAA code EXCEPT for one stage, Trial Mountain. Then the screen looks like this -

Easy way to access this: on main menu go to Arcade Mode, select Trial Mountain, and select any car.

[LibretroAdmin]

Project Minerva: Professional/Hard Knock High (D3 Publisher games/FMV issue)
Happens in these games:

• Gunfighter II: Revenge of Jesse James (Europe)
• Hard Knock High (Europe)
• Orphen: Scion of Sorcery
• Project Minerva: Professional

Vertical line to the left side when an FMV is playing

Another game affected by this:

• Hard Knock High (Europe)

Most of these seem to be games from the publisher D3 from their Simple 2000 brand of games.

[LibretroAdmin]

Shadow of Rome (SSAA issue) (UPDATE: FIXED)

Weird SSAA high-res scanout issue with Shadow of Rome

It's like some of the other color channels are getting lost.

Normal output with SSAA native

[Themaister]

Shadow of Rome fixed with

commit f4596dba5de02b342051f6ac20ca5ce2635f3917 (HEAD -> main, origin/main)
Author: Hans-Kristian Arntzen <[email protected]>
Date:   Sat Jan 4 13:21:10 2025 +0100

    Flush CLUT memoization when flushing due to pressure.

[LibretroAdmin]

Tekken 4 Training mode (SSAA issue) (UPDATE: FIXED) -
UPDATE: Fixed here.

look at the outline of these spark effects.

NOTE: It's an SSAA issue, it doesn't happen with SSAA set to native.

[LibretroAdmin]

Zombie Virus (Europe) (UPDATE: FIXED)
UPDATE: Fixed here

Some text characters seem to glitch out. Happens all throughout the game. It's not an SSAA issue, I tried with SSAA set to Native as well. Doesn't happen with software renderer.

How it looks like (parallel-gs) [You can't see it in this screenshot but in realtime you will see some of the characters glitch out.] -

How it's supposed to look like (software mode) -

[LibretroAdmin]

Ridge Racer V (SSAA issue) (UPDATE: FIXED)
UPDATE: Fixed here

Intro is bugged in high-res scanout mode. Note that the intro is even more bugged in GSdx at non-native resolutions, so some weird trick is being done in this intro.

UPDATE: Made a big discovery here. There is a pnach patch out there for the Japanese version of the game which apparently disables a postprocessing effect the game only uses in this intro scene. It's some kind of blue-ish filter.

As you can see the weird scanline effect is gone and it renders then, however the textures seem all messed up.

pnach patch (4F9C7FCF.pnach) -

patch=1,EE,20247C5C,extended,00000000

[LibretroAdmin]

Vampire Panic (SSAA issue) -

This issue has been around for a while. Look at the video to see the issue -

https://pixeldrain.com/u/SpDq9WFt

[LibretroAdmin]

Wrath Unleashed (SSAA issue) -

Just start a new campaign and start the game to see the issue.

Looks like this when SSAA is applied -

How it looks like with SSAA set to native -

[LibretroAdmin]

Dog of Bay (SSAA issue)

Select Free - just do nothing and let the game end. You will see the game over screen shown below then.

SSAA Native (correct) -

SSAA higher than native (Wrong) -

[LibretroAdmin]

Virtua Fighter 4 (UPDATE: FIXED)
Update: Fixed here

Startup screen. Weird inaccuracy here. Software renderer and parallel-gs are both bugged here and show this stripe in the middle of the dialog screen. However, the gsdx hardware renderers get it right. This happens on parallel-gs with both SSAA set to native and/or enabled.

Software renderer -

Gsdx -

[LibretroAdmin]

Burnout/Test Drive Unlimited (SSAA issue)

Slight line grid pattern going from top to bottom.

This is how it should look like (SSAA native) -

This is with SSAA enabled. Pay close attention to the skies and you'll see the lines.

[LibretroAdmin]

Haven: Call of the King (UPDATE: FIXED)
UPDATE: Fixed here

Some kind of weird blocky artefacts in the game's realtime introduction screens. Start a new game and fast forward until you get to this part.

This is the software renderer which renders it correctly.

https://pixeldrain.com/u/yLCFxzzF

This is parallel-gs which renders it incorrectly. This happens with SSAA set to native as well as with SSAA enabled.

https://pixeldrain.com/u/JxNtyjG4

[LibretroAdmin]

Metal Gear Solid 3 (both Subsistence and Snake Eater) - SSAA issue (UPDATE: FIXED)
UPDATE: Fixed here

This seems like a regression. Performance also fell off a cliff in these scenes.
How it looks like right now (wrong - SSAA - 16x) -

How it should look like (SSAA - native) -

[LibretroAdmin]

Klonoa 2 (SSAA issue)

Klonoa 2 uses some kind of toon shading outlines on the character/enemies. This effect seems to break down the more SSAA we apply.

here is with SSAA set to native (off)

This is with SSAA 16x

This is with SSAA 16x + experimental SSAA texture

[LibretroAdmin]

Knights of the Temple - Infernal Crusade (Europe) (SSAA issue)

White outlines around destructible terrain. Doesn't happen with SSAA set to native.

SSAA off (set to native) -

SSAA on -

Going from 4x SSAA to 8x SSAA makes the game terribly slow too but that's a separate matter.

[LibretroAdmin]

Parappa The Rapper 2 (SSAA issue)

Intro screen has a white line at the top right side of the screen

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Fm5xHrKP

[LibretroAdmin]

Guilty Gear Isuka (SSAA issue)

Grid like line pattern all over the screen

How it looks like with SSAA off (native):

How it looks like with SSAA enabled:

[LibretroAdmin]

Simple 2000 Series Ultimate Vol. 15 -Love - Ping Pong! (Japan)

Wrong skin tone on characters' face. Select Dramatic in Main Menu, then proceed until you see scene below.

How it looks like with software rendering (correct) -

How it looks like with parallel-gs (incorrect) -

[LibretroAdmin]

MotoGP 2 (SSAA issue)

This seems like a regression. This is how it looks like now with high-res scanout and SSAA enabled. It did not look like this before.