Topic-Free Mega Thread - v 1.11.2020

Another crazy one also today, Paper beast folded edtion

Paper Beast 21_10_2020 12_02_02 am Paper Beast 21_10_2020 12_02_25 am

The OS updates add the strangest things, one of the former system setting options now directs to the settings app and then there’s some minor fluff like theme aware start menu tiles and a few tweaks plus Chromium Edge / Edgium as I call it.

System settings about page or something, not too problematic but a pain in the arse anyway because opening the control panel where all the other settings are maybe you want to open the system ones but nope here have app page after clicking on that one!
(It doesn’t even have the same settings you’d likely be after going into the control panel like that it’s just a overview page of what this system is in the app so why even do that?)

Thankfully these other ones can be opened from elsewhere like the start menu and the OS shortcuts that are like {12345-123} something like that in the address bar. :stuck_out_tongue:

It’s just a minor feature enablement package over the existing 19041/19042(When enabled) .572 update but yeah nice to see it released and all the fun things like 12_2 and such are for 21H1 ha ha.

Badass!

image

Special K’s framerate limiter is so good it has negative latency, according to the new GeForce Experience overlay.

Goes from 8 ms Render Latency to -0.1 ms when you turn on SK’s limiter :stuck_out_tongue: I don’t doubt something about the Vk / DXGI interop is confusing GFE. Otherwise, I created a time machine.

Maybe this is what Stadia was talking about. They are using SpecialK to get thier “negative” latency. LOL

DOOM Eternal has this uncommon render thread function so maybe that makes software a bit confused, it’s a interesting little addition though albeit I don’t believe I’ve ever seen it used elsewhere.

Interesting to use I assume D3D DXGI and GFE to poke into Vulkan too for Red Dead Redemption Eternal here according to SpecialK’s UI. :stuck_out_tongue:

Hmm too many new releases and some fun new hardware stuff, will have to pick up the map pack for the game later on.

EDIT: Perhaps, will be interesting to see what else comes out in October and November first.
And reviews of the NVIDIA and AMD GPU’s plus the new AMD CPU’s too. :slight_smile:

Ah, i’m fairly disappointed to not see Xbox’s AI HDR Tone-mapping included the new Windows 10 release. I wonder if we will ever see it for the desktop version of Windows?

Testing updates to DRM / anti-debug

SpecialK32.7z (6.3 MB) SpecialK64.7z (7.6 MB)

I have re-compiled SK with most of the debug features that it needs to function correctly (disabling the entire debug layer kills support for figuring out graphics API in many Unity games).

I have validated the changes in Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, and uPlay is happy with the stuff I re-enabled. Don’t know about any other DRM.


I have also made a few minor changes to HDR, including black point compensation (raises black luminance before tonemapping LDR images). The ACEScg tonemap should preserve black detail a slight bit better than it used to.

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Perfect timing, I was just coming on here to download a new version! Testing now.

Also, the new black point compensation sounds great. There have been a few games that I have to use passthrough on in order to not get crushed blacks, hopefully this fixes it.

In theory, it is useful… but in practice it’s difficult to pull off :-\ Adding a constant luminance value into a tonemap causes a hue shift, sadly. The extended shadow detail gets a tint applied to it that I’m not sure can be fixed.

I’m removing it for now,

SpecialK64.7z (7.6 MB)

Might add it back in the future when I can make it configurable.


You can always apply a more subtle boost to luminance using a sub-1.0 SDR → HDR gamma. You have to enter those values manually because prior to implementing the filmic tonemap from ACES, there was no practical application for gamma applied the wrong direction :slight_smile:

Red Dead Redemption 2 looks a little different these days :wink:

I believe LG tonemaps to the Default 700 nits value, unless you upload a config change via DeviceControl which needs a Lightspace/Colourspace licence, HGIG in gamemode disables tonemapping completely (setting it to 10k nits i believe)

Though i wonder how Windows reads Max luminance from EDID as it’s shown as 1499, while my Colorimeter has measured a max luminance of 100% white in HDR mode of around 670 nits.

NVIDIA 456.98
https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5099

“Hotfix” type driver.

@Kaldaien i intend to “finally” finish off the N:A texture pack, but texture injection doesn’t work with SK HDR. It seems like i might be able to edit the core game files and replace the textures manually, in which case SK HDR would work. Should i go this route or should i wait for texture injection to work? I’m hoping i can make a big deal out of SK with the next texture pack, because it will be popular. And if you’re still implementing a workshop, i could upload the texture pack here, which would bring a lot of users on this site. The last video managed around 250k views with between 100k-200k downloads.

If i do have to go the core files route, i can still do a HDR showcase video, but i don’t think it will be as popular.

Tested with RDR2 again, sorry for insisting. But I really want SK awesome HDR to work xd. But UI doesnt render, when pressing keys mouse cursor goes to top left corner. Maybe there is a setting I need to ddisable/enable
dxgi.log (55,9 KB)

SecuROM in Crysis 3 still isn’t triggered, so that’s good.

I still only get a black screen in that game, but I imagine it’s due to something else entirely though.

More importantly, I’m glad to see SecuROM compatibility basically be a thing now! :smiley: That should allow SK to get used on hundreds of more games as PCGW tracks 508 titles protected by that DRM.

Btw, just wanted to mention that during the last day we’ve implemented some changes on PCGW that, among other things, finally solved the direct linking to sections.

So now a link such as the below won’t miss its target by a wide margin as it used to do.

https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Special_K#Less_than_1_FPS_in_some_Unreal_Engine_3_games

(well, unless you’re using IE in which case half the site is broken anyway…)

No idea. For some reason a number of months ago, it stopped reporting the correct color primaries as well. Thankfully I’m not doing any kind of gamut mapping, because I know Windows decided to stop reporting the TV’s wide gamut (respectable coverage of DCI-P3) and instead reports basically Rec 709 verbatim.

I’ve looked in SetupAPI and DXGI trying to read-back the original EDID values, I cannot get them for some reason. There’s a slim chance LG’s firmware update b0rked the EDID, I know on a previous display device I owned that happened.

My 2019 LG OLEDs suddenly have a new option: “Dynamic Tone Mapping HGIG”. LG must have pushed a silent firmware update. I am almost certain that was not a planned 2019 model year feature.


Anyway, it seems I have had HGIG support all along on several of my displays. It’s pretty important that you turn that on, SK’s been adhering to the guidelines for HGIG since before there even were any such guidelines :wink:

Updated HDR Profiles:

Middle-Gray Adjust is now called “Middle Gray Contrast” and is relative to 10% of your maximum HDR luminance, its no longer applied to the LDR reference mid-gray (0.18). This setting can bring back some subtle lost shadow detail by lowering it to ~95% or lower.

Color saturation is now applied after the tonemap to make it easier to fully saturate your display. There’s no practical application for this, it’s just fun to set the slider to 200% and see the range of color your display can produce.

I intend to add a gamut volume visualization in the future.

SpecialK64.7z (7.6 MB)

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SK not loading with monster hunter world, tried anti-debug and normal version.