PSO and this do similar things.

PSO replaces the PNG textures with DDS textures of the same resolution. Requires installing via nexus.

This mod replaces the PNG textures with DDS and additionally reduces the resolution for better performance/less VRAM usage. It installs via the Steam Workshop.

They are not compatible with each other. Choose one or the other.

Sorry if these are dumb questions: Does this work with SCARaw's PSO? Or should I use this one only?

Thanks! I know nothing about the graphics side of things, so wasn't sure if your other changes would cause it to expect a lower resolution texture file (or something like that). I did rename the files to match your naming scheme (just "..._new" IIRC). If I see any major issues or anything I'll report back in case anyone else has the same question.

@acymetric
Unsure. I ASSUME as long as the files names match the answer with be "yes it works".

Can I drop the .dds files for transparent red rain from SCARaw's Particle System Override into this mod and expect it to work or would there be issues with using those .dds files with the other changes this mod has made to the materials and .pu files?

Thank you so much for this! it saved my frame rates!

@Laughing Forest
Either, I don't think it'll conflict with Mood Weathers. They change different things.

So would this have to be lower/below Mood Weathers in the load order to work properly?

This mod changed my entire experience. I was getting constant freezing/loading whenever I moved 20 feet in any direction and was about to consider it unplayable, but after installing this mod it's only when I leave the bounds of an area.

it also has a compatability patch if you're unhappy with words alone

thanks, but after - is it lower or higher UWE?

@Endar Croz
This mod is compatible with UWE. Tread tested it himself over a few months and no problems ever occurred.

This mod should be loaded after UWE.

is this mod compatible with UWE? if so, what to put below?

Love that second image, what you trying to imply? XD

Man what a lifesaver! Went from 15 fps to 60 fps on high in blackscratch. Whatever the issue was this fixed it!
rtx2070

@maxibread
It should likely work. It'll generally work with mods that don't alter textures that is seemingly one.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2384958182

Can i use it with this?

Does this mod work with "Clean And Speed"?

@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)

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

@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.

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?

bumped me from 30 fps to 60, absolutely crazy

nice mod!

I didn't expect it to be so useful, one of the best mods for this game

Tested this together with No Clutter, Compressed Texture Files, Removed Weather Effects and Cleand and Speed Plus... i still gained fps. I didn't think I was going to get any fps increase, it feels more smooth now, this is really important because I don't have a character, I have an army... LOL

thank you

Thanks for the detailed explanation. The effects may not be noticeable, since I am already playing with reduced particles. I have got a GTX1050 and my fps are allover the place.

Updated description with more recent findings on why it helps and how it helps.

For more context. Based on my own profiling the actual amount of time spent rendering particles generally varies somewhere between 1% and 15% of the entire time to render each frame. This varies with number of particles and other graphical settings. The lower the settings the more relative time particles take to render. If you otherwise run the game at high settings the impact of particles is very small

@Spectre

It'll likely conflict with other particle performance mods. The description gives more detail.

The performance benefit is likely fairly hardware specific where the GPU is either running out of VRAM or GPU VRAM bandwidth is low. If your GPU is relatively new this mod will probably provide minimal benefit.

For a bit more technical explanation. Kenshi uses PNG files for rendering particles. Those

Is there anywhere I can check in the files if the mod is installed correctly? I have moved it down in the load order, but I am not noticing a difference. The only other particle mod I have is Age of Blood & Sand - Performance Addon, which reduces particles.

To clarify, it works with compressed textures

@McShaneGun

No. It might conflict with mods that alter particles (IE reduced particles). Due to how it works it'll most likely run with other particles mods though they change similar files and that might cause unintended behavior.

This will mess with the ever popular compressed textures mod right?

@Warped_Jack
Sometimes Kenshi can be just a bit jank. Sometimes "turn it off and then turn it back on again" helps lol. Glad it fixed itself.

Hi, that's what I thought, was surprised when disabling fixed it to be honest. Anyway, I re-enabled the mod to try and generate a log while it crashes, used the same load order and now... no crash. Sneaking seems to be fine. I'll keep it enabled, and see how it goes. Thanks for the quick response anyway!

@Warped_Jack

That's weird.

This mod shouldn't be impacting sneaking. That and yesterday I had characters going in and out of sneak mode continously while playing no issue, even after the update.

Mind trying to replicate the crash and sending me a DM with the game log.

Hi @Kindrad, entering sneak mode now causes Kenshi to CTD for me, disabling this mod fixes it. This has only been an issue since the recent update(s) I think, earlier in the week it was fine. Just fyi

@UnCheat
That was my dumb. Should be fixed now. *fingers crossed* lol

Bleh must have messed the upload up somehow... I'll look at it

And I do not notice ANY sparks now..

Thanks Man!

The offending particles have been reverted to vanilla resolution. Their textures also were updated to a different DDS format that better preserves details. (They should look as good or better than vanilla now)

@Uncheat
Thanks for the heads up. I'll go ahead and undo the sparks image downscale right now.