[Special K] - ATTN: QLOC - Engine Is Broken - Fix Reference Counting

[Kaldaien]

For users familiar with past Special K releases, I will refer you here:

https://github.com/Kaldaien/SpecialK/releases/tag/sk_kiwami2

I'll try and clean this up later in the week and properly address a number of issues, this game needs a lot of work and I just finished a LOT of work getting Special K v 0.10.x ready for release, so we'll see where things go from here. Hopefully I can knock both things out at the same time ;)

To QLOC: Urgent Engine Issue

Please stop releasing reference counts by looping down to 0 on D3D11 Textures, RenderTarget and DepthStencil Views. This problem has existed in every iteration of the PC port of these games since Yakuza 0.

The correct way to handle reference counting so that you don't

1. Crash the game
   
   or
   
   
2. Lockup the game

is to acquire and release the same number of references. DO NOT release references to D3D11 objects that the engine didn't acquire. Other software holds references to D3D11 memory as well and if you erase references held by other things on Windows, you're going to cause spectacular software failure (crash, lockup, demons flying out of your nose[catb.org]).

I suspect you did this to try and release references to all render target views when going into fullscreen mode, more than likely the reference being held that you couldn't understand is an implicit reference held by anything bound using ID3D11DeviceContext::PSSetShaderResources (...). Don't zero-out the reference count manually, just clear everything bound the pipeline state object.

[pho]

Kaldaien の投稿を引用：

MarcoReckless の投稿を引用：

Exact same issue to me, only with this version though.

Do you have the log level set ridiculously high for some reason? The only thing that changed was I uncommented some debug code I use:

    if ( ThreadInformationClass  == ThreadHideFromDebugger &&
         ThreadInformation       == nullptr                &&
         ThreadInformationLength == 0 )
    {
      SK_LOG0 ( ( L"tid=%x tried to hide itself from debuggers; please "
                  L"attach one and investigate!",
                  GetThreadId (ThreadHandle) ),
                  L"DieAntiDbg" );

      if (config.system.log_level > 4)
      {
        SuspendThread (ThreadHandle);
      }

The game will stay in a suspended state if you have log level set to 5, and this is for reverse engineers, modders, whatever, to attach a debugger before the code that's trying to be sneaky has a chance to do stuff.

No luck with 0.10.1.10 either:
https://pastebin.com/LPGyL757

[HolyDeath3000]

Yunotchi の投稿を引用：

Ivandsi の投稿を引用：

Soooo how do I install it correctly?
I tried putting all files from the SK_Kiwami2.7z into the folder with the YakuzaKiwami2.exe but the game just doesn't open now. Steam says it's open but it doesn't do anything

Removing libScePad.dll from the game's root directory seemed to fix this for me, but it made my DS4 stop working. I fixed that by enabling DS4 support in the Steam Controller settings.

Does it still uses PS4 Button Prompts? And PS4 buttons? For me disabling DS4 support in Steam on the game gives proper PS4 Controller support and such. So I am a bit iffy on upgrading to higher version.

[HolyDeath3000]

Kaldaien の投稿を引用：

DemonSeed の投稿を引用：

Yeah, sorry I posted before fully testing it.
Removing just the scePad dll does nothing, but if you enable playstation controller support in steam, the DS4 works but it will obviously have xbox button prompts.
Deleting all 3 dll's breaks it, making the buttons be in the wrong places or not work at all, and having numbers as the button prompts.

I've updated the build on GitHub, you can opt back-in to scePad if you want by downloading the new version and then grabbing SpecialK.libScePad from the release page.

You'll be running higher overhead input code, but this isn't exactly a CPU demanding game in the first place.

Uh What exact stuff do I also delete from Directory? I have DS4 controller as well. But I want it to load natively without Steam loading it. The game supports DS4 Controller natively with proper button prompts and layout of PS4 version. I like using my Touchpad on DS4 controller for map.

[Kaldaien]

HolyDeath3000 の投稿を引用：

Kaldaien の投稿を引用：

I've updated the build on GitHub, you can opt back-in to scePad if you want by downloading the new version and then grabbing SpecialK.libScePad from the release page.

You'll be running higher overhead input code, but this isn't exactly a CPU demanding game in the first place.

Uh What exact stuff do I also delete from Directory? I have DS4 controller as well. But I want it to load natively without Steam loading it. The game supports DS4 Controller natively with proper button prompts and layout of PS4 version. I like using my Touchpad on DS4 controller for map.

That won't happen. Steam hooks all of the functions that scePad uses. It's interfering with that stuff either way. But you can put one of those blank files from the release notes into the game's directory and opt-back-in to scePad.

Namely, SpecialK.libScePad

[Hammer7]

Guess it doesn't work on Windows 7.

[HolyDeath3000]

Kaldaien の投稿を引用：

HolyDeath3000 の投稿を引用：

Uh What exact stuff do I also delete from Directory? I have DS4 controller as well. But I want it to load natively without Steam loading it. The game supports DS4 Controller natively with proper button prompts and layout of PS4 version. I like using my Touchpad on DS4 controller for map.

