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Dark Souls internal rendering resolution fix (DSfix)

T

TronLight

Everybody is Mikkelsexual
Durante said:
That's just because the windows scheduler defaults to extremely silly behaviour when there's a purely sequential load.
Click to expand...

I see. I was kind of doubting it, I mean, they didn't take the time to allow multiple rendering resolutions but they have an engine that scales perfectly across 4 cores. :lol

Anyway, just to correct myself, the CPU utilization raised once I exited the asylum and entered a larger area. Still not 100% or anywhere near that though.
 
A

Alo81

Low Poly Gynecologist
Durante said:
That's just because the windows scheduler defaults to extremely silly behaviour when there's a purely sequential load.
Click to expand...

So if I'm interpreting this correctly, Dark Souls does not properly utilize quad core CPUs?

Is there a method to make it properly utilize quad core CPUs?

Like I said, my framerate can really go to crap when I'm near fog gates and it would be nice if full CPU utilization could stem that.
 
[Asmodean]

[Asmodean]

Member
So, I decided to have a replay of Dark Souls, and said I'd write some shaders specifically for it.

Seeing as I've already spent far more time than I'd originally intended to on this, I thought I may as well share it, with any who may like to use it. I figured here would be the best place to do so, seeing as DS on PC would hardly be enjoyed at all, if not for Durante's excellent DSFix.

Current effects include:

  • SMAA latest: https://github.com/iryoku/smaa
  • FXAA 3.11
  • High Quality Blended Bloom
  • Scene Tonemapping
  • RGB Colour Correction
  • Post RGB Gamma Correction
  • S-Curve Contrast Enhancement
  • Texture Sharpening
  • Pixel Vibrance Adjustment

This pack also includes an updated version of VSSAO for DSFix.

To Install:
Extract DSFx_ShaderSuite_v1.20.zip to your \Dark Souls Prepare to Die Edition\DATA root folder (where DATA.exe is) The shader options are all in an ini file named 'DSFx_Settings.ini' So , you shouldn't have to go near the actual fx fle. unless you want to, of course.

To Edit Settings:
Open DSFx_Settings.ini in a text editor. I recommend Notepad++, or the like. You can enable, disable, and customize various options for each effect. There are plenty of options to play around with. Settings are clearly sectioned, and labeled. Use the documentation comments for instructions on each option

I wrote the effects to work with Dark Souls via the great injector, eFX. This injector is not my work. It was created by Crosire.

Some screens below. There are a few more in the 'Screenshots Folder' in the SkyDrive link below for the archive. You're better off viewing original in full screen, if you want a somewhat decent comparison.
Screens are a bit out dated tbh, from the initial version
Shaders Off
Shaders Enabled - Default Settings
Cinematic Tonemapping Enabled
Shaders Off 2
Shaders Enabled 2

If you want to view the full quality screens, right-click the image once it loads up, and select 'view original'.

Constructive feedback is helpful. Enjoy. This typically isn't for those with systems that can barely handle Dark Souls as it is, unfortunately.

Link: DSFx Shader Suite v1.20

My system;
i7 3770k @ 4.4
GTX 680
8GB 2133 CL9
 
A

Alo81

Low Poly Gynecologist
[Asmodean];95210767 said:
So, I decided to have a replay of Dark Souls, and said I'd write some shaders specifically for it.

Seeing as I've already spent far more time than I'd originally intended to on this, I thought I may as well share it, with any who may like to use it. I figured here would be the best place to do so, seeing as DS on PC would hardly be enjoyed at all, if not for Durante's excellent DSFix.

Current effects include:

  • UHQ FXAA
  • High Quality Blended Bloom
  • Scene Tonemapping
  • RGB Colour Correction
  • Post Linear Gamma Correction
  • S-Curve Contrast Enhancement
  • Texture Sharpening
  • Pixel Vibrance Adjustment
I'm betting you're looking right now saying "ugh, FXAA? what is this hobo anti aliasing?, we have SMAA \o/". This FXAA implementation happens to be higher quality than the general SMAA available via injectors. With similar, or lower performance impact. It also has a double pass option, for those who want extremely high quality.

