[Special K] Fixes Achievements / Input / Aspect Ratio + Improves Graphics Quality / Performance

[Kaldaien]

Introduction

This port is overall very good, but there are a few broken things and some room for Quality of Life improvement.

The two most common problems the game has without modification are a stutter framerate limiter (not the worst, but it's easily fixed), and missing rumble support for PlayStation controller owners.

There is a FAR MORE DEVIOUS problem, however, related to the state of the Steam overlay and the code that manages "Steam Trophies" (achievements as normal people call them).

Achievements don't unlock unless the overlay is enabled without Special K!!!

Special K's Plug-In for this game Adds the Following

• Achievements No Longer Require The Steam Overlay
  
• Fully Unlocked Framerate
  
• MSAA, Resolution Scaling and Temporal Anti-Aliasing
  
• 21:9, 16:10, and arbitrary Aspect Ratio Support
  
• Options to Disable Post-Process Effects
  
• Gamepad Fixes and Enhancements
  
• Improved Texture Filtering options
  
• Fixed Shadow and Object Culling
  
• Enable HDR Rendering Internally (intended for use with RenoDX)

Download and Install

The latest build of Special K, at time of writing, is 25.1.29.1.

You can install Special K either by visiting Special K's Discord server and grabbing the latest #nightly-build and placing SpecialK64.dll in the game's directory renamed to dxgi.dll, or you can download the installer and launch it through SKIF.

Launching the game through SKIF is preferred for maximum compatibility

If you install Special K the normal way, then you can also copy-and-paste SKIF %COMMAND% into this game's launch options in Steam and avoid running SKIF.

• The latest installable version of Special K can be downloaded here.[sk-data.special-k.info]

Note About Related Projects

As of 25.1.29.1, Special K has made Lyall's Tales of Graces f Fix mod obsolete by porting the entirety of its features from C# to C++. You may still use it standalone if you do not want to use Special K, but there is no point in combining both things.

There is a RenoDX addon for HDR users for this game, to use it with Special K you will need to load ReShade as a plug-in and then place the AddOn in <Special K Install Directory>\Profiles\Tales of Graces f Remastered\ReShade\AddOn

Troubleshooting

I will be happy to answer questions in this thread, though it is easier to reach me on our Discord server ( https://discord.gg/specialk ).

CHANGELOG

25.1.29.1
=========
 + Fixed a SERIOUS screwup in the Tales of Graces f Steam port, where ALL
     achievement-related code is contingent upon the end-user having the
       Steam overlay enabled!

    * Bad Bandai Namco, Bad!  Pay me to review your QA test next time? :)

25.1.29
=======
 + Detach Mono threads after invoking C# functions on threads that are not
     originally part of the Mono runtime to avoid garbage collection on the
       render thread in Tales of Graces f.
 + Increased color grading LUT size to reduce banding in Tales of Graces f.
 + Finished porting all of Lyall's Tales of Graces f fix BepInEx mod to C++,
     including aspect ratio centering and new code to address object culling.
 + Remove Temporal AA option when MSAA is selected in Tales of Graces f.
 + Improve overall UI layout and spacing in Tales of Graces f control panel.
 + Boosted default gamepad polling rate up to 1 kHz again after disabling WGI
     in favor of XInput for Tales of Graces f.
 + Added options to control anisotropic filtering front and center in
     Tales of Graces f's control panel.
 + Prevent Tales of Graces f using Windows.Gaming.Input to get it to fallback to
     XInput 1.3, which has support for gamepad input polling on -real- Xbox
       controllers while the game window is in the background.

   * This also reduces overhead on controller rumble and potentially allows for
       the use of higher polling rates on devices that SK is not handling the
         HID <--> XInput/Windows.Gaming.Input translation for.

