Easiest Way to Unlock FPS

This guide will (hopefully) help you to fully uncap the framerate for Crash N. Sane Trilogy on PC. The PC version of this game has bizarre rules for how high you can set the framerate, like it has to be <= 60, but also divisible by your monitor's refresh rate (I.e., a refresh rate of 165 results in a cap of 55 FPS, since it's less than 60 and divisible by 3... it's strange.

Why Use This Method?

There are a variety of reasons why some people would want to use this guide. Here are some of the more prevalent issues I've encountered recently:

• Late July 2018 Patch: The Crash N Sane Trilogy recieved a patch in late July of 2018, which apparently reverted many of the unlocked framerate solutions that people had used.
  
• Laptop Users: Most guides I've found suggest users to use a "Preferred Refresh Rate" option within the Nvidia Control Panel as a quick-fix. Unfortunately, because all laptops have an Integrated Intel chipset alongsinde the main Nvidia/AMD GPU, the refresh rate options are instead stored in the Intel Control Panel. TLDR: Laptop users like me can't use this method
  
• Miscellaneous/Unknown Issues: Anyone who has a lot of experience with PC gaming knows that one of its biggest drawbacks is troubleshooting for mysterious/unknown issues, I.e. having a beastly PC yet having the framerate cap at 15 FPS for no discernible reason.

If anyone else has a unique case that was solved by this guide, I'd happily add it to the list to help others who may also have obscure/circumstantial cases.

Step 1: Download "Special K" injector from GitHub

Click here[github.com] to go to the Special K's GitHub page, then scroll down to the bottom, and under "Assets", click on the latest version (in this case, "SK_0_10_3.7z") to download it.

Step 2: Extract & move files to game directory

Using a program, such as 7zip[www.7-zip.org], extract the files to your Crash Bandicoot N Sane Trilogy directory.

Generally, the install directory looks something like this:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Crash Bandicoot - N Sane Trilogy

Step 3: Rename "SpecialK64.dll" to "dxgi.dll"

This part is easy: simply rename the "SpecialK64.dll" file to "dxgi.dll" to enable an unlocked framerate.

And viola! Start the game and it should start running at your monitor's highest refresh rate! If not, check Step 4 below

Step 4: Sleepless Window Thread (Fix for 65 FPS cap)

Disclaimer: At the time of writing this extra step, I have not tested this myself. That being said, an absolute unit by the name of @yar2000 showed me a solution for the 65 FPS cap.

If you start the game and it's capped at 65 FPS, then try this: go into the Special K menu while in-game (Ctrl + Shift + Backpace), and enable "Sleepless Window Thread" in "Advanced Framerate Options". Hopefully this will fix the issue.

Uninstalling Special K

If you want to uninstall the Special K mod, luckily it is very simple; just delete/move all of the files out of the game's directory. If you extracted all of the zip file's contents to the install directory, then the following image will show you which files (highlighted in blue) need to be removed in order to restore the default settings:

Useful Resources

• PCGamingWiki[www.pcgamingwiki.com] - The PCGamingWiki page for Special K, it will give you some useful information about SpecialK, specifically the "Local (game-specific)" section under "Installation", which tells you how to pull up the in-game SpecialK menu
  
• The SpecialK Official Wiki[wiki.special-k.info] - Contains a lot of documentation for developers. Maybe not useful for most players, but I thought I'd include it nonetheless
  
• SpecialK Steam Group Page - Obviously the Steam Group is dead and moved elsewhere, but it might have some useful info on games archived here.

Please let me know of any issues with the guide in the comments!

I should admit that i sort-of did this process out of order trying to find the solution on my own. On top of that, trying to manually re-create the process would lead to the game not starting on my end.

If any of you follow the guide to the letter and experience problems, leave a comment below and I'll try my best to help you out.

[Mikemario11]

now i can't even open the game anymore thanks now i have to reinstall the game : (

[boris]

No downloads necessary for nvidia see steps below.
1 right click on desktop.
2 nvidia control panel.
3 find manage 3D settings on left side columb.
4 select PROGRAM SETTINGS under 1st step select a program to customise.
5 find your program under the drop down menu or add it on the ADD button.
6 On 2nd step scroll down to MAX FRAME RATE.
7 In the settings columb click the USE GLOBAL SETTINGS (OFF) drop down menu.
8 Find ON and select the desired FPS you want.
9 Don't forget to click APPLY & OK in the bottom right hand of the window that is open then close.
Use WINDOWS key + G to open the game bar window while in game to view FPS in performance box.

[5persondude]

@spartanmark6 I tried this on my Steam Deck OLED recently and it seemed to hard-crash that too. But the weird part was that, after I removed the files after a few unsuccessful launches, I was able to play at 90 FPS for the rest of the time I had the game installed. Can't remember if I messed with any settings after the fact.

I'm gonna be real with y'all; I don't fully understand this injector or how exactly it works. I'm just a regular user like the rest of you guys who wanted to play this game at higher than 60 FPS (or just not at some bizarre interval) and PCGamingWiki suggested this mod. I literally threw this guide together the exact same day I got a new gaming laptop with a 144Hz screen. Sorry if this mod has been a headache for you all.

[Melody]

@spartanmark6 it's perfectly fine for me on Arch Linux, using KDE and RTX 4070S on 32 GB of RAM. You could try with a different DE or using X11 instead of Wayland, or without using gamescope.

[spartanmark6]

Unfortunately, to anyone looking to try this on Linux, it did not work for me. I run Arch using the Gnome Desktop and every time that I attempt to launch the game with SpecialK installed, the game will eat up my entire 32GB's of RAM and then proceed to either crash my whole system or just Steam. If I happen to find a fix for Linux, I'll update on this thread.

[Искорка]

Still locked at 60 fps

[Heibai Gui]

Followed guide step by step. Step three was the last thing I did. It's hard to help everyone, because everyone has their own specs, settings and builds. Like me - I have a second TV screen that runs in 60Hz and EVERY time I run the new game for the first time, I need to disconnect it from HDMI or it would stuck on 60Hz, rather then make it as my main monitor that gives 165Hz.
Here are my specs:
Operating System: Windows 10 Home 64-bit (10.0, Build 19045) (19041.vb_release.191206-1406)
System Model: System Product Name
BIOS: 3602 (type: UEFI)
Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 8-Core Processor (16 CPUs), ~4.1GHz
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti
Memory: 32768MB RAM
DirectX Version: DirectX 12
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
Miracast: Available, no HDCP
DirectX Database Version: 1.0.8

[5persondude]

@Heibai Gui I'm glad it works for you! As you can see, I keep getting lots of comments about issues people were having when using the mod, and unfortunately I really didn't know how to respond since I'm not a SpecialK developer or well-versed in troubleshooting for injector mods like these.

If you don't mind me asking, did you follow the guide step-by-step, or were there any other configurations you did of your own volition? Also, did you have any problems with earning achievements or miscellaneous issues like that? I'm just curious because I want to get a better idea of how people are installing the mod and any discrepancies people should look out for when installing the mod. Thanks!

[Heibai Gui]

Nvidia 3080 TI. 165 fps. Works like magic. Thank you!

[Krasnov]

i have a weird problem with this, im not getting achievments when using specialk?? They unlock when i uninstall specialk, but not all of them. Anyone else having this problem?