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Nier: Automata PC performance thread

Any easy way to disable the mouse for those not playing borderless windowed? I'm playing through a steam link, and so far I've just been living with a cursor permanently in the middle of the screen... 😞
 

Durante

Member
This took a lot longer than it should, because I just don't have good tooling for 64 bit DX11.

pre4tud7.png

postn1uwz.png
 

Durante

Member
Is this what I think it is?

Did you manage to increase the resolution of the god rays and bloom effects?
Yes.

By default they are 800x450 (1/4 of 1600x900, go figure). In my second shot they are "just" 1280x720, which is 1/4 of my resolution. As you can see, having the correct ratio is sufficient to get a massively better end result -- and the performance cost is negligible.

I've also discovered that the SSAO (which is really quite good in principle other than resolution) is rendered at 800x450 too.
 
5820k @ 4.5Ghz watercooled
32 GB DDR4 RAM
R9 Fury unlocked + R9 Fury Crossfire


Well managed my first 4k @60 hz 4x4x4 RGB Full. on a E6 OLED. with just a AMD Fury crossfire 17.3.3 (just install clean from desktop to avoid admin problems).
CRU was a bitch to get 4k @60hz on A PASSIVE
Displayport 1.2 to HDMI 2.0 adapter but once I figured out toggling the gpu scale and manually matched CRU timings in AMD control center's custom resolution to OLED timings, suddenly V-sync works like a charm. I'm playing on computer hardware that is old old old and is probably collectively a third as expensive as my TV monitor :/. Just a nice finger at the current GPU market. Might hook up a water-cooled to the unlocked fury x and pop it OK the PCI X16 overclocked to shit. First imma gonna enjoy a fully stable Nier Automata play through :D.
 
Yes.

By default they are 800x450 (1/4 of 1600x900, go figure). In my second shot they are "just" 1280x720, which is 1/4 of my resolution. As you can see, having the correct ratio is sufficient to get a massively better end result -- and the performance cost is negligible.

I've also discovered that the SSAO (which is really quite good in principle other than resolution) is rendered at 800x450 too.

Those are the 2 most distracting in the game for me, aside from the low LOD. Are you planning to release these fixes somehow so we can use it?
 

Cyanity

Banned
Yes.

By default they are 800x450 (1/4 of 1600x900, go figure). In my second shot they are "just" 1280x720, which is 1/4 of my resolution. As you can see, having the correct ratio is sufficient to get a massively better end result -- and the performance cost is negligible.

I've also discovered that the SSAO (which is really quite good in principle other than resolution) is rendered at 800x450 too.

Oh hell yes.
 

Izuna

Banned
Unless I'm missing something else, it not having working TSAA does not make for an horrible port?

The only other choice you have is FXAA, and a patch made it that yiu have to edit ini in a freaking WindowsStore config folder to get DSR or sometimes non-16-9 resolutions.

It also seems to not run properly for many people on Hugh end cards for seemingly no reason. It's a mess.
 
Yes.

By default they are 800x450 (1/4 of 1600x900, go figure). In my second shot they are "just" 1280x720, which is 1/4 of my resolution. As you can see, having the correct ratio is sufficient to get a massively better end result -- and the performance cost is negligible.

I've also discovered that the SSAO (which is really quite good in principle other than resolution) is rendered at 800x450 too.

Wow, those are really cool discoveries!
 

Manatox

Member
Yes.

By default they are 800x450 (1/4 of 1600x900, go figure). In my second shot they are "just" 1280x720, which is 1/4 of my resolution. As you can see, having the correct ratio is sufficient to get a massively better end result -- and the performance cost is negligible.

I've also discovered that the SSAO (which is really quite good in principle other than resolution) is rendered at 800x450 too.

Seeing this made me stop playing it.. I just can't bring myself to play it it's current state when there is a possibility playing after such a great fix.
 

didamangi

Member
This

Yes.

