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[Spring-Loaded]

EDIT: Please don't enter the thread to say this is a waste of time or that people should buy the PS4 version — I've seen people banned for stuff like that before, so let's keep this thread focused. If the thread needs to be locked, it'll be locked. In the meantime, this might be of some help to people who got it as part of the Nvidia promotion and are stuck with the game.


Testimonies for anything posted here are welcome.

- - - - -

We all know of this game's rocky release on PC. Fortunately, I was able to get the game running after having to redownload it upon experiencing the "verify cache" bug and running crashes when trying to launch it. Unfortunately, the game now slows to a slideshow in the main menu after changing the .ini files to uncap the FPS and after updating to the "game ready" (specifically for Batman: Arkham Knight&#8482 Nvidia drivers. The game crashed at a cutscene, so I changed the files back, only to have it fail to launch three times in three different ways.

Since I don't have to worry about playing the game, I now have time to make this thread

For those of us who've gotten the game as part of the Nvidia promotion, from Nuuvem or from anywhere else where a refund isn't possible, all that's left is for us to watch PS4 walkthroughs... or try to fix things ourselves to some degree. There's a lot of psuedo fixes floating around, and having a single place to post and help verify them would be really helpful to those who still want to play the game sooner rather than later (probably much later, considering the severity of the problems).

If people can post fixes they've found , I'll try to add them to the OP. I've never had to delve very far into troubleshooting for games, so any suggestions for templates or organization for this would be welcome.

AMD

AMD has released beta drivers for Arkham Knight


Nvidia

SLI has been causing problems for people and the "game ready" drivers don't actually fix that [citation needed].
GAF user Justinh said he's seen people say having a second GPU dedicated to physics rather than attempting SLI has helped with people's performance.

Possible fix through Nvidia Control Panel:

I made some tweaks within NVIDIA Control Panel that seem to have helped a lot with stuttering.

The only .ini tweak I did was uncapping the fps.

YMMV.

Sweet FX

For anybody who's willing to deal with SweetFX, there are some community made presets on the settings database that can add working ambient occlusion and SMAA as shown here.

^Said to have only slight performance impact.

Memory Usage

People have speculated the game has a memory leak. If you want to monitor memory usage, you can use Precision X or GPU-Z.

Digital Foundry

Digital Foundry's article about the PC version

Pretty scathing, but mostly what we already know. DF praised the console version.


PC Gaming Wiki page

PC Gaming Wiki page for Arkham Knight

Pretty barebones so far. Only mentions .ini file tweaking for fps, motion blur, etc. It might be worth checking as time goes on.


Fixes

General better performance:
Steam user Derp's guide to better performance

I've seen people say this stuff has worked for them and I've seen people say it has contradictory suggestions. There's a lot of suggestions there, but it seems risky.

GAF user Corpekata says the texture fix may have worked for him.


FOV change:

FOV - CHANGE FIELD OF VIEW
Navigate to

...\your Steam folder\SteamApps\common\Batman Arkham Knight\BMGame\Config


open this file in your favorite text editor (i.e. Notepad)
making a backup copy of it before editing is advisable

BmInput.ini


Locate this section

[Engine.PlayerInput]

copy all text strings starting with Bindings


Locate this section

[BmGame.RPlayerInput]

paste the text strings starting with Bindings at the end of this section


add the following lines at the bottom of what you've just pasted

Bindings=(Name="NumPadOne",Command="FOV 80")
Bindings=(Name="NumPadTwo",Command="FOV 85")
Bindings=(Name="NumPadThree",Command="FOV 90")
Bindings=(Name="NumPadFour",Command="FOV 95")
Bindings=(Name="NumPadFive",Command="FOV 100")
Bindings=(Name="NumPadSix",Command="FOV 105")
Bindings=(Name="NumPadSeven",Command="FOV 110")
Bindings=(Name="NumPadEight",Command="FOV 115")
Bindings=(Name="NumPadNine",Command="FOV 120")

Better performance, memory/streaming fix:

Posted this before, and some people said it helped and some said it didn't so very much your mileage may vary I suppose.

