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Nier: Automata PC performance thread

I'm still in shock that the GI fix made that big of a difference. I might have to try downsampling from 1440p now. Wonder how well that'll work over a steam link to my tv...

Super amazed and impressed with the modding community, but I have to admit that it makes me even more annoyed that the game shipped in this state.
 
Huh, weird. When I tried it it looked like that when I set it to 0 and not 16. 0 was dark, 16 was light, 32-128 was dark. I use the slider in game, not the .ini.
I'm not sure. My screenshots were taken using the in-game slider to adjust values, as the INI file currently doesn't work (Edit: might be fixed in the latest version of FAR, but it didn't work in the version I had running at the time). Turning GI off definitely makes grass look wrong -- too bright in some areas (like that alley) and too dark in some areas (like the first field you come across outside the tutorial area). Grass is the most-noticeable change, and is why I recommend not turning GI off completely (as it makes grass look worse, and the aliasing on grass even worse).

So with this new GI change, is it better to turn on AA and turn off AO? Or perhaps downsample with AO, and keep AA off?
MSAA is still too performance-heavy for my taste. If it actually worked well and got rid of most of the aliasing, I'd use it, but you need 4x or higher to have any decent impact. The MSAA also seems to add thin, white artifacts to the edges of some objects (like grass) so while the core image is indeed less aliased, the aliasing it does have is more noticeable (to me, at least).

AO is crazy ugly, but the AA that it also applies is good. Hopefully there will be an option to separate the two in a patch, but for now I'm running FAR + AO with no MSAA + Everything else maxed. At 1080p on a GTX 1080 framerate is a locked 60 outside the streaming/engine stutters that seem unavoidable right now.

Thanks for this. Looks great to me at 16, so I'll install this tonight. I don't play on fullscreen, so don't need Kal's mod, but will probably have to install it for this.
Yup, no problem. FAR can also run the game in a borderless window (configurable via the in-game FAR menu), so if you install FAR you don't need to use a tool like Borderless Gaming anymore.
 

samar11

Member
The game was running fine but as soon as I got to the ''Amusement Park" location, it started stuttering like fucking nuts, and it still keeps doing it.

My ring is
i7 5390k
Gefore 1080 Ti
16 gig ram

Any fixes?
 
The game was running fine but as soon as I got to the ''Amusement Park" location, it started stuttering like fucking nuts, and it still keeps doing it.

My ring is
i7 5390k
Gefore 1080 Ti
16 gig ram

Any fixes?

I'm in the same spot, not even using the new GI fix, just plain FAR. No issues, locked 60fps.

Maxed out with 2xMsaa on 2560*1080. Same gpu (cpu is different but i think it doesn't count at all).
 

Durante

Member
The game was running fine but as soon as I got to the ''Amusement Park" location, it started stuttering like fucking nuts, and it still keeps doing it.

My ring is
i7 5390k
Gefore 1080 Ti
16 gig ram

Any fixes?
That's strange, I haven't seen any reports of that location as problematic by anyone.

This might sound stupid, but have you restarted your PC?
 

samar11

Member
That's strange, I haven't seen any reports of that location as problematic by anyone.

This might sound stupid, but have you restarted your PC?

Its working flawlessly now. I went to the nvidia control panel, manage 3D settings, Program settings, added the game to the list as it wasn't there. Not sure if it was that or the reboot, but I had this problem yesterday too. All is good now though.

Also my Nvidia FPS counter wasnt showing up at all when it was stuttering.
 

Durante

Member
Its working flawlessly now. I went to the nvidia control panel, manage 3D settings, Program settings, added the game to the list as it wasn't there. Not sure if it was that or the reboot, but I had this problem yesterday too. All is good now though.

Also my Nvidia FPS counter wasnt showing up at all when it was stuttering.
It was most likely the reboot, and most likely your GPU driver got stuck in a low power state.
 

jacobeid

Banned
Can we get some updates to the OP? I left for like a day and a half and now I have no idea what you guys are talking about. What is this GI fix? I'm on mobile and scrolling through pages of text isn't the easiest.

Holy shit, with this global illumination fix I'm getting 60 fps locked in 1440p in the area I was getting 50~55 in 1080p with my gtx 970.

Need to test more.

This sounds great I just have no idea what to do to download this.

Edit: is this just part of the community patch making its way around steam?
 
Can we get some updates to the OP? I left for like a day and a half and now I have no idea what you guys are talking about. What is this GI fix? I'm on mobile and scrolling through pages of text isn't the easiest.



This sounds great I just have no idea what to do to download this.

Edit: is this just part of the community patch making its way around steam?