By default they are 800x450 (1/4 of 1600x900, go figure). In my second shot they are "just" 1280x720, which is 1/4 of my resolution. As you can see, having the correct ratio is sufficient to get a massively better end result -- and the performance cost is negligible.

I've also discovered that the SSAO (which is really quite good in principle other than resolution) is rendered at 800x450 too.

And this.

Kaldaien said:
Full Motion Video stuttering problems appear to have been completely eliminated by switching the framerate limiter from Sleep to spinlock.

I really get the impression that console developers don't know the first thing about multi-tasking operating systems :-\ Don't use Sleep in the render thread! =P

Should've waited for these geniuses to fix it all really. Luckily the game is design for multiple playthrough. Can't wait.
 

Izuna

Banned
Yes.

By default they are 800x450 (1/4 of 1600x900, go figure). In my second shot they are "just" 1280x720, which is 1/4 of my resolution. As you can see, having the correct ratio is sufficient to get a massively better end result -- and the performance cost is negligible.

I've also discovered that the SSAO (which is really quite good in principle other than resolution) is rendered at 800x450 too.

See, this is why I can wait for my PC lol
 

Momentary

Banned
ReCore has broken TSAA and forces you to use FXAA otherwise. Horrible port.

A horrible port compared to what? The game'should performance is fantastice from what I played last night.

Cracks me up how people throw the phrase "horrible port" around. It had its problems when it first released and even then it's performance was good.

Yes.

By default they are 800x450 (1/4 of 1600x900, go figure). In my second shot they are "just" 1280x720, which is 1/4 of my resolution. As you can see, having the correct ratio is sufficient to get a massively better end result -- and the performance cost is negligible.

I've also discovered that the SSAO (which is really quite good in principle other than resolution) is rendered at 800x450 too.

I would even put money on the table the reasoning to why SSAO being left a blotchy mess and light shafts creacting a grainy mess were an after effect of them trying to squeeze more performance out of the game not realizing GILBERT was just way too taxing. I'm sure there are probably some other thing soaking up performance for no good reason as well. Kaldaien also fixed the stuttering issue last night cause by some setting being set to sleep mode.

I don't remember what what it was about and cannot speak intelligently on the matter. I deal with network security not programming and engineering.
 

Renewed

Member
Should've waited for these geniuses to fix it all really. Luckily the game is design for multiple playthrough. Can't wait.

I should have checked that thread before I started playing last night. Went for 13 hours and could have made good use of it, welp. Bless these souls
 

tuxfool

Banned
Kaldaien also fixed the stuttering issue last night cause by some setting being set to sleep mode.

I don't remember what what it was about and cannot speak intelligently on the matter. I deal with network security not programming and engineering.

Technically what he did was a horrible hack, but it bypasses frame pacing issues by keeping the cpu awake in busy loops, so that it doesn't suffer from from variable latencies in switching from sleep/wake cycles.
 

Durante

Member
Those are the 2 most distracting in the game for me, aside from the low LOD. Are you planning to release these fixes somehow so we can use it?
Yes, of course.

I think the best thing would be to integrate it into Kaldeien's mod, but I tried to build that yesterday and I think the source on Github (of the toolkit, not the Nier mod itself) might not be up to date. Or otherwise I just failed at building it :p

I contacted Kaldeien, but he didn't get back to me yet. For now, I plan to do a proof of concept implementation the way I'm currently doing it (which is pretty insane -- a custom RenderDoc build) and then upload the source for that and maybe he'll integrate it.
 

Momentary

Banned
Yes, of course.

I think the best thing would be to integrate it into Kaldeien's mod, but I tried to build that yesterday and I think the source on Github (of the toolkit, not the Nier mod itself) might not be up to date. Or otherwise I just failed at building it :p

I contacted Kaldeien, but he didn't get back to me yet. For now, I plan to do a proof of concept implementation the way I'm currently doing it (which is pretty insane -- a custom RenderDoc build) and then upload the source for that and maybe he'll integrate it.

