Emulator

Issue started with version 5.0-540 (Dynamic BAT, PR #4146). Activating MMU causes the FPS drop to 0 but music continues playing.
In earlier versions, you could complete the dungeon without errors, but then the game saved to a different .gci file with a different header.

Funny, I just wanted to post this. I'm glad this is here. It's still a thing! I just had this error again yesterday with 5.0-9466!
Is there absolutely no way around other than using an old version of Dolphin?

bad news is it looks like you have to use an older version of dolphin to beat the level. good news is it seems like if you beat it once on the old version you can come back on the newer one and it plays out just fine for that character.

I tried that and on the old build, instead of crashing, it corrupted my save.

I created an account solely for the purpose of Posting this.

After Multiple tries with the usage of v.5.0-9719 Dolphin to no avail, I went and used an old copy i happened to have of v.4.0-9224 of Dolphin, and following the words of JMC4789, I created a Copy of my Save file under GC USA in a diffrent folder in case. And then tried it again. Not only does v.4.0-9224 run FFCC faster then v.5.0-9719, it successfully passed and saved at the mailmoogle with no troubles at all. No editing or whatsoever needed.

Hope that helps!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who ran into this, but I also can't believe it isn't fixed after this long. Guess I'll figure out how to edit my save so the game counts the level as completed.

If it works in an old build, bisecting would help a lot. We've tried to fix it but there are a lot of games and it takes a lot of effort to debug an issue like this.

Any assistance from people who know how to play the game would be much appreciated.

I don't know what DrevasBellmare did to get it to work, but i just tried 4.0-9224 and I still get save file corruption, just like everything before 5.0-540 (after which the game just locks up). I then went back and tested 4.0.2, 4.0.1, 4.0, 3.5, 3.0, and I even dug up my archived copy of 2.0, and all of them have save file corruption, (and in case anyone asks I deleted all previous copies of dolphin between tests and moved my "Documents\Dolphin Emulator" folder somewhere else so i was always starting from a clean state between tests. So no, there is no working old build.

If anyone whats to try and fix this but doesn't want to play the game, I can provide save states and FIFO logs from both 5.0 and the latest development version, and if need be I can dump the assembly in visual studio, or GDB but with both of those I don't really know what I'm doing.

It has been so long, and many updates. Has this issue been fixed yet? Has anyone tested to see if it works in the EUR version? The latest development version is 5.0-11199, and the latest stable is 5.0.

What could the older versions of the game be doing right at this point that the newer versions fail at?

The older versions aren't doing it right. Instead of crashing, they're corrupting memory in a way that affects the ability to save.

And no, the issue hasn't been fixed yet. Not sure if anyone has tested the European version, but I haven't heard anyone saying that that version works, at least.

Oh, I just remember being able to get by the wall in the older versions, had no idea it came with its own issues, that sucks. Well I'll test the EUR version then, see if it has the same issues. A shame the issue isn't being looked into though. :(

I just tested to clear Goblin Wall on 5.0-11535 with no use. I'm also kind of disappointed that this issue gets no love because isn't a bug that crashes the game at a certain point for everybody pretty important? The issue happens on both NTSC and PAL. I don't know about the Japanese version.

If you want to get past this point without a corrupted save file, use a build prior to 4.0-8131. I bisected that this is the build where the save file corruption started.

"Issue doesn't get any love."

You have no idea how many hours various devs have put into trying to fix this. Sometimes issues like this don't have a clear solution and take a ton of debugging. With all the work that's been done on it, we still don't know what causes it.

Can you retest your bisect? That build doesn't actually touch emulation whatsoever. There are a few builds in that area that seem like they could maybe be related, but definitely not that one. That one just changes the WXWidgets GUI to display savestate information... which no longer exists.

If a second bisect points to that same build... then I'm seriously confused.

I tried around the builds near 4.0-8131, and suddenly, the save file corruption also happened on 4.0-8127. When I try out these builds, I always get the error message "Memory stride is too small". Unfortunately, the bisect tool is broken right now, it takes some time to try out the builds.

I've ran into the same problem and I disabled the Panic Handlers WHILST running the game (Dolphin 5.0-11608), getting it to work normally. Hopefully that'll help some <3 Glad there's still a community for all this!

SabioSam wrote:

I've ran into the same problem and I disabled the Panic Handlers WHILST running the game (Dolphin 5.0-11608), getting it to work normally. Hopefully that'll help some <3 Glad there's still a community for all this!

