Fix for nvidia driver 398.82-418.91+ fps drops/stutter, especially for Rotten Vale.

[IchigoMait]

28th feb Edit: new profile was added at some point, no idea how it affects the game at the moment.
0x00A1131F(MHW) 0x00000001 (enabled) for now

First and foremost Nvidia hasn't fixed it totally. They still kept the 5fps drop and stuttering, and removed the 2 MHW specific old profiles.

The fps change is only noticeable in Rotten Vale or areas where fps drops heavily for whatever reasons those profiles caused fps drops.

To sum it up with drivers since 398.82 and till 400th driver series fps from 20-25 to 50 in rotten vale on max settings, volumetric rendering off, 400th driver series has only the minor 5fps and stutter problems.

NVIDIA Inspector Elevated Settings - Profiles Monster Hunter World - Unknown Profiles
0x00A25FC4(3-9 "games") 0x20000001 (causes stuttering when enabled, not for all)
0x105E2A1D(149-199 "games") 0x00000000 (disabled) 5-10 fps difference

Seems there is a stuttering issue going on, so it could be this
0x00A25FC4 0x20000001 (someone reported this enabled causes stuttering)
so try setting the last part to 0x0 and apply

these were removed from MHW with 411.63
0x0094C537(2games) 0x00803007 (do whatever you want)
0x0094C538(2games) 0x00000000 (disabled) 20-2x/4x fps difference

You can export customized profiles in nvidia inspector elevated and create an easy enable file so if you update the drivers, you can just double click that file and it will reenable all the custom profile changes. I mostly used it for fpslimiter, especially needed with geforce experience, because that damn thing resets the fps limit after every restart/login.


0x0094C537(2games) 0x00803007 (Monster Hunter World) so far doesn't seem to do anything in town or rotten vale

0x0094C538(2games) 0x00301000 (Monster Hunter World, Jurassic World Evolution) drops to 30 fps in Rotten Vale, most likely the culprit, no idea what it does, but whatever it did to Jurassic World Evolution, isn't meant for this game.
disable this crap for fps boost, if you wanna use the newest drivers

0x00A25FC4(3games) 0x20000001 (Monster Hunter World, Far Cry 5) so far doesn't seem to do anything in town or rotten vale, up to 53 fps in rotten vale first camp

0x105E2A1D(149games) 0x00000004 (games names) minor fps drop, 47-49 fps in rotten vale first camp, would suggest disabling it

Windows 7 x64 Ultimate
i7 3770K 3.9Ghz(3.5Ghz Turbo)
GTX 970 G1 "4"GB vram "drivers 398.82"
16GB ram

This part below was with unedited nvidia drivers 398.82
I get in other places 30-60fps at max(besides volumetric rendering off), while in fights can go to 25, but in Rotten Vale it's always 20-30 fps, even if I turned everything that can be turned while in game minimum it's still only gives me 5 fps, turned the LOD Bias to variable, but still ♥♥♥♥♥♥ fps, but more around 25.

Then tried to see what Volumetric rendering does, nothing, only very subtle minor changes very far away for small places without any fps impact. While in other places it's a huge change in look (for the better) when off and (♥♥♥♥♥♥ max brightness) when low-highest/variable along with low to very high performance impact.
Basically the performance of Highest Volumetric Rendering is always turned on.

Tried even minimum settings, only gained 5-15 fps.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1484507752
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1484508818

[IchigoMait]

Originally posted by :3 Sweetness and Blushes:

This is working out for me, noticing a large improvement in Rotten vale, from 25-30fps, to up to 60 when jogging around in the fog. I'm currently using a GTX 1060 and i5 6600.
I'm also noticing some other improvements overall, 10-20fps in other locations.

I'm still dealing with a seperate problem however, where everything feels like it's at the wrong resolution, despite setting the resolution scaling to high.

Prolly just how the game looks, but we are ok with it, you can try using reshade with settings like I'm using for my games where I use sweetfx (need for dragon's dogma online as reshade crashes) or reshade, or find something you like by googling for other peeps versions.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/582010/discussions/0/1735462352473171848/

[Bobtree]

Originally posted by IchigoMait:

SH Diffuse level is for removing the halo effect from Ambient Occlusion, it make distant shadows looking past an object more accurate, if you disable or lower SH Diffuse you will see the distant shadows missing on the edges of the object like a halo effect.

Spherical Harmonics are used to encode diffuse environmental lighting. Those "halo effect" blocky shadow edges are probably a bug. It looks like the SH shader is interfering with the shadow map implementation.

