FAR (Fix Automata Resolution)

[Kaldaien]

Special K[wiki.special-k.info] features NieR: Automata specific tweaks and features (collectively known as FAR) created by Kaldaien with contributions from various individuals. For years these tweaks were essential to fix various issues the Steam version of the game suffered from, and many of these features and fixes made their way into the game officially following an update to the game released by Square Enix on July 15, 2021.

With the current state of the game Special K is no longer as essential though it still features improvements to the latest version of the game that some may find beneficial:

• Enables much faster loading times.
  
• Can improve the frame pacing of the game and eliminate micro stuttering.
  
• Decrease the global illumination below that of the lowest setting of the game for a major performance improvement.
  
• As well as various other minor fixes and features that improves the overall rendering pipeline and latency, such as Nvidia Reflex integration.

For updated information please see the Special K wiki:

https://wiki.special-k.info/SpecialK/Custom/FAR

Uninstall outdated versions of FAR

The legacy version of FAR (v 0.7.0.23) is not compatible with the new updated Steam version, and the game will fail to launch if left in the game folder. The files related to FAR needs to be removed manually from the game folder, so please remove them from the game folder. This is most easily done by removing any and all files that is not shown in the below image.

• This is how a fully cleaned out folder looks like after the game has been launched once:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2559265741

• If the game has not been launched yet another executable along with some batch files will also exist in the folder.
  
  
• Only GOTY owners have the Wallpaper folder.
  
  
• Validating game files or uninstalling/reinstalling the game through Steam will not remove third-party files, such as FAR, from the game folder.

These are the files and folders related to older versions of FAR:

Name	Type	Comment
dinput8	Files	Remove any file with dinput8 in its name. These are the main components of FAR.
FAR.ini	File	Holds NieR: Automata tweaks config.
d3d11_shaders.ini	File	Holds outdated shader config for the outdated custom ReShade of FAR.
Version	Folder	Holds non-functioning auto-updater version data.
logs	Folder	Holds FAR diagnostics logs.
ReShade	File/Folder	Any file or folder with ReShade in its name is related to FAR's outdated custom version of ReShade.

[ιώταϰγợ]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Kaldaien:

Początkowo opublikowane przez ιώταϰγợ:

Beta 6 don't generate FAR.ini for me.

Does it have any NieR: Automata specific options in the control panel? There's been a running bug in 0.10... where it doesn't detect some games and it will just think you're playing a generic game.

No NieR specific options (beta 6) and text I also encounter crash opening (beta 6) even after I deleted mod's files ( .dll/.pdb and My Mod in Document ) I wonder which files should I remove to reset it like when I first open my game with mod.

Początkowo opublikowane przez Kaldaien:

Początkowo opublikowane przez ιώταϰγợ:

Beta 6 don't generate FAR.ini for me.

Does it have any NieR: Automata specific options in the control panel? There's been a running bug in 0.10... where it doesn't detect some games and it will just think you're playing a generic game.


I'll put this out there on the off chance that I finally solved that problem last night :)

https://github.com/Kaldaien/SpecialK/releases/download/debug_sessions/dinput8.dll

❤👌 Working now :))

[774]

Yup, beta6 still doesn't have any Nier-specific settings in the OSD and no FAR.ini but debug_sessions dll seems to work fine.
I still have random crashes that I mentioned in the previous post whenever I try to launch the game, crash.log blaming windows/d3d11.dll with c0000005 unhandled exception,
Oh yeah, and cursor not hiding properly and/or "ghosted/double" cursor is fixed by opening SK overlay, moving mouse on top of it and back onto the game.

[Kaldaien]

Początkowo opublikowane przez 774:

Oh yeah, and cursor not hiding properly and/or "ghosted/double" cursor is fixed by opening SK overlay, moving mouse on top of it and back onto the game.

Turn the hardware cursor option off. That will probably fix it

[774]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Kaldaien:

Początkowo opublikowane przez 774:

Oh yeah, and cursor not hiding properly and/or "ghosted/double" cursor is fixed by opening SK overlay, moving mouse on top of it and back onto the game.

Turn the hardware cursor option off. That will probably fix it

Doesn't seem to fix it for me, but I don't mind this bug since all it takes to fix it is just a mouse hover over SpecialK OSD and back onto the game.
I have another question though: what's the correct way to run the game in 1920x1080 16:9 resolution on a 1920x1200 16:10 display? I thought SpecialK/FAR would handle that by default but that doesn't seem to be the case, at least in Nier.

[Kaldaien]

In what mode?

Borderless Window mode will usually do a stretched upscale if the output resolution is not the same as the game's internal resolution. Aspect ratio in windowed mode is the responsibility of the game engine to solve.


Fullscreen Exclusive has a scaling option.

You want blackbars to keep the aspect ratio 16:9, right? That is done using the "Centered" scaling override (Refer to Special K's Display Menu).


Technical stuff:

Neither a "centered," nor "stretched" override is appropriate when using fullscreen exclusive mode at native resolution, just FYI. That's the mistake Square Enix made with this game, the scaling mode is a _filter_ to Windows' closest-resolution matching system when going into fullscreen mode.