What?! This is fantastical news! I'm gonna try it immediately! Thank you for sharing, and yes, I am also glad there is still a community for this. :)

SabioSam wrote:

I've ran into the same problem and I disabled the Panic Handlers WHILST running the game (Dolphin 5.0-11608), getting it to work normally. Hopefully that'll help some <3 Glad there's still a community for all this!

Hi, I did try your solution on the same version of Dolphins as yours, and unfortunatly it didn't worked for me. Would you please elaborate your method ?
I'm actually in containement in France, I'm bored AF, could you please help me ? T_T

Korados wrote:

I just tested to clear Goblin Wall on 5.0-11535 with no use. I'm also kind of disappointed that this issue gets no love because isn't a bug that crashes the game at a certain point for everybody pretty important? The issue happens on both NTSC and PAL. I don't know about the Japanese version.

Tested on Japanese version, same issue, although it seems to run a bit better overall.

Again, we know this is an annoying, frustrating issue. But we have no clue why it happens or how. This is the kind of bug that may need someone with more expertise into per-game reverse engineering to understand.

Been trying at this bug over several versions. I was just able to able to both clear the mogmail and save/reload successfully after Goblin Wall in both years 2 and 4 using Dolphin 5.0-12088. Separately had VBA-M 2.1.4 linked and the widescreen AR code active.

SabioSam wrote:

I've ran into the same problem and I disabled the Panic Handlers WHILST running the game (Dolphin 5.0-11608), getting it to work normally. Hopefully that'll help some <3 Glad there's still a community for all this!

I also totally forgot to try this. Still worked with panic handlers enabled.

Alexedishi wrote:

Been trying at this bug over several versions. I was just able to able to both clear the mogmail and save/reload successfully after Goblin Wall in both years 2 and 4 using Dolphin 5.0-12088. Separately had VBA-M 2.1.4 linked and the widescreen AR code active.

SabioSam wrote:

I've ran into the same problem and I disabled the Panic Handlers WHILST running the game (Dolphin 5.0-11608), getting it to work normally. Hopefully that'll help some <3 Glad there's still a community for all this!

I also totally forgot to try this. Still worked with panic handlers enabled.

Do you have any specific settings? And does it only work on year 2 and 4?

Rhyagelle wrote:

Do you have any specific settings?

-Dolphin 5.0-12088
-Dual-core enabled. Widescreen AR code from wiki enabled. Panic handlers enabled. Using JIT Recompiler with MMU disabled.
-DSP set to LLE Recompiler.
-Graphics running Vulkan with synchronous shaders. 3x native. 2x MSAA.
-Controller set to GC on Port 1, GBA Port 2
-All other settings left at default. I purposely started with a fresh 5.0-12088 install.

-VBA 1.2.4
-VBA link type set to Gamecube. Local mode, link at boot, and speed hack enabled. Link timeout set to 5ms. Pause when inactive disabled and turbo mode disabled. I have a savestate on VBA to speed up load times.
-Like Dolphin, purposely made a fresh install.

Rhyagelle wrote:

And does it only work on year 2 and 4?

So far those are the years I've reach in my playthrough. I'll keep testing every year that I can collect myrrh from Goblin Wall. I separately cleared and saved after Selepation Cave just an hour ago with the same settings. I heard that level was causing problems too.

I compared the save file headers before completing Goblin Wall and after completing it on years 2 and 4 and Dolphin appears to be saving it correctly.

I should add that I've been able to grind artifacts from Goblin Wall on off years 3 and 5 without issue and from Selepation Cave year 4 immediately after collecting myrrh.

Alexedishi wrote:

Rhyagelle wrote:

Do you have any specific settings?

-Dolphin 5.0-12088
-Dual-core enabled. Widescreen AR code from wiki enabled. Panic handlers enabled. Using JIT Recompiler with MMU disabled.
-DSP set to LLE Recompiler.
-Graphics running Vulkan with synchronous shaders. 3x native. 2x MSAA.
-Controller set to GC on Port 1, GBA Port 2
-All other settings left at default. I purposely started with a fresh 5.0-12088 install.

-VBA 1.2.4
-VBA link type set to Gamecube. Local mode, link at boot, and speed hack enabled. Link timeout set to 5ms. Pause when inactive disabled and turbo mode disabled. I have a savestate on VBA to speed up load times.
-Like Dolphin, purposely made a fresh install.

Rhyagelle wrote:

And does it only work on year 2 and 4?