Yeah
http://steamcommunity.com/app/524220/discussions/0/135512104777399045/

The thread explains quite easily how to use it.
 

Durante

Member
Hey Durante,
how does the volumetric lighting look in this game on PC? I saw this Candyland comparison and I wonder if they forgot to turn on some filtering or gaussian upsample blur on the volumetrics on PC.
Yeah, I noted this very early in the thread. It's actually the one thing which bothers me about the game IQ. Some buffer used to calculate light shafts seems to be really low res. If I'd work on anything for this game it would be that. (The problem is that I'd rather play it)
 

Zafir

Member
Can we get some updates to the OP? I left for like a day and a half and now I have no idea what you guys are talking about. What is this GI fix? I'm on mobile and scrolling through pages of text isn't the easiest.



This sounds great I just have no idea what to do to download this.

Edit: is this just part of the community patch making its way around steam?

Yeah it's part of FAR, however you need to make sure you download the test build from his github, as I don't think Kaldaien has put it in the main branch yet.

Reducing GI gives a massive performance boost with a very minor hit to picture quality in terms of how the lighting looks on certain objects(imo anyway). Since Nier is an action game which benefits greatly from 60FPS, I don't think many people will disagree that turning it down is worth it either way.

I couldn't hit 60FPS on 1440p with my 970 before(Max I got was 40-45fps). Now I can with setting GI to 16.

Edit: Seems it is in the main branch now.
 
Certainly the GI fix does wonders.
Now rocking at maxed out, 2xAA, 1440p and GI to "high". With default ultra I couldn't keep a decent framerate at 2560x1080, it would drop slightly below 60s.
Now it's fine, 3440x1440 while keeping the usual settings as before.
 

Gbraga

Member
『Inaba Resident』;232609341 said:
So if I'm reading things right, a fanmade fix came out and it significantly improves performance?

Kind of. I personally don't like calling it a fix, because it's actively downgrading a setting in order to achieve better performance. It's very much worth it, judging by comparison screenshots, though. And something I hope gets officially implemented and maybe even applied to the PS4 version, because the performance difference is much bigger than the visual impact.

It's a fantastic mod, but calling it a fix implies it's just improving performance while changing nothing, which isn't true, and leads people to believe that they were able to do the same thing with a much lesser cost. It's still the same GI sollution, only used at a lower value, changing a setting the engine already has, but just wasn't available to the player.
 
Kind of. I personally don't like calling it a fix, because it's actively downgrading a setting in order to achieve better performance. It's very much worth it, judging by comparison screenshots, though. And something I hope gets officially implemented and maybe even applied to the PS4 version, because the performance difference is much bigger than the visual impact.

It's a fantastic mod, but calling it a fix implies it's just improving performance while changing nothing, which isn't true, and leads people to believe that they were able to do the same thing with a much lesser cost. It's still the same GI sollution, only used at a lower value, changing a setting the engine already has, but just wasn't available to the player.

Oh, so its just changing a setting that wasn't available normally through the game? Hearing about performance issues put me off from purchasing this but if this change has a big impact on performance and very little visual change, then I'm gonna jump in today.
 

Durante

Member
『Inaba Resident』;232610279 said:
Oh, so its just changing a setting that wasn't available normally through the game? Hearing about performance issues put me off from purchasing this but if this change has a big impact on performance and very little visual change, then I'm gonna jump in today.
Yes, it basically adds an additional (and quite impactful in terms of performance) graphics setting to the game.
 

Sarcasm

Member
Just use Steam's FPS counter?

I thought Kaldaien's tools usually have an option to display FPS too, I might be mis remembering on that though.

Ah okay. I gain 5 FPS, so now 50 FPS. Better I guess >.<

How do I turn off the FAR FPS counter?
 

gngf123

Member
I haven't tried it and am currently away from my computer, but I see an RTSS override option when looking through the ini's yesterday. Does this not fix the problem with RTSS playing with FAR?
 

Exentryk

Member
The GI fix does let me increase the res from 1080p to 1440p while keeping 60 fps, but Kal's framepacer is a lot worse than RTSS. The streaming stutters are much more pronounced with Kal's mod than with RTSS. So I've removed it and back to vanilla 1080p60 with RTSS. I'm happy with this setup.
 

DrDaxxy

Neo Member
Note that installing the mod alone is not enough if you want to turn down the lighting. It gives you an option, but that option starts out at the game's default.

Press Ctrl+Shift+Backspace to bring up the control panel, then under the "NieR: Automata" subheading, lower the Global Illumination Quality setting. Turning it off is not recommended unless you're struggling to run the game at any resolution, since that causes some areas (e.g. around the access point in the park) to look really weird.