This pack also includes an updated version of VSSAO2 for DSFix.

To Install:
Extract DSFx_ShaderSuite_v1.00.zip to your \Dark Souls Prepare to Die Edition\DATA root folder (where DATA.exe is) The shader options are all in an ini file named 'DSFx_Settings.ini' So , you shouldn't have to go near the actual fx fle. unless you want to, of course.

To Edit Settings:
Open DSFx_Settings.ini in a text editor. I recommend Notepad++, or the like. It'll probably look pretty messy if you use regular notepad to view/edit it. You can enable, disable, and customize various options for each effect. There are plenty of options to play around with. Settings are clearly sectioned, and labeled. Use the documentation comments for instructions on each option

I wrote the effects to work with Dark Souls via the great injector, eFX. This injector is not my work. It was created by Crosire.

Some screens below. There are a few more in the 'Screenshots Folder' in the SkyDrive link below for the archive. You're better off viewing original in full screen, if you want a somewhat decent comparison.

Shaders Off
Shaders Enabled - Default Settings
Cinematic Tonemapping Enabled
Shaders Off 2
Shaders Enabled 2

If you want to view the full quality screens, right-click the image once it loads up, and select 'view original'.

Constructive feedback is helpful. Enjoy.

Link: DSFx Shader Suite v1.00
Click to expand...

I'm curious what benefits would this have over SweetFx? Which options are available here that aren't available there?
 
eot

eot

Banned
TronLight said:
Yep, with the unlocked framerate drops are much less noticeable.

And holy shit, VSSAO/HBAO Scale 1 really tanks the framerate, it's a sharp 20fps loss. Scale 3 it's really ugly but it doesn't have a big drop (1-2fps), 2 it's a sweet spot.

There is an awful lot of tearing though, is it ok to force vsync through the nvidia cp?
Click to expand...

If you force vsync you'll get the frame rate snapping back.
 
A

Alo81

Low Poly Gynecologist
eot said:
TronLight said:
Yep, with the unlocked framerate drops are much less noticeable.

And holy shit, VSSAO/HBAO Scale 1 really tanks the framerate, it's a sharp 20fps loss. Scale 3 it's really ugly but it doesn't have a big drop (1-2fps), 2 it's a sweet spot.

There is an awful lot of tearing though, is it ok to force vsync through the nvidia cp?/QUOTE]

If you force vsync you'll get the frame rate snapping back.
Click to expand...

This is true. Set VSync to Adaptive.
Click to expand...
 
[Asmodean]

[Asmodean]

Member
Alo81 said:
I'm curious what benefits would this have over SweetFx? Which options are available here that aren't available there?
Click to expand...

None, if you're perfectly happy with SweetFX. Keep using it. Nobody is forcing you to use this ; )

Saying that, for those who would like higher quality. SweetFx is, well it's sweet. But, I personally don't use the actual shaders that come with it, I've used my own, because most of the effects with SweetFX are based off, if not exactly same as the old FXAA injector effects. Which is fine, eFX comes with no shaders, you've to write your own, for it currently, as it's still in early stages.

My shaders with this are typically much higher quality, and were done specifically with Dark Souls in mind, plus adapted some of the effects from my emu shaders.

As for the injector. This is the injector that is due to be replacing SweetFx's injector (CeeJay is working with Crosire). Which was based on injectSMAA/FXAA. eFX is a complete post processing framework, supporting custom syntax, multiple passes, 32/64-bit, d3d9, 10, 11, 11.1,OGL, etc. I sound like I'm bloody promoting the thing here.


I'm sharing this with the DS community, not selling it, use it, or not, Have fun : )
 
A

ambientmystic

Member
Alo81 said:
So if I'm interpreting this correctly, Dark Souls does not properly utilize quad core CPUs?

Is there a method to make it properly utilize quad core CPUs?

Like I said, my framerate can really go to crap when I'm near fog gates and it would be nice if full CPU utilization could stem that.
Click to expand...

Quad Core CPUs? How about not even fully utilizing a Dual Core, and an ancient one at that?

