Topic-Free Mega Thread - v 1.1.2021

It’s easier in some ways. Was there something particular you needed? Right now the main thing that the Discord has that Discourse doesn’t is the test releases, and that’s primarily because the Discord ended up being easier for Kal to publish those on.

I can’t promise anything, but we can probably look into possible ways of mirroring those releases over to Discourse.

Though I can see why Discord is a prefered choice these days, I honestly miss reading discussions on forums, mainly because of their more permanent, more organised nature.

I kind of use forums as a wiki and have learnt a lot by just reading old conversations people had. Even conversations that regualrs might feel like they are common knowledge can be valuable for people with less knowledge like me.

Most of the time, I don’t have to start a new forum thread because I can find answers to my questions in those old discussions.

Personally, I also find forums easier to search and to follow on old discussions than Discord.

There’s a tighter coupling between Discord and Discourse now, we have a bot that informs me whenever a new thread is started. So I don’t think we’re losing anything, so much as the more instant communication style is preferred by a lot of the more recent discussion.

I can assure you, if there’s a high profile game-specific mod, it gets a thread here on the forums and always breathes new life into them. For the time being, I’m not doing much that’s game-specific and so Discord is getting most attention.

AMD 21.2.1

https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-rad-win-21-2-1

For those of you not present on Discord, here’s a newer copy of SKIF that includes a few changes.

Changes

  • New options tab that replaces old injection config tab and moves SKIF settings into there.

  • Exit confirmation when service is running (can be disabled in the Options tab).

  • Tooltips added to some elements (most noticeably Config Root/File) to make it clearer that the elements are clickable.

  • SKIF version number have been moved into the Options tab.

  • Special K version number (for the global injection) is featured along with the service controls).

  • Error message added if running SKIF from a folder where the Servlet subfolder does not exist (i.e. the global injector service can’t be controlled).

  • Currently a non-functioning kernel driver install/uninstall section as this is something Kal will have to implement the functionality for as it is currently outside of my experience.

Download

SKIF.exe (1.7 MB)

Just replace the existing SKIF with this one.


Edit:

Updated to include offset tooltips and the ability to disable them outright.

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I just recently joined Discord and still trying to learn how it works.

Where is new SKIF.exe usually posted in? when I downloaded the latest SpecialK from Release channel, it only contain DLL files.

It’s not usually posted because it’s traditionally not been updated. It only gets distributed along with the official releases and I’m not happy with the quality of 21.02.xx yet to make an official release. I expect this will be the month a new official release goes live though.

Aemony is working on changes to SKIF, you’ll have to ask him about that stuff.

Is where its located or should be located.
%userprofile%\documents\My Mods\SpecialK\

Love the new Options tab and all the new stuff for tooltips for certain things. :slight_smile:

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Right now, a bit all of the place. SKIF technically have a built-in update notification, but I haven’t really looked into it nor even figured out if that’s something I can make use of without backend access to the CDN of the site itself.

“Proper” SKIF releases will probably be posted in the Version History category or, as Kal mentioned, bundled with the main SpecialK.7z download. “In development” releases will either be mentioned in this thread or another main thread on the forum, or over on the Discord somewhere.

Right now I’m don’t really want to do a “proper” release of SKIF until the kernel driver install/uninstall functionality is worked out, which I’m sorta reliant on Kal atm to fix up (as it’s currently outside of my experience).

Eventually though Version History (which automatically pushes new threads to #releases on Discord) will be the main location for all public SKIF updates.

POV: Your game gets a big content update:

Here’s an updated copy of SKIF.

No major changes – primarily further QoL changes.

SKIF.exe (1.7 MB)

New AMD chipset driver.

https://www.amd.com/en/support/chipsets/amd-socket-am4/x570

https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-ryzen-chipset-2-13-27-501

Signed January 27th instead of November 26th for the prior file but the changes are listed above for the actual device updates. :slight_smile:

Oh and also the general release notes for this version of the chipset drivers.

461.51 “Hotfix” NVIDIA driver.
https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5158

Standard:
https://international-gfe.download.nvidia.com/Windows/461.51hf/461.51-desktop-notebook-win10-64bit-international.hf.exe

DCH:
https://international-gfe.download.nvidia.com/Windows/461.51hf/461.51-desktop-notebook-win10-64bit-international-dch.hf.exe

Hmm hardware GPU scheduling already getting a change it seems.
From the AMD 21.2.1 driver topic on Guru3D.

Interesting.

Think Iron was the Windows 10 build for 20H2 and then Manganese is the build for 21H1 finally Cobalt is 21H2

Suppose Vibranium 1 would also be the 20H2 name and the upcoming one for May-June would be Vibranium 2

Cobalt is the insider ring though and it’s kinda like a constant work in progress with the latest features and developments the beta or dev rings are what gets what eventually becomes either build updates or full new build distributions.

Like how the ongoing .780 cumulative updates might be for 19043.x and the initial support for Windows 10 21H1

WDDM is also up to 3.0 now so it seems a lot of device changes and driver or DirectX updates could be happening but for the 21H2 build at the earliest with 21H1 seeing more general updates and improvements or bug fixes. :slight_smile:

EDIT: And with that over with Microsoft is actually doing something with GPU hardware scheduling now and how that’s going to be utilized, think NVIDIA’s mostly worked out the major stability and performance problems in their support and AMD’s well seemingly skipping over implementing it at least in this current iteration though it really doesn’t do too much anyway for this first implementation.

Coupled with ReBAR support and this actually doing something though that’s a nice free 2 - 6% performance gain long as there’s no drawbacks.

There’s a few for AMD’s implementation and SAM but nothing too major most of the time though similarly only a few games and only Assassin’s Creed Valhalla see major gains from it but it’s something. ~
(It’s also something alright whatever was done with AC Valhalla seeing a up-to of 20% instead of the ~10% some of the other big gainers saw ha ha.)

Thanks to the user tfo on the Discord, here’s an updated copy of SKIF that works on Win8.1 as well as on systems without Steam installed.

The Steam Management tab will be hidden if the tool can’t locate the Steam installation.

SKIF.exe (1.7 MB)

Can SK proxy other dlls other than ReShade?
Perhaps I can rename those dlls so they load as if they were ReShade.

It can load any DLL you want it to, up to 16 of them

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Thanks for the “Recommended settings” section under “SwapChain Science” as a side note as well!