Open BMEngine.ini
Under [Texture Streaming] (Line 755 for those using Notepad++)
Make the following changes

PoolSize=2048
MemoryMargin=256
bAllowSwitchingStreamingSystem=True

This is on:

i7 920 @ 4.1ghz HT OFF
12GB Ram
GTX 970 SSC
SSD Install
Windows 10 x64 10130 Preview Build

I have no stuttering or hitcing even when driving very fast in the batmobile.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsDZJZYguqw Video I made showing my performance with that tweaks, nothing else is altered in the INIs.

Bokeh:
Seemingly can disable the game's AA to get it to PS4 levels. I've only seen a couple posts about it elsewhere.


Warnings

Aside from the "verify integrity of game cache" bug deleting the entire game (for which a patch has already been released), I haven't heard of anything to actively watch out for. All potential fixes are "use at your own risk" status though — there's really inconsistent performance among various cards without much of a pattern.


- - - - -


This is just my personal experience, but the game was running decently (which is relative, but still) before I used the fps cap fix mentioned in the OP of this thread. Things went bad during a cutscene and the sound cut out. I don't know if my problems stem from the uncapping, or from updating my drivers. The game "worked" before I updated them,

To the mods: There are a lot of Arkham Knight threads so far, but none about fixes for the game, at least not anymore. If this is a redundant thread, please lock it — I'll still be looking for solutions.

To everyone else: If you've tried something that helped, please post your specs. I won't be constantly checking the site, so if someone posts something that works for most everyone, send me a message and I'll add it to the OP once I see it.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

Digital Foundry's article about the PC version

Pretty scathing, but mostly what we already know. They have the most up-to-date drivers too. Again, I have no way of knowing if that's a problem, but I've heard bad things about recent Nvidia drivers for other games.

 

[sflufan]

There really are only two fixes:

1) get a refund from your retailer and purchase the PS4 version

2) keep your broke-ass PC version and wait for its re-release in a few months

Anything else is the equivalent of putting lipstick on a pig and not worth your time or effort.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

There really are only two fixes:

1) get a refund from your retailer and purchase the PS4 version

2) keep your broke-ass PC version and wait for its re-release in a few months

Anything else is the equivalent of putting lipstick on a pig and not worth your time or effort.

Thanks for the suggestion. I can't get a refund though, like I said in the OP. I also don't have a PS4.

It reminds me I needed to add something to the first post though.

 

[novenD]

For anybody who's willing to deal with SweetFX, there are some community made presets on the settings database that can add working ambient occlusion and SMAA as shown here.

 

[clav]

If you own a AMD card and you're willing to try beta drivers, AMD released their latest one for Arkham Knight.

 

[Bloodsent]

For anybody who's willing to deal with SweetFX, there are some community made presets on the settings database that can add working ambient occlusion and SMAA as shown here.

I know of all things to question considering the across the board poor performance, but what type of hit to framerate can be expected for using this preset, or ones like it?

 

[Applesauce]

How much of an impact does that motion blur tweak have? I nerfed my resolution and settings last night and couldn't maintain 50+ FPS in the Batmobile, would that help any?

I also tried putting the 30FPS cap back on and got minor dips down to 27fps but it still constantly stuttered. Got frustrated and deleted it from my SSD.

 

[Larogue]

I don't feel the next patch coming anytime soon, otherwise they wouldn't have pulled it for the market. It will probably gonna take 2-4 weeks (optimistic guess) before we see this game working as intended

 

[CreepingFear]

I don't feel the next patch coming anytime soon, otherwise they wouldn't have pulled it for the market. It will probably gonna take 2-4 weeks (optimistic guess) before we see this game working as intended

2-4 weeks? I think that's very optimistic. At this point, they might as well re-release it this fall with the mac and linux version.

 

[novenD]

I know of all things to question considering the across the board poor performance, but what type of hit to framerate can be expected for using this preset, or ones like it?

Slight at worst.

Unless your PC was only benchmarking 30-35 frames on average, the performance hit shouldn't be enough to break the 30 FPS lock, and if you've unlocked the framerate and are seriously shooting for 60 FPS your hardware should be powerful enough to handle the load.

