Augmentrex - A working fix for the 1 FPS Bug

On this small guide I'll show you how to install and use Augmentrex, a fan-made patch that fixes the 1 FPS Bug on Steam's version of Hellgate London.

Introduction

Hello everyone!

Just like you all I’ve been wanting do play the Steam Version of Hellgate London without the notorious 1 FPS Bug. I tested many different fixes to no avail. Eventually I would just uninstall it and go back to the older version.
I know that we do have London 2038 and I know that we can use the Revival SP mod/patch on the older Flagship version, but I always wanted to properly play the Steam Version, but with the 1 FPS Bug, it’s basically impossible.

Recently I wanted to give Hellgate London a go again and went on a new search for a fix to the 1 FPS bug, and this time I actually found something that looked very promissing: Augmentrex, a project from a user called Zor that attempts to reverse-engineer the game’s engine and provides a working fix for the bug.

If you’re interested, here’s the forum post about the patch: https://www.hellgateaus.info/forum/steam/announcing-augmentrex-1-0-(includes-a-fix-for-the-1-fps-bug)/

Down below I will provide a small guide on how to install and use Augmentrex, but first, you must know what it does, and what issues it brings with it.

How Augmentrex works

Mainly, Augmentrex disables the game’s ray casting engine, fixing the vast majority of frame rate issues, and also it can disable the game’s capsule-capsule collision agent, fixing frame rate for certain skills, like the Blademaster’s Whirlwind.

Known Issues

However, disabling the ray casting engine brings a few issues:

1 – You can see portal names and enemy nameplates through terrain.
2 – Collision detection for ranged attacks will be non-functional, allowing both you and certain enemies to attack through some types of terrain.
3 – Enemy corpses will often just vanish when they die, or less frequently, end up in weird poses.
4 – Certain bosses (Ash and Oculis, possibly others) rely on ray casting for some of their attacks. You have to toggle the command off before you engage these bosses, otherwise you will not be able to defeat them (check down the HIGHLY RECOMMENDED step 4.2 further down for an easy way to toggle the patch on and off).
5 – Steam won’t detect that you’re running the game, but you can manually add Augmentrex as a non-steam game.
6 – Character physics when going downstairs can get a little clunky (it will look like he’s falling, other than walking down), but it’s nothing gamebreaking.
7 - You might have issues when doing the sidequest called "Dead Pool", in Tooley Street, as the NPC possibly won't spawn with the fix turned on. What fixed for me was: turning the fix off, going into the area, speaking with the NPC, finishing the quest, and then turning the fix back on again.

Installation Step-by-Step

Ok, with the known issues in mind, here is the step-by-step guide on how to install Augmentrex and properly use it:

0.1 – If you don’t have it installed already, download and install .NET Framework 4.7.2: https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet-framework/net472

0.2 – Obviously, install Hellgate London from Steam.

1 – Download Augmentrex-2.0.0.zip from https://github.com/alexrp/augmentrex/releases/tag/v2.0.0

2 – Extract the files from the ZIP. Just to be safe, I extracted them into the game’s installation folder.

3 – Open the file Augmentrex.exe.config with Notepad (right click on it, Open With, Notepad).

3.1 – You’ll see a lot of lines that can be configured here, for the guide we’re focusing on just two of them, but if you want to know more about each line, check the Configuration area on https://github.com/alexrp/augmentrex

4 – Find the following line:
<add key="gamePath" value="" />

4.1 – In value=””, add the game’s executable location within the commas. Here are some examples:
<add key="gamePath" value="C:\Program Files(x86)\Steam\Steamapps\common\HELLGATE_London\bin\Hellgate_sp_x86" />

Since I’ve installed Hellgate London in another location, my value=”” looks different. Here’s how I had to write it:
<add key="gamePath" value="H:\Games\SSD Steam\steamapps\common\HELLGATE_london\bin\Hellgate_sp_x86.exe" />

PS: This line could actually be skipped for some people, but since Augmentrex didn’t automatically recognize the game’s folder for me, I had to manually add it.

