RPCS3
Silent Hill: Homecoming - Black Screen just before ending cutscene
Quick summary
Hitting a reproducible black screen freeze after the final boss cutscene, but right before the ending starts (I'm on track for the good ending, specifically). Tested on AMD desktop and Intel and Nvidia laptop.
Details
Right after you defeat the final boss and Alex walks into the camera and the screen fades out, I briefly see the typical book object in the top-left corner of the screen, and then it just simply hangs and freezes with a black screen. Normally, this should go to the next and final cutscene right after an actual loading screen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu-GNNi44Xc - Imagine it freezing right at the 7:14:52 mark. (Sorry for long video, want to be descriptive.)
Attach a log file
Attach capture files for visual issues
No response
System configuration
Desktop: Custom Ryzen 7 3700x RX 6700XT - Version 2.0.288 Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB 3200MHz DDR4 870 EVO 2TB SSD OS: Arch Linux
Laptop: Dell Inspiron 7559 i7-6700HQ GTX 960M - Version 545.29.2.0 Timetec and OEM (?) 16GB DDR3L 1600MHz WD Blue 6TB HDD (from a NAS RAID) OS: Arch Linux
Other details
I tried disabling all patches (60fps and no film grain) and enhancements individually, including using default settings. Verified the dump, reinstalled the game a few times, did a second dump of the game itself (from the disc).
is this still a thing?
Just tested it after updating today. Yes, this seems to still be unresolved.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD6pO96jMgU
I mean, supposedly this guy managed to complete the game fully, including the good ending. It was also uploaded two years ago and I don't know what OS they were using. It's either a Linux-only problem or a regression.
Though, my issue was placed on the RPCS3 wiki itself as "Known Issues", so they are at least aware of it and, I assume, the problem is verifiable? https://wiki.rpcs3.net/index.php?title=Silent_Hill:_Homecoming
Still, it's really frustrating not being able to fully complete the game, when they still have it listed as "Playable".
That sucks! I really like this game and wanted to go through it again since I've only beat it once. If I decide to anyway, I'll update on wether I get to see the ending or not.
Has anyone managed to dig deeper?
I can confirm the issue is still there. Initially I tought it may be dependant on the version chosen. But, judging from the logs, OP is on the US version, I am on the BLES00307 version. Tried every kind of different settings to no avail.
Apparently someone uploaded a youtube video about 3 months ago and the game is fully playable, but since no emu infos are given it may have been recorded much before.
I am on Arch Linux (btw) too, like OP. However I have tried to kill the last boss on a Win 10 machine (baremetal, not VM) and got black screen anyway, so OS does not seem discriminant either.
I have also hopped on the discord, noticed there are some messages here and there about the game but nothing too in-depth.
Running a SH marathon and sucks to leave a game hanging there, especially given that is not a top priority game and has been in current bugged status for more than 1 year.
Nozonyan, thanks for confirming that this also effects the European version and also Windows, as well. Now, we know the error is both OS-agnostic and (likely) region-agnostic.
I imagine this is the video you are referring to? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK1EkX_Yi9E
If so, the uploader got a different ending than what I was going for. It would be helpful to know which ending you were on track for yourself to help us narrow down the error.
I've tried digging deeper and using several different older builds of RPCS3 via AppImages, but the error remains. I chose these builds because they would be AROUND the time of the upload I linked a while ago, with some leeway for specific versions of the emulator. I've used:
- rpcs3-v0.0.21-13534-5eeb79ff_linux64
- rpcs3-v0.0.22-13832-4fb5bd76_linux64
- rpcs3-v0.0.23-14008-fd1968dd_linux64
- rpcs3-v0.0.23-14027-2ec03936_linux64
- rpcs3-v0.0.23-14090-80f07411_linux64
Version 0.0.21 had terrible and constant audio issues, in specific. Playable, but a garbled mess, lol. Version 0.0.23-14090 has a reproducible crash on start-up when linking PPU modules.
I have also noticed that regardless of build, including the most up-to-date ones in the AUR, there is a small audio pop in the cutscene after the final boss is defeated. Don't know what it means, but perhaps there is some importance there. Can you confirm this yourself, by chance? You may need to turn your audio up, though.