Full Disclosure: That's based on my experience with SMAA and SSAO when built into games; This would be my first time adding them with injectors. That being said, I haven't seen any unusual complaints about the performance from anyone who has used the presets.

 

[Krappadizzle]

Slight at worst.

Unless your PC was only benchmarking 30-35 frames on average, the performance hit shouldn't be enough to break the 30 FPS lock, and if you've unlocked the framerate and are seriously shooting for 60 FPS your hardware should be powerful enough to handle the load.

Full Disclosure: That's based on my experience with SMAA and SSAO when built into games; This would be my first time adding them with injectors. That being said, I haven't seen any unusual complaints about the performance from anyone who has used the presets.

A 980 or more specifically my single 980 Ti should absolutely destroy this game at 60 fps@1080p. It does not. Constant drops to less than 25 fps with everything maxed. It's a 980 Ti, I should not have to turn down a single setting on a modern release at 1080p. It's overkill hardware for that resolution and it runs like poop.

 

[Corpekata]

Huh, that "texture fix" on the Steam forums might have worked for me. Just played a bit at 60 FPS with next to no pop-in issues, and that's been the bane of my playtime really. Some one in the PC performance thread had a few of the same variables edited (though larger it seems like) and I tried it and if anything the pop in had been worse.

Might just be a coincidence.

Still need to find a way to get it using less VRAM. No matter the settings it always wants to use nearly the whole card.

 

[BlackNinja]

Excellent thread!

 

[BlackNinja]

Huh, that "texture fix" on the Steam forums might have worked for me. Just played a bit at 60 FPS with next to know pop-in issues, and that's been the bane of my playtime really.

Might just be a coincidence.

Still need to find a way to get it using less VRAM. No matter the settings it always wants to use nearly the whole card.

How do you guys check the VRAM usage? My EVGA OSD doesn't have that I think.

 

[Corpekata]

How do you guys check the VRAM usage? My EVGA OSD doesn't have that I think.

MSI afterburner option, the OSD has a lot of options. I thought it was an option for EVGA Precision X too, as they both use Rivatuner as a base, but might be wrong.

Though if you have smoke and paper effects on, it disables the overlay for some reason anyway.

 

[novenD]

A 980 or more specifically my single 980 Ti should absolutely destroy this game at 60 fps@1080p. It does not. Constant drops to less than 25 fps with everything maxed. It's a 980 Ti, I should not have to turn down a single setting on a modern release at 1080p. It's overkill hardware for that resolution and it runs like poop.

Yeah, getting consistent performance is still a crapshoot. :/

My overclocked 970 hasn't had any issues staying at 30 FPS with max settings(minus the smoke effects), and other people with the exact same setup get absolutely trash performance. It seems totally arbitrary at times.

 

[Justinh]

How do you guys check the VRAM usage? My EVGA OSD doesn't have that I think.

Pretty sure Precision X has it. Have Memory Usage show on screen, it'll be labeled as GPU1 memory usage/GPU2 memory usage...

I was hoping I'd beat the "fix:uninstall/play PS4" joke, but we were all too late.

I've seen posts that if you use your second GPU dedicated to Physx rather than having SLI enabled helped some people's performance.

 

[JRW]

Still need to find a way to get it using less VRAM. No matter the settings it always wants to use nearly the whole card.

Yea I'm curious how they managed to make Witcher 3 use such low amounts of VRAM yet look so insanely good, I haven't seen it use over 1.2GB Vram on my GTX 670 FTW 2GB @ 1080P.

 

[JRW]

How do you guys check the VRAM usage? My EVGA OSD doesn't have that I think.

I normally use GPU-Z if I want a quick and easy way to monitor usage during a game session.

You can click on any value to toggle the current, average & max readings.

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

 

[paperspace]

So we have a performance thread, a thread for fixes, and 3 other threads regarding Batman/WB/Rocksteady. Is this really needed?

 

[Zakalwe]

There's nothing really helpful in the OP that hasn't been disused already in the performance thread.

That steam guide basically amounts to: turn down settings. It seems to be helping people though.

I just hope the patch is out soon. This game is really fun. If I finish it before I'll definitely wait for new game + and stable 60, if it happens...

