Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch [BLES01555]

Hey everyone,

with the help of ssshadow, I've finally been able to go ingame on my disc version of Ni no Kuni.

So here's my setup:

Emulator version: rpcs3-v0.0.1-2017-02-19-47fdaf69_win64
PPU decoder: Interpreter (fast)
SPU decoder: Recompiler (ASMJIT)
Graphics renderer: OpenGL, Vulkan, DX12 (they all work) @ 1280x720, Frame limit: Auto, VSync enabled
Audio out: XAudio2
Input/Output: XInput

LLE modules:
- libac3dec.sprx
- libadec.sprx
- libatxdec.sprx
- libdmux.sprx
- libdmuxpamf.sprx
- libpamf.sprx
- libresc.sprx
- libsail.sprx
- libsjvtd.sprx
- libsmvd2.sprx
- libsmvd4.sprx
- libspurs_jq.sprx
- libsre.sprx
[- libvdec.sprx] (see below)

First, I had to go through a number of steps to get it running.

1) Dump the disc, patch with the appropriate IRD, decrypt & extract it with 3k3y (see the guide at https://rpcs3.net/quickstart)
2) Decrypt all the .sdat files in PS3_GAME/USRDIR and PS3_GAME/USRDIR/data using make_npdata.exe (see: http://www.emunewz.net/forum/showthread....#pid245289)
3) Delete PS3_GAME/USRDIR/libTGV_v1.45.07.sprx

When starting the game, it performs a short installation process. This worked flawlessly for me. Afterwards, I could go through various selection menus (language selection, main menu, difficulty, etc). The game's menus all look and sound accurate. Please note that if you enable libvdec.sprx, the main menu background is black.

After going through the menus, you'll get a couple of cutscenes. If you do NOT LLE libvdec, the cutscene transitions will be broken, i.e. after one cutscene ends, it doesn't start the next cutscene but instead the screen goes black. Make sure to press Start -> Skip cutscene BEFORE the cutscene ends to circumvent this problem. If you choose to use libvdec instead, the transitions work properly, but be aware that it slows down the cutscenes a lot so video and audio desync quite quickly.

After the cutscenes, the game switches to ingame graphics. I was able to run around, talk to people etc., however all ingame graphics flicker a lot on all graphics renderers (my impression is that SOMETIMES DX12 seems a bit better).
Characters are only partially visible, as are most other solid objects.

Additionally, the game freezes a lot. On OpenGL and Vulkan, this occurs usually within the first few seconds up to a minute. All in all I'd recommend using DX12 for this game for now. It seems to be the most stable and least visually glitchy choice. Using DirectX 12, I was able to play all the way to right after finding the spellbook in the fireplace in Oliver's house before the game froze, which is ~10 minutes into the game. The game lets you use the ingame save function from there, so I can confirm that saving to and loading from a savegame does work.

The framerate is quite good. Cutscenes and menus run at a full 60 fps, unless I use libvdec. I'm getting anywhere from 10 to 15 fps running around in Motor City (the starting area) with my i7 4770k (at stock speed, 3.5 GHz). In Oliver's House, I was able to reach ~20 fps in certain rooms. In other rooms, it tanked to 1-2 fps.

Audio, as far as I can tell, is flawless, nothing to complain about here.

In summary, I wouldn't really consider the game playable yet due to the distracting visual glitches and freezes. But what we get is extremely impressive nonetheless!

You can find various logs in this thread, including this one where the game freezes at the end.