[Regression] Resistance 3: Broken water effects (#15683)

[digant73]

Quick summary

Just tested in deep the game playing it until the conclusion and noted crashes, graphical issues etc.

Target of this bug report is to fix the water effect issues reported below on the GRAPHICAL GLITCHES section.

Sections USED CUSTOM SETTINGS and CRASHES DUE TO BUGS are provided just to help the developers on setup and to alert them on other bugs affecting the game (e.g. crash due to DEVICE LOST also present in other games) in case they want to spend time also on fixing them.

USED CUSTOM SETTINGS:
Despite the fact the R3's wiki reports to change (compared to default settings) only "ZCULL Accuracy" to "Relaxed", proper settings to use with current RPCS3 seem to be (tested on different HW):

• "ZCULL Accuracy" set to "Approximate" (of course Precise is usable but it impacts performance a little more): ZCULL Accuracy set to Approximate makes performance a lot better than Relaxed (e.g. it also fixes the huge fps drop when zooming that I saw different times when Relaxed was used)
• "Write Color Buffer" set to "enabled": Write Color Buffer enabled fixes a graphical glitch present in the "Ambush" section in the "ST. Louis, MO" chapter

CRASHES DUE TO BUGS:

• The crashes (not so much frequent) are basically due to DEVICE LOST error that is reported on the log when the game crashes (attached log file is not related to a crash)

GRAPHICAL GLITCHES:

• Water effects and water drops: They are present in different sections such as "Boat Ride" section and next ones in the "Haven, OK" chapter (water in the river is not rendered properly), "Ambush" section and next ones in "ST. Louis, MO" chapter (rain drops are not rendered properly on the ground) and "Forest" section and next ones in the "MT. Pleasant, PA" (water's transparency in the river is not rendered properly).

NOTE: I tried all the settings present in "Advanced" and "Debug" tabs but none of them fixed the water effect issues (and also the crash due to DEVICE LOST)

EDIT:
Similarly to regression #15949, PR #15683 made the water effects worse than previous RPCS3 releases, although previous water effects were not on par with PS3's effects.

Attached pictures of PS3's effect, RPCS3's (almost) correct effect and RPCS3's broken effect taken on "Forest" section in the "MT. Pleasant, PA" chapter and "Flooded Town" section in the "Haven, OK" chapter.

PS3's effect

RPCS3's (almost) correct effect

RPCS3's broken effect

Details

No response

Attach a log file

RPCS3.log.gz

Attach capture files for visual issues

https://mega.nz/file/6nwVBaKZ#CIur0O6o1SV_gpotPIZAbioeUgSGMSl3vRWTx3m-WJ8

No response

System configuration

No response

Other details

No response

[Jonathan44062]

The Broken water texture is a known issue in all Insomniac Games (Ratchet & Clank, Resistance), see #12439

[digant73]

The Broken water texture is a known issue in all Insomniac Games (Ratchet & Clank, Resistance), see #12439

thanks for the feedback. I see that the issue #12439 is open since 2022 and that @kd-11 self-assigned the bug investigation. Hopefully he will have a look also to this bug. I have no idea if a fix is general for all games or it is specific for a single game.

[JimScript]

A thing to note about the regression is that it only affects Insomniac's deferred rendering titles(i.e. from Resistance 2 and beyond): Fall of Man flat out doesn't have this water shader issue, but Tools of Destruction and Quest for Booty both still have a water shader with problems identical to the rest of the series before the regression happened, so it's likely that the regression and the original issue are separate problems.

[digant73]

A thing to note about the regression is that it only affects Insomniac's deferred rendering titles(i.e. from Resistance 2 and beyond): Fall of Man flat out doesn't have this water shader issue, but Tools of Destruction and Quest for Booty both still have a water shader with problems identical to the rest of the series before the regression happened, so it's likely that the regression and the original issue are separate problems.

yes I added a note on that on the bug report's summary. Before the regression the water effects were different than what I see on a PS3 but not so bad. For sure with the regression the effects are a lot worse and visibly broken