4.2 – OPTINAL BUT HIGHLY RECOMMENDED STEP – Find the following line:
<add key="runCommands" value="" />

And change it to look exactly like this:
<add key="runCommands" value="patch-cc-agent; patch-long-ray-vm; key --add -s F1 patch-long-ray-vm" />

This way, both commands from the patch that will fix the 1 FPS Bug will automatically be used when you run the game. Also, you’ll be able to toggle the most important one of them by using “SHIFT+F1”, meaning that, for the boss fights mentioned earlier on the Known Issues, you can deactivate the patch momentarily, defeat the boss, then turn the patch back on again.

5 – Save the file and close it.

6 – Run Augmentrex.exe. If no error occurs, you did Step 4.2 and the game opens normally, you’re basically good to go.

6.1 – If you get a Command Prompt screen with red text and an error message that starts like the onw below, follow the next steps to fix it:
Host assembly crashed: System.ApplicationException: STATUS_INTERNAL_ERROR: Unkown error in injected assembler code. (Code: 5)

6.2 – Close down the window and go to the HELLGATE_London\bin folder.

6.3 – Right click Hellgate_sp_x86.exe and go to Proprieties

6.4 – Now go to Compatibility

6.5 – Check the marker on “Run in 640x480 screen resolution” (Don’t worry, you’ll still be able to change the game’s resolution without any issues)

6.6 – Click Apply, and you can now run Augmentrex.exe again

7 – Now, if all went well, when you run Augmentrex.exe the game will launch. If you did the 4.2 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED STEP, the patch will be auto applied and you can just play the game, if you didn’t do it, follow the next steps.

7.1 – Alt+Tab the game, go to the Command Prompt window that opened and type the following command: patch-long-ray-vm

7.2 – Press Enter, a message should appear telling you that the patch has been applied.

7.3 – Alt+Tab back to the game and play it.

PS: You’ll need to do Steps 7.1 to 7.3 every time when you launch the game, thus, I really recommend to do Step 4.2, this way you don’t actually need to re-type the command.

PS 2: From now on, you’ll need to launch the game via Augmentrex.exe. If you run the game normally through Steam, the patch won’t be applied, meaning that you’ll still have the 1 FPS Bug.

Optional and Recommended Mods

Also, before finishing, I'd like to recommend 3 small mods that might improve your experience with Hellgate London even more!

The mods are:
1 - Hellgate HD Textures - Improves the textures by porting the old and much better quality ones from the original version of the game - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1581989096
2 - Hellgate HD Cinematics - Improves the cinematics by porting the old and much better quality ones from the original version of the game - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1581368515
3 - Hellgate London 2018 Modification - Increases inventory and stash size, fixes the usage of the Cube (from the last boss of London's campaign), adds instant stock refresh for all vendors in the game (just close the trading window and talk with them again) and increases the change for a successful usage of the Nano Forge - https://www.hellgateaus.info/forum/steam/hellgate-london-2018-modification-v0-1-for-hgl-steam-version-2-1-0-4/

All 3 mods are very easy to install, just follow the instructions on their respective pages.
Also, it's worth mentioning that, in order to download the Hellgate London 2018 Modification, you'll need to create a account on hellgateaus.info, but that won't take much time.

Conclusion

That’s all!
I was able to play the Steam Version for a couple of days now without any framerate issues, meaning that Augmentrex really worked for me.
Also, to do some testing, I've deactivated the patch, and played without it. In a matter of minutes, the framerate went incredibly low. After toggling the patch back on again, everything went back to normal.
It’s important to mention too that I haven’t gone into Tokyo yet, which is a place that I’ve seen many players mentioning that had the framerate issues more frequently, so I’ve yet to see how well will Augmentrex handle it there.

But I hope the fix works for you as it’s working for me.

Have fun slaying demons!

[Eon Mark]

this is the only thing that worked and fixes bug, thanks

[Klaudias_Nox]

I can confirm this is the only fix that has worked for me. No in-game settings changes or anything, I went through a lot of compatibility settings and this has been the only way I've been able to play. While sometimes it can still drop down to choppy bits, they're a lot smaller and stop much quicker. Thank you for your efforts in bringing this here.

[Robin The Swede]

Awesome work my friend, You are a legend!

(Can confirm that this works)