If you can't bring up the control panel, then most likely something went wrong during installation or you're running into an issue with third-party software. Many programs that display an overlay (Fraps, RTSS, Discord (when using the overlay)...) can cause issues.

If you're still having problems without such programs, try uninstalling the mod, removing the "My Mods" folder (note this also contains configuration for Kaldaien's other mods, if you're using any), removing anything left in your game folder except the standard "_CommonRedist", " data", "NierAutomata.exe", " steam_api64.dll", then reinstalling the mod. If automatic installation (via SKIM64) doesn't work, try manual installation. I don't know why, but this is a bit fiddly at this point :/
 
Does the testing branch of FAR preform worse than the regular release for anyone else? At default GI I get a lot more dips below 60 than the regular release, and they're a fair bit harsher (can hit the high 40s at times)
 

tuxfool

Banned
I think Knurek is making stuff up, it's just generally hard to make multiple injectors work well together, and even harder to debug once something goes wrong for someone somewhere.

Hate is too strong, but if we take what Kaldein said at face value, then it would appear that the RTSS creator said some mean things, which made Kaldein not want to work with him.

Whether those mean things were justified or not, we don't know.
 

jacobeid

Banned

Yeah it's part of FAR, however you need to make sure you download the test build from his github, as I don't think Kaldaien has put it in the main branch yet.

Reducing GI gives a massive performance boost with a very minor hit to picture quality in terms of how the lighting looks on certain objects(imo anyway). Since Nier is an action game which benefits greatly from 60FPS, I don't think many people will disagree that turning it down is worth it either way.

I couldn't hit 60FPS on 1440p with my 970 before(Max I got was 40-45fps). Now I can with setting GI to 16.

Edit: Seems it is in the main branch now.

Thank you so much. I greatly appreciate these posts. Will try this tonight!
 

Durante

Member
Straight from Kaldaien's mouth. :)
Well, that sounds kind of shitty if true. I never had any interactions with the guy (Unwinder that is) other than using his software, but I'm always really suspicious when someone is annoyed by the thought of someone else using and improving their software (while giving proper credit).

I mean, I kind of understand developing the attitude, since lots of people are ungrateful bastards and/or misappropriate the work done by others, but I still release all I do as open source. I think ultimately most people figure out who the leeches are and who actually contributes.
 

Echoplx

Member
Well, that sounds kind of shitty if true. I never had any interactions with the guy (Unwinder that is) other than using his software, but I'm always really suspicious when someone is annoyed by the thought of someone else using and improving their software (while giving proper credit).

I mean, I kind of understand developing the attitude, since lots of people are ungrateful bastards and/or misappropriate the work done by others, but I still release all I do as open source. I think ultimately most people figure out who the leeches are and who actually contributes.

Unwinder is a notorious asshole (seriously check his RTSS forum on Guru3D lol) and very overprotective of his stuff, maybe rightfully so because he got screwed around by EVGA I think stealing his code.

Also it looks like disabling GI turns off the street lamps, kind of interesting I thought.

(Spoilers for the next playthrough after ending A) http://diff.pics/m1R0MFrEoLuL/1
 
errrr, for some reason, the game closes the instant i press Ctrl+Shift+Backspace. thought it was because of afterburner, but the same happened after closing it. Ctrl+Shift+O works fine tho.

EDIT: and i cant seem to find the FAR.ini to manually change the setting.
 

Durante

Member
Unwinder is a notorious asshole (seriously check his RTSS forum on Guru3D lol) and very overprotective of his stuff, maybe rightfully so because he got screwed around by EVGA I think stealing his code.

Also it looks like disabling GI turns off the street lamps, kind of interesting I thought.

(Spoilers for the next playthrough after ending A) http://diff.pics/m1R0MFrEoLuL/1
Interesting. That shot also makes it pretty obvious that the foliage lighting is very broken with GI turned off completely.
 

dr_rus

Member
Straight from Kaldaien's mouth. :)

RTSS doesn't know anything about this injector and thus it can't "hate it". Considering that it's newer than RTSS I don't think that it's Unwinder's job to make it work with RTSS. And what Durante said is completely true - 2+ injectors working together is a debug nightmare and thus such functionality isn't supported generally, with some notable exclusions (like Steam overlay working with RTSS for example).
 
Maybe I'm blind and just didn't see it in the OP, but can someone explain to me what GI is with relation to this game? Global illumination? What's the problem? I haven't bought the game yet, but I plan to soon.
 
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