Translucent character models/roads/buildings/etc.

[ct2057]

Game version this happens in

v1.2.0.59

What area of the game

When playing the game after installing FusionFix, most objects that should be solid are now translucent - such as roads, character models, buildings, etc. I've noticed that toggling the Depth of Field setting to its maximum setting remediates the problem a little, but the problem is ultimately still there and in some cases makes the game unplayable.

Admittedly I am playing on a non-Windows machine; a Mac mini M4 Pro, running the game (via Steam) through CrossOver/wine. The game runs perfectly fine when playing the vanilla version, so this must be getting caused by something in FusionFix.

What should happen

The game should run just as it would in the vanilla version, albeit with much better performance/visuals/etc., where objects that should appear solid, appear solid.

CrashDumps and logs

No response

Last working version

N/A

Checklist

• [x] Test in the latest git build in case it's already fixed.
• [x] Search for other reports of the same issue.
• [x] Include logs or screenshots of issue.

[ct2057]

Here are a few screenshot to demonstrate the issue I'm experiencing. The first shows Niko's model translucent - you can see the car in front of him, through him. The other images show vehicles and other object being seen through buildings, pavements and roads.

[sejoki]

Same issue here. Regular M4, Crossover 25. Standard steam version runs fine.

My guess is that it's because of the DXVK version. Crossover 25 has MoltenVK 1.2/Vulkan 1.2, which can only run DXVK up to 1.10.3. Everything above that requires Vulkan 1.3 or higher. Also tested it by overriding d3d9, 1.10.3 is unchanged, 2.0 crashes the game on launch. I don't know if that's a software or hardware limitation.

It seems FusionFix doesn't require DXVK but provides some fixes for it. Maybe FF tries to adjust something 1.10.3 can't handle yet?

Edit: FusionFix 2.5.6 still works without issues

[ct2057]

Thanks for highlighting that there is another version FusionFix that appears to work OK, and an explainer about the DXVK versions in CrossOver - I wasn't aware of this (I was also hoping CrossOver 25 would have made things better, but I guess not). I could give 2.6.5 a shot and see how I go, but it's quite an old version now and looking at all the changelogs from that version to current, it makes me reluctant to do so.

[Parallellines0451]

Does it happen with 3.5.1 paired with these shaders?

update.zip

[ct2057]

Unfortunately no change @Parallellines0451 when using those shaders with 3.5.1.

[Surena0647]

Does this also occur if you play the game natively using directx 9? I personally haven't had issues with FusionFix 3.5.1 using an M2 Pro (12c/19c) by running the game in Parallels, which I've heard generally runs older games better than CrossOver does.

EDIT: I just read the comment made by sejoki. FusionFix doesn't require DXVK and you can perfectly use all functions of FusionFix without DXVK. In fact it is only recommended on Windows/Linux platforms because it runs better for some, but not others.

So if it doesn't work well for you then I'd rather run native instead of DXVK. Parallels doesn't even support Vulkan, so there should probably be a good reason for not supporting it.

EDIT 2: Here's a video of me running FF3.5.1 inside Parallels; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIAcXj6TfPE

[tmanning47]

Running an M4 Macbook Pro and IV via Porting Kit with the latest FusionFix and having the same issue of transparent buildings. Im assuming it's a missing DLL in winetricks but I'm having trouble figuring out which. Any updates?

[ct2057]

Running an M4 Macbook Pro and IV via Porting Kit with the latest FusionFix and having the same issue of transparent buildings. Im assuming it's a missing DLL in winetricks but I'm having trouble figuring out which. Any updates?

I second this as the original author of this issue ticket; any updates here? Anyone looking into it?

[masterjack1698]

I was about to fill an issue and found this one, i can report identical issues on M1 Pro Crosover25 patched with the latest MoltenVK (even the latest DXVK, but i'm not using it). The only difference is that i'm not using DXVK at all but instead i can only get to game with DXMT and D3DVK (or how it's called, the apple one). 2.5.6 as reported do works, and by following a random reddit i did also find out that if you swap the asi from 3.5.1 with the one from 2.5.6 the issue disappears. (not a big inside but maybe it could be useful to know). I didn't do any library override since it doesn't fix the issue.

[aadr1a-n]

Thanks for everyone who mentioned that downloading the 2.5.6 version will fix the issue. I am also going through the same thing where the textures are translucent using crossover on a Mac mini m4. I tried replacing just the ASI, but the issue is still there. I had to replace all of the files to fix it. Im assuming the issue must only be present on Macs running crossover as I haven't been able to find any discussions about it.

If anyones wondering, I tried to work around the issue by adding library overrides for dinput8 and d3dx9_43, but that didn't work. I also tried to install direct x from the install button on crossover. After doing all of that, the issue was still present until I downloaded the 2.5.6 version. That must be the only fix so far.

[ct2057]

Thanks both @aadr1a-n and @masterjack1698 for your inputs on this issue. I tried a couple of things off the back of your workarounds on my own installation, first keeping the latest version (3.5.1) of the updates folder in place but just updating the .asi with the one from 2.5.6, and secondly changing the updates folder and the asi from 2.5.6. With the former, I get an error before the game boots saying it was unable to find the asi file; the game continues to load regardless but the translucency issue is still there. With the latter, a little more straightforward because FusionFix has essentially been completely rolled back to version 2.5.6 - which resolves the translucency issue, and boots the game without any errors, but without the myriad of improvements that have been made since 2.5.6, of which there are many!