 + Always clear the camera's background to black in Tales of Graces f,
     to avoid random -white- bars in places where the UI has to be
       centered in 16:9 for wide/narrow screens.
 + Set the "opaque downsampling" pass in Tales of Graces f to native
     resolution when MSAA is used.
 + Fixed scenario where SK wouldn't correctly detect RenoDX in
     Tales of Graces f.
 + Released new version to get 25.1.25.1 version number
 + Disable HDR in Tales of Graces f without RenoDX
 + Changed default gamepad polling rate to 240 Hz in Tales of Graces f,
     because Steam Input and the native Windows.Gaming.Input implementation
       do not work reliably at higher rates.
 + Enabled HDR rendering in Tales of Graces f w/o using HDR remasters;
     uses R11G11B10 instead of FP16 to improve performance w/ MSAA.
 + Reduced D3D11 render state tracking when ReShade is loaded, but there are no
     actual ReShade triggers defined in d3d11_shaders.ini that would require
       tracking ReShade draw call triggers.
 + Fixed assignment to config variables in refactored Tales of Graces f code
     not actually writing a value to the INI file (i.e. Temporal AA not saved).
 + Default Tales of Graces f to 1 kHz input polling rate, since SK's handling
     input and the dummies hard-coded 60 Hz input polling rate no matter what
       framerate limit you have selected (!!)
 + Added MSAA, Temporal AA and Resolution scaling options to Tales of Graces f.
 + Disable scissor rectangles in Tales of Graces f in order to fix screenspace
     shadows being clipped incorrectly on non-16:9 displays
 + Rewrite Tales of Graces f framerate limiter override so that SK's slider now
     immediately changes the game's internal limit, and no longer causes
       conflicts when trying to use Latent Sync on a fixed-refresh display.
 + Improved Mono embedded runtime hook initialization procedure to load various
     Unity modules and compile their JIT code ahead of time.
 + Improved compatibility with ReShade/RenoDX in Tales of Graces f -- for best
     results load ReShade as a global plug-in using plug-in load order, rather
       than using ReShade64.dll installed locally to the game directory.
 + Added experimental support for hooking Mono (C#) code in order to port
     Lyall's TGFFix mod to C++ and integrate directly into Special K.
 + Whenever Special K's framerate limiter is enabled, it will override the
     internal framerate limiter in Tales of Graces f, allowing > 120 fps
       without any special configuration or third-party software.
 + Change name of various Tales of Graces f graphics overrides and add
     tooltips explaining when to disable them.
 + Added options to disable Heat Haze and FXAA in Tales of Graces f
 + Added options to control native PlayStation vs. Xbox emulation in Graces.
 + Added option to sharpen character and object outlines in Tales of Graces.
 + Added options to disable Depth of Field and Bloom to Tales of Graces.
 + Disable Tales of Graces' native DualSense support and translate
     DualSense HID to Windows.Gaming.Input in order to add rumble support.
 + Alias the Share and Trackpad Click buttons on DualShock4/DualSense
     controllers in Tales of Graces f because various button prompts say to
       use the trackpad but it normally maps to Share when SK does API
         translation.

[Kaldaien]

Working Aspect Ratio Fix

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3410285357

[Amitaya]

Without people like you, games like these would not be playable or at least not nearly as enjoyable as they are with you. So thanks!

[BlueDragonXD]

Back in Tales of Vesperia this man saved me. What a nightmare of annoying Stutter. I could not play the game. I'm sure this app helps some people in this title too and may offer other features as well.

But I'm using the base game with only Reshade and so far I'm about one hour in and no stutter not a single one. On top of that it's running at a smooth 120 FPS. Skits and cutscenes are playing fine.

12700K
RTX 4080
M.2 Gen4
1440P 165Hz but locked Via Nvidia panel to Max FPS 162.
Game set to 120 FPS, Vsync on. No screen tearing etc.
Windows Borderless.

I'm just putting all this here so people can track what may or may not be causing problems for some people. If anyone has any other questions for me please let me know. But yes this game looks good and runs butter smooth with only Reshade. Speaking of which if you want to check out the basic nothing special Reshade I use here are some examples. It looks better in game I notice than the screenshots.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/2530980/discussions/0/510695968495127057/
But what I would love to see if better Reshade examples and setups I'm not at all skilled with Reshade. Now I do like the game to be closer to vanilla looks but with more like touch up shaders that's just my taste.

[Headcrabs in A Bucket]

I saw you in another thread and i was like "oh boy, i hope they work on graces", glad to see you're doing just that

[Wayfarer]

Thank man, though my main issue with this game right now is they don't have the confirm/cancel button setting

[Kaldaien]

Originally posted by Wayfarer:

Thank man, though my main issue with this game right now is they don't have the confirm/cancel button setting

Sorry, don't have a solution for this at the moment :-\

It might be deep in the Unity game assembly code somewhere though. We're disassembling that to implement various aspect ratio fixes and MSAA, so if it appears (it may, due to Nintendo), we (Lyall and myself) will expose it in "Tales of Graces Fix."