 

[PHOENIXZERO]

Yea I'm curious how they managed to make Witcher 3 use such low amounts of VRAM yet look so insanely good, I haven't seen it use over 1.2GB Vram on my GTX 670 FTW 2GB @ 1080P.

There's either a memory leak/some very broken memory management.

From what I've seen from others and experienced you seem to either need to have your page file running off an SSD or have 12GB or more RAM just to prevent much of the hard stuttering because the game wants upwards of 10GB and more system memory in addition to your VRAM at "ultra" which really isn't that different from current gen with their 5GB of system memory available to devs. That is where I've been theorizing the problem has been since release and I keep seeing more and more evidence supporting it.

There's nothing really helpful in the OP that hasn't been disused already in the performance thread.

That steam guide basically amounts to: turn down settings. It seems to be helping people though.

I just hope the patch is out soon. This game is really fun. If I finish it before I'll definitely wait for new game + and stable 60, if it happens...

There's likely not going to be a patch any time soon.

 

[BlackNinja]

I normally use GPU-Z if I want a quick and easy way to monitor usage during a game session.

You can click on any value to toggle the current, average & max readings.

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

Thanks!

 

[designgears]

I made some tweaks within NVIDIA Control Panel that seem to have helped a lot with stuttering.

The only .ini tweak I did was uncapping the fps.

YMMV.

 

[Mad Season]

FOV - CHANGE FIELD OF VIEW
Navigate to

...\your Steam folder\SteamApps\common\Batman Arkham Knight\BMGame\Config


open this file in your favorite text editor (i.e. Notepad)
making a backup copy of it before editing is advisable

BmInput.ini


Locate this section

[Engine.PlayerInput]

copy all text strings starting with Bindings


Locate this section

[BmGame.RPlayerInput]

paste the text strings starting with Bindings at the end of this section


add the following lines at the bottom of what you've just pasted

Bindings=(Name="NumPadOne",Command="FOV 80")
Bindings=(Name="NumPadTwo",Command="FOV 85")
Bindings=(Name="NumPadThree",Command="FOV 90")
Bindings=(Name="NumPadFour",Command="FOV 95")
Bindings=(Name="NumPadFive",Command="FOV 100")
Bindings=(Name="NumPadSix",Command="FOV 105")
Bindings=(Name="NumPadSeven",Command="FOV 110")
Bindings=(Name="NumPadEight",Command="FOV 115")
Bindings=(Name="NumPadNine",Command="FOV 120")

 

[pahamrick]

Posted this before, and some people said it helped and some said it didn't so very much your mileage may vary I suppose.

Open BMEngine.ini
Under [Texture Streaming] (Line 755 for those using Notepad++)
Make the following changes

PoolSize=2048
MemoryMargin=256
bAllowSwitchingStreamingSystem=True

This is on:

i7 920 @ 4.1ghz HT OFF
12GB Ram
GTX 970 SSC
SSD Install
Windows 10 x64 10130 Preview Build

I have no stuttering or hitcing even when driving very fast in the batmobile.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsDZJZYguqw Video I made showing my performance with that tweaks, nothing else is altered in the INIs.

 

[Justinh]

FOV - CHANGE FIELD OF VIEW
Navigate to

...\your Steam folder\SteamApps\common\Batman Arkham Knight\BMGame\Config


open this file in your favorite text editor (i.e. Notepad)
making a backup copy of it before editing is advisable

BmInput.ini


Locate this section

[Engine.PlayerInput]

copy all text strings starting with Bindings


Locate this section

[BmGame.RPlayerInput]

paste the text strings starting with Bindings at the end of this section


add the following lines at the bottom of what you've just pasted

Bindings=(Name="NumPadOne",Command="FOV 80")
Bindings=(Name="NumPadTwo",Command="FOV 85")
Bindings=(Name="NumPadThree",Command="FOV 90")
Bindings=(Name="NumPadFour",Command="FOV 95")
Bindings=(Name="NumPadFive",Command="FOV 100")
Bindings=(Name="NumPadSix",Command="FOV 105")
Bindings=(Name="NumPadSeven",Command="FOV 110")
Bindings=(Name="NumPadEight",Command="FOV 115")
Bindings=(Name="NumPadNine",Command="FOV 120")

just curious, does the game change it back after you run it?
I remember for Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, to unlock the framerate you had to edit an ini, but then make it read-only so the game wouldn't change it back when you started up.