If push comes to shove, then at least we know we can run a somewhat improved version of GTAIV via CrossOver on a Mac with version 2.5.6. But I'm sure most will agree it would be nice to be able to understand what is causing this issue on the latest version, and be able to run this version - and future versions - of FusionFix on this configuration!

[ThirteenAG]

Nobody on development side of the project has access to a mac. So it's not something you can expect to be fixed. Also, the shader code works perfectly fine on windows. Whatever problem you have, it has to be fixed by the developer of the software that provides windows compatibility on mac. That's not to say it can't be fixed on Fusion Fix's side, maybe it can, but nobody knows how or what to fix or workaround. And lastly, you swap asi and shaders from different versions, that makes no sense. Versioned archives provided only work as a whole. You can't take things from one version and expect them to work on another, especially asi and shaders.

[Surena0647]

Version 3.5.1 seemed to work fine on Parallels, tested on my M2 Pro 16" MacBook Pro.

If you want to play IV then maybe it is better to try Parallels as it performs better and also supports fusionfix normally. Perhaps Windows on Arm (which Parallels uses) has better emulation performance and support for older x86 software compared to Crossover/Wine which merely translate and don't run Windows natively with its own Microsoft Prism x86 translation layer (far more powerful than Wine).

For anyone that uses Crossover, please try Parallels. I tried CrossOver Trial to see what the fuss is about FusionFix running on CrossOver and immediately when I start my game the game ran so laggy whereas in Parallels it performed MUCH better at higher graphical settings. And I also had the translucent texture bug on CrossOver, not on Parallels.

EDIT: If you own an Intel Mac (Pre-2020) then just run Windows through Bootcamp natively, as if it is a PC. If on Apple Silicon, then use Parallels to run Windows on Arm.

EDIT 2: I noticed high battery drain even during sleep, seems like if you close CrossOver then it will retain Windows processes open including GTA 4. You can see them if you open Activity Monitor and go to the CPU tab then click the "Type" sorting, which will either say Apple (Arm) or Intel (x86). All Intel processes will come up and most if not all of them are from CrossOver. Therefore even if CrossOver worked well, its translating to x86 and not to Arm, hence performing worse and also running slower than Parallels for GTA 4.

[ct2057]

While I understand your perspective @Surena0647 with using Parallels, and it is a workaround, some people simply aren’t interested in setting up an entire VM and the overhead that comes with it for the sake of running one game. Using Parallels and CrossOver both have their advantages and disadvantages, and I won’t engage in an argument about which is better and why; it’s down to personal preference on which people use, but I set up this issue ticket to: 1) raise awareness that this issue exists, 2) to see anyone else in the Mac/CrossOver/FusionFix community experienced the same issue, and 3) if anyone knew of a solution to the aforementioned translucency issue.

For me, CrossOver is the most convenient option and I can run GTAIV on max settings without any stutter or lag.

[Parallellines0451]

@ct2057 @masterjack1698 @tmanning47 @sejoki @aadr1a-n

Can you try this build? https://github.com/ThirteenAG/GTAIV.EFLC.FusionFix/actions/runs/16353901903

[aadr1a-n]

@Parallellines0451

I tested the patch you applied and to my surprise, everything worked well! All of the settings within the new release were also applied to the game with no issues. The nighttime graphics also look good with the project2DFX addition. If there's any way your patch can be added in as an official fix for non-windows / crossover users, that would be awesome. Thanks for going out of your way to fix it!

P.S: Just a tip for anyone else who wants to give it a try, don't directly copy and paste the files over as the finder app on Mac deletes the old files that were already in the GTA IV directory. Instead, in the GTA IV directory, delete the old fusion fix files from the previous version (in my case, version 2.5.6) and then you can paste over all of the contents from @Parallellines0451 patch to the same directory.

@ct2057 This should be the fix you are looking for.

[ct2057]

I want to extend my thanks to @Parallellines0451 for taking a look at this and supplying a fix. I tested this build on a weaker machine that what I normally game on - a 2022 M2 MacBook Air - and everything worked flawlessly! Simply incredible; this opens up GTAIV to so many people now, which can only be a good thing! I echo what @Parallellines0451 had said - if this patch could be merged with the official version of FusionFix please, that would be great and allow this fix to be much more accessible!

Again, many thanks for taking the time to look into this - much appreciated! I will close this issue now, as the problem is now resolved.

[ThirteenAG]

It will be in the next release, just wait.

[ghost]

Hi, I do experience the same issue, however, the build provided by @Parallellines0451 crashes my game on launch. 3.5.1 is ok, with the exception of that translucency mentioned above. 1.2.0.59, CrossOver 25.0.0, macOS 15.5, MacBook Pro (16-inch) 2019.

backtrace.txt

[tmanning47]

@Parallellines0451 Unfortunately the patch did not work for me, when spawning into Roman's apartment I see a block void (no buildings or lighting) and a yellow mission marker that leaves trails while moving the camera.

[Surena0647]

@tmanning47 Did you try the basics such as checking if the game still boots and works normally without fusionfix asi and try a regular restart of your Mac? Maybe configuration changes in CrossOver/wine? Or creating a new bottle and game (which fixed the issue astarend/ghost was having)?