Topic-Free Mega Thread - v 1.11.2020

How do you even use the HDR widget like that? That widget more than any other needs a background / border :slight_smile: You can easily change slider settings that cause light levels below the widget to bleed through it and the border is important to protect against that.

And FYI, for complete HDR10 pass-through, use:

Luminance = 80 nits
Tonemap = HDR10 Passthrough
Gamma = 2.2

Disable Remaster 10-bit render passes.

(the screenshot below – captured using the game bar – is a bit too bright compared to how it looks in-game)

https://images.aemony.se/sharex/Assassin’s%20Creed®%20Odyssey%202020-10-31%2007_27_18.png

Edit: Here’s a slightly better screenshot captured using SK’s screenshot tool:

HDR-to-SDR tonemapping is a headache and a half…

@Kaldaien: Is there a plan for a separate screenshot feature of SK that doesn’t hook into Steam’s functionality?

So that capturing screenshots, and tonemapping them to SDR, is available even when running a non-Steam game or having Steam enhancements disabled?

Actual values are wrong (e.g. there’s no special significance to 80 nits), those are just values that produce 1:1 in/out when converting the HDR10 image to scRGB for further processing. This will be a much simpler mode with no settings to configure in the future, with the intended purpose of doing waveform analysis and luminance level histogram monitoring.


EDIT: And I guess, the more practical things Aemony just mentioned too :stuck_out_tongue: I’m thinking big, potentially so big that I might use this to collect training data for an AI tonemapper. The passthrough mode is less about users manipulating anything and more about taking an image produced by an engine with real HDR support and making sense out of it.

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Here’s a build with corrections made for that unexpected gamma:

dxgi.7z (7.6 MB)

Just put this into HDR10 Passthrough mode in the HDR Widget and it strips out that gamma and seems to clean things up a bit.

Yes, that’s all trivial to do. I just haven’t played games on a non-Steam store up until recently, lol. I took for granted that the Steam overlay was there. I won’t be doing that again, updated screenshot request code will be all my own design – the hard work already is all uniquely my design, it’s just the user-facing stuff for importing screenshots that I leaned heavily on Steam for.

Might as well make it something that other developers can trigger, to that end. Hell, I could just add a function to SK’s DLL where a lazy developer hands me some HDR pixels and I do all the processing to produce a screenshot(s) :wink:

“Now I am become Steam, the destroyer of overlays.”


Still really sad how the whole Steam thing turned out. My original plan was to get SK established on Steam with a growing userbase and then get enough leverage to convince Valve to re-design part of the UGC framework so that I could deliver to PC gaming an intuitive way of sharing HDR screenshots.

Now I’m at a complete loss on how to go about that. There are no HDR image hosting websites and I am completely and utterly incompetent when it comes to developing anything web-related :slight_smile:

I could probably foot the hosting bill myself, but somebody’s still gotta actually build a web backend to take uploads of SDR and HDR screenshots and associate them with one another, which is probably trivial but still a level of trivial above what I am capable of.

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On my PC, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is very choppy with this new version. The game run fine with version from 2020-10-25.

AC:Odyssey with Special K (2020-10-31):

AC:Odyssey with Special K (2020-10-25):

Special K Settings

[Compatibility.General]
DisableBloatWare_NVIDIA=false
RehookLoadLibrary=false

[SpecialK.System]
ShowEULA=false
Silent=false
LogLevel=0
IgnoreRTSSHookDelay=false
UseCrashHandler=true
GameOutput=true
EnableCEGUI=true
SafeInitCEGUI=true
TraceLoadLibrary=true
StrictCompliant=false
Version=0.11.1

[ImGui.Render]
DisableAlpha=false
AntialiasLines=true
AntialiasContours=true

[API.Hook]
LastKnown=64
d3d9=false
d3d9ex=false
d3d11=true
OpenGL=false
d3d12=false
Vulkan=false

[NVIDIA.API]
DisableHDR=false
Disable=false

[NVIDIA.Bugs]
AnselSleepsWithFishes=true

[Input.Keyboard]
CatchAltF4=true
DisabledToGame=false

[Input.Mouse]
DisabledToGame=false

[Input.Cursor]
Manage=false
KeyboardActivates=true
Timeout=1.5
ForceCaptureInUI=false
UseHardwareCursor=true
BlockInvisibleCursorInput=false
NoWarpUI=true
NoWarpVisibleGameCursor=true
FixSynapticsTouchpadScroll=false
AntiwarpDeadzonePercent=2.5
UseRelativeInput=true

[Input.Gamepad]
DisabledToGame=false
DisablePS4HID=false
AllowHapticUI=false
DisableRumble=true

[Input.XInput]
Rehook=false
PlaceholderMask=0
UISlot=0
SlotReassignment=0,1,2,3

[Input.Steam]
UISlot=0

[Threads.Analyze]
MemoryAllocation=false
FileActivity=true

[Window.System]
Borderless=true
Center=true
RenderInBackground=false
MuteInBackground=false
XOffset=0.0%
YOffset=0.0%
ConfineCursor=false
UnconfineCursor=false
PersistentDragPos=false
Fullscreen=false
FixMouseCoords=false
AlwaysOnTop=0
DisableScreensaver=false
DontHookWndProc=false
OverrideRes=1920x1080

