[Special K] FFXV Performance Fixes

[Kaldaien]

Performance woes?

It has come to my attention that the game loads input icons synchronously any time it sees input on keyboard/mouse or gamepad.

This means if you are using a gamepad generally but you hit a button on your keyboard -- hitch. If you use keyboard/mouse but hit the analog stick -- hitch.

My own mod framework (Special K) is capable of working around this by preventing the game from seeing input events on devices of your choosing.

Download

I have packaged a version of Special K with a few tweaks for this game here.[github.com]

Install

Extract to FFXV's install directory, done.

Uninstall

Delete dxgi.dll, the Version and logs subdirectories (these are all part of Special K, not the game)

Configuration

Press Ctrl + Shift + Backspace to open Special K's config menu

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1323714752

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1323714894

Pro Tip
Press and hold Ctrl + Shift while the game is starting to access compatibility settings (reset config, remove the mod, disable plug-ins...)

Thread Rescheduling Details < 0.9.9.8 >

This (final?) update includes options that fix thread scheduling on the most important (least important, actually) threads.

Having these scheduled incorrectly is responsible for:

1. Increased load times (as is SteamAPI, as is anti-debug ..... Square-Enix hates us)
   
2. Audio stutter
   
3. Physics twitching

The thread priorities for VSYNC Emulation Thread and SwapChain Flip Thread are set way too high by Square Enix and are making it impossible to distribute a workload across your CPUs. This is known as starvation. You simply have things the game needs to be doing with the CPU that it cannot because Square Enix has too many threads running at a ridiculous priority level that is not generally useful for rendering.

Lower those thread priorities to Highest or Above Normal. I would suggest everyone do this, I even do it and I have plenty of CPU cores.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1348091770

0.9.12

Small compatibility update
Removed debug symbols (.pdb) because Square Enix deliberately broke the symbol loader -- you should manually delete SpecialK64.pdb if you have it.

0.9.13

Added new Thread Performance widget (see Widgets tab of config) and fixed a few issues related to properly identifying and changing the priority of VSYNC and Primary Render Thread

[Kaldaien]

Okay, I finally got the game to start acting up and leaking VRAM the same way as many other users are reporting. I even got the same exact worthless crash log.

On a hunch, I decided to look at the Steam overlay's logs....

https://pastebin.com/7TFwFNz9


I believe I now need to start asking to see the Steam Overlay's logs too, because it is the cause of at least two of these common problems being reported.

[Captain Murphy The Villian]

Originally posted by Aemony:

@Kaldaien: Maybe remove that post as the “answer” now? It doesn’t really help any longer since you do not preface it with anything in the opening post, confusing people.

Originally posted by FlyingFettucine:

Well damn, was gonna use this mod, but with a guy of this much expertise making these mods, and being to inject so well into games? I don't feel safe using it :/

Kaldaien himself have flagged that post as the “answer” of the thread. Suffice to say there’s nothing wrong with the mod. That comment, however, is typically what salty trolls and pirates throws around whenever Kaldaien’s mods come up. It is based on exaggerations and lies.

> Salty trolls
> Pirates
> Mod for his Special K Group
> Exaggerations and lies

I wonder if a mod of his group would lie for him? 🤔

[Osennyaya Rakovina]

Thx for this!!

[Starstrider-7]

Here's mine for a crash I just encountered:

gameoverlayrenderer: https://pastebin.com/eSSiuvRy

Looks a lot like the one you just posted. So this is indicative of a memory leak?

[Starstrider-7]

The time of my crash coincides exactly at the same time of these lines on the overlay file:

Sat Mar 10 18:11:44 2018 UTC - IAudioClient_Initialize - SUCCEEDED
Sat Mar 10 18:11:44 2018 UTC - Audio client initialized: 0x0000000095CB7CE0
Sat Mar 10 18:11:44 2018 UTC - Device:
Sat Mar 10 18:11:44 2018 UTC - Audio client mix format:
Sat Mar 10 18:11:44 2018 UTC - format: 1
Sat Mar 10 18:11:44 2018 UTC - channels: 2
Sat Mar 10 18:11:44 2018 UTC - samples/sec: 44100
Sat Mar 10 18:11:44 2018 UTC - bytes/sec: 176400
Sat Mar 10 18:11:44 2018 UTC - alignment: 4
Sat Mar 10 18:11:44 2018 UTC - bits/sample: 16
Sat Mar 10 18:11:44 2018 UTC - Audio client started: 0x0000000095CB7CE0, 2
Sat Mar 10 18:11:46 2018 UTC - IWrapWbemLocator 0000000004379FA0 deleting

Or are these from the MGS sound from the SpecialK mod?

[Doko]

The mod still doesn't appear to function even after I've disabled MSI AB. I've got nothing else running in the background besides Steam, Nvidia control panel and MS services. I still get the MGS sound and the game not booting up.

[Spiritreader]

I am 95% sure that I have identified the root cause of the "memory leak" the game has.

It struck me as particularly odd when Kaldaien said that he can't find any oddities when it comes to the engine loading and removing textures while playing normally, as I could also observe this from a completely non-technical perspective by just observing VRAM.

However when I was trying to route through a dungeon today, I discovered that
opening the main menu where you can adjust gear or go to the map adds 200-500MB to the memory pool, every time. Something must be off here.

