Black screen on older Kirikiri visual novels (DX9, Direct3D)

[foraphe]

Some DX9 games (older visual novels using the Kirikiri engine, to be specific) display a black window (title bar working, the main area of the window completely black) on Arc graphics since some driver versions between 4672 and 4824 (4672 works, 4824, 4887 and 4952 don't). Audio works and the game runs fine (keyboard shortcuts working, buttons clickable even if I can't see them, no error popups).

The engine provides three draw modes, Direct3D(default), DirectDraw, and GDI. Direct3D has the above issue and the other two modes work fine. Examples include Piano no Mori no Mankai no **bleep**a and Meikei no Lupercalia. Some games don't provide the option to change render mode and default to Direct3D, making them unplayable.

I can confirm that the issue is with the driver by checking that both reverting to driver version 4672 and using iGPU on my Ryzen CPU solve the issue.

CPU: Ryzen 9 7950X

RAM: KingBank DDR5-6400 CL32 16G*2 running at DDR5-6000 CL30

GPU: Arc A770 16GB,

Motherboard: ASUS TUF Gaming B650M-Plus WiFi

PSU: Seasonic Focus GX 850W

SSU report is attached below. Report taken when I plug in a second monitor to my iGPU. The problem happens regardless of the second monitor.

[Jean_Intel]

Hello foraphe,

Thank you for posting back in the Intel communities, and reporting your black screen issue when playing Visual Novels. We would be more than happy to help you.

• To better assist you, we would like to ask for more information about the system. Provide us with the following:
• What game distribution service do you use to install the visual novels?
• We see that you have an Arc A770, but we want to confirm the exact graphics card model. Are you using a Limited Edition Card, or is it a model from any of the other Arc Cards manufacturers: Acer, AsRock, Sparkle, etc.?
• Was there another Graphics Card installed in your system before the Intel Arc A770 graphics?
• Is Reziasble BAR (Smart Access Memory) enabled in your BIOS settings?
• There is a new graphics driver available, so we would like to recommend you install the new driver, 31.0.101.4953, after running the  Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU). Note that previous driver files and leftovers can affect the functionality of your system, and the DDU tool will eliminate all the previous driver installation files. In case you have, we would like to ask you for an updated system report.

Best regards

Jean O.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[foraphe]

Thanks for the reply.

- The games are usually provided on websites like DMM, DLSite, or similar websites as archives that need download and extraction manually, and they usually use an external license management system (e.g. soft-denchi, in which case a license key will also be provided after purchase) for DRM. Considering the form of online distribution, I don't think distribution services are related to the problem either.

- The graphics card is a GUNNIR Arc A770 Photon 16GB (TechPowerUp link). GPU-Z screenshot is attached below.

- No, there hasn't been another GPU before except for the iGPU, which had been disabled in Windows device manager. The problem happens both with the iGPU disabled and enabled.

- Yes, Resizable BAR is enabled.

- I have uninstalled my Intel graphics driver using DDU and installed the latest 4953 driver. The problem persists. The new SSU report is attached below.

[Jean_Intel]

Hello foraphe,

Could you provide more details about the external license management system? You mentioned that the soft-Tenchi requires a license key provided after purchase; however, is it sent after you buy the game? Do you need to provide the license key when opening the visual novel?

You mentioned that you need to add more archives that need to be downloaded from different websites. Does this mean that you are using game mods (additional content besides the game's default version and DLCs)? If you have game mods installed in your system, could you try launching the visual novels vanilla version (no mods)?

Best regards

Jean O.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[foraphe]

Hello Jean

Here is the link to the official website of soft-denchi (Japanese), and here is a tutorial page on DLSite (English available) on how to use it (I'll call it "the software" in my reply below).

The license key is provided after I make a purchase, and there's some copyright protection feature built into the games' executables that communicate with the software installed on my computer. I am prompted to enter my license key at the first launch in order to play. I believe an online activation procedure happens after entering the license key since it usually takes some time and I have experienced network-related errors in the process a few times. The license key is single-use.

The procedure is similar to when I open the main executable of a game distributed on Steam, for example, directly. If I do so without having Steam logged in and running in the background, it will instead open Steam and require a login. The difference is that in visual novels' cases, the distribution platform and the licensing platform are different.

As for the archives, they are games themselves instead of additional DLCs or mods. After purchase, a download page, as well as the above-mentioned license key, are usually provided together. I need to manually download the game, extract the game's archive, and then do the licensing stuff mentioned above.

I have tried with some titles using both the unofficially patched Simplified Chinese translation version and the vanilla version though. Both exhibit the same behavior.

[foraphe]

Hello Jean,

As for the license, this is the official website of the software I mentioned (website in Japanese), and this is a tutorial from DLSite (English) on how to use it. The license key is indeed sent after I buy the game, and the game's executables communicate with the locally installed software so that I am prompted to enter the key at the first launch. I believe it's an online activation process since at times I see network-related errors (timeout etc.).

The way it works is similar to Steam, where games distributed require a login even if the game's main executable is directly started. But in this case "Steam" is replaced by another software that's independent of the game's distribution platform. 

The archives I mentioned aren't additional archives or mods. Instead, they're the games themselves distributed in the form of an archive. I indeed tried both unofficially patched Simplified Chinese versions and vanilla versions on some titles, both exhibit the same behavior.

[foraphe]

Hello Jean,

Here's a link to a tutorial to use soft-denchi (I'll call it "the software" in my reply below), as an example of how it works.

The license key is indeed provided after I make a purchase, which I need to enter when I launch the game for the first time after downloading.

