GameDB: game title and Ace Combat updates

[SlyAceZeta]

Description of Changes

1. Fixed some game titles (Ace Combat, Harry Potter, SpongeBob)
2. Added halfPixelOffset: 3 to Ace Combat 5 and Ace Combat Zero
3. Added mergeSprite: 1 to all three Ace Combat games

Rationale behind Changes

1. Consistent and accurate gamedb
2. In foggy scenarios, the ground and planes can appear misaligned. Setting halfPixelOffset to 3 is required to fix this.
3. Align Sprite fixes the black lines when upscaling, but there are still "invisible" lines in their place. Merge Sprite fixes this in all three Ace Combat games. This can be seen in gameplay and in menu screens in all three games.

Suggested Testing Steps

To test halfPixelOffset, play foggy scenarios and test all the options for halfPixelOffset. For AC5, I tested mission 27+ and compared the SOLG's textures. For AC Zero, I tested mission 07 and compared the ground textures.

To test Merge Sprite, simply enable or disable it during gameplay on any of them. For AC5, I did the same test with the SOLG's textures (the rotating arms are very helpful for this). For AC04, the main menu (after pressing start) has its background texture misaligned unless Merge Sprite is enabled.

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[mirh]

Explosions are a big issue with upscaling (and I would probably add a mention to it in the comments).
I also remember autoflush used to be necessary there?

[lightningterror]

Is Align Sprite still needed then?

[SlyAceZeta]

@lightningterror

Is Align Sprite still needed then?

It is, otherwise the targeting squares on the HUD become thinner rectangles instead of squares. It's hard to notice in screenshots, but:

Without Align Sprite

With Align Sprite

[SlyAceZeta]

@mirh

Explosions are a big issue with upscaling (and I would probably add a mention to it in the comments).
I also remember autoflush used to be necessary there?

I'm not currently seeing any change with autoflush enabled or disabled. What explosions were you referring to?

[mirh]

The burst missile explosions. They are blocky AF in hardware mode, and roundSprite=2 breaks them even further.
On the other hand, you are right.. auto-flush doesn't seem to be doing anything anymore now.
Maybe it's related to #1860 (comment) and #1547 (comment) (and perhaps I switched the rendering settings too many times now).

On the other hand I noticed "disabling safe features" doesn't seem to be doing anything either. And this is so odd though, considering I clearly remember Unscale Point and Line made a huge difference in menus. #6628

[SlyAceZeta]

@mirh

The burst missile explosions. They are blocky AF in hardware mode, and roundSprite=2 breaks them even further.
On the other hand, you are right.. auto-flush doesn't seem to be doing anything anymore now. Maybe it's related to #1860 (comment) and #1547 (comment) (and perhaps I switched the rendering settings too many times now).

Yeah, I figured you were referring to the burst missiles. I had tried enabling and disabling every option and nothing worked for them. If Auto-Flush fixed them at some point in the past, it doesn't now, though I should note that I'm using Vulkan by default.

On the other hand I noticed "disabling safe features" doesn't seem to be doing anything either. And this is so odd though, considering I clearly remember Unscale Point and Line made a huge difference in menus. #6628

As mentioned above, I'm using Vulkan, and on there disabling safe features indeed breaks the HUD and menus a bit, so that should remain enabled atm.

This PR is primarily to update some names and apply consistently which hacks are enabled by default for Ace Combat for environment rendering. This isn't a monumental update for these games, unfortunately, just what needs to be set at this time.

[mirh]

Yes, sorry, it's just that a combination of ancient memory and unholy bugs led me astray (fun fact: disabling interlace offset may make for "fuller" screenshots without stupid black border lines, but despite its stated purpose you are actually loosing so much in overall clarity).

Anyhow, I agree on the halfPixelOffset (good call on noticing 3 makes a big difference with fog)
But even putting aside explosions, I'm not totally sold on roundSprite=2. It fixes those little lines around the plane icon, yes, but text in menus gets fat enough that it starts to clip around the characters boundary too.
It's far from unreadable, but I have this little itch it's a bit more difficult to parse (it actually does border unusable, if you were to think to rely on #6553 though)

EDIT: also, while looking at level 5 (Rendezvous) I noticed "half" seems to make for ever so slightly more accurate fog

[SlyAceZeta]

Just putting this here somewhere, turns out if you set Blending Accuracy to Minimum, the main menu hover in AC5 gets discolored. Funny thing I just noticed since I was testing AC04 at Minimum.

Also @mirh If the burst missile explosions mean that much to you, I've discovered that you can set the Skipdraw Range to 2 to get rid of the annoying blocks associated with the explosions. It comes with its own visual glitches, most notably hiding the Warning and Score HUD elements every so often, but that might help with investigating what's causing the issue there.

I'm not totally sold on roundSprite=2.

I didn't set that in this PR. It was already present.

EDIT: also, while looking at level 5 (Rendezvous) I noticed "half" seems to make for ever so slightly more accurate fog

I don't think that's fog you're seeing. I think those are the shadows of the not-rendered clouds. Without being able to see the clouds, I can't confirm whether Half or Full works best there. I'd rather leave that for now (after all, I'm hoping to get this PR merged on its own merits, not what else needs editing in the gamedb...and I'd appreciate another review from an authorized user at some point...) until we can confirm the better option.

[mirh]

They aren't that much of a bother, but half seemed better. Yet, I guess it makes sense not to focus too much on them since they are broken anyway.

@RedDevilus did ship the present fixes in #5673, probably by just focusing very quickly on the HUD (because no way you wouldn't notice full is quite broken without merge sprite)

p.s. another small place where I found half to make a difference is the lights of the streetlamps of the runaway in the last mission. They are slightly off-center with full.