So, uh, I fixed one of the game's performance problems... with whom do I speak?

[Kaldaien]

I rarely ever use forums aside from Steam, and I'm not about to start now

 

Please refer to my post over on the Steam forums.

 

https://steamcommunity.com/app/560130/discussions/0/2572002906843374108/

 

I will be happy to discuss things there, but I really do not care for juggling different accounts; I am way too busy for that. The gist of it is this game is CPU-bound from spawning a ridiculous number of worker threads; the average performance gain thus far with various Steam community testing for me has been 2x.

 

This is an extensive problem that reaches all the way back to Obsidian's prior titles too. I can take Tyranny and get a > 2x boost by doing the same thing. Torment: Tides of Numenera, same story -- the 45 FPS upper-limit on my GTX 1080 Ti @4K goes away, GPU load finally goes above 25% and I can hit 144 FPS consistently.

[kilay]

Thnks for that, i got a little fps increase .

[Phenomenum]

GOG version can't even start with this plugin.

[Crispy81]

Holy monkey spit, did this make a dramatic improvement!

 

My specs:

 

6850K @ 4.5GHz

32GB DDR4-3333

1080Ti

1440p w/ G-Sync

SSD

 

I was already achieving 80+ fps in most areas, even in Neketaka, but it was always choppy.  This .dll fix makes things buttery-smooth.  Much thanks.

 

Obsidian, TAKE NOTE.

 

Edit:  To clarify, I used the exact same settings as OP, including the SwapChain settings.

Edited July 15, 2018 by Crispy81

[Insolentius]

The savior of jRPG ports has graced us with his presence! Dude, you made FF XV, Berseria and Zestiria run almost flawlessly. Gonna give this a try.

[Roby Atadero]

Interesting find! We don't typically spin up our own threads ourselves (they either come from Unity's internal job system or from third party software we've added). That being said, we'll definitely take a look at this when we're back in the office and investigate this further.

[kilay]

just to point out that this tool hack only the steam_API.dll , so works only on steam version. For GOG version we need a hack about Galaxy64.dll , i've already tried to change the strings in custom_dxgi.dll but without lucky (different APP ID and hack probably)

Edited July 15, 2018 by kilay

[AndreaColombo]

That would explain why changing the CPU core count on my install did nothing...

[kilay]

That would explain why changing the CPU core count on my install did nothing...

 

you can try with process lasso (i'm trying right now)

 

 

https://bitsum.com/

 

EDIT

 

Nope, that doesn't change nothing, cutted half the cores but without the hack it's almost useless.

Edited July 15, 2018 by kilay

[taviow]

Is it possible to apply this to Pillars 1 too? Seems like it would work and finally get rid of performance problems in Defiance Bay.

[Crispy81]

Wanted to report that in Neketaka when it's raining with all the mist everywhere even this amazing fix doesn't help much.  FPS on my system (see above) still dips into the 50s in that situation.

 

It's still a lot smoother than without the .dll patch, but it still makes me want to see more improvements made.  And yes, I could easily turn off the weather effects in options, but that's just a work-around.

[kilay]

Wanted to report that in Neketaka when it's raining with all the mist everywhere even this amazing fix doesn't help much.  FPS on my system (see above) still dips into the 50s in that situation.

 

It's still a lot smoother than without the .dll patch, but it still makes me want to see more improvements made.  And yes, I could easily turn off the weather effects in options, but that's just a work-around.

 

Glad to known that weather effect aren't an issue only for me

[harry.agamez]

I copied the two files into PoE I install directory, but when I press ctrl + shift + backspace nothing comes out. I guess I'm doing something wrong.

[Crispy81]

Extract the entire archive there.  You'll know it's working when you launch the game, because you'll see a banner across the top of the screen.

[harry.agamez]

Extract the entire archive there.  You'll know it's working when you launch the game, because you'll see a banner across the top of the screen.

There are only two files inside the rar. I copied them both. dxgi.dll and SpecialK64.pdb.

[Crispy81]

You forgot custom_dxgi.ini.

[harry.agamez]

You forgot custom_dxgi.ini.

Where can I get it? It's not in the file posted here.

[Anders_P]

I'm so relieved that there appears a way out of whatever is badly affecting this wonderful game but... I'm also in the same position as harry.agamez - I copied both dxgi.dll and SpecialK64.pdb files to the PoE directory but couldn't find custom_dxgi.ini t all; there were only two files that I could see.  As a result(?), pressing ctrl + shift + backspace does nothing at all (no matter how many times I shout at the computer).  Like harry above, I'd be very grateful on where to find that missing file (or, if not, how else to reduce the CPU cores).  Thanks!

[Crispy81]

Sorry for not updating.  You guys must be pretty confused.

 

I have confirmed that custom_dxgi.ini is absolutely NOT required to get this working.  Inexplicably, it was included in op's download previously, but you're both correct that it's no longer in there.  Regardless, like I said, that file is completely unnecessary in order to affect the fix.

 

What is not known, obviously, is why it's still not working for you.  I don't know, but I suspect you've either got the files in the wrong area (they need to go into your PoE 2 game folder, e.g., C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Pillars of Eternity II) or that the download was corrupted, or there's some other factor involved.  You are using the Steam version of this game and not the GOG version, right?

 

Even stranger, op has closed the original thread this appeared in, apparently convinced that his fix was NOT responsible for the vast performance improvements it made in PoE 2, blaming, rather, some other 3rd-party software present on his computer!  It's baffling, but I can tell you this:  it's the only thing that made any different in mine, it was immediate, it was apparent, and unmistakable.  Most of us can claim this, but I truly do run an extremely well-maintained PC which is kept up-to-date with everything, all the time.  So I have no idea what he's talking about now and, frankly, it's a bit disturbing.

 

Anyway, I hope this somehow helps you guys.

Edited July 21, 2018 by Crispy81

[Archaven]

does this work for gog?

[Crispy81]

does this work for gog?

 

No, it does not work for the GOG version at all.

[Anders_P]

Thanks very much for your thoughts, Crispy81.  Much appreciated.

 

Just to confirm - (i) am using Steam, not GOG, (ii) have posted both files to the POE folder, i.e., C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Pillars of Eternity (not POE2, which I don't have) and (iii) removed the original files I downloaded a week or so ago in case they may be corrupted and downloaded them again today.  Unfortunately, I like Harry.agamez, pressing ctrl + shift + backspace does nothing whatsoever. 

 

I'm at complete loss as to what to do.  Unfortunately, the Obsidian support staff - normally so helpful - appeared now to have washed their hands of me/this problem (ctrl + shift + backspace doing nothing).

 

I'm now at my wits end and am on the brink of abandoning PoE as unplayable (or at least unplayable without something like a hallucinagenic to offset the blood pressure-raising effects of the glacial gamespeed).  So I wonder whether you, or anyone else, might have any thoughts on a way through or any other way to reduce the CPU cores?

[Crispy81]

All I can think of is to try reaching out to the guy who came up with this fix.  He last posted in the original thread (https://steamcommunity.com/app/560130/discussions/0/2572002906843374108/) yesterday (August 1).

 

By the way, this still works for the newest version of the game, 2.0.  Hope you can get it working for yourself.

[Urthor]

So I just tested, apparently Obsidian still haven't patched this issue in for 2.0 RIP.  My framerate climbed massively in Nekataka when I went to 3 CPUs