I also see in the log that it was failing to destroy a mutex and couldn't access a file, so I tried changing the thread scheduler to the RPCS3 Scheduler and modified the preferred SPU threads to both 1 and 6. 6 threads is similar to PS3 official hardware.
Perhaps I'm missing a specific build of the emulator, but there is literally hundreds of them and I can't reasonably go through all of them.
Really sucks that it STILL isn't fixed.
Unfortunately it was my first playthrough so I was not on track for any specific ending. From a quick glance at that youtube video it seems I made different choices than him, at least regarding the mom. So perhaps you are onto something that it may be related to specific endings. Sadly even the few users reporting the issue on discord do not provide any detail at all with regard to the specific settings/OS/versions.
Anyway, I have commented on the videos perhaps the uploader will help us some.
Will add my logs just in case
Thanks for the quick reply. Sorry to spoil anything for you, but the link below lists what choices you need to make to get all the endings.
https://www.silenthillmemories.net/sh5/endings_en.htm
If you are referring to the video I recently sent you (the one made a few months ago), he got the Hospital ending. If you made a different choice in regards to Alex's mom (which you implied), but made the same choice in regards to the father, you were on the good ending, too. The video I sent a while back in response to DavidTigerfang was the good ending, the one I was about to get.
If you can confirm your choices, and you were indeed on the good ending, I'm leaning this is a regression tied to the good ending specifically.
I also tried a different, older build of RPCS3 which was released about a week before the 2022 video I linked was uploaded: rpcs3-v0.0.23-13988-052725fd_linux64. Didn't change anything, though. Although, upon looking at the description of the video, the uploader mentioned audio crackling issues on older builds in the video description, which lines up with the audio problems I was experiencing on version 0.0.21.
I, too, made a comment inquiring about more system info, settings, and RPCS3 build he was using. Hope he replies with something noteworthy.
Now the log you sent was a bit illuminating, as I noticed some similar error codes towards the end, which would be indicative of right before we closed our games.
E sys_fs: 'sys_fs_open' failed with 0x80010006 : CELL_ENOENT, “/dev_hdd0/game/SHVH06660/USRDIR/MESSAGE.LOG” [1] E sys_fs: 'sys_fs_open' failed with 0x80010006 : CELL_ENOENT, “/dev_hdd0/game/SHVH06660/USRDIR/MESSAGE.LOG” [2] E sys_fs: 'sys_fs_open' failed with 0x80010006 : CELL_ENOENT, “/dev_hdd0/game/SHVH06660/USRDIR/MESSAGE.LOG” [3] E sys_fs: 'sys_fs_open' failed with 0x80010009 : CELL_EPERM, “/dev_bdvd/PS3_GAME/USRDIR/STREAMING.LOG” [3]
Just checked, and the 0x80010009 error is right around when it crashes, refusing to hit the loading screen to get to the ending.
Maybe I missed something, but couldn't find the mutex destroyed error I had as follows. E SYS: 'sys_mutex_destroy' failed with 0x8001000a : CELL_EBUSY [1] E SYS: 'sys_mutex_destroy' failed with 0x8001000a : CELL_EBUSY [2]
I have NO idea what these errors mean as I am not a dev, but being able to recognize patterns is important when trouble-shooting, lol.
It's interesting that supposedly other people are commenting about this on Discord, as well. I complained about it on Discord myself right before I opened the issue on Github.
I took up your lead on the ending theory.
EU version BLES00307.
- I went to gamefaq to download savegames so I could try different endings.
- I have downloaded
From [farmery87](https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/community/farmery87) (09/12/2009; 556KB)
Hospital Ending. Plenty of Health Drinks/First Aid Kits/Serums. All Photos/Pictures collected
to force the hospital ending we saw in the most recent youtube video. 3. unzipped and processed it with bruteforce save date. 4. loaded it into rpcs3 5. killed the last boss 6. ending played smoothly.
So here are the only 2 possibilities
- specific ending (good ending only?) are bugged.
- something in the gameplay cause the issue to happen.
The most likely is number 1: good ending is bugged.
What I will do now: download saves for each ending, try them all, report back which ending is working and which isnt. But for now we seem to have nailed down the issue real good.
edit:
So I have played through all the endings and they all played just fine. What is causing the issue then? Could it be something that happens during the playthrough that causes the ending to not play at the end? Perhaps difficulty related? All the save games are on hard mode, while my original play was on normal.