The issue is not affected by AO, AA, shadow quality, etc. I can easily see it at the Astera spawn on the bridge looking north at the chains by toggling the SH diffuse setting up and down. It is affected by lighting/weather, and view distance and angle.

Raising the SH diffuse setting reduces the visual impact of the bug, but it's still there. High SH makes it almost invisible, but the Kulu lance feather casts a shadow on you which still shows it clearly (a small object close to the camera and close to the shadow receiver, with sharp shadow edges, but a blocky halo where the feather occludes its shadow).

[IchigoMait]

Originally posted by Bobtree:

Originally posted by IchigoMait:

SH Diffuse level is for removing the halo effect from Ambient Occlusion, it make distant shadows looking past an object more accurate, if you disable or lower SH Diffuse you will see the distant shadows missing on the edges of the object like a halo effect.

Spherical Harmonics are used to encode diffuse environmental lighting. Those "halo effect" blocky shadow edges are probably a bug. It looks like the SH shader is interfering with the shadow map implementation.

The issue is not affected by AO, AA, shadow quality, etc. I can easily see it at the Astera spawn on the bridge looking north at the chains by toggling the SH diffuse setting up and down. It is affected by lighting/weather, and view distance and angle.

Raising the SH diffuse setting reduces the visual impact of the bug, but it's still there. High SH makes it almost invisible, but the Kulu lance feather casts a shadow on you which still shows it clearly (a small object close to the camera and close to the shadow receiver, with sharp shadow edges, but a blocky halo where the feather occludes its shadow).

How is the SH shader interfering with it, when the halo effect is removed when I put SH Diffuse to max. When I disable it or lower it, then AO creates it's most common bug, I didn't even know there was a way to fix the halo effect, and SH Diffuse does exactly that.

Also the halo effect is not a blocky shadow edges, it's litterally a halo of missing shadows around the objects edge, most commonly in older games you can see with characters, where on behind the character on every surface should be proper even shadows, but just around the character edge the shadows behind are missing, that's the halo effect, not some blocky shadows.

Lowering the Shadow Quality will create blocky shadows, while at max it makes them more accurate.

If you would turn the SH Diffuse off, then you would have the maximum effect of the halo, thus again, how is SH Diffuse interfiering with Ambient Occlusion?
And mind that AO causes the halo effect nothing else, normal shadows can't cause it in anyway.

[Bobtree]

We're talking about the same thing when I say the occluded edge of the shadow looks blocky due to the halo. It's got nothing to do with the shadow resolution or AO. I've never seen this in other games, old or otherwise.

AO can cause a dirty halo of extra shadowing around objects, but not a blocky band of missing shadow on overlapped objects. When I disable AO, the missing-shadow halo effect is still there. It is not a side effect of AO.

I do think the SH Diffuse Quality setting is buggy, or mislabeled, or both. It doesn't improve lighting. Possibly it is related to pre-computed shadows that change with the weather and time of day, but actual Sperical Harmonics is only for diffuse light (low frequency) and not direct shadowing (high frequency). Maybe it's a mistranslated shadow setting.

There is no SH Diffuse off setting (which would look like rendering the game without any ambient light). It does have a bigger/blockier halo at Low than Mid, like it's using a lower resolution buffer which is interfering with how shadows are applied.

Regarding the Volume Rendering setting in Rotten Vale, you're right that it's always on there. I have a GTX 1070 at 1440p, and play with volume rendering on low or medium, which should be similar to your 970 at 1080p. I'm using the 398.36 driver (on Win7, i5-2500k at 4GHz), which performs much better than the new ones, so I recommend you try downgrading if you haven't yet.

[IchigoMait]

Originally posted by Bobtree:

We're talking about the same thing when I say the occluded edge of the shadow looks blocky due to the halo. It's got nothing to do with the shadow resolution or AO. I've never seen this in other games, old or otherwise.

AO can cause a dirty halo of extra shadowing around objects, but not a blocky band of missing shadow on overlapped objects. When I disable AO, the missing-shadow halo effect is still there. It is not a side effect of AO.

I do think the SH Diffuse Quality setting is buggy, or mislabeled, or both. It doesn't improve lighting. Possibly it is related to pre-computed shadows that change with the weather and time of day, but actual Sperical Harmonics is only for diffuse light (low frequency) and not direct shadowing (high frequency). Maybe it's a mistranslated shadow setting.

There is no SH Diffuse off setting (which would look like rendering the game without any ambient light). It does have a bigger/blockier halo at Low than Mid, like it's using a lower resolution buffer which is interfering with how shadows are applied.

