SimCity Societies: Destinations D3D9 Crash on newer DXVK versions than 2.3.1

AI Disclaimer: GPT 5.4 XHigh was used to debug this together with GhidraMCP
This text was predominately created by GPT 5.4 XHigh as well.

• On failing builds, Wine reports a null-read crash in game code at 0x00874076.
• Older DXVK builds and WineD3D work correctly.
• DXVK 2.3.1 works.
• DXVK 2.4 is the first known bad version.
• DXVK 2.7.1 fails.

Removing two D3D9 checks that reject non-color cubemaps allowed the game to launch successfully.

Software information

• Game: SimCity Societies Destinations (SCSDestinations.exe)
• Mods / add-ons:
  • https://github.com/nckstwrt/SecuROMLoader to bypass DRM.
  • No mods other than DRM bypass.

System information

• GPU: AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 (RADV GFX1201)
• Driver: radv 26.1.0
• Wine version: wine-11.8
• DXVK versions tested:
  • 2.3.1 working
  • 2.4 failing
  • 2.7.1 failing
• Local DXVK source revision used for workaround build:
  • Commit: 60978eb94c9ae51609b155f4f7e4c7f6f2fb6105
  • Version string from DXVK log: v2.7.1-591-g60978eb9+
• OS: CachyOS
• Wine prefix: /home/glenn/.wine
• Game directory: /home/glenn/.wine/drive_c/SIMCITY

Investigation

The failing code path decompiled into a function associated with texturecube.cpp.

• The game was dereferencing a cube texture pointer that had not been populated.
• That strongly suggested that a cubemap creation or cubemap capability check was failing earlier than the game expected.

Two guards were found that reject non-color cubemap formats:

• In src/d3d9/d3d9_adapter.cpp, inside D3D9Adapter::CheckDeviceFormat
• In src/d3d9/d3d9_common_texture.cpp, inside D3D9CommonTexture::NormalizeTextureProperties

Workaround

• Remove the D3D9 adapter check that returns D3DERR_NOTAVAILABLE for cubemaps when mapping.Aspect != VK_IMAGE_ASPECT_COLOR_BIT
• Remove the D3D9 texture creation check that returns D3DERR_INVALIDCALL for cubemaps when mapping.Aspect != VK_IMAGE_ASPECT_COLOR_BIT

Code changes to fix the crash

diff --git a/src/d3d9/d3d9_adapter.cpp b/src/d3d9/d3d9_adapter.cpp
@@
-    if (RType == D3DRTYPE_CUBETEXTURE && mapping.Aspect != VK_IMAGE_ASPECT_COLOR_BIT)
-      return D3DERR_NOTAVAILABLE;
-
diff --git a/src/d3d9/d3d9_common_texture.cpp b/src/d3d9/d3d9_common_texture.cpp
@@
-    // Cube textures with depth formats are not supported on any native
-    // driver, and allowing them triggers a broken code path in Gothic 3.
-    if (ResourceType == D3DRTYPE_CUBETEXTURE && mapping.Aspect != VK_IMAGE_ASPECT_COLOR_BIT)
-      return D3DERR_INVALIDCALL;
-