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KPM: Performance Particles
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8.986 MB
Apr 27, 2022 @ 12:13am
Jan 19, 2023 @ 11:50pm
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Kindrad
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KPM: Performance Particles

In 1 collection by Kindrad
Kindrad's Kenshi Mods
7 items
Description

Do not copy files or steal! Thanks.

Updoots appreciated! They tell me I'm doing a job well done and keep moral up.

See my other mods here.




(Kindrad's Performance Mods): Performance Particles

Description
This mod replaces all .PNG particles image files with lower resolution versions in .DDS format. GPUs cannot use PNG files so the PNG textures are uncompressed on GPU. DDS is a special compression format GPUs can still read. The smaller file resolution and smaller file size (through compression) will help some computers with performance.

This mod is intended to replace other particle performance mods. If you want to have full particles/weather effects and also have increased performance this mod is for you.

What to Expect:
Rendering particles generally takes anywhere from 1% to 15% of the time to render each frame depending on settings and number of particles. As a rule of thumb, the lower the graphics settings the more relative time particles take to render. If you run Kenshi at high settings the impact of this mod will be marginal. If you are using low settings the impact of this mod will be greater.
  • This mod does not reduce particle effects, instead it makes them more efficient to load and render for the GPU.
  • The mod should help in situations where the GPU is either VRAM bound (running out of VRAM) OR where the GPU is bandwidth bound (older iGPUs).
  • To use simply Subscribe and Enable.

What it Changes:
  • Replaces all particle .PNG textures with .DDS versions
  • Replaced textures are 1/16th size (0.25 x 0.25 resolution), they look really similar IMO. (This won't change already small particles)
  • Updates related .pu and .material files to make it work.


General Mod Compatability
  • Tested to work with Genesis and UWE
  • If you run into compatibility issues try to move it lower in the load order, the lower the better for this mod.
  • It will work with non-particle performance mods. (IE, Compressed Textures or Reduced Clutter)
  • It'll likely conflict (though still run) with other Particle Performance Mods (Reduced Weather or Reduced Particles). See below for more details.

Compatability with other Particle Mods
Generally speaking if this mod is loaded after other particle or weather mod it'll run. However, there will likely be unusual behavior. As stated before, this mod is intended to replace other particle performance mods. This mod is compatible with mods that add new particles (IE Genesis).

Credits
Thanks AmokHarvest for discovering Kenshi uses PNG files for particle textures.


Please Report any bugs you find
Popular Discussions View All (1)
17
Mar 14 @ 7:19pm
Bug Reports
Kindrad
85 Comments
< >
BitBoySeven Apr 19 @ 4:58pm 
Does this mod work with "Clean And Speed"?
Kindrad  [author] Apr 1 @ 8:28pm 
@Salty Mike
Kenshi is just unoptimized. Maybe try out RE_Kenshi that generally helps load times a bit. I also have an "unlisted" mod that can be found in the KPM mod collection on the top of this page. KPM: Simplified Foliage models (Experimental)
Salty Mike Mar 29 @ 9:54am 
A question, maybe a dumb one: What can I do to get rid of the loading zones in the swamp? My computer is state-of-the-art at the moment. Hope this mods helps.
Kindrad  [author] Mar 6 @ 11:34pm 
PSA:
If you need even more performance look at my other performance mods (see link above). I have a foliage model mod posted here (eventually to be replaced) that massively improves performance by optimizing foliage models.
Kindrad  [author] Mar 6 @ 11:15pm 
If you or anyone else reading this are interested. I dissected Kenshi quite a bit with some GPU profiling tools. Somewhere on GMG (Genesis Modding Guild) [The Genesis mod Discord Channel] I have quite a bit of breakdowns on Kenshi performance with pictures and stuff. (That's where I got the 1% to 15% particle performance figures from). It's time spent rendering different things
Kindrad  [author] Mar 6 @ 11:10pm 
I chose to use a downscaled texture resolution as generally speaking this mod won't help computers with dedicated GPUs. Older IGPUs stand to benefit greatly however.

The main problem isn't texture size but memory bandwidth. System RAM is very slow compared to dedicated VRAM. The textures need to be read from system RAM for an iGPU. Sending a file to the GPU 1/16th the size is 16x faster than the full res texture. The texture needs to be read for every particle on screen (sometimes this is a ton).

I figure if you are looking for a performance mod your computer needs all the help it can get so a moderate downgrade in visuals is more important than keeping higher resolution textures.
Kindrad  [author] Mar 6 @ 11:05pm 
For a bit of extra info on the compression and why the mod works (sometimes).

DDS compression is hardware based and by design is always the same size for a given texture resolution. It's the only form of texture compression supported by PC GPUs.

IE a 2048x2048 texture will always output the same file size regardless of colors used. The only way to get smaller DDS textures is to use a smaller resolution.

There is the older DXT1/BC1 DDS which is smaller in file size but doesn't support transparency so not really applicable for particles.

When Kenshi loads a PNG file it loads it to the GPU as an uncompressed texture (which is very memory heavy). This mod has pre-converted textures to DDS so when Kenshi loads the textures it loads a compressed file. The PNG files are smaller on disk but the GPU can read them so they can't be used directly and are uncompressed before being sent to GPU.
Kindrad  [author] Mar 6 @ 10:57pm 
@Lilly

The mods are similar yes and would be redundant to use both.

- They both convert PNG textures to DDS format.
- This one downscales texture resolution for textures so the textures are lower res.
- This one is no install as you've mentioned so it'll work regardless of Kenshi updating. They work slightly differently loading wise this one is just one click steam install. PSO requires some install thing.

They will share similar downsides. Neither will work with the other or with other particle mods as both this mod and PSO replace the same vanilla files.

In all likelihood this mod will perform slightly faster (smaller textures) and PSO will have more crisp particle textures. If you prefer Steam Workshop use this, if you prefer Nexus use PSO.
Lilly Mar 6 @ 9:42pm 
Is this just SCARaw's Particle System Override, but without having to do it manually? I think that one is mostly just switching to the dds format too, ya? Would it be redundant to use both?
crowstilskin Jan 17 @ 3:21pm 
bumped me from 30 fps to 60, absolutely crazy