Performance is abysmal even on high end computers

[Deus_nsf]

I had high hopes, as using the special D3D9 dll from the DXVK project even on Windows 10 helped greatly on STALKER, removing the CPU bottleneck a little and improving performance from 60 to 80 FPS in very high resolutions !

Here only at 1440p (on a GTX 1080 Ti and Ryzen 3800X) the first level, looking at liberty island sees a very sad 39 FPS (lower resolutions are mostly the same), no matter if I'm using the official D3D9 renderer, or the DXVK highjacked dll that actually renders Vulkan.

Seems to be completely unrelated to rendering, and something in the game code is taking way too much performance, I hope the game code can be optimized further...

[Kzzrn]

I'm not a developer but I can say the original Deus Ex was notorious for this even a decade plus after it was released. The main reason is because it used the Unreal 1 engine. Back in the day Voodoo 3D accelerators were all the rage and used their own proprietary GL system called Glide....which Unreal 1 was very heavily optimized for at the expense of both DirectX and OpenGL and that carried over into games like Deus Ex. I imagine it would be challenging to fix this just because of how the original engine was developed 20+ years ago.

[Deus_nsf]

indeed, but it is not about the renderer, I tried all renderers available even Kentie's custom D3D10 one and even Vulkan from D3D9 DXVK API redirect hacks lol, they all render 37-39 FPS, something is not right in the game code and creates a massive single thread CPU bottleneck, the original Deus Ex can run no problem at 120+ FPS, even with Kentie's D3D10 renderer.

[Gundam Sapien]

Originally posted by Deus:

I had high hopes, as using the special D3D9 dll from the DXVK project even on Windows 10 helped greatly on STALKER, removing the CPU bottleneck a little and improving performance from 60 to 80 FPS in very high resolutions !

Here only at 1440p (on a GTX 1080 Ti and Ryzen 3800X) the first level, looking at liberty island sees a very sad 39 FPS (lower resolutions are mostly the same), no matter if I'm using the official D3D9 renderer, or the DXVK highjacked dll that actually renders Vulkan.

Seems to be completely unrelated to rendering, and something in the game code is taking way too much performance, I hope the game code can be optimized further...

its a 20 year old game based on a 22 year old engine you are going to get performance drops like this I'm affraid eps when the engine is pushed more than it was intended

It not about optimizing the game code, most the engine would have to be ripped out and remade for modern hardware which is not going to happen as there is no source code for UE1 anyways.

Adding a new front end DLL is only going to do so much

[Deus_nsf]

Originally posted by Gundam Sapien:

Adding a new front end DLL is only going to do so much

Yup, I figured that out in the end

[Antaiir]

Mh... dude, i don't understand the problem tbh. I have vsync locked (because of 60 Hz display) rock stable 60 fps on 1080p, so it seems not to be a generic problem of this game.

I run it with OpenGL as rendering device. Only one CPU core is used, which is running at around 60-70% load.

Win10, Ryzen 5 2600X and RX470, default clocks

[Deus_nsf]

when I start a new game and look at liberty island, I have 38 FPS, no matter the game mode, no matter the difficulty, no matter the rendering API. I don't understand :(
GPU usage is a 5% and one of my CPU cores is maxed.
Also the game is like full of stutters or something... I will clean install it to see if there is an improvement.

[Deus_nsf]

After I cleaned reinstalled the game, same spot but this time 48 FPS... I searched and it seems to be the HDTP object models that brings the performance down, but still 48 FPS is not very good...

[dimi]

Originally posted by Deus:

when I start a new game and look at liberty island, I have 38 FPS, no matter the game mode, no matter the difficulty, no matter the rendering API. I don't understand :(
GPU usage is a 5% and one of my CPU cores is maxed.
Also the game is like full of stutters or something... I will clean install it to see if there is an improvement.

Same, I wanted to give this mod a tries a few times now, but that performance in the beginning just makes it impossible for me to get into it. I like how it looks, but it runs like ♥♥♥♥.

[Mike Stoklasa]

Originally posted by Deus:

After I cleaned reinstalled the game, same spot but this time 48 FPS... I searched and it seems to be the HDTP object models that brings the performance down, but still 48 FPS is not very good...

Man, I've been trying to play this mod since 2018 and I always run into this exact same performance problem independently of the settings (and yes I turned off New Vision and the all HDTP models, even the trees). I tried originally on Windows 7 back then and now on 10 and it's exactly the same result, even though I can run vanilla Deus Ex in full hd with no problems using the Deux Exe mod. And,as all the other Unreal 1 games that I tried can run just fine on my computer, I don't think the original engine is the problem here.

I also tried The Nameless Mod using DX:Revision and it seems to lag a little less than Revision but it still drops a lot of frames at the crowded areas.

Here my review at the time linking to other threads about it:
https://steamcommunity.com/id/viniciustlc/recommended/397550/

I suspect this is a Nvidia problem, all the guys on these threads had Geforces like me and the OP here, most of them with models a lot more powerful than mine.  My GPU is a weak a*s 1030gt but I was able to run DX:MD and DOOM 2016 at 1080p (not maxxed out, of course) without any serious lag, it shouldn't have any problems running this. And the only older game that I had problems running in this computer was vanilla DX2, but the VisibleUpgrade solved that.

Maybe they are using some old a*s TeraScale tessellation API calls that were not DirectX or OpenGL standard and which Nvidia never supported, or something like that.

[Deus_nsf]

I would be surprised if the drops are GPU related, when the framerate tanks, it's always because of CPU Core 0 saturation, my GPU never goes above 20% utilization.
I would love to try with different GPU hardware though ! But as CPU goes, Intel or AMD, it doesn't make a difference.

[ZIGS]

I was having the same problem. This is an engine limitation, it was never designed to cope with all the changes this mod introduces. I tried disabling all the HDTP models (I previously had them all on) and now I get 60 solid frames even on Liberty Island (I have a 3700X and a GTX 1080 ti)

I'm not saying you have to disable all the models but try to strike a balance and I'm sure your performance issues will disappear

[Deus_nsf]

its better without HDTP but not perfect either, framerate still fluctuates between 40 and 138 FPS (its my top limit)

[ZIGS]

That's weird, your CPU is a 3800X which is about the same as mine (even slightly better) so you shouldn't be having any issues. I get solid 60 FPS after disabling the HDTP models

[Deus_nsf]

it's not everywhere, but some parts definitely tanks, it's not unplayable but you get what I mean

[Emperor's Fist]

Disabling the HDTP models helped a lot on Liberty Island (the most demanding location IIRC). I also have a Ryzen 3700x and a GTX 1080 (non TI, though). I tried the game on DX9, maybe I'll experiment more later.