Ppsspp: [iOS13 -> iOS14] Some games display incorrectly in iOS14 but were perfect in iOS13

[junyang95]

What happens?

After I upgrade to iOS14, I found some games can not display correctly, but were running perfectly on iOS13.

Here are some screenshots:

What should happen?

I used IR interpreter on both ios 13 and ios 14, as well as the same ppsspp version 1.10.3.

What hardware, operating system, and PPSSPP version? On desktop, GPU matters for graphical issues.

iphone 8p, ios 14.0 and ios 13.7, 1.10.3-712

[yoshisuga]

Using the IR interpreter on iOS 14, I found that movies aren't playing correctly - might be an ffmpeg library issue?

[sizmos]

I am also experiencing the same thing with gta vcs on iOS 14 where the mini map is not showing, making the game no longer playable
Using IR interpreter also as dynarec no longer working on iOS 14
Running on an iPad Pro 11 and have tried every combination of graphics settings
The map works when going inside a building as there is no base texture and it is transparent

[SwiftBMan]

iphone7 iOS 14
Running game crashes
iOS 14 iOS 14 iOS 14 iOS 14 iOS 14 iOS 14 iOS 14

[hrydgard]

My current theory on this is that iOS 14 might not work correctly with memory mirrors, which is how we implemented the PSP's uncached memory space, which many games use to upload textures. We might have to use MASKED_PSP_MEMORY, for a small performance impact...

[leegendary813]

What should I do about this problem. Other people say it’s an ios 14 issue, and I’m not sure what to do. As you can see in the picture below you can’t see the character portraits to the top right, so I cannot see the character’s hp and sp levels making it hard to play the game. Also the buttons to attack, defend, etc. are gone because of these annoying squares. If there are any solutions please let me know

[hrydgard]

I don't know where you are getting your iOS builds of PPSSPP, but I made a change that should appear in new builds that might fix it. Possibly. Not sure :)

[sizmos]

I have tried the latest being https://p.xx.wtf/PPSSPP_v1.10.3-988-g624998bec.ipa which seems to be after the commit to master. However I am facing the following error when trying to boot up all games.

[junyang95]

I am facing the same issue, "Failed initializing CPU/Memory", when start the game. I am using the PPSSPP_v1.10.3-988-g624998bec.ipa on my iOS14 device.

[butstevetho]

Having the same issues with P3P, HUD/GUI elements and text do not load within battles (or any 3D scenes that contain a HUD). iOS14, latest build of ppsspp via p.xx.wtf (v1.10.3-1099-g085900adb from 2nd of November)

I can confirm like many others, using Dynarec (JIT) causes PPSSPP to crash when you attempt to launch any game, forcing you to use either Interpreter or IR interpreter as the CPU Core.

[hrydgard]

Yeah, dynarec will probably never work again on iOS without jailbreaks. Blame Apple.

[butstevetho]

Yeah, dynarec will probably never work again on iOS without jailbreaks. Blame Apple.

Never say never! There was a time when it was generally known that you can never install an emulator on iOS without jailbreaking, but here we are! Anyways, my point here is I have faith in you ;)

Is this error occurring directly because of not using JIT? Ultra bummer, I switched to apple just when the party ended lol

[hrydgard]

No, I think this is some other change they've made that's affecting the emulator weirdly. I posted my theory a few posts above, and I'm gonna try to get a workaround in sometime soon - but my theory might be wildly wrong, we'll see.

Don't go with Apple if you wanna emulate ;)

[butstevetho]

Don't go with Apple if you wanna emulate ;)

Work is the reason I went Apple. Anyway this isn't entirely accurate because between PPSSPP, Delta and Provenance, I can emulate nearly every game I want.

P3P is the only game giving me trouble. If you have something that needs to be tested via-a-vis ios14 bugs, I would be happy to put my device to use.

[sizmos]

I have just tested the latest build for iOS on iPad with gta vice city stories and it seems to show the intro screen, though after that everything is black. From the opening cutscenes to the actual gameplay. I can hear the audio, though that’s about it. As for the settings, everything is set to default except for the cpu core which I set to IR interpreter (interpreter also acts the same). I have also tested mortal kombat and nothing shows but a green screen

[hrydgard]

Oops, didn't mean to close this issue.

[hrydgard]

So there's a difference from previous builds?

[sizmos]

Yes, the last build I tested just crashed when opening
https://github.com/hrydgard/ppsspp/issues/13451#issuecomment-714824055

[hrydgard]

I guess that's some kind of progress then .. And I believe more in my theory - though I would have thought things would work now.