Intel Core 2 Duo T9550 @ 2.8 GHz CPU utilization while running Dark Souls (moving around in Firelink Shrine and killing some undead near the area, this is a purely CPU limited scenario as GPU utlization doesn't even hit 100%). For reference, the actual Min Required CPU is a C2D E6850 @ 3.0 GHz

Task Manager CPU % graph:-
iI1RXI8lUsIAy.PNG
Click to expand...

GPUz (for GPU utlization, as a reference):-
ibheXvsySYPX89.PNG
Click to expand...

Internal Rendering Res is set to 1600x900p, and framerate is unlocked and set to 60 to remove any limiting factors. All other dsfix settings are set to default.
 
A

Alo81

Low Poly Gynecologist
[Asmodean];95213962 said:
None, if you're perfectly happy with SweetFX. Keep using it. Nobody is forcing you to use this ; )

Saying that, for those who would like higher quality. SweetFx is, well it's sweet. But, I personally don't use the actual shaders that come with it, I've used my own, because most of the effects with SweetFX are based off, if not exactly same as the old FXAA injector effects. Which is fine, eFX comes with no shaders, you've to write your own, for it currently, as it's still in early stages.

My shaders with this are typically much higher quality, and were done specifically with Dark Souls in mind, plus adapted some of the effects from my emu shaders.

As for the injector. This is the injector that is due to be replacing SweetFx's injector. Which was based on injectSMAA/FXAA. eFX is a complete post processing framework, supporting custom syntax, multiple passes, 32/64-bit, d3d9,d10,d11,d11.1,OGL, etc. I sound like I'm bloody promoting the thing here.


I'm sharing this with the DS community, not selling it, use it, or not, Have fun : )
Click to expand...

I hope it didn't come off as negative, it wasn't meant to. Just genuinely curious what the benefits were and some of those sound pretty wicked. I plan to try it out and tweak it out a bit.

ambientmystic said:
Quad Core CPUs? How about not even fully utilizing a Dual Core, and an ancient one at that?

Intel Core 2 Duo T9550 @ 2.8 GHz CPU utilization while running Dark Souls (moving around in Firelink Shrine and killing some undead near the area, this is a purely CPU limited scenario as GPU utlization doesn't even hit 100%). For reference, the actual Min Required CPU is a C2D E6850 @ 3.0 GHz

Task Manager CPU % graph:-


GPUz (for GPU utlization, as a reference):-


Internal Rendering Res is set to 1600x900p, and framerate is unlocked and set to 60 to remove any limiting factors. All other dsfix settings are set to default.
Click to expand...

I'll be honest, I'm not really sure how to read that.
 
A

ambientmystic

Member
Alo81 said:
I'll be honest, I'm not really sure how to read that.
Click to expand...

I was just trying to demonstrate that the game isn't even pushing the (weak) mobile GPU to the limit even though there is excess CPU power to spare (note that the CPU usage is only at 41%) and I've already allowed it to run without VSync. It shows that the cores aren't being utilized efficiently at all, and the thread is being bounced around.

In an ideal PC port, your GPU would be killed/maxed out long before your CPU should be, provided that you have the CPU to power it.
 
[Asmodean]

[Asmodean]

Member
Alo81 said:
I hope it didn't come off as negative, it wasn't meant to. Just genuinely curious what the benefits were and some of those sound pretty wicked. I plan to try it out and tweak it out a bit.
.
Click to expand...


Not at all, I was just on my way for a shave, when I seen your reply so, I was only trying to cram as much info into a sentence asap lol.
 
T

TronLight

Everybody is Mikkelsexual
eot said:
If you force vsync you'll get the frame rate snapping back.
Click to expand...

Nope, it doesn't happen.
I guess nVidia's vsync is triple buffered or something, but the halved framerate if you can't hold a perfect 60 never happened to me when using vsync through drivers.
Actually it never happens in games either, beside a small bunch.
 
D

Durante

Member
Alo81 said:
So if I'm interpreting this correctly, Dark Souls does not properly utilize quad core CPUs?
Click to expand...
Yes, like 90% of all games. In fact it's not just not using quad cores, it's almost sequential.