When I open the executable of the game, it communicates with the software, which is installed independently of the game and requires me to input the license key if it doesn't find one already available in the software. The behavior of the game is similar to those distributed on Steam, for example. If I open the game's main executable (that I purchased and downloaded using Steam) without Steam logged in and running in the background, it instead opens Steam and requires a login to an account that had purchased the game. 

Regarding the archives, visual novels (or their Internet download versions, if a CD version exists) don't usually require installation. They are usually provided as archives, and "installing" just involves extracting the archive. I didn't intend to express that there are additional archives (DLCs, mods, such). I apologize if my wording was confusing, as English is not my native language.

[foraphe]

Hello Jean,

The license key is indeed provided after I make a purchase, which I need to enter when I launch the game for the first time after downloading.
When I open the executable of the game, it communicates with the software that's installed on my computer and requires me to enter the license key if it doesn't find one already available in the software. The behavior of the game is similar to those distributed on Steam, for example. If I open the main executable of a game distributed on Steam without Steam logged in and running in the background, it instead opens Steam and requires a login to an account that had purchased the game.

As for the archives, visual novels don't usually require installation. They are usually provided as archives (or CDs for package versions, but that's a different story and I don't have much experience with them), and "installing" is simply extracting the archive. I didn't intend to express that there are additional archives like DLCs, mods, and such.
I apologize if my wording was confusing, as English is not my native language.

I don't know if it's due to a link to DLSite, but this reply disappears every time after I refresh my browser. I'll instead quote the main part of the soft-denchi tutorial on DLSite here as an example, in case my expression is still somewhat misleading:

1. On the download screen, note down the soft-denchi number.
   After you have purchased the product, a 20-digit 「soft-denchi number」 will be displayed. Note the number down and download the product.
   The 「soft-denchi number」 will be required to run the product.
   
   
2. Unzip the product file
   Unzip the product file once the download is complete.
   
   
3. Install the product
   Unzip the product file once the download is complete.
   If the soft-denchi meter is not installed properly, follow the instructions to install the latest version.
   
   
4. Input the soft-denchi number
   When you run the product, the soft-denchi menu will appear.
   Click on the battery meter on the upper right of the window and type in the soft-denchi number.
   After, click the [ Recharge ] button to start the product

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[Jean_Intel]

Hello foraphe,

Thank you for the information provided. We would like to further look into this matter internally. Allow us some time to review this issue, and we will post back as soon as we have more details.

Best regards

Jean O.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Jean_Intel]

Hello foraphe,

Thank you for the inforamtion provided. We're stepping into this conversation to inform you that if the older products running on DX9 have a limited or niche market, it's unlikely that our driver debug team will prioritize fixing bugs related to them.

Could you confirm if any of these products are available on Steam? E.g. https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/DLsite

Additionally, we would need specific steps to obtain the software to try reproducing the issue. So we can test this internally if necessary.

Best regards

Jean O.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[foraphe]

Hello Jean,

I acknowledge that the problem will likely not be prioritized. It's totally fine if it's not prioritized or even not investigated (as the market is indeed a niche market outside Japan and due to NSFW content issues), but I do hope it gets fixed at some point.

First, I'll have to correct one of my mistakes made previously. Piano no Mori no Mankai no **bleep**a doesn't actually use Kirikiri. It instead uses an engine that I haven't seen before. According to hardware requirements, it requires support for DirectX 8.1 instead of DirectX 9. It's probably the same driver issue that caused both problems though, as in my tests the title exhibits exactly the same behavior as the other one, Chiisana Kanojo no Sayokyoku, which uses Kirikiri and DirectX 9.

Unfortunately, I can't find a product that both exhibits the problem and can be obtained through Steam. I can only provide the trial versions of the two titles I mentioned in my first post. And since the download links to one of them are mostly dead, and the other one is on DLSite, a link to which can't be posted on this forum. I believe the proper way to provide them is through a file hosting service. Here's the OneDrive link to the trial versions of the two titles: 

20231118_intel-arc-bug-report

The locale of the computer needs to be set to Japanese for the games to run properly (and even to get the extracted files to have correct filenames, probably due to text encoding differences). They do not contain DRM and they don't require licenses.

The two titles contain NSFW content (it's hard to find one without them), but only later into the game's plots. I don't know if progressing through the game is required, since the problem happens even at title screen. If the title screen or the very beginning of the game's content is enough for debugging, then they're probably fine. 

Besides, I've tested a few other titles myself. It seems that Kirikiri / KAG underwent some updates during the years (but it keeps using DirectX 9), and newer titles (ATRI -My Dear Moments-  and GINKA, for example), despite not having the option to change between render modes, run without problems. I can't find much information about the engine itself, though.

Thanks so much for your patience and effort.

Hope this information helps.

foraphe

[Jean_Intel]

Hello foraphe,

We appreciate all the inforamtion you have shared. We will proceed to resume our research into this matter internally, and we will post back as soon as we have more details about your issue.

Best regards

Jean O.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Jean_Intel]

Hello foraphe,

We appreciate all the inforamtion you have shared. We will proceed to resume our research into this matter internally, and we will post back as soon as we have more details about your issue.

Best regards

Jean O.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Jean_Intel]

Hello foraphe,

Thank you for waiting patiently for our response. After investigating this matter, we would like to inform you that we will forward it to our driver team for consideration. However, it is important to note that we cannot guarantee any specific outcome, timeframe, or resolution.

As we will be passing on the information to the relevant team, we will be closing this thread. If you require further assistance, please submit a new question, as we will no longer be monitoring this thread.

Best regards

Jean O.

Intel Customer Support Technician