So far those are the years I've reach in my playthrough. I'll keep testing every year that I can collect myrrh from Goblin Wall. I separately cleared and saved after Selepation Cave just an hour ago with the same settings. I heard that level was causing problems too.

I compared the save file headers before completing Goblin Wall and after completing it on years 2 and 4 and Dolphin appears to be saving it correctly.

• DSP set to LLE Recompiler
• Vulkan graphics
• Widescreen AR

One of the above solved this problem for me.

• DSP set to LLE Recompiler

Ran into another crash similar to the one referenced in the ticket after I reset my settings to default. Setting this is what solved it again.

What. Really? I would have never guessed that???

JMC4789 wrote:

What. Really? I would have never guessed that???

So there's definitely more to it. Setting that setting is what miraculously made it work; however, I am running into the same crash over and over regularly now. It seems to randomly happen when exiting a menu. I am wondering if the illegal memory write error was somehow suppressed and my save was corrupted. I am going to spend some more time with a fresh save on the goblin wall level today to see what I can deduce.

JMC4789 wrote:

What. Really? I would have never guessed that???

So there's definitely more to it. Setting that setting is what miraculously made it work; however, I am running into the same crash over and over regularly now even with that setting on. It seems to randomly happen when exiting a menu. I am wondering if the illegal memory write error was somehow suppressed and my save was corrupted. I am going to spend some more time with a fresh save on the goblin wall level today to see what I can deduce.

Mobon wrote:

JMC4789 wrote:

What. Really? I would have never guessed that???

So there's definitely more to it. Setting that setting is what miraculously made it work; however, I am running into the same crash over and over regularly now even with that setting on. It seems to randomly happen when exiting a menu. I am wondering if the illegal memory write error was somehow suppressed and my save was corrupted. I am going to spend some more time with a fresh save on the goblin wall level today to see what I can deduce.

Stable 5.0 is the only build I can get working with 4 instances of VBA-M. Latest builds, both beta 5.0-12247 and dev 5.0-12577 have huge issues connecting to VBA-M either not connecting at all or freezing after connecting. DSP LLE in Stable 5.0 crashes the VBA-M upon loading BIOS, only HLE works. I wasn't able

VBA-M Settings:

I have these settings and start up VBA-M Instances AFTER loading into Main Menu (New or Load screen). Open Instance, load GBA Bios. I only edit Input settings once all 4 instances have loaded and use Parsac to allow additional controllers to connect. I have to manually set up Profile 2/3/4 each time because of parsac but it doesn't really take long. Players must not use the "Radar" on GBA or it stutters the player and doesn't allow charge attacks. I recommend leaving it on Money.

• Options > Link >: Local mode enabled, link at boot enabled, speed hack enabled
• Options > Link > Type: Gamecube
• Options > Game Boy Advance: Use BIOS file enabled
• Options > Game Boy Advance > Configure > Boot Rom Tab: Path to gba bios.
• Emulation: Only checked items are Auto Skip Frames and Auto IPS/UPS/IPF patch, everything else disabled including pause while inactive

Dolphin Settings:

Non Default Settings.

Config:

• Interface tab: Disable Panic Handlers
• Audio tab: DSP HLE with XAudio2 backend

Graphics:

• General tab: D3D12 backend
• Enchancements tab: 4x Native 1440p, 4x MSAA, Anisotropic filtering 16x, Per Pixel Lighting
• Hacks tab: Texture Cache Fully Safe, External Frame Buffer Disabled with Virtual Checked, Fast Depth Calculation Off
• It seems that one of the above listed settings messes with VBA-M and connecting upon loading into a dungeon. I couldn't replicate, but either depth calculation or XFB have to be turned off.

System:

3900x, 2080ti, 32GB RAM, games and dolphin installed on SSD 850 evo. Able to run at constant 30fps 4 players with very, very minor audio stutters.

I will be testing goblin wall with the above, again, to double check freezing issue/save corruption. I can't replicate successfully connecting VBA-M like Alexedishi did to current stable.

actually after playing multiplayer with 4 people the save file corruption bug just didn't happen using above settings. Maybe single player only as there was a save corruption during single player testing but not during multiplayer.

Hey everyone, just ran into the infamous Goblin Wall dead end last night.
For me personally, using the Widescreen Action Replay Code solved this issue entirely and ran me through the mail scene smooth as ever.

You can find the code here, hope this helps.

https://wiki.dolphin-emu.org/index.php?title=Final_Fantasy_Crystal_Chronicles