Fullscreen mode is always negotiated by Windows trying to match the requested parameters against whatever the display's capabilities are and making compromises if no match exists. If told to use centered or stretched timings (this is what Square Enix uses), it actually removes the native resolution from the list of possible resolutions that Windows can select since scaling is undefined when input and output are exactly the same. So then the game drops down to a sub-native resolution because there's no exact match possible.

[Aemony]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Kaldaien:

Technical stuff:

Neither a "centered," nor "stretched" override is appropriate when using fullscreen exclusive mode at native resolution, just FYI. That's the mistake Square Enix made with this game, the scaling mode is a _filter_ to Windows' closest-resolution matching system when going into fullscreen mode.

Fullscreen mode is always negotiated by Windows trying to match the requested parameters against whatever the display's capabilities are and making compromises if no match exists. If told to use centered or stretched timings (this is what Square Enix uses), it actually removes the native resolution from the list of possible resolutions that Windows can select since scaling is undefined when input and output are exactly the same. So then the game drops down to a sub-native resolution because there's no exact match possible.

On top of that, what Square Enix also tries to do is to select whatever resolution is used for the desktop in Windows as the output resolution, regardless of what the framebuffer resolution is set to in-game.

So if you're using 1080p as the desktop res in Windows on a 4K monitor and selects 2160p as the in-game resolution, the game will still attempt to be outputted as 1080p by the game. Enjoy your 4K -> 1080p downscaled image on your 4K monitor!

It results in scenarios like this:
2560x1440 in-game, 1920x1080 in Windows = https://i.imgur.com/SvWpnxi.png
2560x1440 in-game, 2560x1440 in Windows = https://i.imgur.com/iM2ycuC.png

Why do they do this? Who knows :S

NieR:Automata is an example of how not to do exclusive fullscreen mode.

[774]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Kaldaien:

In what mode?
Fullscreen Exclusive has a scaling option.

Yup, fullscreen exclusive.
Borderless Windowed (centered) works fine with 16:9, pretty much the same as fullscreen exclusive with black borders except it just shows parts of the desktop (obviously) instead of black borders:)
Not a big deal really, but I'd prefer having black borders in fullscreen instead.

[jwelfish]

umm... does this mod crash with razer cortex?
i've both installed far and razer cortex, and now far is not working in game even though i typed ctrl+shift+backspace.

[Erebus]

Początkowo opublikowane przez jwelfish:

umm... does this mod crash with razer cortex?
i've both installed far and razer cortex, and now far is not working in game even though i typed ctrl+shift+backspace.

Razer cortex injects into shit. It's not advisable to use it with other stuff injecting.

(Honestly it's not advisable to use 99% of "hardware makers" applications in the background in the first place.)

[Zan]

How do I even install it? It asks if I'm ready to begin the installation, then I click yes, nothing happens and it asks again and again. If I click no, it just deletes all the K files

[Aemony]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Maara Mori:

How do I even install it? It asks if I'm ready to begin the installation, then I click yes, nothing happens and it asks again and again. If I click no, it just deletes all the K files

Sounds like something is preventing the download of the mod from establishing correctly. This might be if e.g. there's a proxy or AV solution in the way that scans and disallows the traffic.

What you can do is simply download the latest archive from the GitHub repository and extract it to the game folder. When you launch the game and it will prompt about "a new version is available", just select to skip/never tell you again (as its already fully updated and Kaldaien isn't working on this mod any longer).

This is the latest copy: https://github.com/Kaldaien/FAR/releases/download/far_070/FAR_0_7_0_23.7z

[Muajeng]

Just recently installed the latest version...does this mod still work? Can't find anything or anyone doing anything for this mod : /

[Aemony]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Muajeng:

Just recently installed the latest version...does this mod still work? Can't find anything or anyone doing anything for this mod : /

The game haven’t seen an update since April 2017 and the mod haven’t been worked on much since late 2017.

There’s no reason why it shouldn’t work though.

[Harlequin]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Muajeng:

Just recently installed the latest version...does this mod still work? Can't find anything or anyone doing anything for this mod : /

i played the whole games again just 2 or 3 months ago with FAR enabled without issue.

[Zan]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Aemony:

Początkowo opublikowane przez Maara Mori:

How do I even install it? It asks if I'm ready to begin the installation, then I click yes, nothing happens and it asks again and again. If I click no, it just deletes all the K files

Sounds like something is preventing the download of the mod from establishing correctly. This might be if e.g. there's a proxy or AV solution in the way that scans and disallows the traffic.

What you can do is simply download the latest archive from the GitHub repository and extract it to the game folder. When you launch the game and it will prompt about "a new version is available", just select to skip/never tell you again (as its already fully updated and Kaldaien isn't working on this mod any longer).

This is the latest copy: https://github.com/Kaldaien/FAR/releases/download/far_070/FAR_0_7_0_23.7z

Does this method make FAR in-game overlay work? Because it doesn't pop up until I install FAR through normal installation which I can't for some reasons (did it in 2017 and it worked)