Character sprite glitches in Capcom vs. SNK 2 (NullDC)

[Timstuff]

When I try to play this game using NullDC, the character sprites get messed up. They look like they're made out of tiles, with little gaps all over them, and line "halos" popping up around the edges. It's like the tiles that make the sprites aren't lining up right.



I'm using the NullDC graphics driver (not the Chankast one), and I'm using the NTSC-U Dreamcast Bios. Anyone got a suggestion to fix it? (BTW, the in-game pause menu is messed up too). My PC is a 2.66 GHz P4 with 512MB of ram.

[Timstuff]

Grrr... I found a way to fix the sprites, but unfortunately it causes all the other 2D stuff to look slightly distorted, or in the case of MVC2, it causes the exact problem I was trying to fix in CVS2. In the ATI Catalyst, I enabled "alternate pixel center," which had the aforementioned results. I should test using my arcade PC, but if I'm having a problem with my main computer, I don't imagine I'll have much extra luck on that one. Anyone have any bright ideas?

[MilliGoodz]

Greetings Timstuff, you must have changed/set the undocumented MultiSample values wrongly or too high. MultiSampling in nullDC >b1.5+ works great on 3D based games/backgrounds but it still contain some minor bugs on some systems/gfx-cards, especially on sprite based 2D games. Edit nullDC.cfg and set both “Enhancements.MultiSampleCount=0” and “Enhancements.MultiSampleQuality=0” to zero and see if that helps.

The sprite based 2D graphics in nullDC looks extremely pixilated in contrast to the smooth hi-res 3D backgrounds especially when upscaled on a hi-res computer monitor/HD-TV with multisampling enabled. A plug-in based RGB aperture overlay filter or scanlines along with applying enhancement filters such as Scale3x or HQ3x on the 2D sprites would be a much better solution. Cheers

[Timstuff]

I went to edit the .cfg values you suggested, but they were already set at zero.

I'm not really worried about pixellation in 2D sprite-based games since I'm going to be using a TV for my cab, and these kinds of games look great when running on a PC or arcade monitor. However, these annoying line halos and "cracks" on the sprites are proving to be quite a headache with CVS2. Today I should probably see if it's a problem on my arcade PC, but I'm not really expecting any difference since my main pc has a Radeon 9800, and my arcade PC has a 9550.

[MilliGoodz]

Greetings, this bug seems to be related to the ”nullPVR_Win32.dll” graphics plugin and only affects some systems. I just tested nullDC on my laptop computer with a GeForce 8600M and I got similar results as your screenshot (see pic below). At least this is not an ATI issue. I don’t have this problem on my stationary PC. The Chankast powerVR graphics plugin are even worst.

This is directly from the nullDC wiki:

“A new plugin and video shader for nullDC were released on January 10, 2008, to fix some display bugs and add the support for stereoscopy as per the specifics of the nVidia stereo 3D drivers.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NullDC

(downloadable under: History: “new plugin and video shader”. I have not tested that yet so I cannot confirm if that fixes the 2D sprite bug. Cheers.)

[Timstuff]

I tried out that supposed fix, but it seemed to cause more graphical glitches than it resolved, so I ended up uninstalling it. While it was installed, I noticed that the character on the right side of the screen seemed to have a lot less instances of halos and cracks, but they still happened, and the character on the left side of the screen showed no improvement at all. Also, like I said before, it caused a lot of new graphical glitches that weren't there before, like the ADX title screen looking patchy, and some 3D elements showing lots of clipping.

[Timstuff]

So, I take it no-one has yet found a solution? Too bad.

I'm guessing that this is a bug that would be best handled by the NullDC team... Although, it's been a pretty long while since the last version was released, so I'm guessing it'll be a while still before they get around to finishing the next one. Oh well, they're doing it for free, so it's not like I have much grounds for complaint.

BTW, out of curiousity, has anyone actually gotten CVS2 to work properly on their computer? I've tried it on both my main PC and my cab PC, and I've gotten the same problem on both.

[ratsflif]

It does the same thing on both of the MAME arcades I have built.  I have just learned to live with it until a new version is released.  Aside from the sprite glitches the game plays very well.

[Jdurg]

I highly doubt that you have Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 running in MAME, or CVS2 running in MAME.  In fact, I can guarantee you that you don't.   

[massive88]

I dont think he was saying that it was running in Mame, just on his dedicated Mame Box, through NullDC, a popular choice since Dreamcast was such an awesome platform for fighters.  Hence him waiting for another version, and experiencing the same problems.

[Jdurg]

I dont think he was saying that it was running in Mame, just on his dedicated Mame Box, through NullDC, a popular choice since Dreamcast was such an awesome platform for fighters.  Hence him waiting for another version, and experiencing the same problems.

Ahhhhh.  Okay.  My mis-read there.  Damned caffeine isn't working yet.   

[rlehm]

i was having similar results but when i put my comp in the cab, and ran the video to an arcade monitor, or tv, the problem was gone. maybe the tv/arcade monitor can de-interlace in some way or something... but it went from bad to perfect