Does increasing the SSAO resolution also make it more "pronounced?" It seemed to only be lightly implemented into the game.
 

guybrushfreeman

Unconfirmed Member
Yes, of course.

I think the best thing would be to integrate it into Kaldeien's mod, but I tried to build that yesterday and I think the source on Github (of the toolkit, not the Nier mod itself) might not be up to date. Or otherwise I just failed at building it :p

I contacted Kaldeien, but he didn't get back to me yet. For now, I plan to do a proof of concept implementation the way I'm currently doing it (which is pretty insane -- a custom RenderDoc build) and then upload the source for that and maybe he'll integrate it.

Great work, always appreciate your efforts
 

Manatox

Member
Yes, of course.

I think the best thing would be to integrate it into Kaldeien's mod, but I tried to build that yesterday and I think the source on Github (of the toolkit, not the Nier mod itself) might not be up to date. Or otherwise I just failed at building it :p

I contacted Kaldeien, but he didn't get back to me yet. For now, I plan to do a proof of concept implementation the way I'm currently doing it (which is pretty insane -- a custom RenderDoc build) and then upload the source for that and maybe he'll integrate it.


Thanks great to hear :D

It might be better to contact Kaldeien from his FAR thread at Steam for starters, as he seems to read every post there. I don't know how you tried to contact him, but my guess is that his contacts are pretty flooded due to his mod, so he might not even notice it for some time.
 

dr_rus

Member
At this rate of fixes appearing the official patch will be severely behind the community efforts. Well, maybe they'll just take the code from Kaldeien and Durante and release it as an official patch 8)
 

guybrushfreeman

Unconfirmed Member
At this rate of fixes appearing the official patch will be severely behind the community efforts. Well, maybe they'll just take the code from Kaldeien and Durante and release it as an official patch 8)

The community always works faster, that's the beauty of the open PC platform. I hope they take note of some stuff for official fixes though, crashes at minimum of course but finds like GI levels for performance would be good too
 
Yes, of course.

I think the best thing would be to integrate it into Kaldeien's mod, but I tried to build that yesterday and I think the source on Github (of the toolkit, not the Nier mod itself) might not be up to date. Or otherwise I just failed at building it :p

I contacted Kaldeien, but he didn't get back to me yet. For now, I plan to do a proof of concept implementation the way I'm currently doing it (which is pretty insane -- a custom RenderDoc build) and then upload the source for that and maybe he'll integrate it.

That would be really neat. The game will already be in a much better state by the time Platinum can release their fix. I love PC gaming.
 

Knurek

Member
At this rate of fixes appearing the official patch will be severely behind the community efforts. Well, maybe they'll just take the code from Kaldeien and Durante and release it as an official patch 8)

Wouldn't be the first time this happened.
 

Momentary

Banned
Even with GI set to 32 the game dips into the 40's during combat in the desert with an overclocked Titan. But I step the resolution down to 3632×2043 the game locks in at 60 and never didps. Seems kind of weird for such a small decrease in resolution to net an extra 15-20 frames.
 

Parsnip

Member
Wouldn't be the first time this happened.
Are you saying this because same features were implemented on a game x as the community patch had, or has there actually been code stealing? Because that would be the first I've heard of it.

The community always works faster, that's the beauty of the open PC platform. I hope they take note of some stuff for official fixes though, crashes at minimum of course but finds like GI levels for performance would be good too

They won't implement GI levels, at least the way they work in the fix, considering how the lower values are effectively breaking the visuals on some areas.
Based on some of the screens people have posted at least.
 

Knurek

Member
Are you saying this because same features were implemented on a game x as the community patch had, or has there actually been code stealing? Because that would be the first I've heard of it.

The former.
Happened with FFXIII and Tales of Symphonia.
 
Jeeeesus christ the game looks bad. Im not even exaggerating when I say that the average texture in this game is ps2-tier. Only place that looked pretty good was the desert area. Oh and the lod distance... my god the lod distance.. I think im gonna have nightmares for years to come.