[Display.Output]
ForceFullscreen=false
ForceWindowed=false

[Render.FrameRate]
TargetFPS=50.0
BackgroundFPS=0.0
SleeplessRenderThread=false
SleeplessWindowThread=false
EnableMMCSS=true
MaxBusyWaitPercent=0.0
WaitForVBLANK=false
PreRenderLimit=7
BackBufferCount=6
PresentationInterval=1
RescanRatio=-1/1
RefreshRate=-1.0
LimitEnforcementPolicy=4

[FrameRate.Control]
OverrideCPUCoreCount=-1

[Render.DXGI]
MaxDeltaTime=0
UseFlipDiscard=true
DisableFlipModel=false
AllowTearingInDWM=true
DropLateFrames=true
MaxRes=0x0
MinRes=0x0
SwapChainWait=15
Scaling=DontCare
ScanlineOrder=DontCare
ExceptionMode=DontCare
EnableDebugLayer=false
SafeFullscreenMode=false
Use64BitDepthStencil=false
IsolateD3D11DeferredContexts=false
SkipSwapChainPresentTest=false
OverrideMSAA=-1

[Textures.D3D11]
Cache=true
PreciseHash=false
Inject=true
InjectionKeepsFormat=false
GenerateMipmaps=false

[Textures.Cache]
MaxEntries=65536
MinEntries=512
MaxEvict=1024
MinEvict=64
MaxSizeInMiB=8192
MinSizeInMiB=384
IgnoreNonMipmapped=false
AllowStaging=false
AllowUnsafeRefCounting=false
ManageResidency=false

[Render.OSD]
ShowInVideoCapture=true
HDRLuminance=4.0625

[Textures.General]
ResourceRoot=SK_Res
DumpOnFirstLoad=false

[DPI.Scaling]
Disable=false
PerMonitorAware=false
MonitorAwareOnAllThreads=false

[Steam.Achievements]
SoundFile=

[Steam.System]
AppID=812140
AutoInitDelay=0
AutoPumpCallbacks=true
BlockUserStatsCallback=false
FilterExternalDataFromCallbacks=false
PreLoadSteamClient=false
PreLoadSteamOverlay=false
ForceLoadSteamAPI=false
AutoInjectSteamAPI=true
NotifyCorner=DontCare
ReuseOverlayPause=true
SteamPipeDLL=steam_api64.dll
CallbackThrottle=-1

[Steam.Social]
OnlineStatus=-1

[Steam.Log]
Silent=false

[Steam.DRMWorks]
SpoofBLoggedOn=false

[Steam.Screenshots]
EnableSmartCapture=true

[AMD.ADL]
Disable=false

[AssassinsCreed.Threads]
AltTaskSchedule=false
AutoRebalanceInterval=0.0

[SpecialK.HDR]
scRGBLuminance_[0]=12.5
scRGBGamma_[0]=1.0
ToneMapper_[0]=1
Saturation_[0]=1.0
MiddleGray_[0]=1.25
scRGBLuminance_[1]=1.25
scRGBGamma_[1]=1.0
ToneMapper_[1]=1
Saturation_[1]=1.0
MiddleGray_[1]=1.25
scRGBLuminance_[2]=1.0
scRGBGamma_[2]=1.0
ToneMapper_[2]=1
Saturation_[2]=1.0
MiddleGray_[2]=1.25
scRGBLuminance_[3]=2.5
scRGBGamma_[3]=1.0
ToneMapper_[3]=1
Saturation_[3]=1.0
MiddleGray_[3]=1.25
Use10BitSwapChain=false
Use16BitSwapChain=false
Promote8BitRTsTo16=false
Promote10BitRTsTo16=true
Promote11BitRTsTo16=true
AllowFullLuminance=true
Preset=0

[HDR.Presets]
Activate0=Shift+F1
Activate1=Shift+F2
Activate2=Shift+F3
Activate3=Shift+F4

[DXGI.Hooks]
IDXGIFactory_CreateSwapChain=c:\windows\system32\dxgi.dll?59230
c:\windows\system32\dxgi.dll=DirectX Graphics Infrastructure 10.0.17763.1 (WinBuild.160101.0800)
IDXGIFactory2_CreateSwapChainForHwnd=c:\windows\system32\dxgi.dll?59b00
IDXGISwapChain_Present=c:\windows\system32\dxgi.dll?4910
IDXGISwapChain1_Present1=c:\windows\system32\dxgi.dll?632c0
IDXGIFactory2_CreateSwapChainForCoreWindow=c:\windows\system32\dxgi.dll?59930
EnableGlobalCache=true
EnableLocalCache=false

Hi @galumn,

do you have a 50 Hz refresh capable monitor?
If yes, okay. If not, set TargetFPS=60.0