I've recorded a video showing the issue. Unfortunately it does not show the actual crash or the MGSV-sound because my encoder fell prey to windows' memory management first.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86yh_VJcvX0&feature=youtu.be

[THE CHUNGUS]

so OSD is not wirking with FFXV?

[chrcoluk]

Originally posted by Kaldaien:

Okay, I finally got the game to start acting up and leaking VRAM the same way as many other users are reporting. I even got the same exact worthless crash log.

On a hunch, I decided to look at the Steam overlay's logs....

https://pastebin.com/7TFwFNz9


I believe I now need to start asking to see the Steam Overlay's logs too, because it is the cause of at least two of these common problems being reported.

How do I get these logs?

[CrescentMoon]

Can anyone confirm that the reshade plugin is working with the latest version of Kaldaien's mod?
I can switch it on, but after rebooting the game the plugin gets a reset.

With the older version the plugin works perfectly.

[Gabriel Angelos]

Originally posted by 芽依 恵介:

Originally posted by Aemony:

@Kaldaien: Maybe remove that post as the “answer” now? It doesn’t really help any longer since you do not preface it with anything in the opening post, confusing people.




Kaldaien himself have flagged that post as the “answer” of the thread. Suffice to say there’s nothing wrong with the mod. That comment, however, is typically what salty trolls and pirates throws around whenever Kaldaien’s mods come up. It is based on exaggerations and lies.

> Salty trolls
> Pirates
> Mod for his Special K Group
> Exaggerations and lies

I wonder if a mod of his group would lie for him? 🤔

I didnt get any crashes with this mod but for some reason i get 5fps lowers than without it (in some areas) and only few alt+enter fixes it for a short time until it comes back again....
Just because it works for you doesnt mean everyone who are having problems are part of your little ♥♥♥♥♥ list

[Aemony]

Originally posted by Dr. Bo:

Can anyone tell me HOW to save settings in Special K?!

Do you have a dxgi_custom.ini? If yes, try moving that out from the game folder. Or if no, try to create it instead, and leave it empty.

Seems this version have a few issues with saving changes correctly.

Originally posted by Fraggoth:

Oh, one question related to turning off Ansel - is there a special procedure one should follow to do that?

All I did was simply re-name the folder that Ansel is located in. It hasn't so much as popped up since, which I generally consider a success. Just asking to see if there's a cleaner/safer/better procedure to keep Ansel at bay.

Eh, if it works it works

The correct way is to probably strip the driver installation package from the NvCamera folder and simply install the display drivers entirely without Ansel to begin with. But this requires a complete driver reinstall.

You can also disable Ansel globally (although it'll still inject itself partially into certain applications) by running the NvCameraConfiguration.exe tool within that folder you renamed, and set Disabled at the bottom and hit OK.

Originally posted by Hanz:

Hi, I just have a small question regarding uninstalling this mod. Is "dxgi.ini" a part of this mod or is it the game's? Can I delete it too (along with the folders "logs", "Version" & dxgi.dll). Thank you so much for your hard work, I'm just uninstalling it to do a little comparison between with & without this mod to see how it affects the game.

Yes, it's a part of the mod.

dxgi.dll - the mod itself
dxgi.ini - stored settings for the mod
custom_dxgi.ini (might not exist) - overwrites settings in dxgi.ini
Version - version info for the auto-update check
logs - logs from each session

[Kaldaien]

Originally posted by chrcoluk:

Originally posted by Kaldaien:

Okay, I finally got the game to start acting up and leaking VRAM the same way as many other users are reporting. I even got the same exact worthless crash log.

On a hunch, I decided to look at the Steam overlay's logs....

https://pastebin.com/7TFwFNz9


I believe I now need to start asking to see the Steam Overlay's logs too, because it is the cause of at least two of these common problems being reported.

How do I get these logs?

They're in Steam's directory, GameOverlayRenderer.log

The only time I ever managed to get the engine to leak VRAM,followed by a crash, the overlay log was flooded with that. Every other time I've looked in there and everywhere else the overlay is behaving normally and not trying to release resources every second.

[Aemony]

Originally posted by Bloodotaku:

The moment I boot my game up I get yellow text saying that I have broken the rules and can't proceed yet im using a legit steam copy....

Revalidate the game files through Steam. Sounds like you've mistakenly extracted or downloaded an archive that came with steam_api64.dll file that overwrote the game's own file.

[Aemony]

Originally posted by 🐲ℝ𝔼𝔻™:

For some reason my game is keep crashing to desktop without any "game has stopped working" or smth like that error message - after a short amount of time playing. before using this gamepad config (disabled keyboard & mouse) my game was keep crashing after some time but with the "game has stopped working" error message most people get.
I can't find a solution for it...

Please help

Remove dxgi.dll to disable the mod, and see if it works better.

Originally posted by KingKj52:

"Problematic XLinput software (infinite heptic feed back loop)". I cannot get rid of this error. I've tried restarting steam, rebooting my PC, closing anything remotely related to overlays (GeForce Experience, Discord, etc.), all to no avail..

Is there some way to fix this other than just "Restart the client", as that hasn't worked for me.. feel free to get a bit technical with me. Thanks.

Edit: Tried reinstalling the mod as well, but the problem persists. Thinking of trying to reinstall the SDK that bundles XInput 1.3..

Edit 2: Tried uninstalling and reinstalling my 360 gamepad from device manager, but the problem still persists. Running out of ideas..

No idea. Hopefully Kaldaien can help you.