 

[Mad Season]

just curious, does the game change it back after you run it?
I remember for Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, to unlock the framerate you had to edit an ini, but then make it read-only so the game wouldn't change it back when you started up.

no because you make the file read only and it sticks forever

 

[bedlamite]

I work in desktop support so I spend my day fixing broken shit on PCs, the absolute last thing I want to do is to come home and continue fixing more broken shit in Arkham Knight.

sflufan's comment about putting lipstick on a pig is hard truth. I'm not about to tell people how to spend their own time but trying to fix WB/Rocksteady's mess on your own? ...why?

Step away from the game for a while, let RS put out a couple of patches first, then we'll go from there. Apologies for not contributing positively to the thread, but just go play other stuff, or do anything else, really, instead of doing RS's work for them.

 

[JigglesBunny]

I work in desktop support so I spend my day fixing broken shit on PCs, the absolute last thing I want to do is to come home and continue fixing more broken shit in Arkham Knight.

sflufan's comment about putting lipstick on a pig is hard truth. I'm not about to tell people how to spend their own time but trying to fix WB/Rocksteady's mess on your own? ...why?

Step away from the game for a while, let RS put out a couple of patches first, then we'll go from there. Apologies for not contributing positively to the thread, but just go play other stuff, or do anything else, really, instead of doing RS's work for them.

It's not that they're trying to supply a permanent technical fix or "doing Rocksteady's work for them", they're trying to make a wholly unfunctional product they paid $60 for work as best as it can since it's busted to fuck and the fixes and legitimate solutions are fairy dust until further notice.

We have no idea when the fixes are coming but given just how colossally fucked up the port is, we could be in for the long haul. We're trying to salvage what we can of this pile shit so we don't have a $60, 50GB file worth nothing on our PC's.

 

[Doctor Ironic]

I work in desktop support so I spend my day fixing broken shit on PCs, the absolute last thing I want to do is to come home and continue fixing more broken shit in Arkham Knight.

sflufan's comment about putting lipstick on a pig is hard truth. I'm not about to tell people how to spend their own time but trying to fix WB/Rocksteady's mess on your own? ...why?

Step away from the game for a while, let RS put out a couple of patches first, then we'll go from there. Apologies for not contributing positively to the thread, but just go play other stuff, or do anything else, really, instead of doing RS's work for them.

Some people would like to play this video game they were excited enough to pay $60 on or before day one for.

Also Rocksteady didn't even make the PC version.

 

[Auto-Reply]

The title should be edited so it is apparent this is about the borked first release version, once the re-release is out this will be confusing.

 

[Corpekata]

The title should be edited so it is apparent this is about the borked first release version, once the re-release is out this will be confusing.

Who is going to actually be confused by this? I want names so I can shake them.

 

[jim2point0]

There really are only two fixes:

1) get a refund from your retailer and purchase the PS4 version

2) keep your broke-ass PC version and wait for its re-release in a few months

Anything else is the equivalent of putting lipstick on a pig and not worth your time or effort.

This is pretty much my attitude with it.

I got the game for free though, so I'm skipping the refund and am just waiting for the proper re-release. I feel like using temporary fixes would be doing myself a disservice. Who knows how much better it will be if they manage to fix it up properly.

 

[Auto-Reply]

Who is going to actually be confused by this? I want names so I can shake them.

I don't want to be Mr Negativity but I bet the re-release will also need a thread like this and people searching for it will find this thread instead.

 

[Doctor Ironic]

The title should be edited so it is apparent this is about the borked first release version, once the re-release is out this will be confusing.

People keep talking about a "re-release." Do we have a source on that or is it just wishful thinking?

Because I fully expect them to put out a performance patch in a week that's basically like polishing a turd and then saying "Yeah no guys, it's totally fine now, jump on in, buy our season pass!"

vvv You're good dude, didn't mean to scare you off

 

[Auto-Reply]

People keep talking about a "re-release." Do we have a source on that or is it just wishful thinking?