Alo81 said:
Is there a method to make it properly utilize quad core CPUs?
Click to expand...
No. Well, rewrite the entire engine.

Alo81 said:
Like I said, my framerate can really go to crap when I'm near fog gates and it would be nice if full CPU utilization could stem that.
Click to expand...
It wouldn't, fog gate related framedrops are almost certainly GPU limited.

eot said:
If you force vsync you'll get the frame rate snapping back.
Click to expand...
No, it usually forces triple buffering. (Or you can just run in borderless fullscreen windowed mode).
 
P

Parsnip

Member
[Asmodean];95213962 said:
My shaders with this are typically much higher quality, and were done specifically with Dark Souls in mind, plus adapted some of the effects from my emu shaders.
Click to expand...
Ah, that's why your username was familiar. I very recently played through ff12 on pcsx2, and saw your shaders on their forums as well.

Great work man.
 
T

TronLight

Everybody is Mikkelsexual
Durante said:
It wouldn't, fog gate related framedrops are almost certainly GPU limited.
Click to expand...

I wonder if there is a reasonable explanation for that.

I mean, they're just fog gates, how can they kill the framerate so bad.
Is it a fillrate or bandwitdh problem or they just fucked it up? :lol
The strange things is that it only happens when you're crossing them? Looking at a fog gate won't kill the framerate, as far as I can see.

Same with the bonfire. When you sit and the screen goes up in smoke, aren't those just textures smeared all over the screen?
 
A

ambientmystic

Member
TronLight said:
I wonder if there is a reasonable explanation for that.

I mean, they're just fog gates, how can they kill the framerate so bad.
Is it a fillrate or bandwitdh problem or they just fucked it up? :lol
The strange things is that it only happens when you're crossing them? Looking at a fog gate won't kill the framerate, as far as I can see.

Same with the bonfire. When you sit and the screen goes up in smoke, aren't those just textures smeared all over the screen?
Click to expand...

Speculation abounds that some of the graphical effects in that particular scenario could be CPU limited. I once ran Dark Souls windowed with GPUz at the side just to see whether my GPU was choking during that bonfire scene. Surprisingly, it was the CPU that was being choked when it happened.

Regardless, the port is very poor when it comes to effective CPU/GPU utilization.
 
A

Alo81

Low Poly Gynecologist
TronLight said:
I wonder if there is a reasonable explanation for that.

I mean, they're just fog gates, how can they kill the framerate so bad.
Is it a fillrate or bandwitdh problem or they just fucked it up? :lol
The strange things is that it only happens when you're crossing them? Looking at a fog gate won't kill the framerate, as far as I can see.

Same with the bonfire. When you sit and the screen goes up in smoke, aren't those just textures smeared all over the screen?
Click to expand...

For me it was when I would look at them.

It didn't happen for every fog gate, but any fog gate from like the second half of the game onward just merked my frame rate.

Is the fog a texture or particles (I'm assuming particles?)
 
T

Teknoman

Member
Eusis said:
The same person that outed the removal of GFWL from the Batman games and others seems to think in recent posts I saw that we can be optimistic for GFWL being removed, and it would make sense given how much of an evergreen title this is. Not really like Madden or even CoD where the new game renders the old obsolete, both me and my brother went back to Demon's Souls after Dark Souls and I'm sure many will do the same with Dark Souls II and Dark Souls/Demon's Souls.
Click to expand...

I know I am. I still plan on going back and slicing through Demon's Souls at some point.
 
P

Perkel

Banned
Durante said:
It wouldn't, fog gate related framedrops are almost certainly GPU limited.
Click to expand...


Imo this is shitty coding. 1. Most of PC have now GDDR5 ram and shouldn't have problems with bandwidth for this game. So if anything it probably uses DDR3 ram instead of GDDR5 for this effect. Still having fast DDR3 will get you no fix.


Nor it is GPU problem since i am using 2TF+ GPU and no way in hell it will be maxed at default graphic setting without your DSfix.

