DJ Max Portable Black Square - Anti-CFW trigger on Redump ISO

[meowthed]

Game or games this happens in

ULKS46189 - DJMAX PORTABLE BLACK SQUARE http://redump.org/disc/35689/

What area of the game / PPSSPP

In-game, there is no sound, and after a while the graphics glitch out. The game is treating PPSSPP as if it has a CFW.

What should happen

The game should work as intended. There is an ISO floating around that removes this protection, but I think that the Redump ISO should work out of the box.

Logs

Log file reached over 25MB.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1V_Cfesg9Z1zPcm4eMl-9LdQSg4xBAu9F/view?usp=sharing

Platform

Other

Mobile phone model or graphics card

OPPO:CPH2349, Nvidia Geforce GT 740M

PPSSPP version affected

1.13.1

Last working version

No response

Graphics backend (3D API)

Other

Checklist

• Test in the latest git build in case it's already fixed.
• Search for other reports of the same issue.
• Try resetting settings or older versions and include if the issue is related.
• Try without any cheats and without loading any save states.
• Include logs or screenshots of issue.

[sum2012]

Try Simulate UMD Delays option as mention in
#7647 (comment)

[meowthed]

Turning on Simulate UMD Delays doesn't work with this game unfortunately.

[anr2me]

May be we can figured out what being changed from the patch, do you have the patches mentioned here?

[meowthed]

the patch does exist but I wasn't able to find it, AFAIK it just fixes some bugs not in relation to CFW detection.

[anr2me]

I remembered reading the first patch description that it fixes graphical glitches and audio issue caused by the anti-piracy, but can't find the download link anywhere.

This post also confirms that the patch related to anti-piracy issue

Alternatively, someone said that you can also use a plugin called cfwblock to play DJ max 3/Black Square, but such plugin probably won't work on PPSSPP.
However, if we can decompile the plugin, may be we will have a clue on how to fix it.

cfw_folder_blocker_v1.1.zip
Edit: i can't decompile cfw plugin as it's not recognized as ELF/PRX (seems to be compressed/packed/encrypted), but based on the description it only hides some folders from being detected

CFW Folder Blocker is a plugin that prevents UMDs from detecting the presence of the ms0:/seplugins/ and ms0:/iso directories/ on your Memory Stick.

This plugin is developed to hides those folders in game mode so they cannot be accessed or deleted.

Note from developer:

This plugin is for the protection of your files on your Memory Stick and will not bypass any anti-ISO protection in games.

Use the original UMD and it will work fine, and your files are also safe. 

[meowthed]

so it seems that the plausible solution is for PPSSPP to block the game's protection via telling the game that there's nothing there in the directory Black Square is running from?

[hrydgard]

This is what the existing compat.ini setting "[HideISOFiles]" tries to do, maybe it has broken somehow. Does this only affect this specific edition of DJ Max? Its ID seems to be listed under HideISOFiles...

[meowthed]

Black Square (ULKS46189) - doesn't work
Clazziquai Edition (ULKS46190) - works
Fever (ULUS10403) - works
Portable (ULKS46050) - works
Portable: Hot Tunes (ULKS46240) - works
Portable 2: Sound Miracle (ULKS46116) - works
Portable 3 (ULUS10538) - works

tested every DJ MAX game, and it seems that aside from Black Square, every other game works fine. There must be some other method of detection that said protection has that using [HideISOFiles] does not do a thing to this game.

[sum2012]

@meowthed plugin is added from v1.12
see #13335

[sum2012]

Can someone upload graphics glitch out 's video in youtube ?

[ppmeis]

Tested in latest build. I check that HideISOFiles is set as true for this game and it works fine. No anti-CFW artifacts or glitches. Just remember some of this games need to enable "Simulate UMD Delay" adn "Force real clock sync".

[unknownbrackets]

Are there bugs in the game if you don't enable "Force real clock sync"? While that can positively impact input lag (especially for a 30 FPS game), it should be "undetectable" by the game itself. It would seem like there's a bug if it actually changes game behavior outside responsiveness to input / network / camera / external stimuli.

-[Unknown]

[ppmeis]

I tried with "Force real clock sync" and it works fine too. I thought that option was needed before to prevent anti-CFW protection.

But I have to say I notice something weird in this game. When you play a song for the first time, notes are choppy, but framerates seems to be fine. So if you restart the same song now notes are ok. I will try to upload a 60fps video and you can see clearly this issue.

Update: Here is the video. It's 56MB so I uploaded to Google Drive:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jqkuKlARBbp2--SEWa39I8aSFc-Ad3Sc/view?usp=sharing

[unknownbrackets]

It looks like you're using texture upscaling - does that happen if you turn off any texture upscaling / replacement?

-[Unknown]