That's as much as I am willing to investigate for this game.
Okay, so I tried the US saves by pherio that were available on gamefaqs, although the description of the ending did not match what ending I was receiving. I personally used Apollo Save Tool to decrypt the saves and overwrite the existing file.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps3/942059-silent-hill-homecoming/saves#:~:text=For%20Silent%20Hill%3A%20Homecoming%20on%20the,PlayStation%203%2C%20GameFAQs%20has%2014%20save%20games.
Similar to you, yes, all the saves played out fine and I got to see all the endings, including the good ending. It is unlikely to be difficulty related because, fortuitously, I played on Normal and all the saves uploaded by pherio were on Normal.
The audio pop that was present also showed up on his saves, so that is also unlikely to be the issue, although weird.
What is strange, however, is that my save made in RPCS3 is missing a file that was present in all of pherio's saves. The missing file made in RPCS3 was PARAM.PFD. The total size of my save was slightly smaller at 572kb, whereas pherio's saves were 604kb.
I also noticed that button prompts were different in pherio's saves and the game was considerably darker (visually), even at max brightness (despite using the same settings when I played through both saves).
Pherio
Mine
I'm hoping that this information somehow improves the debugging process, but I am currently out of ideas, except there is, perhaps, an issue with the saves made in the emulator. If you do notice anything that might indicate why the button prompt differences, save data, and visual affects might (somehow) be related, I'm sure we would all appreciate any feedback on that from you, as well -- In fact, if you can verify your own button prompts, saves, and visual affects or discrepancies, maybe this could also open up an unexpected path for further debugging.
However, for the time being, I need to step away from this myself because I have killed this final boss more times than I can count and the fact that the core issue still seems to exist, is starting to wear me down...
Although, I guess I did manage to see the ending, in a weird workaround, lol.
Hmmm. It seems like the visual discrepancies were due to the saves being MADE with different settings than what I normally use. It doesn't seem like you can just change it from the main menu, then use the save, and it will retain those settings. However, the custom controls that I used were still working like normal, despite the button prompts being off.
That might just be an issue in the game itself.
I broke the game with Hard difficulty and Good Ending in today, the ending cutscene was played. For me, the problem has been fixed. I played with BLES00307, So at least this version is probably fixed.(I took a screenshot of the ending cutscene, but I don't know how to send the image)
Edit:I retyped the ending by loading the last save, and the problem is still there. I think the key is in the last save point. Possible theories: if you load the save in last save point and beat the boss, the problem appears. In contrast, this problem does not occur if the save is load at an earlier save point.
Just updated from the AUR again and loaded my old, borked save. I don't have an earlier save point to check (and I can't go to another as the doors are locked or jammed), but the error still persists.
It's unlikely to be tied to that specific save point as the saves I got from Pherio are from that save point, but all of their endings worked for me. I believe nozonyan also tested saves in the European version from the same area, too and got similar results.
I don't know, but maybe it's just something random that occurs throughout the playthrough. A.K.A. - the worst type of bug.
Maybe. I came up with this theory because I actually load the save in save point of the judge QTE room(I must return to 30fps to pass the QTE part so I quit the game once) and complete the game. If possible, I'll try this theory at New Game + to see if it works.
Is this game considered unplayable now due to the ending cutscene bug?
I’ve been checking some YouTube videos and this guy seems to have finished the game and get the end credits in it. Looks like this was from about 4 months ago.
https://www.youtube.com/live/T6AdHC9Lsw0?feature=shared
Depends on what you define as "unplayable"? The game worked totally fine, with all the enhancements and patches I wanted, until the final cutscene.
Clearly, some people are experiencing this issue and some aren't. Seems to be tied to specific playthroughs/saves, making it reproducible and (seemingly) uncorrectable.
We don't know what is causing it, at this point.
is that still an issue?
Updated from AUR again using rpcs3-latest-bin. Yes, still a problem.
Interestingly, there appears to be a similar issue in Downpour regarding a reproducible crash near the ending which I also experienced.
https://github.com/RPCS3/rpcs3/issues/15296
Maybe there is a link between the two games that could perhaps solve this, but the devs don't seem to be doing anything.