Kronos and Shining Force 3 Graphical issues

[Link138]

Kronos looks to be a promising Yaba Sanshiro fork, but right now it’s still clearly early days for the project.

I’m experiencing some serious graphical issues in Shining Force 3, particularly with Masqurin’s spell effects/animations.

I’m running the latest Kronos version as of this morning. CPU: Intel G4600 GPU: Zotac 1060 Mini 6GB (w/latest drivers) RAM: 16GB Corsair 2133MHz Windows 10

In the core I have the internal resolution set to 4x, but I experience the graphical issues no matter what IR is set to .

I also have HLE Bios enabled.

Additionally, I’m having trouble with GLSL shaders, which have been blacking out the entire screen when enabled.

Just wondering if any one has had better luck with this core. I find it odd, because none of these graphical issues are present in the standalone version of Yaba Sanshiro.

[BarbuDreadMon]

I also have HLE Bios enabled.

Just wondering, when you try a new core, first thing you do is messing with the core options without caring for potential consequences ?

From my tests, HLE bios is breaking 2 out of 3 games, which is why i disable it by default, and why i send the warning “HLE bios is enabled, this is for debugging purpose only, expect lots of issues” in the logs when you force it anyway.

Honestly, i wanted to remove it completely (actually i did a few weeks ago), but ended up having an argument about this with @Twinaphex so i added it back.

Just wondering if any one has had better luck with this core

There are several users on this forum who gave the core positive ratings, there are also mention of the HLE bios being heavily broken and causing this kind of issue.

[aorin1]

I just tried it, I’m on chapter 4, some spells render fine, the overall graphics are OK, Grace’s healing spell renders almost perfectly, apart of the aura effect, amazingly, the aura effects in Scenario 2 and 3 are rendered correctly, since they are different from SC1, also note the nice patch I applied from Meduza team, it will remove the black borders from the 3 scenarios and other games too.

Masqurin’s spells render correctly, I mean thunder and wind ones, the fire spell is really broken here, note right before the spell it’s OK, then broken, once the magic is finished, the rendering back to normal.

Broken

Only the aura here is weird

This scene is properly rendered

This one, right before she casts the spell, we can note some broken textures in the darker area, interestingly, they’re not even rendered correctly in Mednafen Saturn.

Again, right spell, wrong aura

Both character cursors in battle or menus are rendered correctly

I think this core will soon fix some of these issues and will become the first option for Saturn, Mednafen is more accurate, yes, but until it receives a HW version, most users won’t have the needed CPU for that to run smoothly.

[Link138]

Just wondering, when you try a new core, first thing you do is messing with the core options without caring for potential consequences ?

Yes, in fact the very first thing I do when I’m testing out a new core, especially one as green as Kronos, is to go through every option available and painstakingly test them to see how they affect several games. Which is exactly what lead me to create this thread in the first place.

Your condescending response adds nothing to this conversation, except to make you look emotional.

I understand if you’re passionate about whatever work you’re doing on Kronos, but you need to stop assuming ill intent of anyone who makes even the slightest criticism of this core.

I’ve seen your responses on other similar threads where you assume people dislike something about a core and you attack them verbally. As such, I was dreading a potential response from you here, yet here we are.

Two rules from Libretro’s own post on forum etiquette:

1. Be kind to your fellow community members.
2. Constructive criticism is welcome, but criticize ideas, not people.

Perhaps, you should think about these rules before you respond.

There are several users on this forum who gave the core positive ratings

I too am excited about Kronos, hence why I started this thread by saying “Kronos looks to be a promising Yaba Sanshiro fork.”

I want this core to be the best it can be. I also gladly help financially support quite a few independent emulation developers. I care deeply about what happens here in the Libretro community.

But your continued negativity will breed toxicity.

If you have nothing positive or constructive to add to this conversation I respectfully ask that you either block me, or simply stop responding to my thread.

[Link138]

Clearly, we’re experiencing similar graphical issues here, aorin1.

The way you describe Masqurin’s fire spell and Grace’s Heal spell aura is precisely what’s happening on my machine as well.

Another problem I noticed is that the text in this game is rendered much differently from the original game when Kronos is set to native resolution. However, the text displays correctly in 2X and above. Not sure what this issue is there.

Are you using any resolution scaling or texture filtering? It looks like the menu text is displaying incorrectly in your screenshots as well. I’m not at my emulation PC at the moment, but I will post screenshots later detailing the text issue.

Thanks for sharing here.

[BarbuDreadMon]

Yes, in fact the very first thing I do when I’m testing out a new core, especially one as green as Kronos, is to go through every option available and painstakingly test them to see how they affect several games.