Only thing it leaves is CPU. Which naturally is the answer because i played earlier @ 30 fps and now i play at 60 and those drops changed from 30 --> 15-20 to 60--> 30-40.

Which means CPU was the answer. With faster CPU problem should be solved. Naturally there isn't any faster CPU with better single core performance than i5/i7 so there isn't really any fix for this problem for now (unless someone will rewrite engine).

In bandwith starve situation better CPU wouldn't help but it isn't the case.

Let's hope Dark Souls 2 primary platform being PC will get us amazing looking game. They already from interviews changed lighting system so we should be happy at least with that. It annoyed me to oblivion how lighting was static or should i say almost all lighting in game was just color correction (especially visible going from deeps to blightown.

TronLight said:
Same with the bonfire. When you sit and the screen goes up in smoke, aren't those just textures smeared all over the screen?
Click to expand...

It is much more than that. It resets every mob and dest item so framerate drop is more than bug.
 
C

Clawww

Member
Alo81 said:
For me it was when I would look at them.

It didn't happen for every fog gate, but any fog gate from like the second half of the game onward just merked my frame rate.

Is the fog a texture or particles (I'm assuming particles?)
Click to expand...

i always assumed the slowdown on the fog gate was just loading in whatever was behind it (that also kinda played into the drama of crossing)
 
J

JonCha

Member
Alo81 said:
Are you editing it with Notepad?

Under the file type dropdown save it as "All Files" or something like that, then it will save it as the exact name you type into the box. so "DSFIx.ini"
Click to expand...

Ah okay, I'll try that. Thanks. Yeah I'm using Notepad.
 
Nabs

Nabs

Member
Fermbiz said:
Question...I want to make the HUD smaller. What settings should I put?
Click to expand...

# HUD options should have everything you need. Note: I've only had luck using the hud mod while rendering at 1920x1080 (no downsampling), so you should try that out if it's not working for you.

Fermbiz said:
Also, is there a hotkey I can set to toggle the HUD on/off?
Click to expand...
Open up the dsfixkey.ini file and there you can check and set your hotkeys. I believe no hud is right ctrl, and toggle hud mod is right shift.
 
T

TheThunder

Member
So I manged to temporarily "fix" the DSfix backup save system stopping to work after the GFWL gamertag change, by removing the old gamertag file located in C:\Users\(User ID)\Documents\NBGI\DarkSouls and then disconnecting my PC from the internet (if I stay online then the file get regenerated again with both the regular and backup saves)

Still need to figure out how to make the back saves not tied to the "main" gamertag ID so I can still connect online.
 
Jelle

Jelle

Member
[Asmodean];95210767 said:
So, I decided to have a replay of Dark Souls, and said I'd write some shaders specifically for it.

Seeing as I've already spent far more time than I'd originally intended to on this, I thought I may as well share it, with any who may like to use it. I figured here would be the best place to do so, seeing as DS on PC would hardly be enjoyed at all, if not for Durante's excellent DSFix.
[...]
Constructive feedback is helpful. Enjoy. This typically isn't for those with systems that can barely handle Dark Souls as it is, unfortunately.

Link: DSFx Shader Suite v1.00
Click to expand...
Thanks for sharing. I've tried it with some other games and it's working great. The improved, multipass FXAA really is something! Also, the descriptions are very handy.

I think I might replace SweetFX with your shader collection and eFX from now on :)
 
S

Shadowhaxor

Member
Holy Shit. I double dipped on this since it was damn cheap on Steam and well since this game is pretty much crack for me. Then I added the DSfix and the enhanced textures....... shit.

This is a thing of beauty compared to it's native state. One can only hope that DS2 looks as good.
 
T

TronLight

Everybody is Mikkelsexual
Shadowhaxor said:
Holy Shit. I double dipped on this since it was damn cheap on Steam and well since this game is pretty much crack for me. Then I added the DSfix and the enhanced textures....... shit.

This is a thing of beauty compared to it's native state. One can only hope that DS2 looks as good.
Click to expand...

Enhanced textures? Are they any good?
 
