ok, ok, i see!! However, does count the PresentationInterval=1inside the .ini file as V-sync ? (in order to disabe order types of v-sync as in game or nvidia v-sync)
As you said, should we put in fps target the perfect refresh rate of our monitor then, right?
btw, ty very much for answering my noobie questions 
Has anybody heard of the Decima Explorer by Javeer? I just discovered it today. Figured I’d share with the Special K community.
Okay running into a new issue with Horizon Zero Dawn. I can’t get past startup part of game. At all. It freezes and becomes unresponsive and won’t load at all. Anyone having this issue?
Have you removed the prior pipeline cache file for the game?
There’s the D3D cache as well for Microsoft (This is D3D12 I believe not Vulkan.) but that should be better at invalidating earlier versions.
Pipeline cache file is in the games install folder somewhere as I recall.
Microsoft’s D3D cache is here.
C:\Users\jonas\AppData\Local\D3DSCache
Err NVIDIA uses the Program Data folder AFAIK and AMD’s here.
C:\Users\jonas\AppData\Local\AMD
(Username being your OS account name generally.)
(And one of the cache folders for D3D, GL or VK for AMD.)
Same as Microsoft updates to the drivers (Or the OS changing the D3D files.) generally properly invalidates older cache files so they don’t conflict or interfere.
EDIT: Would also try without SpecialK and then going back to some of the 0.11.0.49 builds in case it’s a regression here if you’re using SpecialK though some of the settings might need to be tuned a bit, HZD didn’t like additional back buffers I believe and then there’s the sleepless render thread that needs to be disabled if using ReShade to avoid a hang.
Think that’s about it.
Okay so go into all those locations and delete both AMD’s and Microsofts Cache? I deleted the game’s cache as well already.
Edit: Should I delete all the D3DSCache folders?
The Microsoft cache you can usually just delete the subfolder in here it’s a few files often a couple of KB’s in size for various app software like the shell / start menu which would be re-created but the game files would be upwards of a few hundred Megabytes.
AMD’s driver cache would be in I think it’s the D3DCache folder also a bit larger in size for how many shaders is getting processed here although driver updates also remove this folder on install.
(Curiously it doesn’t remove the GL and VK folders only the D3D one probably a non-resolved legacy issue.)
The subfolders here are for various builds and older versions usually, I only really keep the latest one myself after the OS or drivers is updated but it’s safe to delete it all they’re just shader cache files.
I actually removed SK and ReShade. Still locksup on me lol. But about to delete the AMD cache stuff now.
Also tried deleting the profile.dat settings file too.
Only thing I can actually think of is the games pipeline cache and errors with not invalidating earlier versions both game and driver updates that would affect the compiled results, D3D and AMD’s cache are secondary and manage better than some games that have had issues here and if it’s not SpecialK or a software conflict I’m not entirely sure why it breaks.
Unless the Steam interaction got wonky again and you just need to restart Steam which is rare but can happen.
EDIT: Microsoft also updated the D3D files in .541 and .546 cumulative updates for Windows 10 but these are insider test updates and won’t be available until the monthly patch release date for October in well some weeks roughly.
(Second Tuesday of the month.)
Hmm got further. Much further and saw Steam’s popup come up and it still locked up but took longer lol.
It loaded a bit further at least, wonder if there’s some software here or if it just hit some issue a bit later partway into rebuilding the cache or just before starting the compiler.
Hopefully AMD didn’t introduce some driver regression or issue if you’re on 20.9.2 now.
EDIT: Enhanced sync if enabled and Radeon Image Sharpening is what I’d attempt to disable if so.
If required the task manager and shutting down the two overlay AMD services perhaps.
Can shut down Catalyst / Radeon Settings too and then right click and open it up and it should add back the two overlay services if you want them. 
(They’re kinda tied to RadeonSettings.exe starting up.)
EDIT: Kinda third party software compatibility here but partly with the display driver.
I have overlay stuff disabled. And everything is on default for Horizon Zero Dawn. Since I did factory reset recently after installing 20.9.2 drivers.
So enhanced sync would then be enabled as I think that’s a default to on thing, AMD also hasn’t really resolved that after suggesting users disable it for compatibility due to problems with it.
Overall stability shouldn’t be super bad but it has some weird issues depending on your GPU yet AMD keeps the default setting to on for it anyway.
EDIT: Radeon Image Sharpening causes a crash if both the game and the drivers try doing it at the same time, AMD’s using a number of blacklist profiles to resolve this though.
(Most recent one for Serious Sam 4 with the 20.9.2 drivers.)
No its off by default now.
Image Sharpening is off too.
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Ah they actually resolved that then. Better at least until the issue here is identified and resolved.
Uninstalled game and trying to reinstall it again. And see if that works. I haven’t had any updates to my shader cache so maybe that will help things along.
@JonasBeckman
I finally figured it out. Apparently Horizon Zero Dawn doesn’t like 384Khz 32bit sound. lol. I dropped it down to 192Khz 24bit and game finally booted up lol.
Edit:
Okay figured it out any sound above 192khz in sound panel will cause Horizon Zero Dawn to crash. It supports 32 bit 192Khz but nothing higher lol. Go figure.
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Oh wow it’s been years since I had issues like that.
48000 and 24-bit as the max supported but then newer sound hardware allowed 32-bit and you also have above 192000 now up to 384000 like here.
Hah guess you found a new issue with this but instead of 96000 or the older 192000 it’s above 192000 where things bug out due to the new fancy hardware. 
Thought that issue would have disappeared years ago games sampling it down instead of crashing because they’re doing 44100 16-bit or even lower with various older lossy formats and compression techniques.
Doubt even current games use much above 48000 or 24-bit or higher even with additional storage space and modern even in-built sound system hardware being better along with headphone price improvements and acceptable audio quality and then the panels and ports and all that.
(It gets a bit complex for how well the front or back panel stuff works and quality and then devices like DAC’s and another layer from sound virtualization which is also popular.)
Hmm wonder if stuff using proper enhancements and functionality like Dolby Atmos supports this better or not, PC doesn’t have much of it though.
(Upscaling or virtualization as forms of “enhancements” more than native support via apps and programs I think.)
EDIT: Suppose quality hardware works for some of these higher settings although maybe not 384k hertz even if you find audio sampled at this level which is also something, I’m on a more somewhat mid-range I think Sennheiser 599 myself after the 2.1 Corsair SP2500’s got old and hit EOL some years ago even.
Looking at the list decent headphones go for a few hundred US Dollars or Euro up to a few thousands for studio quality and then above that well it gets a bit crazy.
Well it seems Horizon Zero Dawn now looks much better on my PC. Am running Ultra settings but capped at 30 fps for most part. I know they had an update recently that fixed some of the 30fps locked animations but not sure if they fixed all of them.
I also decided to try that 10bit Toggle from AMD panel that I post pic of in Main Discussion thread lol. Looks amazing now in game.
Am using a reshade though.
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Not sure how well 10-bit helps but if the game can do HDR it probably looks really good for being a few years since the PS4 original.
(EDIT: Well the screenshots even without extras like ReShade or higher downsampling resolution supported ones already kinda shows this ha ha.)
Fixing the 30 FPS animations and non-working animations over 30 FPS like the hair and yeah I think a majority of what one could expect to see fixed has been resolved at this point maybe some additional known issues and stability or optimization work can be done though.
Then port the sequel over.
(At some future point likely later after at least a year or two PS5 exclusivity.)