Can anyone test Persona?

[sizmos]

Persona shows the intro screen, though goes to a black screen once it reaches the menu. I can hear the sounds for the menu options though

[hrydgard]

Okay, apparently for others the whole game worked before except the UI in battle? Talking about Persona 3, of course.

[sizmos]

Yes that is the one I tested, might be worth comparing the settings for those it worked for

[butstevetho]

Persona shows the intro screen, though goes to a black screen once it reaches the menu. I can hear the sounds for the menu options though

I can confirm this is what happens on persona 3 portable.

Is it worth mentioning that ios14 had a bugfix update yesterday?

Okay, apparently for others the whole game worked before except the UI in battle? Talking about Persona 3, of course.

Before this update, persona 3 appeared to work fine until the first battle, which looked like this:

Now the entire game is a black screen but audio and input still works. I also see some weird artifacts from time to time.

[hrydgard]

Okay, I think I'm gonna revert. I don't understand at all what's going on but it has to have something to do with the memory mirrors.

Trying to revive my old iPad Air to see if I can get iOS 14 on it... EDIT: No, only 12.4.8 :(

[MCJD931]

I can add a little to this issue: I first encountered this issue when trying to use the teleporter in Persona 3 Portable, and noticed the texture for Tartarus was missing, when I actually teleported, the game crashed. I switched from IR Interpreter to Interpreter, and it allowed me to use the teleporter, but walking around the dungeon was laggy, and when i started a battle, the same issues shown here happened: Missing battle textures. I might wanna note that laggy dungeon/crash might just be a simultaneous entirely different issue, since no one else is mentioning it. But considering both issues revolve around the 3D parts of the game, I.E. dungeon exploring and battles, I doubt it.

[hrydgard]

Laggy/crash can just be results of using the IR Interpreter, it's considerably less mature than the JIT unfortunately and has some bugs left.

As for the graphics issue.. Still baffled on what could have changed between OS versions to cause this. After my previous tests, it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the memory mirrors. Maybe an obscure texture format we are using stopped working? Would be very weird though.

[byeblack]

But Apple introduced support for jit in iOS 14.2, I think ppsspp can also be updated to make jit work better.

Laggy/crash can just be results of using the IR Interpreter, it's considerably less mature than the JIT unfortunately and has some bugs left.

As for the graphics issue.. Still baffled on what could have changed between OS versions to cause this. After my previous tests, it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the memory mirrors. Maybe an obscure texture format we are using stopped working? Would be very weird though.

[hrydgard]

Of course it can, but is this something Apple accidentally exposed and will be taken away again, or is it something permanent? Either way, someone will have to do the work to integrate it into PPSSPP. I don't have an iOS 14 device at this time.

[MCJD931]

Laggy/crash can just be results of using the IR Interpreter, it's considerably less mature than the JIT unfortunately and has some bugs left.

As for the graphics issue.. Still baffled on what could have changed between OS versions to cause this. After my previous tests, it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the memory mirrors. Maybe an obscure texture format we are using stopped working? Would be very weird though.

i don't think it's IR since i never had any problems before i updated to ios 14, and regular interpreter also gives lag, tho no crash. but i haven't been able to test these issues in 1.10.0+ because of the syntax error issue, so it's possible that they're two different issues, and also possible the laggy/crash one was fixed in 1.10.0+, but i can't tell whether this is true or not.

[hrydgard]

Syntax error issue?

[MCJD931]

i'm talking about this one

[MCJD931]

i know it's a different issue it's just prevented me from testing things in 1.10+

[hrydgard]

Well you haven't reported that one, how am I supposed to know about it! Do you see that in the very latest builds? I fixed a related issue recently

[MCJD931]

it's the same issue as the one you recently fixed i just haven't had the chance to go on the newest builds because i'm on ios and i have no idea how to use the latest builds on ios

[butstevetho]

it's the same issue as the one you recently fixed i just haven't had the chance to go on the newest builds because i'm on ios and i have no idea how to use the latest builds on ios

https://p.xx.wtf has the latest iOS builds. You'll need to use something like AltStore to install the latest ppsspp .ipa builds on a non-jailbroken device.

[firelad97]

On v1.10.3-1306-g31648acc2 using A12 chip (XR) UI textures are still missing from battles and teleporter. This makes battles unplayable as I can't see HP/SP, but there are some text when selecting commands (especially when Skill is selected and I can see descriptions for skills, but not skill names).

Other than that, the game is very, very smooth. No issues at all. Just missing UI textures. Using JIT core.