That won't happen. Steam hooks all of the functions that scePad uses. It's interfering with that stuff either way. But you can put one of those blank files from the release notes into the game's directory and opt-back-in to scePad.

Namely, SpecialK.libScePad

SO I leave the original files in? B/c when I deleted the lib files it caused button prompts to change to non ds4 ones. And I don't like that. And I have Steam Controller disabled thru this game so I can use the native support the game has. It not only shows proper buttons it also uses PS4 game layout with controller. So when you say it won't happen are you saying it won't do that? otherwise I won't be using this particular feature. I basically run the game locked at 48 fps anyways and smooth for most part.

Edit: I put Sce file back in with blank file and deleted lib files with the blank ones. And got the non native DS4 controller prompts.

[Kaldaien]

Hammer7 の投稿を引用：

Guess it doesn't work on Windows 7.

Does anything really work on Windows 7?

[HolyDeath3000]

I did put back the lib files as well with blank ones and DS4 prompts came back and such so that works. Is it better than using both files lib and blank lib files than just using lib files alone?

[Ivandsi]

Kaldaien の投稿を引用：

No idea, sorry. Maybe the Steam overlay's logs will tell you something?

I don't see any errors, at first I thought I might need to wait for a while but it still didn't work and in the logs I don't see any exception :/

[Kaldaien]

Important Note to Users of this Mod

Do NOT play the arcade games, or limit yourself to one play per-game session.

Playing the same arcade game twice causes crashes because the engine has deleted memory that my shader cache owns. Unlike the other types of memory bugs, I have no easy way to disable Special K's shader cache, it is a fundamental part of Special K and it is absolutely bullet proof stability wise everywhere except for this game. I will not be re-engineering the thing to compensate for this engine so you will need to exercise caution with arcade games until QLOC / SEGA fixes things.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1745116801

TL;DR:

Avoid arcade games and be suspicious if playing any minigame more than once causes the game to crash. That will be a repeatable event that you need to steer clear of until a patch is issued.

[Gonsnakex]

This engine is trash. I hate it everyday more and more. Thanks for the warning man

[Johnnius]

Bloody hell, thanks for wading deep inside this for us!

[pho]

Ivandsi の投稿を引用：

Kaldaien の投稿を引用：

No idea, sorry. Maybe the Steam overlay's logs will tell you something?

I don't see any errors, at first I thought I might need to wait for a while but it still didn't work and in the logs I don't see any exception :/

Your game will start again when you rename/delete/move libPxdPad_dynamic.dll, libPxdPad2_dynamic.dll and libScePad.dll

[Gromit]

Compatible with windows 7 ?

[Aemony]

Ivandsi の投稿を引用：

Kaldaien の投稿を引用：

Why are you showing me that log? That's almost useless by itself.

That was bit rude lol
Just as comment, I feel it could be useful to have readme file to tell people what logs to send you, just in case.

This is a really good idea, and something Special K releases in general is in need.

Something along the lines of:

SpecialK.txt の投稿を引用：

Special K is a game fixing framework that focuses primarily on render-related issues. Also serves as the injection base for all of Kaldaien's game-specific mods, and used as a general performance monitoring tool. New features are added with each game modified.

Source Code: https://gitlab.com/Kaldaien/SpecialK
Dumping ground for releases (no organization): https://github.com/Kaldaien/SpecialK/releases
License: GNU GPLv2 - https://gitlab.com/Kaldaien/SpecialK/blob/0.10.xdr/LICENSE

---

The main core of the tool is called [InjectionAPI].dll, such as dxgi.dll, d3d11.dll, dinput8.dll, or OpenGL32.dll. Removing or renaming this file is enough to disable Special K and prevent it from being loaded by the injected game.

---

Log files necessary for troubleshooting purposes is created in the Logs subfolder.

* [InjectionDLL].log - Main log file for Special K, stores injection, render pipeline, and other related events.
* modules.log - This registers DLL files that are loaded into the game. This can be a helpful resource to track down which third-party application's DLL files gets loaded by the game which might conflict with Special K.
* crash.log - Stores captured crash data if the crash handler of Special K were able to capture data related to the crash.
* game_output.log - Stores everything the game outputs to the standard output stream of the operating system.
* steam_api.log - Stores logs related to the Steam API and enhancements.
* ReShade.log - Stores logs related to the custom ReShade plug-in of Special K, if used.
* CEGUI.log - Stores logs related to the Crazy Eddie's GUI System component used for custom achievement popups and the on-screen display monitoring.
* dxgi_budget.log - Stores DXGI memory statistics at shutdown.

Typically speaking [InjectionDLL].log, modules.log, as well as crash.log includes all necessary information needed to troubleshoot an issue. Occasionally steam_api.log and game_output.log might also be of interest.