Regarding the Volume Rendering setting in Rotten Vale, you're right that it's always on there. I have a GTX 1070 at 1440p, and play with volume rendering on low or medium, which should be similar to your 970 at 1080p. I'm using the 398.36 driver (on Win7, i5-2500k at 4GHz), which performs much better than the new ones, so I recommend you try downgrading if you haven't yet.

When I say when I lower the setting of the SH Diffuse a halo appears around objects, it's not blocky in anyways, its just a extra round layer over an object where you can see the background without shadows, like a halo.
In few games, like Witcher 3, Two Worlds (with fanmade control panel mod for the game), prolly more, where there is no SH Diffuse setting, when I enable Ambient Occlusion I can get the same effect, with minor differences and intensity, but it's there.
And for the last time, it's not blocky. It's smooth and follows the curves of the object.

No idea though if my nvidia setting highest quality ambient occlusion has some effect on it, as you can't set it via the gpu control panel, but only through the nvidiainspector.

Anyways I've seen plenty of games with that effect, but only if I really pay attention to it or there are loads of AO shadows (extra shadows generated in the corners of objects) behind the object.

Didn't AO also remove/reduce shadows in places where shadows shouldn't be? Aka that's why there is a halo in the first place, if the AO is too intense for objects that are further away from surfaces.

" If you have worked with screen-space ambient occlusion algorithms, you know the primary issues that they come with. These are:

Dark halos or lack of occlusion behind foreground objects;
Unstable results near screen borders;
Locality, which means that only a small volume around a surface contributes to AO;
Blurriness, which comes from a blur filter required because computing a complete solution for every pixel would be too expensive.
"
https://developer.nvidia.com/vxao-voxel-ambient-occlusion

[Nimble Mind]

Excuse me, how did you adjust the game for increased perfomence with nvidia inspector?

[IchigoMait]

Originally posted by DUDECEPTION:

Excuse me, how did you adjust the game for increased perfomence with nvidia inspector?

NVIDIA Inspector Elevated Settings - Profiles Monster Hunter World - Unknown Profiles

[Bobtree]

The "lack of occlusion behind foreground objects" is because AO works from the depth buffer, and there is no depth information behind the nearest surface. It won't affect non-AO shadows applied by other methods.

Originally posted by IchigoMait:

When I say when I lower the setting of the SH Diffuse a halo appears around objects, it's not blocky in anyways, its just a extra round layer over an object where you can see the background
without shadows, like a halo.

No idea though if my nvidia setting highest quality ambient occlusion has some effect on it, as you can't set it via the gpu control panel, but only through the nvidiainspector.

Maybe the driver/inspector tweak and/or your low Resolution Scaling setting are introducing a blur. The halo I see in MHW is blocky. I don't have AO on in the driver or game or anywhere (no GFE, etc), and my resolution scale is High.

Here's a screenshot in Astera: look at the chains, lance tip, and plank edge on the left. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1488288078

[DAOWAce]

Sep 7 update: Added FPS numbers for the lazy. Ow.
August 28 update: Added 399.07.
---
Okay, tested every area I have access to. Edited OP but I think this is better put here for more visibility + I actually changed some settings so it's not comparable to old tests.

There are improvements in certain areas and decreases in others. The only massive increase appears to be in Rotten Vale.

Seems like something that we expected to be simple is actually more complicated.. just like z-prepass.

It's also hard to get 1:1 comparisons because the game uses a dynamic time system which seems to be based on a server. There is no way to keep this static. I honestly have no idea how much of this is due to weather/time changes affecting the environment. If anyone figures out a way to keep this stuff static, please let us know.

Screenshots include RTSS overlay showing FPS and CPU/GPU usage.

Note: Modified means setting the flags 0x0094C538 and 0x105E2A1D to 0x0.
Note2: The .46 and .98 driver is the latest hotfix for that release. 398.36 and 398.82 are redundant.

Previous testing: https://steamcommunity.com/app/582010/discussions/3/1735462352470150697/#c1735462352474253984

- Title Screen -

398.46: https://i.imgur.com/bx6v71m.png 152
398.98: https://i.imgur.com/P9dpH95.png 152.6
398.98 modified: https://i.imgur.com/DIT6IES.png 150.9
399.07: https://i.imgur.com/rc0yo8m.png 149.5

- Town -

398.98: https://i.imgur.com/kc45XLU.jpg 85.9
398.98 modified: https://i.imgur.com/Afr5ZpA.jpg 87.6
399.07: https://i.imgur.com/NLRQNLm.png 90.7
399.07 modified: https://i.imgur.com/bWuF7TT.png 92.8

- Expedition Base -

398.98: https://i.imgur.com/bCfZYn3.png 90.9
398.98 modified: https://i.imgur.com/TDlbIjF.png 93.6
399.07 modified: https://i.imgur.com/UR2PsWd.png 94.2