Some of these settings won't ever be available directly through Special K, because "Tales of Graces Fix" has an additional helper framework (BepInEx) and is written in C#. I wish they could be integrated directly into Special K, but it just won't happen.

So, Special K + "Tales of Graces Fix" is a good combination.

I'm working on both, as well as some work for a RenoDX mod to give this game native HDR (not very spectacular, but still lightyears ahead of SK's normal Inverse Tonemap HDR, which is already lightyears better than RTX HDR / AutoHDR).

[focusblade]

10/10

[BlueDragonXD]

Thank you Kaldaien yes any from of visual improvement mod like that RenoDX mod etc? That sounds amazing.

[Kaldaien]

Originally posted by BlueDragonXD:

Thank you Kaldaien yes any from of visual improvement mod like that RenoDX mod etc? That sounds amazing.

Yes, a RenoDX mod is in development also.

And I removed the game's framerate limit altogether in TGFix 0.0.4 (refer to the #nightly-builds on SK's Discord server).

Game supports arbitrary framerates, they just... I don't know, got lazy? :P

[mimarule]

Meanwhile me praying for all outfits from Miku, idols .Hack and etc mods :')

[Radio_Active]

Originally posted by mimarule:

Meanwhile me praying for all outfits from Miku, idols .Hack and etc mods :')

Code geass costumes especially, so disappointing that and the ones you said arent in the remaster

[MabinoZerk]

So far the game has crashed on me twice after installing Special K. Each time it happens, the alert sound from MGS plays. Idk if Special K is the culprit or not.

[Kaldaien]

Originally posted by MabinoZerk:

So far the game has crashed on me twice after installing Special K. Each time it happens, the alert sound from MGS plays. Idk if Special K is the culprit or not.

Probably some kind of third-party overlay on your system.
I've been running the game nonstop for days and haven't had a single crash.

That's with ReShade + TGFix + Special K + RenoDX + Steam overlay.

Those things are all compatible, haven't tested anything else.

[mimarule]

Originally posted by Radio_Active:

Originally posted by mimarule:

Meanwhile me praying for all outfits from Miku, idols .Hack and etc mods :')

Code geass costumes especially, so disappointing that and the ones you said arent in the remaster

I felt that one! I noticed some outfits wasn't in remastered and I was tad disappointed, hence why I pray for a mods eventually so we can have all the outfits :')

[focusblade]

Originally posted by Kaldaien:

Introduction

While this port is quite good, it does have a few issues that Special K can fix and others that Lyall is working on with "Tales of Graces Fix".

Problems to be aware of

1. PlayStation controller support is spotty
   
   Unity has native support for PlayStation controllers using HID, but their implementation does not support rumble.
   Steam Input supports rumble, but then you get Xbox button prompts.
   
   
2. The framerate limiter stutters
   
   120 and 60 FPS limits are a lot better paced than in previous Bandai Namco games, but you still want a third-party framerate limiter undercutting your in-game limit by about 0.5 FPS to avoid a constant stutter that happens at regular intervals.

Special K has fixes for the above mentioned input issues beginning with version 25.1.17, and graphical enhancement options and choice of button icons were added in 25.1.18.1.

You may download the latest test release (25.1.8.1 at time of writing) from https://sk-data.special-k.info/SpecialK-test.exe , or from the nightly builds on our Discord server ( https://discord.gg/SpecialK )

Related Work

Lyall is working on "Tales of Graces Fix," where we are trying to add arbitrary aspect ratio support (proper 16:10 for Steam Deck users, and non-pillarboxed > 21:9 for ultrawide users) as well as MSAA and a few other graphical improvements.

TGFix is available from https://github.com/Lyall/TalesOfGracesFFix/releases

Lyall and I both hang out on the Special K Discord server and we have a channel dedicated to Tales games there.

If you need help or want to discuss anything, Discord is a great place to reach us. Though I try to monitor the forums here too :)

if you change your monitor to 60htz, does this eliminate the stutter?