Progress Report (February 2020)

Do you expect some exclusive game reaching in-game for the first time? What about some sound improvements that also made some games that never booted to reach in-game for the first time? World’s First (not exactly..)?! While the compatibility numbers shown below aren’t as great as the latest 3 months, don’t let them cloud your judgement: the progress made this month affected even games that we can’t exactly confirm for now (blocked by some previous regression), so the numbers reflect our status, for now, expect much better results for when the regressions are fixed.

General Improvements

Move D3D9-specific vertex shader code out of XbVertexShader (PR #1821)

This change just aims at reorganizing some of the already existing code (so future changes are easier to do and new contributors have an easier time).

Fix argument order in HLSL lerp call (PR #1827)

Fixed the argument order in HLSL lerp call (the order of vOverride and vOverrideValue were reversed). Looks like a minor fix but this was enough to make Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance render most of the in-game graphics for the first time. As a bonus, this fix improved the huge memory leak from Bloodrayne 2 (which allows for much more progress before the game hangs).

Vertex shader runtime cache (PR #1828)

HLSL compilation is expensive and can cause stutter (to some extreme degree in some specific games like Azurik…), so this PR adds a runtime shader cache, to save compiling identical shaders more than once. Shaders are compiled asynchronously, meaning games that create shaders before they are used should have a faster boot (e.g. JSRF). 

Fix Sanity and Organize wfxformat into Functions (PR #1835)

Introduces WFXformat.hpp for windows platform in case of other Windows developer would like to try out old and new audio libraries. Plus fix rare sanity issue in some titles, relative to CreateSoundBuffer error: 0x80070057 (DSERR_INVALIDPARAM) error message. Here we have a nice bump on the compatibility, as this specific issue affected more games than we’ve expected (more details on the Notable Game Improvements section below).

Notable Game Improvements

Tennis Master Series 2003 [IN-GAME]

While in-game for some time, recent changes made the rage-inducing stuttering go away for good. Even with weak hardware, this game will now run with good performance (we still need confirmation if it’s 100% playable, testers are welcome).

Azurik - Rise of Perathia [IN-GAME]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oH4hHBodyY

Oh yeah, it’s in-game for the first time! This exclusive not only reached in-game this month but also had a nice performance boost with the implementation of the vertex shader runtime cache. As I can’t give only the good news: the game isn’t totally playable yet (game-breaking visual issues are present and some others will show up the longer you play the game). 

Pariah [IN-GAME]

Another game reaching in-game for the first time. In-game there’s no much to see (almost no geometry is visible, mostly only the HUD).

Road Kill [IN-GAME]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DTXmdYvQdY

Reached in-game recently and got a nice performance improvement due to the vertex shader cache implementation.

Bloodrayne 2 [IN-GAME]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUFyazsM5OA

Not only part of the rendering improved as one major issue was partially fixed: the memory leak. The longer you played this game in the past, more RAM was used until the emulator simply crashed. Now the game uses much less memory to run (still more than most games), so it’s possible to progress much further before any issue breaks it (crashes, hangs or visual corruptions covering the entire screen).

Godzilla Destroy All Monsters Melee [IN-GAME]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFPWiDFZYUE

In-game for a long time, this month our collateral damage simulator had some nice rendering improvements on the scenarios (issues left before becoming fully playable: monsters textures and menu rendering still being a mess).

Hunter: The Reckoning [PLAYABLE]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdocRO-ba94

The same improvements that fixed the stuttering in Tennis Master Series 2003 also fixed the same issue in this game + some nice stability improvements, which made it reach the playable state for the first time ever!

Rayman 3 - Hoodlum Havoc [IN-GAME]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=428gF0rAfZM

Recently reached in-game and now got a nice performance improvement. The only issue left preventing this from being fully playable: exploding characters geometry.

Conspiracy - Weapons of Mass Destruction [IN-GAME]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szF8wV4Mijo

In-game for the first time (and running fairly well in-game), you’re now able to explore some initial parts for the game… until it crashes randomly (can happen when you see the first enemy or randomly some seconds after that).

The Godfather [IN-GAME]

While already in-game last month, it’s worth mentioning that for the first time this game is rendering something instead of a simple black screen.

Dreamfall [IN-GAME]

The hanging before the main menu is now fixed, so you can finally progress further and reach in-game for the first time. While in-game most of the screen is invisible, with only the HUD being rendered.

Dynasty Warriors 3 [IN-GAME]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCohw8ReUto

Rendering improved a lot in this game, with pretty much everything being visible for the first time. Visuals aside, only performance is blocking the fully playable state.

UEFA Euro 2004 [IN-GAME]

Another sport game improved, now the rendering is much better than last month (while still not being very stable).