J

jokkir

Member
DSfix is making my games resolution a bit wonky. It's never happened before until I reinstalled the game and DSfix recently.

Here's what it looks like:
pp42lvR.jpg
Click to expand...

Anyone know what's up and how to fix it? I think I put the same settings in the DSfix config (my resolution is 1366x768)
 
B

Backfoggen

Banned
jokkir said:
DSfix is making my games resolution a bit wonky. It's never happened before until I reinstalled the game and DSfix recently.

Here's what it looks like:


Anyone know what's up and how to fix it? I think I put the same settings in the DSfix config (my resolution is 1366x768)
Click to expand...

ibcHNVVvjLzWRG.gif
 
D

Dictator93

Member
jokkir said:
DSfix is making my games resolution a bit wonky. It's never happened before until I reinstalled the game and DSfix recently.

Here's what it looks like:


Anyone know what's up and how to fix it? I think I put the same settings in the DSfix config (my resolution is 1366x768)
Click to expand...

TUrn off the ingame anti aliasing in the game menus.
 
legacyzero

legacyzero

Banned
jokkir said:
DSfix is making my games resolution a bit wonky. It's never happened before until I reinstalled the game and DSfix recently.

Here's what it looks like:


Anyone know what's up and how to fix it? I think I put the same settings in the DSfix config (my resolution is 1366x768)
Click to expand...

You gotta disable Anti Aliasing in the game options. Says so right in the DSfix ini file when you're tweaking it.

EDIT: IM DEFEATED
 
Haunted

Haunted

Member
Ok, so the repeated Steam sale got to me after all. I'm in again.

What mods are you guys running? I just took a look at the top ones on the Dark Souls Nexus and ran with these:

DSFix
Dark Souls HD Texture Pack
Dark Souls Flora Overhaul
High-Res UI and Subtitle fonts
Tree LowRes Texture Fix
Anor Londo Better Distance Textures
Revamped Stat Buff Icons
HD Player Messages
Lava Eyesore Fix

Any essential ones I am missing?

Game looks and runs beautifully.
 
V

velociraptor

Junior Member
Haunted said:
Ok, so the repeated Steam sale got to me after all. I'm in again.

What mods are you guys running? I just took a look at the top ones on the Dark Souls Nexus and ran with these:

DSFix
Dark Souls HD Texture Pack
Dark Souls Flora Overhaul
High-Res UI and Subtitle fonts
Tree LowRes Texture Fix
Anor Londo Better Distance Textures
Revamped Stat Buff Icons
HD Player Messages
Lava Eyesore Fix

Any essential ones I am missing?

Game looks and runs beautifully.
Click to expand...
I think that's pretty much it as far as mods go.
 
Nabs

Nabs

Member
Haunted said:
Ok, so the repeated Steam sale got to me after all. I'm in again.

What mods are you guys running? I just took a look at the top ones on the Dark Souls Nexus and ran with these:

DSFix
Dark Souls HD Texture Pack
Dark Souls Flora Overhaul
High-Res UI and Subtitle fonts
Tree LowRes Texture Fix
Anor Londo Better Distance Textures
Revamped Stat Buff Icons
HD Player Messages
Lava Eyesore Fix

Any essential ones I am missing?

Game looks and runs beautifully.
Click to expand...

DSFix + High-Res UI is my go to set.
 
cripterion

cripterion

Member
Bought this, launch the game, GFWL comes in, I click to enter my key or skip the whole thing but it just keeps crashing lol.
 
E

En-ou

Member
Haunted said:
Ok, so the repeated Steam sale got to me after all. I'm in again.

What mods are you guys running? I just took a look at the top ones on the Dark Souls Nexus and ran with these:

DSFix
Dark Souls HD Texture Pack
Dark Souls Flora Overhaul
High-Res UI and Subtitle fonts
Tree LowRes Texture Fix
Anor Londo Better Distance Textures
Revamped Stat Buff Icons
HD Player Messages
Lava Eyesore Fix

Any essential ones I am missing?

Game looks and runs beautifully.
Click to expand...

try it in 3D if you can.

can I use sweetfx with dsfix?
 
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