Runs very poor on AMD RX 9070 XT

[F4rhang]

Hi. I have an AMD RX 9070 XT and an AMD 7800X3D which I can play most AAA games at maximum setting with triple digits frame rate.
This game is horribly optimized. On Epic settings and 1440p I can get around 50 frames per second with 100% GPU usage. And the game doesn't even look good.
@Dev: Can you at least add Upscaling features like FSR?

[Eyes]

Hello! Sorry to hear you're unhappy about the game running at 50 fps on Epic Graphics!

Epic does indeed run at your native resolution. If you want to use a mode with resolution upscaling, try one of the lower settings like High. There are a few other tweaks between High and Epic, but the resolution upscaling is the most impactful.

[F4rhang]

Dude, 9070 XT is currently the best AMD Graphics Card. Why do I have to lower the Details in a 2D Game? I can play Silent Hill 2, Space Marine 2 and every other AAA game at maximum details easily. There is something seriously wrong with your game.

[8BitBeard]

Hey, thank you for your feedback. Even though gameplay is 2D, we're using the latest Unreal Engine with Lumen and Nanite, combined with a sophisticated procedural generation setup for the level geometry.

We know that the highest scaling settings are currently very demanding, so we recommend to use "High" settings mostly.

So far we've been dedicated to optimize the lower end of our spectrum to deliver an optimal experience on the Steamdeck. We'll be looking at improving performance for the maximum "Epic" settings in the coming weeks as well. I hope until then you can enjoy the game in "High" settings.

[AG]

There's your answer, Unreal Engine. By default it's a performance hog, adding Lumen and Nanite just makes it worse.

Would be nice if someone updated the specs for the game, because it makes it seem like anyone can run this game, but I feel like it's 8GB+ VRAM? Aren't Lumen and Nanite DX 12 only features?

[Eyes]

Originally posted by AG:

There's your answer, Unreal Engine. By default it's a performance hog, adding Lumen and Nanite just makes it worse.

Would be nice if someone updated the specs for the game, because it makes it seem like anyone can run this game, but I feel like it's 8GB+ VRAM? Aren't Lumen and Nanite DX 12 only features?

Yes, but the game also can run without Lumen and Nanite in DX11 mode.

The minimum specs are for playing the game in "Low" graphics settings. We've tested the game extensively on the Steam Deck which was our benchmark for the "Low" setting. We think it still looks pretty great on the Deck! There is still some optimization work to do though to improve the experience on the Deck, but it's mostly CPU improvements at this point. This means that when hosting a cave on the Deck it can drop below 30fps currently. But the game prioritises beefier CPUs when choosing a host so it should be unusual that the steam deck is the host.

[AG]

Originally posted by Eyes:

Originally posted by AG:

There's your answer, Unreal Engine. By default it's a performance hog, adding Lumen and Nanite just makes it worse.

Would be nice if someone updated the specs for the game, because it makes it seem like anyone can run this game, but I feel like it's 8GB+ VRAM? Aren't Lumen and Nanite DX 12 only features?

Yes, but the game also can run without Lumen and Nanite in DX11 mode.

The minimum specs are for playing the game in "Low" graphics settings. We've tested the game extensively on the Steam Deck which was our benchmark for the "Low" setting. We think it still looks pretty great on the Deck! There is still some optimization work to do though to improve the experience on the Deck, but it's mostly CPU improvements at this point. This means that when hosting a cave on the Deck it can drop below 30fps currently. But the game prioritises beefier CPUs when choosing a host so it should be unusual that the steam deck is the host.

How do we enable DX11 mode? I don't think I had the option to select it before launch and I tried the "-dx11" launch options and it didn't seem to change anything.

And to focus on a Steam Deck version is commendable when companies shoot too high and totally ignore it, still shocked AC Shadows runs on it. It's not a perfect science, but it is nice for it to work on Low settings, but would be nice if it was capable of 60 FPS, but I imagine DX11 can help?

[Eyes]

How do we enable DX11 mode? I don't think I had the option to select it before launch and I tried the "-dx11" launch options and it didn't seem to change anything.

Yes, -dx11 should work and did when I tested it just now.

[AG]

Originally posted by Eyes:

How do we enable DX11 mode? I don't think I had the option to select it before launch and I tried the "-dx11" launch options and it didn't seem to change anything.

Yes, -dx11 should work and did when I tested it just now.

Is there a way to tell it's running in DX11? Would performance change at all? My CPU and GPU still run high. Thank you.

[Eyes]

Originally posted by AG:

Originally posted by Eyes:

Yes, -dx11 should work and did when I tested it just now.

Is there a way to tell it's running in DX11? Would performance change at all? My CPU and GPU still run high. Thank you.

Well... it generally doesn't look as good :D

It might not actually improve performance either as we use Nanite for optimizing the poly count quite significantly. And with dx11 that would be disabled.

Otherwise, you can check the logs at C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\CaveGame\Saved\Logs and look for "D3D11", it should say something about "Using RHI D3D11".

[AG]

Ah, gotcha. Thank you for the insight. I did find the logs and it did say "Using RHI D3D11".

[President of his Fan Club]

Can you run other UE5 engine games on max settings?

[Eyes]

We've added support for DLSS and more control over the amount of upscaling the game does in the latest patch: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1555980/view/526465274493272212

I hope to add support for AMD's FSR technology in a future version.