Burnout 3/Revenge/Dominator - Sun Glow Can Be Seen Through Surfaces

[escape209]

This is a known issue, but I'm opening this issue here so that if there is any progress on it being fixed, then it can be posted here and eventually (hopefully) marked as solved, in addition to the fact that it hasn't been mentioned on the issue tracker yet.

Anyway, this bug seems to be a core bug, as it appears in all of GSdx's software and hardware renderers, as well as in ZeroGS. It's a pretty easy issue to understand - you can see the sun through walls, when it should disappear when your view of it is completely (not partially) obscured by an object. The bug happens in Burnout 3: Takedown, Burnout Revenge and Burnout Dominator, of which the versions for all regions are affected (basically, PAL and NTSC.)

No combination of settings in the Emulation settings window, nor the GSdx settings window has been able to fix the bug (including Synchronized MTGS.)

[FirstRoboticsGuy999]

In the Burnout games, the issue is clearly related to RenderWare. RenderWare appears to handle post-processing effects differently than most PS2 games. It probably has something to do with Z-sorting and the fact that the PS2 doesn't have depth buffer support.

For me, this happens in games like Gran Turismo 4 as well; but software mode fixes the Sun issue.

I found a great write-up by Matt Godbolt that explains some of the PS2's rendering limitations. http://xania.org/201003/swat-ps2-renderer

Some old RenderWare development docs: http://www.tnlc.com/rw/api/rwdoc.htm

[gregory38]

PS2 has depth support. It misses stencil / color swizzle / shader ... Well it just misses everything.

There is still a bug in SW when doing read/write to a texture so it could still be a GSdx bug. But it could also be a core bug.

[escape209]

It seems like it's not the sun that's showing through walls and it's actually just its glow effect. Setting Skipdraw to 28 will remove the sun's glow, meaning it won't show through walls, but it will appear as just a yellow circle in the sky:

Skipdraw 0

Skipdraw 28

[willkuer]

28?

I never heard such a large value. For 27 you can still see the glow?
Thanks for the hint. This makes support much easier.

[escape209]

The glow is indeed still there at 27 😱

[FlatOutPS2]

This issue has recently been solved for software mode thanks to a123e65

It still affects the hardware modes though.

[jcdenton2k]

Wanted to mention that the 'Sun Rays' would appear through buildings/walls in FF12 as well. It didn't bother me enough to post about it but it has been an ongoing issue since forever.

I'll test out with software mode and report back with details if needed.

[RedDevilus]

Seems to still be a problem in HW mode and SW as always works well.

[jeremybris]

This bug is also in:

• Manhunt - Manhunt (NTSC-U) [SLUS-20827] Lighting Issue/bug #257
• Ace Combat 5 - Ace Combat 5 - See through sun in HW renderers #1860
• Syphon Filter - [GSDX HW] Syphon Filter series: Sprite Flickering/Corruption #2249
• Tekken 5 - Tekken 5 - Sun rays through character #2766
• Silent Hill 2 - The light from the flashlight penetrates through the textures. Silent Hill 2 (SLUS 20228 GH and SLES 51156 DC). #2817
• Need for Speed Most Wanted - [BUG] Sun flares shine through walls in hardware renderer. #3993
• Gran Turismo 4 - Gran Turismo 4: Light / Sun glare issues in hardware mode #3751
• Alias - [BUG]: Alias: Lights appears behind geometry all the time. #5409
• Power Drome (Underwater Level)
• 007: From Russia with Love (Second Level)
• Final Fantasy XII (Mentioned above)
• Probably other games

A similar issue was solved in the PS3 emulator. I don't know if this will help:

• caused by rsx: Update register decoding according to more hardware tests RPCS3/rpcs3#8479
• fixed by rsx: Fix uncaught depth-func changes RPCS3/rpcs3#9354

Edited ^^

[refractionpcsx2]

Does this still happen in recent 1.7 builds? if it does can we get a GS Dump?

[Mrlinkwii]

burnout light though object.zip
heres a GS dump 🙂

[JimScript]

Lego Racers 2 has the same problem as well:

GS Dump:
gs_20220710095656_LEGO Racers 2_SLUS-20042.zip

GS Dump:
gs_20220710100711_LEGO Racers 2_SLUS-20042.zip

Thing is, switching to software doesn't immediately get rid of it(as seen in the GS Dumps), it's like there is a culling system in the software mode that isn't in the hardware mode.

[refractionpcsx2]

Can you make your own thread for that please? It's likely not the same problem (a lot of different things can cause this!). Since it takes a moment to kick in, it probably needs to download the picture to work it out, which means it might not show in the GS dump.

[JimScript]

Right, sorry it looked close enough of a problem to comment, I have made a separate issue here(#6605).

[refractionpcsx2]

Thanks :)

[twoco]

@jeremybris Thanks for your list of existing issues or duplicates (If this bug is caused by the same reason). Btw. you have a mistake in your list. For Need for Speed Most Wanted it's #3993.

[refractionpcsx2]

Can you provide a GS Dump? Because the three I tried, it did.

As I noted, having your resolution too high can break the effect also

[Softernet]

Everything is fine. There was a misunderstanding due to the Manual Hardware Render Fixes checkbox.

[refractionpcsx2]

Yeah that would break it too ;)