[Special K] General Performance Fixes

[Kaldaien]

Let me start by saying my normal computer is dead from Hurricane Ian, so I'm not at the top of my game here, but I have found some things the engine is doing needlessly once per-frame that cause performance issues.

A test build of Special K (SpecialK64.dll) is available from https://sk-data.special-k.info/misc/SpecialK64_P5R.zip

Suggested Settings in Game:
* Windowed Mode
* 120FPS Limit (even if that's higher than your referesh)

Suggested Settings in SK:

1) Borderless Fullscreen
2) Framerate Limiter ON (calculates refresh automatically)
3) DXGI SwapChain Settings:
3.1 > Backbuffer count = 4
Max Device Latency = 5

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Best that you first install Special K from https://special-k.info to setup pre-reqs, then before running SKIF, replace the SpecialK64.dll that came with it using the one out of .zip file above.

[Peixinho]

Othinus původně napsal:

Peixinho původně napsal:

It helped mine, it was unplayable, but now is a little playable, still stutters considerable, but at least i can play somehow...

Don't play the game like this man it will ruin your experience. I don't play it yet because of this problem and Atlus doesn't release a fix for this yet is annoying!

I have to, i'm playing on game pass, i don't have money to keep buying it and neither to buy the game itself, really expansive here, so i have a time limit hahaha just like everything in the game

[D. Knight Dietrich]

Unfortunately this doesn't seem to make a difference for me having the 100% GPU usage issue and a 3070.

[Othinus]

Liam původně napsal:

Rubyeyed původně napsal:

I wonder if they are even considering making a fix/patch at this point. 97% positive reviews = everything is perfectly fine.

There's movement on the depots with the QA build as of a few hours ago, when I think it was last touched like a month or so ago. So I think they're doing something at the very least!

https://steamdb.info/app/1687950/depots/

And going by past SEGA patches, they'll probably let people try it ahead of time with a beta branch to make sure it works properly. So fingers crossed they're able to resolve some of the larger issues people are having.

What are depots and when can we expect the first patch?

[Zunnoab #931]

Many thanks, and sorry to hear about the hurricane damage.

Othinus původně napsal:

Liam původně napsal:

There's movement on the depots with the QA build as of a few hours ago, when I think it was last touched like a month or so ago. So I think they're doing something at the very least!

https://steamdb.info/app/1687950/depots/

And going by past SEGA patches, they'll probably let people try it ahead of time with a beta branch to make sure it works properly. So fingers crossed they're able to resolve some of the larger issues people are having.

What are depots and when can we expect the first patch?

https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/application/depots

Basically it means they can see there has been developer activity with a QA build of the game for internal testing.

[Peixinho]

It really helped for the first time, but after closing the game and opening again later all the stuttering, fps drop and 100% usage got back... Sadly, back to waiting a patch -.-

[ロリ妹]

This fix every issue for me. GTX1070 here
Before
-random screen freeze when all-out attack or cut in animation when attack weakness
-fps drop to 3x-4x in Yongen / Shibuya
Now I have constant 60fps with some drop to ~57

Only issue I have is it make the game start in window mode. In-game setting still borderless though, don't know why. I have to set it back everytime I run the game. No big deal compare to before.

Big thanks

[the_randomizer1889]

Wondering, should I buy this again, but to play on my Steam Deck? Surely, that would run stably as well?

[Arthur]

the_randomizer1889 původně napsal:

Wondering, should I buy this again, but to play on my Steam Deck? Surely, that would run stably as well?

I've seen a few people say that its running pretty well on the Deck :b Don't have one myself though, can't confirm

[the_randomizer1889]

Arthur původně napsal:

the_randomizer1889 původně napsal:

Wondering, should I buy this again, but to play on my Steam Deck? Surely, that would run stably as well?

I've seen a few people say that its running pretty well on the Deck :b Don't have one myself though, can't confirm

Also do we know if DVDX or whatever it's called works in tandem with Special K? I have a Steam Deck, and the game on the Series X, but no longer in my Steam Library, so I'm mostly curious.