All Star Baseball 2003 [IN-GAME]

Sports? Yeap! Running with great performance? Indeed! The only thing left to confirm this title as fully playable is to finish the game (once again, testers are welcome).

Memorick - The Apprentice Knight [IN-GAME]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYLeGEPktgY

A great step into the playable direction… but no cigar yet. The major stuttering this game had is now fixed (and yes, was exactly the same issue that was fixed with Hunter: The Reckoning and Tennis Master Series 2003), but we still have some serious rendering issues (rendering distance isn’t the same as the original hardware and the entire screen can “freeze” while the game it’s still running).

Cel Damage [IN-GAME]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNA7O0NGfKc

In-game for the first time and rendering fairly well, the only issue breaking this game is the performance (while looking at some specific camera angles the framerate will drop to single digits).

Championship Bowling [PLAYABLE]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISKbHT2zFpc

Previously untested, we welcome this game to our list directly into the playable status. While the game works as intended™, there’s still some geometry issues with the characters models (but nothing that could break the game in any way or block the camera… it’s just… weird…).

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets [IN-GAME]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vFigVGCc70

In the past, this game used to crash on the intros. Latest months we reached in-game with it and now the rendering also improved. The major issue, for now, is the performance (at some camera angles and in some cutscenes the game will be painfully slow).

Wreckless - The Yakuza Missions [IN-GAME]

The crash before reaching in-game is now fixed, but the in-game isn’t happy to render (almost no geometry, if any at all, and the HUD).

Ty The Tasmanian Tiger 2 [IN-GAME]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkbLO5kUWI4

Stuttering fixed, we can now progress much further into the game, but there’s still a high chance of getting a random crash or hang.

Pool Shark 2 [PLAYABLE]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVIntV0izbo

Another previously untested game, runs fairly well even with weak hardware, with almost no visual issues.

Break Nine Billiards [IN-GAME]

Tested for the first time, but not playable yet. Some game modes are playable, but the main ones are still broken.

007 - Nightfire [IN-GAME]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgBLLojXqsY

In the past, I had to try around 40 times (not even kidding…) to reach in-game. Now it’s in-game every single time I run it, but it’s not that stable yet (sometimes you’ll be able to finish an entire level… others you’ll crash 20 seconds into the level).

Defender [IN-GAME]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YI12npd4Kg

In-game for the first time (thanks to RadWolfie for this fix), results can (and will) vary while you play. What “vary” means? Here are the possibilities:

- Hang on the menus before the mission

- Reach in-game and have many stutters

- Reach in-game and have no stutters at all

- The ship will sometimes render properly… sometimes not

Scooby Doo - Unmasked [IN-GAME]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLBBmGa5Hx8

This game had similar behaviour to 007 - Nightfire, needing to try many times before reaching in-game, and now you can reach in-game every single time. Even better: you can play this game a lot (almost finished it myself while making this report…), but there’s a scary random hang that will haunt you the entire time (sometimes some minutes into a level, while in a second run you can finish 3 levels in a row with no issues at all). We’re really close to fully playable and you can already enjoy a lot of the game right now (just be aware that you will miss some progress from time to time due to the hangs)

The Da Vinci Code [IN-GAME]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjRkcGCGRFk

One game-breaking issue was solved, another one was discovered. The Da Vinci Code always crashed while trying to throw the soap with the tracking device outside the window of the museum, but this was fixed. Progressing further, it’s now a rendering issue that will block your path (probably related to the special lights you need to solve a puzzle).

Scaler [IN-GAME]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00pMAFatq7g

Not the first time in-game, but it’s back in-game now (a regression made the game hang on the intros for at least a month). In-game performance is fairly good, the only major issue being stability.

Top Spin [IN-GAME]

First time on the list and first time in-game. After testing this game with older builds, I’ve noticed a sound issue that blocked it from even booting in the past (so this is a progress from broken to in-game). In-game isn’t very pretty for now (some of the geometry rendered incorrectly and some missing textures and effects), and it’s not running particularly fast.

Final Words

This month was the first time for many games and we want to bring many others to a better compatibility and performance state in the next months, and this wouldn’t be possible without the effort of all the developers behind this project. As a personal note (yeap, Strelok speaking here), I have made a small list of games affected by a specific issue (check here). The games affected by this issue were in-game before the regression and couldn’t see the improvements from all the recent changes made on Cxbx-Reloaded (let’s do the math, imagine how many of them are probably much better or even playable by now…). I’m not trying to say you should be excited for the next months, but you should be excited for the next months ;)

Want to take a closer look at the updated compatibility list? Check download link at the end of this report.

PS: I’ve changed the file type of the list to PDF to prevent some issues some users had in the past with the regular .xlsx)