So, basically, you knew i said to not use the HLE bios, but you did it anyway knowing i’ll say something. Some kind of trolling then, and i’m the one being toxic…

If you have nothing positive or constructive to add to this conversation

Saying to not use something that basically breaks every games is neither positive nor constructive ?

I also gladly help financially support quite a few independent emulation developers.

Do you think i got paid or something for the hundreds of hours i spent working on fbalpha and kronos ?

Clearly, we’re experiencing similar graphical issues here, aorin1.

Definitely different from looking at the screenshots, simply because he is not using the HLE bios.

[Link138]

The craziest part is I get these same graphical glitches that you get, aorin1, whether HLE Bios is enabled or disabled.

It’s almost like that’s irrelevant to the conversation.

Just thought the hardworking developer of this promising core might want to be aware of some of these issues, you know, to help the project get better. lol

[aorin1]

Like I said, the graphic issues on Scenario 1 are minimum, I have a save for Scenario 3

Since the aura from Scenario 2 is rendered differently from Scenario 1, they are correct here

I’m using the original Saturn resolution and a denoiser shader, the Japanese bios is used and no HLE bios.

Note the aura radiation, looks perfect

Grace’s healing and aura is OK.

And other fire effects

But again, Masqurin’s blaze spell is broken, I’m miles away from being a developer, but it occurred to me that, maybe if fixing what is breaking this spell effect, would also solve other graphical glitches or it’s a totally isolated case?

Newer moves and effects are rendered properly

[Link138]

Again, thanks for sharing. I’m only a couple of hours into SF3 Scn1 so I don’t have access to higher level spells to test out their effects yet.

But, from what I can tell I’m essentially having the same experience as you. Good to know. I’ll be keeping an eye on Kronos updates with hopes that these glitches get ironed out.

For now, however, I’m going to continue using Mednafen as the loss of these spell effects does not justify the benefits of internal resolution scaling.

[BarbuDreadMon]

The craziest part is I get these same graphical glitches that you get, aorin1, whether HLE Bios is enabled or disabled.

Afaik those issues are specific to HLE bios, which is deprecated and only there for debugging purpose, i already mentioned in another topic that using the real bios is mandatory. Period.

I hope you get the help you need.

And now you are attacking me on a personal level.

Just thought the hardworking developer of this promising core might want to be aware of some of these issues, you know, to help the project get better. lol

And now you are making fun of it. Did i say Kronos is glitchless ? No. Is your report useful ? No, from the moment you say “I also have HLE Bios enabled”, your report become useless because we don’t support this option.

I respectfully ask that you either block me

I’ll take you up on that offer.

Edit : sadly it seems this forum don’t have this function…

[hunterk]

There’s no reason for hostility or personal attacks. It’s difficult to judge intentions over text, so we should assume no ill-will from one another by default.

Is the issue reproducible with a legit, non-HLE BIOS?

[BarbuDreadMon]

Is the issue reproducible with a legit, non-HLE BIOS?

Part of it, actually there is already an issue opened about SF3 on github.

[Link138]

Yes. I can reproduce the issues with both HLE Bios enabled and when using a legit bios with HLE disabled.

EDIT: no need to antagonize one another. That was unnecessary and this is a warning not to do so further. I’m trying to defuse the situation. -hunterk

[hunterk]

Ok, so: you (Link138) are able to reproduce it either way. BarbuDreadMon is aware of the issues with HLE BIOS but not with non-HLE. Therefore, the next step is to see if he or any of the rest of us can reproduce the issue with non-HLE.

[Link138]

I believe aorin1 is getting similar graphical issues with a non-HLE Japanese bios.

[aorin1]

I have a few glitches yes, but none seem nearly as broken as the screen shot you posted above.

Since it’s happening in the blaze spell, I assume that if this issue is sorted out, other glitches should be fixed as well, but this is just a supposition.

[BarbuDreadMon]

@aorin1’s report is accurate, the only issue i couldn’t reproduce (and i don’t see it in aorin1’s report either) is the one i showed above, this one is most likely HLE specific.

[hunterk]

Alright, sounds like we have it all sorted out. @Link138, thanks for your report.

[Link138]

Thanks for your help and patience, @hunterk.

[BarbuDreadMon]

@Link138, thanks for your report.

As i said, his report is worth nothing, he knew HLE bios wasn’t supported (supposedly he saw other topics about kronos) but he enabled it anyway, result of this is that 2 people (@aorin1 and me) had to check the game for additional issues we may have missed :

But as expected and as i said from the beginning, this issue was HLE specific. Result of this is that one hour and a half i was supposed to spend on programming yesterday, i spent it on checking an issue and answering to someone too dense to understand he was wrong, and verbally abusive (while all of my answers just politely pointed out what was wrong in his report).

The only good part of this topic is @aorin1’s report, which is clear and usable since he is using real bios (i copied it on github btw).

Reports like his don’t help at all.