- Ancient Forest -

398.46: https://i.imgur.com/7xifmso.jpg 94.9
398.98: https://i.imgur.com/NmYin8W.jpg 98.4
398.98 modified: https://i.imgur.com/cenW9Nj.png 100.8

- Wildspire Wastes -

398.46: https://i.imgur.com/5Aj71Ry.png 111.7
398.98: https://i.imgur.com/kX0AH3B.png 119.4
398.98 modified: https://i.imgur.com/456EMgJ.png 125.6

- Coral Highlands -

398.46: https://i.imgur.com/KXuoSXR.jpg 99.2
398.98: https://i.imgur.com/0f3o3lC.jpg 101.9
398.98 modified: https://i.imgur.com/bMYH87x.png 103.4

- Rotten Vale -

398.98: https://i.imgur.com/dqUlWn6.png 100.8
398.98 modified: https://i.imgur.com/Myt8Eqi.png 133.2
399.07: https://i.imgur.com/irQonbB.png 79.1 (???)
399.07 modified https://i.imgur.com/vSeGcbe.png 127.6

399.07 looking out: https://i.imgur.com/6dDVDnb.png 74.6
399.07 modified looking out: https://i.imgur.com/vPEtamN.png 114.9


Settings:

[GraphicsOption]
ScreenMode=Borderless
Resolution=2560x1080
FrameRate=No Limit
V-Sync=Off
OptionMode=Manual
ResolutionScaling=High
TextureQuality=2048
AmbientOcclusion=High
VolumeRenderingQuality=Mid
ShadowQuality=High
Anti-Aliasing=FXAA
LODBias=High
MaxLODLevel=No Limit
FoliageSway=On
SubSurfaceScattering=On
ScreenSpaceReflection=Off
AnisotropicFiltering=High
WaterReflection=On
SHDiffuse=Mid
DynamicRange=32-bit
Z-Prepass=On

System: 6850K @4.2GHz, 1080 Ti @+60/500, 32GB 2400MHz RAM, Win10 v1703.

[Pandemonium]

Im using the 398.36 do I still need to mod it to maximize FPS ?

[Photek]

How does this program work? I don't see disable option for those values.

[HolyDeath3000]

What about: 0x709ADADB: 0x3F670EA4 (Monster Hunter World)

Should that be disabled. It has 100 Profiles tagged to it...

[IchigoMait]

Originally posted by HolyDeath3000:

What about: 0x709ADADB: 0x3F670EA4 (Monster Hunter World)

Should that be disabled. It has 100 Profiles tagged to it...

Weird that you have that first part shown as code, it should be normally 2DDCovnergence, also it's under the Stereo section, aka it's for so called "3D" effect. Stereoscopic has some shadow depth problems with this game game, the MHW profile has notes of it by the nvidia team.

[IchigoMait]

Originally posted by Photek:

How does this program work? I don't see disable option for those values.

You edit the second part to be 0x00000000 instead of what they are.

This is the format of them.
0x0094C537(2games) 0x00803007 (do whatever you want)
0x0094C538(2games) 0x00000000 (disabled)
0x00A25FC4(3games) 0x20000001 (do whatever you want)
0x105E2A1D(149games) 0x00000000 (disabled)

You have the name, then the code part that alters it.
There could be even a possibility that some other selections there could give an increased performance overall, most likely the nvidia team just tested the settings in town, and those were the best settings for that area, but in other areas with monsters it was really bad, especially in Rotten Vale.

[IchigoMait]

Originally posted by DAOWAce:

Okay, tested every area I have access to. Edited OP but I think this is better put here for more visibility + I actually changed some settings so it's not comparable to old tests.

There are improvements in certain areas and decreases in others. The only massive increase appears to be in Rotten Vale.

Seems like something that we expected to be simple is actually more complicated.. just like z-prepass.

It's also hard to get 1:1 comparisons because the game uses a dynamic time system which seems to be based on a server. There is no way to keep this static. I honestly have no idea how much of this is due to weather/time changes affecting the environment. If anyone figures out a way to keep this stuff static, please let us know.[/code]

Interesting that some of the areas when you tested by rolling back had worse performance than with the edited version. Thus the 2 setting that I left on, do something for the better. In Rotten Vale I didn't see a difference.
Also that the main menu sees a minor drop, and you mentioned earlier that even town got a 2% drop, but that might have been just the game time or camera angle.

When I posted about this, on the nvidia forums specifically for this driver bug report section, some dude came to defend that the nvidia teams do full blown tests and it might be my fault with the driver installation, sent him to the moon along with his religious beliefs.