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Emulator Issues #8753

closed

Light flickering in Pokémon games

Added by theincrediblemastere over 8 years ago. Updated over 7 years ago.

Status:
Won't fix
Priority:
Normal
Assignee:
-
% Done:

0%

Operating system:
N/A
Issue type:
Bug
Milestone:
Regression:
No
Relates to usability:
No
Relates to performance:
No
Easy:
No
Relates to maintainability:
No
Regression start:
Fixed in:

Description

Game Name?
Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness

Game ID?
GXXE01

What's the problem? Describe what went wrong in few words.
On top of the general lighting issues when models render, found in games such as the GameCube Pokémon games and Custom Robo, this issue manifests itself in a more noticeable way when the camera pans around Pokémon.

What did you expect to happen instead?
The ground not to strobe around Pokémon and trainers when the camera pans.

What steps will reproduce the problem?

  1. From the Main Menu, go to VS Mode
  2. Quick Battle
  3. Battle VS CPU
  4. Eventually, the camera will hit certain angles that make the lighting freak out

Dolphin 3.5 and 3.5-367 are old versions of Dolphin that have
known issues and bugs, so don't report issues about them and test the
latest Dolphin version first.
Which versions of Dolphin did you test on?
4.0-6961

Does using an older version of Dolphin solve your issue? If yes, which
versions of Dolphin used to work?
This has been around for a while.

What are your PC specifications? (including, but not limited to: Operating
System, CPU and GPU)
Windows 7 x64 (SP1)
nVidia GeForce GTX 760 (Gigabyte GV-N760OC-2GD REV2.0)
Intel Core i7-4770
8GB G.Skill Sniper Low Voltage edition

Is there any other relevant information? (e.g. logs, screenshots,
configuration files)

Use of XFB of any kind causes the scene not to render for me.

EFB Copies to RAM causes the whole ground to flash black as opposed to lighting.

Try messing with the Anisotropic Filtering while in scene to see other oddities. Apparently Pokémon had shadows all along! Also, Articuno really accentuates this issue when it renders off camera.

FIFO: http://www.mediafire.com/download/plzun61mmmlqnym/flicker.dff

Considering how big this issue looks on several different games, I was surprised to see that nobody on the forums or even here appeared to mention anything relating to this. It almost makes me suspect that this is a known issue that everyone's just sorta conceded to.

Actions #1

Updated by JMC4789 over 8 years ago

You'll need to tell us more than if it's been around for a while to get any kind of easy fix. Comparisons between console and emulators would be great too.

Actions #2

Updated by theincrediblemastere over 8 years ago

Yeah. I guess I was kinda vague when I said it was around "for a while".

It's been in every iteration since... well... how does 3.5 sound?

Also, I checked the FIFO on Software Renderer and D3D. Still there. Software Renderer even has that EFB to RAM issue.

Here's some footage dated to 2006. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjcTc_i5YRs

Actions #3

Updated by JMC4789 over 8 years ago

  • Status changed from New to Accepted

Thank you for all the information. I'll tentatively accept this based on your research. I don't know exactly what's wrong, unfortunately. The reason for the glitches in EFB2RAM on fifologs is just due to how fifologs work; I can promise you it's to be expected and not indicative of any other bugs.

Actions #4

Updated by theincrediblemastere over 8 years ago

I have a hunch it might have something to do with Anti-Aliasing? But that doesn't explain everything...

Actions #5

Updated by JMC4789 over 8 years ago

Do you have the widescreen hack enabled or anything silly? I tried out Pokemon XD and did some random battles, didn't notice anything weird.

Actions #6

Updated by theincrediblemastere over 8 years ago

Well, I like playing with 16x Anisotropic and 8x AA.

Actions #7

Updated by Anonymous over 8 years ago

That footage from 2006 is not Dolphin footage.

Sound support wasn't even added until 2007.

Actions #8

Updated by theincrediblemastere over 8 years ago

Yeah. That's the point.

He wanted footage of the game on console.

Actions #9

Updated by JMC4789 over 8 years ago

I still haven't been able to reproduce this issue, as stupid as it sounds. I still believe it's valid though. Can you test the latest versions of Dolphin regardless just to keep this up to date on things?

Actions #10

Updated by theincrediblemastere over 8 years ago

Well, it occurs during 8x MSAA.

Hell, it wouldn't be beyond reasonable doubt for me just being stupid. But still, I think it's an issue worth investigating if you ever get tired of whatever you're doing and wanna go poking around looking for funny business in the rendering. Feel free to bury it under the pile of more important issues if ya want.

Actions #11

Updated by JMC4789 over 7 years ago

I've been playing through Pokemon XD on netplay, and keeping an eye out for this issue. I've been playing in single core, so if this is caused by some GPU/CPU desync shenanigans, I wouldn't run into it.

If it's still happening to you, then it's just going to continue to get buried; I have no leads nor ability to help with the fifologs.

If this only happens with certain enhancements then I'm unfortunately compelled to close this issue. Maybe a better solution would be a secondary issue enveloping all games with issues with specific enhancements, that way there's more interest and activity.

Actions #12

Updated by theincrediblemastere over 7 years ago

Well shucks. I mean, I know that using enhancements pretty much invalidates the report to begin with, but it sure is strange that MSAA would mess with shadows in such a big way. Speaking of, this phenomena has also been seen in Custom Robo's story mode, for what it's worth.

OH WELL! OFF THE INVALID HEAP FOR THIS!

And as for XD over netplay, how would you even do that? Just using those premade teams in the quick battle mode? ...and can I play with you?

Actions #13

Updated by JMC4789 over 7 years ago

  • Status changed from Accepted to Won't fix

We've just been messing with the main story and doing some of the quick battles. Eventually, I want to mess with GBA <-> GCN and netplay, but emulation for that isn't there yet.

And yeah, MSAA/SSAA fucking with shadows is actually very common.

I'm putting this as wontfix, but, it's just as an individual issue. I think a global "MSAA/SSAA breaks stuff" could at least be inspected.

Actions #14

Updated by theincrediblemastere over 7 years ago

Sounds fun.

Do you mind if I join? I lounge around Showdown and preordered XD (I still have the stickers on my GameCube!), so I'm far from a stranger to the game.

Also, I haven't the faintest idea what you could do with netplay regarding the main story.

Actions #15

Updated by JMC4789 over 7 years ago

Regarding that: I wonder if we could setup a tournament on netplay regarding Pokemon Battle Revolution once Wii netplay is more mature...

Actions #16

Updated by theincrediblemastere over 7 years ago

Since I might as well run this by you before creating a whole issue page, a Skarmory sent out in the Under Colosseum has a black eye on the right side of its head. It's almost completely black to the point of it looking like a texture didn't load, and it only does that on one side of its head.

I'll leave the FIFO here (not the best shot, I know. Free Camera is such a godsend), and if you think it's worth an issue submission I'll move any further discussion there. I just don't want to report on something that may be minor and add ANOTHER thing to toss onto the Won't fix pile!

http://www.mediafire.com/download/0bbrjcy49pj9pqo/Skarmory%27s_Black_Eye.dff

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