[Arthur]

the_randomizer1889 původně napsal:

Arthur původně napsal:

I've seen a few people say that its running pretty well on the Deck :b Don't have one myself though, can't confirm

Also do we know if DVDX or whatever it's called works in tandem with Special K? I have a Steam Deck, and the game on the Series X, but no longer in my Steam Library, so I'm mostly curious.

Idk, SpecialK didn't do anything for me, so I removed it. I am using DXVK though, working pretty well, the game is running much better and I've seen no graphical glitches so far

[nfinite.recursion]

the_randomizer1889 původně napsal:

Arthur původně napsal:

I've seen a few people say that its running pretty well on the Deck :b Don't have one myself though, can't confirm

Also do we know if DVDX or whatever it's called works in tandem with Special K? I have a Steam Deck, and the game on the Series X, but no longer in my Steam Library, so I'm mostly curious.

No. Use one or use the other.

SpecialK overrides DX11's draw calls. DXVK is a DX11 -> Vulkan wrapper; it translates DX11 calls to Vulkan equivalents and allows more efficient use of multi-core CPUs, especially if they have 6 or more cores. RAM usage increases however because DXVK caches draw calls and shaders. Additionally, there will be some stutters as DXVK compiles shaders, but after they get compiled it shouldn't stutter anymore. The shader compilation will occur in new areas and when new effects appear onscreen. The modified DXVK-async alleviates this but you may miss out on some effects due to shader compilation on the first go around.

EDIT: SteamDeck and Linux in general uses DXVK already with P5R since neither has the ability to directly run Windows games. It's a part of the Proton Compatibility Layer.

[the_randomizer1889]

nfinite.recursion původně napsal:

the_randomizer1889 původně napsal:

Also do we know if DVDX or whatever it's called works in tandem with Special K? I have a Steam Deck, and the game on the Series X, but no longer in my Steam Library, so I'm mostly curious.

No. Use one or use the other.

SpecialK overrides DX11's draw calls. DXVK is a DX11 -> Vulkan wrapper; it translates DX11 calls to Vulkan equivalents and allows more efficient use of multi-core CPUs, especially if they have 6 or more cores. RAM usage increases however because DXVK caches draw calls and shaders. Additionally, there will be some stutters as DXVK compiles shaders, but after they get compiled it shouldn't stutter anymore. The shader compilation will occur in new areas and when new effects appear onscreen. The modified DXVK-async alleviates this but you may miss out on some effects due to shader compilation on the first go around.

EDIT: SteamDeck and Linux in general uses DXVK already with P5R since neither has the ability to directly run Windows games. It's a part of the Proton Compatibility Layer.

No wonder people say it runs well on the Deck, that's good to know. Currently have Special K on the MS Store version (well, the Gamepass version). Not sure if it's a good idea to double dip and buy it again on Steam. Fortunately, it's easy to get my saves from the MS gamepass version over to the Steam version.

DXVK or the async version?

[nfinite.recursion]

Personally, I'd try SpecialK first as it has the least amount of overhead and the greatest amount of flexibility and some great framerate monitoring tools built in. (Plus it can fix and enhance a bunch of other games too.)

For DXVK, I'd use the DXVK-async version unless you have a really high-end CPU, and even then you may still get some stutters. As I mentioned before, the async version alleviates the stutters that may occur with the regular DXVK build.

[the_randomizer1889]

nfinite.recursion původně napsal:

Personally, I'd try SpecialK first as it has the least amount of overhead and the greatest amount of flexibility and some great framerate monitoring tools built in. (Plus it can fix and enhance a bunch of other games too.)

For DXVK, I'd use the DXVK-async version unless you have a really high-end CPU, and even then you may still get some stutters. As I mentioned before, the async version alleviates the stutters that may occur with the regular DXVK build.

Installed Special K to the MS Store version, (which really loves to not sync the saves whenever I want it to between the console and PC, currently have Gamepass Ultimate, but I digress), my CPU is a Core i7 9700K with RTX 3060 TI, I know, laughable specs, I don't even have HT on this CPU. *Sigh*

[nfinite.recursion]

Your specs are more than fine and can run a lot of games without issue. P5R has some optimization issues that certain hardware/software configurations are exposing. Activity on SteamDB suggests that Atlus is working on a patch of some sort, so hopefully the framerate issues will get ironed out.