And also test it with these settings:
PreRenderLimit=3
BackBufferCount=2

So the newest version with the fixed black gain seemed to fix all the issues I was having in fine tuning titles. I messed around with the settings as much as I could and always just came back to Max Lumi at 1000nits and Mid-Grey at 0%. Sat at 110% for an extra bit of pop

aka set max lumi. and call it a day :smiley:

Is it possible to use the newest version with Nier though? It works but I cannot get the resolution past 1600x900 even if I manually input a res override

Uh in WDL when choosing 11Bit it dropped my fps by a lot actually. Main menu couldn’t even stay consistent at even 15 fps. Though might be bc my monitor is basically 8Bit+2Dithering.

thanks, its working correctly now. using ACEs sdr>hdr
related… are this settings fine for Odyssey?

Also whats the shorcut for screenshots with SK?

It can be used with a non-50 Hz screen, but really not a good idea to use a waitable SwapChain at a rate that’s not a factor of your refresh rate. If you want to render at a non-fator rate, waitable needs to be turned off.

Mostly what that sreenshot tells me is that the feature was broken in earlier versions :stuck_out_tongue: It should always be causing that weird stutter in the graph if the target rate is set this way.

1:1 Refresh Rate

Not 1:1 Refresh Rate (don’t use a Waitable SwapChain)

That timing hiccup is the Waitable part of the SwapChain doing its job to keep latency down to 0 frames. It normally doesn’t create full on stuttering, just a little bit of measurable extra / less time waiting in the latency histogram when frames are not completing at consistent rates vs VSYNC.

https://www.reddit.com/r/GamingLeaksAndRumours/comments/jlelp4/some_projects_mentioned_in_the_crytek_leaks/

Crysis Next…and then a battle royale pitch?

Well hopefully Ryse won’t be 100 anachronistic Romans although that could still improve on QTE tech benchmark development hell project that the first game apparently was.

And when’s Battle Royale itself going to be a video game adaption anyway. :stuck_out_tongue:
(Well, never.)

EDIT: Cry-Engine continues on though. :slight_smile:

This is… a bit weird to see… And they’re heavily inflating that “most SP” claim. “Most SP” are in fact not meant to be a platform seller.

I mean, the only real “platform sellers” of that kind are exclusive singleplayer console titles – of which there are few, and especially later in the life of a console platform.

I don’t think the claim holds up even when talking about triple-A singleplayer titles in general, as that would mean including stuff like Ubisoft’s crossplatform singleplayer focused titles that can hardly be said to be “platform sellers” since they aren’t exclusive to a single platform.

None the less, in general I don’t expect Crytek to develop a new singleplayer title based on their current situation – there’s probably not enough money for it which the studio probably wants right now. In those cases, a multiplayer title with microtransactions can generate more revenue – provided it doesn’t fall on its face straight out of the gate (Amazon’s Crucible, EA’s Rocket Arena, and there’s probably some more from 2020 that I’ve forgotten to mention).

This is awesome to read! I typically have not relied on Special K’s screenshot feature as much as I could’ve, but that’s because I more often than not tend to run SK with Steam enhancements disabled, or I play a game outside of Steam’s platform.

But having a non-Steam tied screenshot feature that properly handles HDR->SDR tone mapping the way SK does would be perfect, as the game bar seems to occasionally create subpar results.

It’s a simple Reinhard tonemap that the gamebar uses. I could train a monkey to do that :slight_smile:

I’ve tried to teach Valve to do it, seems there’s not a lot of interest in producing correct screenshots.

Lots of pretty charts there to keep the monkey you inevitably have to train to do the tonemapping interested :wink:

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I’d think at least a couple of those projects were made for when developing a new engine, to stress it etc. I could never picture a Ryse sequel being a real thing.

Is that with Fast Sync On ?

Yeah I’m not 100% sure on some of the info but the escalating cost and expectations on sales probably means there’s little chance of a new Crysis or Ryse game in the same style as the originals at least.

Ryse especially was pretty troubled with years of inactivity and somewhat rushed to completion as a platform showcase explaining some of it’s flaws.

Some of this can also come from ex employees and layoffs so things change or they portray their experience in a very negative bias or how to say and sometimes even more solid info can be turned out to be mostly made up or based on more plausible rumors or estimations.

Doesn’t rule out Crytek couldn’t try to invest more into the Crysis or Ryse franchises or the brands and then also VR particularly if they could get support through something like the new Oculus device maybe with Robinson 2 on that list.

Don’t think a Ryse sequel can even be a thing as the plot is self contained and a whole lot of stuff is wrong or made up or changed around ha ha. :smiley:

EDIT: Well Title +1 can happen regardless of anything Far Cry and it’s Ubisoft spin-offs and then Far Cry 2 being something entirely different just as one example I suppose. :smiley:

EDIT: Suppose Meta Critic can be added to the pile next to ridiculous sales estimations and humongous development costs too.

(Via Reset Era.)