Nier [BLUS30481]

I recently tried running NieR on my new laptop, and I'm having a similar time running it to Mute above - but amazing improvement from where it was last year!

Specs:
RPCS3 v0.0.6-7776-8920eda3 Alpha | HEAD
Intel Core i7 8750H (2.20GHz, 12 threads)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
16GB DDR4 RAM

At 150% resolution scaling (i.e. 1080p), the game is mostly running really well (when it launches). There's a few problems I'm having.

• very often, the game freezes with a black screen when it launches, after it's loaded compiled modules but before it shows the first loading screen or any of the opening titles. This seems to happen more often when I turn framelimit off, and regardless of which SPU options I've selected. When this happens, the log is always stuck at this point before I close the game: (full log attached below)
  

U {PPU[0x1000000] Thread (main_thread) [0x00f7bdb8]} cellSysutil TODO: cellVideoOutConfigure(videoOut=0, config=*0xd0080808, option=*0x0, waitForEvent=0)
U {PPU[0x1000000] Thread (main_thread) [0x0074bb88]} cellSysutil TODO: cellVideoOutConfigure(videoOut=0, config=*0xd0080470, option=*0x0, waitForEvent=0)
U {PPU[0x1000000] Thread (main_thread) [0x04c27d80]} sys_spu TODO: Unimplemented SPU Thread options (0x2)
U {PPU[0x1000000] Thread (main_thread) [0x04b9ff0c]} sys_prx TODO: _sys_prx_get_module_id_by_name(name=“cellLibprof”, flags=0, pOpt=*0x0)
E {PPU[0x1000000] Thread (main_thread) [0x04b9ff0c]} '_sys_prx_get_module_id_by_name' failed with 0x8001112e : CELL_PRX_ERROR_UNKNOWN_MODULE [1]
S {cellAudio Thread} XAudio 2.9 initialized
E {PPU[0x1000016] Thread (_cellsurMixerMain) [0x04b954ec]} '_sys_lwmutex_lock' failed with 0x80010005 : CELL_ESRCH [1]
E {PPU[0x1000016] Thread (_cellsurMixerMain) [0x04b954ec]} '_sys_lwmutex_lock' failed with 0x80010005 : CELL_ESRCH [2]
E {PPU[0x1000016] Thread (_cellsurMixerMain) [0x04b954ec]} '_sys_lwmutex_lock' failed with 0x80010005 : CELL_ESRCH [3]
E {PPU[0x1000000] Thread (main_thread) [0x04c61ee4]} 'sys_fs_stat' failed with 0x80010006 : CELL_ENOENT, “/dev_bdvd/PS3_GAME/USRDIR/MEDIA/2D/SYSTEM_US.2DP” [1]
E {PPU[0x1000000] Thread (main_thread) [0x04c61ee4]} 'sys_fs_stat' failed with 0x80010006 : CELL_ENOENT, “/dev_bdvd/PS3_GAME/USRDIR/MEDIA/STABLE/2D/SYSTEM_US.2DP” [1]
E {PPU[0x1000000] Thread (main_thread) [0x04c61ee4]} 'sys_fs_stat' failed with 0x80010006 : CELL_ENOENT, “/dev_bdvd/PS3_GAME/USRDIR/MEDIA/2D/SYSTEM_US.2DV” [1]
E {PPU[0x1000000] Thread (main_thread) [0x04c61ee4]} 'sys_fs_stat' failed with 0x80010006 : CELL_ENOENT, “/dev_bdvd/PS3_GAME/USRDIR/MEDIA/STABLE/2D/SYSTEM_US.2DV” [1]
S {PPU[0x1000000] Thread (main_thread) [0x04ba09ac]} PPU: LLVM: Loaded module v1-tane-ZAhea3FFhakpfMa36ZvaNx-000000-skylake.obj
S {PPU[0x1000000] Thread (main_thread) [0x04ba09ac]} sys_prx: Loaded module: /dev_flash/sys/external/librtc.sprx
U {PPU[0x1000000] Thread (main_thread) [0x000c30d4]} sceNp TODO: sceNpBasicRegisterHandler
E {PPU[0x1000008] Thread (CtDev) [0x04c62000]} 'sys_fs_opendir' failed with 0x80010006 : CELL_ENOENT [1]

• I'm occasionally getting audio desync in the longer cutscenes, mostly only on the first time playing through a cutscene - though nowhere near as bad as it used to. It seems to run better on ASMJIT+Giga, or LLVM+Mega, but it might just be running better because I've already compiled all the cutscene shaders, I'll need to test on a later cutscene to be sure.
  
• Without framelimit, I'm nominally getting 40fps in the village, but the motion is very jerky and Nier seems to be running a bit too fast. It also seems to fail to start more often. Setting framelimit to 30 and the game runs smoothly at the correct speed, without jerky movement (except very occasionally).
  
• I am also seeing the strange adaptive lighting issues. In outdoor areas, it's not too much of a problem, but in a few places such as the library, or going from the top to bottom floor of Nier and Yonah's house, the screen gets extremely dim. I don't have a real PS3 to hand to compare, unfortunately.
  
• There's a weird interaction between the LLVM recompiler and the block size:
  • If I try to use the LLVM recompiler with SPU block size on 'giga', RPCS3 crashes entirely before the game window even opens. (log attached)
    
  • If I put the block size to 'mega', the game runs perfectly (at least, through the prologue and running around in the village, and going through the Lost Shrine through the Hansel and Gretel fight).
    
  • However, if I put the block size to 'safe', the entire emulator (not just the game) freezes on a black screen after the Squeenix/Cavia/etc. titles but before the "Weiss! You dumbass!" intro video, and I have to kill RPCS3 with Windows. (log attached)
    
• The shadows in the prologue cutscenes look really weird - not just pixellated but full of weird banding and aliasing. There's a bit of that in the real PS3 footage, but it seems to be a lot more noticeable in RPCS3. That might just be a result of upscaling the resolution though.
  
• Occasionally in outdoor areas I can see shadows of objects through walls. For example, on the approach to the Lost Shrine, I can see a shadow of some crates.
  
• The shadow artefacts are pretty strong on Hansel and Gretel, unfortunately I didn't manage to get a screenshot. There were also a couple of textures not rendering when the Shrine collapsed, though that might be because the shaders didn't load in time.
  

Overall, I think it's running well enough that I could stream this game from RPCS3, which was my aim, and I'll have lots of videos when I do.