Because I fully expect them to put out a performance patch in a week that's basically like polishing a turd and then saying "Yeah no guys, it's totally fine now, jump on in, buy our season pass!"

Yeah that could happen (I hope not), but I don't think they woud have pulled the game from digital stores and from retail shelves if that will be the solution they are going to offer.

Edit: Anyway, it was only a suggestion. Over and out.

 

[vocab]

I got the game with my shit ass 970. Trying to fix it when a summer sale just ended...man I got other games to play.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

For anybody who's willing to deal with SweetFX, there are some community made presets on the settings database that can add working ambient occlusion and SMAA as shown here.

If you own a AMD card and you're willing to try beta drivers, AMD released their latest one for Arkham Knight.

Slight at worst.

Unless your PC was only benchmarking 30-35 frames on average, the performance hit shouldn't be enough to break the 30 FPS lock, and if you've unlocked the framerate and are seriously shooting for 60 FPS your hardware should be powerful enough to handle the load.

Full Disclosure: That's based on my experience with SMAA and SSAO when built into games; This would be my first time adding them with injectors. That being said, I haven't seen any unusual complaints about the performance from anyone who has used the presets.

Huh, that "texture fix" on the Steam forums might have worked for me. Just played a bit at 60 FPS with next to no pop-in issues, and that's been the bane of my playtime really. Some one in the PC performance thread had a few of the same variables edited (though larger it seems like) and I tried it and if anything the pop in had been worse.

Might just be a coincidence.

Still need to find a way to get it using less VRAM. No matter the settings it always wants to use nearly the whole card.

Pretty sure Precision X has it. Have Memory Usage show on screen, it'll be labeled as GPU1 memory usage/GPU2 memory usage...

I was hoping I'd beat the "fix:uninstall/play PS4" joke, but we were all too late.

I've seen posts that if you use your second GPU dedicated to Physx rather than having SLI enabled helped some people's performance.

I normally use GPU-Z if I want a quick and easy way to monitor usage during a game session.

You can click on any value to toggle the current, average & max readings.

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

I made some tweaks within NVIDIA Control Panel that seem to have helped a lot with stuttering.

The only .ini tweak I did was uncapping the fps.

YMMV.

FOV - CHANGE FIELD OF VIEW
Navigate to

...\your Steam folder\SteamApps\common\Batman Arkham Knight\BMGame\Config


open this file in your favorite text editor (i.e. Notepad)
making a backup copy of it before editing is advisable

BmInput.ini


Locate this section

[Engine.PlayerInput]

copy all text strings starting with Bindings


Locate this section

[BmGame.RPlayerInput]

paste the text strings starting with Bindings at the end of this section


add the following lines at the bottom of what you've just pasted

Bindings=(Name="NumPadOne",Command="FOV 80")
Bindings=(Name="NumPadTwo",Command="FOV 85")
Bindings=(Name="NumPadThree",Command="FOV 90")
Bindings=(Name="NumPadFour",Command="FOV 95")
Bindings=(Name="NumPadFive",Command="FOV 100")
Bindings=(Name="NumPadSix",Command="FOV 105")
Bindings=(Name="NumPadSeven",Command="FOV 110")
Bindings=(Name="NumPadEight",Command="FOV 115")
Bindings=(Name="NumPadNine",Command="FOV 120")

Posted this before, and some people said it helped and some said it didn't so very much your mileage may vary I suppose.

Open BMEngine.ini
Under [Texture Streaming] (Line 755 for those using Notepad++)
Make the following changes

PoolSize=2048
MemoryMargin=256
bAllowSwitchingStreamingSystem=True

This is on:

i7 920 @ 4.1ghz HT OFF
12GB Ram
GTX 970 SSC
SSD Install
Windows 10 x64 10130 Preview Build

I have no stuttering or hitcing even when driving very fast in the batmobile.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsDZJZYguqw Video I made showing my performance with that tweaks, nothing else is altered in the INIs.

Thanks guys. I've added this stuff to the OP. If I misinterpreted or misunderstood anything, please let me know.