Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops + NTSC USA (ULUS10290)

[Toril]

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus + NTSC (USA) version works. I tested it on JPCSP v0.6 2108 on operating system Windows 7 Ultimate. The greatest problem I have is that that the movies do not play and gameplay is slow. However, putting that aside this emulator is the most promising and well developed one out on the web so far. I changed many of the options and ran tests and it runs pretty much the same either way. I can run Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater on full FPS on PCSX2, fyi, so imho I don't have a terrible computer. I'll update this post if I have any new info.

UPDATE: If Media Engine is enabled than more videos will work, but still not all.

What works:
-Sound (works great most of the time)
-Can get in-game and play (but it's terribly slow)
-Codecs
-Text
-Saving and loading
-Logos

What often doesn't work at all:
-Cutscenes/Movies [if media engine is disabled than even more don't work]
-Menus: some do not come up and you have to blindly go to things, or menu is intermittent...meaning it comes and goes randomly and it flickers or has "Fake MPEG video" come up and there is often flickering

What needs improvement and or tweaking:
-Sound (sometimes it doesn't play)
-Graphics (some graphics are outright missing/glitchy/and or have fragmentation)
-Speed (the game runs slow except for codecs and menu which are at normal fps)
-Text works but sometimes letters/words are missing

[montcer9012]

This game is almost perfect; the main problem it have is the slow it is that can't be playable. Menus and intro videos, even sound is perfect; those run at a very decent speed. However when in game, speed decrease between 1 and 10 FPS.

Here is a log whit the profiler and a video. Please notice that game sometimes toke a boost and fps increase ... after 2 or 3 seconds of that boost, game speed decrease almost to 0, then increase and later decrease repeating that cycle over and over. For more information watch the video between second 33/39.

[gid15]

From the profiler.txt

Code:

spline: called 660762 times, average 66,6 per GE list

This game seems to use a lot the "spline" command for its rendering. The current spline implementation is in software and quite slow. I've already tried to implement it using a geometry shader but with no luck.

Could you take a dump of a single frame as follows:
- set the following video settings: disable all video options, just enable "Disable optimized VertexInfo reading"
- start the game and go to a part where the display is slow.
- Select Debug -> Tools -> Debugger. A new window will appear and the game will pause.
- in the debugger window, under "Misc", press "Capture next frame"
- Press "Run": the game will restart just for one frame and all the textures and intermediate rendered images will be dumped. Wait for the game to automatically come back to "Pause" again (this could take several minutes). The dump is then completed.

Collect all the images "*.bmp" created directly under tmp + the log file (this could be huge!) and upload them somewhere and post the link here.

Thank you!

[montcer9012]

Done.

There was also a file called "capture.bin" on main folder of JPCSP; you don't ask for it but it appear whit the dump so i put it on the file; just in case is necessary.

NOTE: Total amount was over 1GB so i cut the file on 3 pieces. Here is a batch to rename files cause forum upload don't let me upload the files life .00X format.

Code:

@ECHO OFF
REN "r2672 - MGPO+InfoLog+Capture.1.7z" "r2672 - MGPO+InfoLog+Capture.7z.001"
REN "r2672 - MGPO+InfoLog+Capture.2.7z" "r2672 - MGPO+InfoLog+Capture.7z.002"
REN "r2672 - MGPO+InfoLog+Capture.3.7z" "r2672 - MGPO+InfoLog+Capture.7z.003"

[gid15]

I've added the caching of the spline vertices when the vertex cache is enabled. Could you test the performance with r2674 when enabling the vertex cache?

[montcer9012]

You are almost there to make this game playable gid15. On r2674 game is MUCH more smoothly but as i say, still being a speed boost; is not a constant speed cause some times FPS goes down dramatically.

Also, i don't know why but the changes you made are giving crazy my ATI video driver hahahahaha. I test the game 5 times and on every try i made after 1 or 2 minutes of gameplay suddenly Windows alert that the video driver has stopped and this appear ...
   

... hyakki told on this thread that maybe updating the LWJGL to latest v.2.8.4 will bring some changes; however he also sayd that bug reports wouldn't count whit it so; what do you suggest to do?

Note: I am using Catalyst 12.7 BETA cause earlier versions of Catalyst gime me the same crash whit Java 7 but worse (On every games); i still whit Java 7 because it gave me a little speed boost on JPCSP running games. Also, this issue whit Metal Gear has only happen to me whit r2674+Metal Gear; other games does not crash like that.

[gid15]

Also, i don't know why but the changes you made are giving crazy my ATI video driver hahahahaha. I test the game 5 times and on every try i made after 1 or 2 minutes of gameplay suddenly Windows alert that the video driver has stopped and this appear ...

I've reverted in r2677 one optimization I introduced for the spline rendering from r2674. Could you check if the blue screen crash is still happening?

[montcer9012]

I will do a deeper test here cause the first time i try whit r2677 i got the blue screen crash. And for the speed issue, r2677/r2682 still the performance improvement made on r2674.

However, have try two times more for several minutes and theres no crash. For now i have to say that speed improvement still there but game still a bit slower. I will post the result after some more test.

Edit: Have tested the game on r2676/r2677/r2678/r2682 aaand, blue screen still coming. HOWEVER, i suspect that is another program that make the conflict whit JPCSP. I mean, if i only have JPCSP open i can play several minutes without blue screen crash. Have tried open just a program by time waiting for the crash and it happens whit one that use Java on the background and whit iTunes. Maybe the others program haven't something to do on the crash and it is a conflict code, i am not sure. So, how can i figure out where is the exact problem??

Edit 2:Here is a log of a playtrough i made without Windows crash; this was possible by closing all programs on the background. Also, even the video recorder make Windows crash if i try to record the game.

Note: Blue screen only happen playing this version of Metal Gear+JPCSP since rev 2674.

[montcer9012]

On r2684 blue screen has not happen again on latest Catalyst 12.7 BETA (July 19. I was on June 26 before); besides that, video driver just stop working and JPCSP recover like a gray/white screen.

gid15, could you open an issue on Google Code to let this game on stand by? AMD is supposed to release official Catalyst 12.8 "soon"; i hope when it is released compatibility whit Java 7 should be improved.

Thanks anyway for the fixes!

[montcer9012]

New try on r2703 + AMD OpenGL driver 6.14.10.11764 + Java 7 Update 5.

Have play it on about 15/20 minutes without crashing or Windows restarting. I can't say latest OpenGL fix the crash but at least is not so often.

As far i can see game speed still on 15/20 FPS; sometimes it drop down 5/10 FPS; that means that changes implemented since r2674 still there.