At the time of writing (v 0.11.0.51 // Nov 13, 2020), the official release of Special K is incompatible with this game (DRM / D3D12 / DXGI Debug issues).
A pre-configured standalone release of Special K (v 0.11.1) is available for this game.
Download SK_ACV.7z (7.6 MB), and extract it to your game’s directory (usually C:\Program Files (x86)\Ubisoft\Ubisoft Game Launcher\games\Assassin’s Creed Valhalla)
Configuration
The configuration that ships with this release is tuned for 60 FPS, if you want a different rate the only change you need to make to dxgi.ini is TargetFPS=…
Uninstall
Delete dxgi.dll and dxgi.ini from your game’s directory, no other changes are necessary.
Misc. Notes
For best results, configure the game to run in Borderless. Waitable SwapChains do not work in Fullscreen, so you won’t be able to use Fullscreen either way and it’s best to not confuse the game when it tries to enter Fullscreen and fails.
I get tired of saying this, but, Borderless is better than Fullscreen when Special K removes all the borderless performance penalties.
SK’s Framerate Limiter resets itself when you Alt-Tab or change Display Modes.
You might want to try the updated version I just uploaded (link is in the title post). I made a few changes to that reset behavior, it’s supposed to periodically reset itself to compensate for clock drift but wasn’t doing so. Thus, your fiddling with display modes and what not probably helped it along.
I also forced VSYNC on. After seeing how much VSYNC off derails performance when the stupid benchmark forces it off, I decided the best course of action would be to turn it on and not let the game do that
SK’s limiter works best (lowest latency + most consistency) when VSYNC is enabled. I know that runs counter to every other limiter in existence, but so does everything else in SK’s design
Everyone who has downloaded a build from this thread…
I caught a rather stupid mistake in my D3D12 Framerate Limiter code that was counting the render SwapChain twice. That mistake has the potential to create microstutter, so you don’t want any of the earlier versions…
Please grab the latest linked version at your earliest convenience. I think I got all the stupid mistakes out of my system and it should be smooth sailing from here
For NVIDIA, AMD doesn’t allow D3D12 overrides for a number of settings or even D3D11 in a few cases deferring to the software to control the behavior outside of OpenGL.
A more forcible implementation wouldn’t be a bad option but their stance is API standards and other than the D3D11 tessellation level override most options comply with that.
Don’t think there’s any particular issues either from having both set to enabled or if the game is disabled then for NVIDIA the driver can take priority so it’d still be enabled although throwing in double VSync or triple buffered VSync I’m not sure how that’s handled.
(Probably still overriden pretty sure NVIDIA has settings for these too which likely applies to D3D also.)
Only difference would be if the game tied more settings to the V-Sync toggle than V-Sync alone. E.g. an additional FPS limiter or something.
Unity games are a bit weird in that regard as forcing V-Sync off through the game or NVCP doesn’t always uncap them, but forcing V-Sync off through Special K uncaps them…
Yeah there was usually a point in most cities you could have your bird spin around over to set up some ancient teleportation system but here it’s one or two remote points in high places most of the time.
(EDIT: Per map region.)
The three main cities (The smaller circled “territories” on the map.) have two or three points each for some reason too but getting around is still quite a bit of work.
Watch_Dogs Legion is somewhat similar too whereas Watch_Dogs 2 let you travel to almost any point of interest and had the map uncovered this time it’s covered in a fog effect and some streets have no points to travel to at all no matter how much driving or map uncovering is done.
Getting the stable up and running and getting the horse upgraded to improve stamina to let it run more than 500 meters helps, leaving the boat and using the horn of instant-raiding on settlements with over-sized loot chests also speeds up having to travel up and down the smaller river sites with your team of footballers.
EDIT: Yeah I maintain Ubisoft based the raiding mechanic on the older style football or mob ball.
Your boys in blue against the defenders in orange as the civilian population shouts and screams in awe as the match spirals out or control entirely although instead of a ball there’s three goals for these ridiculously pompous chests that’d be worth easily 3 - 5x the actual contents worth of supplies if melted down.
Odyssey had problems with people plopping down their photo sessions right on top of the fast travel point too was a real hassle and the toggle was temporary so you couldn’t really set community features to off which was really annoying.
Their own green I think it was tinted concept art photos are pretty neat though and then there’s a bunch of tester UbiTestXXXX type or UbiGuestXXXX type early images but once the servers are more reliable there might be a ton of odd pics on most of the travel points again.
(The one on the start island in Odyssey with the detailed Zeus statue in particular you’d think would have Ubisoft think through that little feature more but nope.)
EDIT: The game also appears to have gone full anachronism on some of the time period objects which happened but not to this extent, not big deal but a few bits shouldn’t be more common until the 1200’s or even the 1400’s if not later not the 900’s ha ha.
Intricate crossbows, massive detailed stone constructions including many finer details and architectural marvels and of course the usual with stylized armor designs though Ubisoft resister throwing horns on all the helmets, barely.
(The more you upgrade the item so you can … upgrade the item? … however the more intricate and ornamental it becomes instead of looking like a weapon or armor it looks like a parade piece at the end.)
The driver hack that calls itself Low Latency? No, that does not work in D3D12/Vulkan, but it is trivial to manipulate the DXGI SwapChain to make it low latency.
Realistically, D3D12 is more tunable. Vulkan has very little room to improve framepacing, which is why I’m happy it doesn’t get used much and the few times that it is used, the developer’s generally competent and doesn’t need framepacing fixes.
