Excellent deep dive and explanation of the process of tracking down and fixing it. Thanks for sharing it, it was a fun read. Will definitely keep this in mind next time I fire up farcry for some nostalgia!

The last image of this article shows the bug supposedly solved. But it does not show the same image with the bug. The images to show the bug are from different points of view, where it is difficult to appreciate the problem as the last image does.

Nowadays of course you would simply use DXVK for this. The wonders of Linux gaming spilling back over onto Windows.