On that note though the performance at 1440p with gtx 1080 and 6700k is fine so thats something.

Also are there any mods that make the game look better and has anyone had any luck with reshade?
 

TLCO

Neo Member
Sändersson;232810723 said:
Also are there any mods that make the game look better and has anyone had any luck with reshade?

For this game Reshade is entirely subjective. I'd say the only objective improvement it can offer is in the form of AA and sharpening(this makes textures look a bit better). Most Reshade presets will mainly adjust color or contrast but even subtle adjustments to these two values soil the game's art style.

The preset I've made for this game is by far the most subtle reset I've ever made as an example. Because I feel bad ruining subtle hues with saturation boosts and the contrast/black levels are all over the place so adjusting them even a little bit messes up a lot.
 

Durante

Member
I'm really happy that I'm an image quality enthusiast and have always played tons of low-budget games so I'm used to what that means for assets. I think Nier:A looks great other than the IQ blemishes.

Talking about those, my initial version I posted about earlier was a bit buggy. It's more intricate than I initially thought -- they use a pyramid of 5 buffers and then run a compute shader on the smallest one. Anyway, I fixed it.

bloom_defaultjhuq9.jpg

bloom_fixedp7uef.jpg


Now I'll have to clean the code up.
 

feel

Member
Jesus christ Durante.. 😳❤

And that stops my playthrough on its tracks, got to wait for this. The uglyness adds a "great japanese ps2 game"-like charm to game tho lol, but I'm ok with it being prettier.
 
Yes, of course.

I think the best thing would be to integrate it into Kaldeien's mod, but I tried to build that yesterday and I think the source on Github (of the toolkit, not the Nier mod itself) might not be up to date. Or otherwise I just failed at building it :p

I contacted Kaldeien, but he didn't get back to me yet. For now, I plan to do a proof of concept implementation the way I'm currently doing it (which is pretty insane -- a custom RenderDoc build) and then upload the source for that and maybe he'll integrate it.
You, Kaldeien, and DrDaxxy are a treasure.
 
Sändersson;232810723 said:
Jeeeesus christ the game looks bad. Im not even exaggerating when I say that the average texture in this game is ps2-tier. Only place that looked pretty good was the desert area. Oh and the lod distance... my god the lod distance.. I think im gonna have nightmares for years to come.

On that note though the performance at 1440p with gtx 1080 and 6700k is fine so thats something.

Also are there any mods that make the game look better and has anyone had any luck with reshade?

And here I am, thinking that while this is anything but perfect, they made quite a lot of effort here. I mean, we are talking about a game that had a middle class budget. Just take a look at the credits, it is kinda shocking how small the core team dedicated to the game at Platinum Games was (so not counting the multiple of little partnerships here and there).
It takes a lot of resources (may it be money and people) and time to make a proper game nowadays, and they definitely did not had enough for people who are actually waiting for a AAA experience (wtf).

I was really pleasantly surprised at the quality of their post processing AA (especially for japanese games that don't usually stand out here) that manage to eliminate most of the obvious shimmering, as well as the middleware GI solution.
Again, for a middle-class budget game, this is not supposed to be a priority at all, but the fact that they still tried is great. While it is not perfect and fully dynamic (which games featured such a thing anyway in the first place ?), it manages to ground and blend the characters and the environments together quite well. The characters, especially their skin when properly lit, look really good.

Yes, the day one game is not in a perfect state. Just like Dark Souls was too. You don't become a great PC game company in a day. The White Screen of Death problem (that seems to be caused by compute shaders failure) and the way they manage their framelimiter using a sleep() function in the render thread are proofs among others that they are not well accustomed with the platform yet.
From Software manage to deal with most of the problems with Dark Souls II (which is kinda amazing now that I think about it), so let's simply give them the chance and the time to become better, without talking about "PS2-tier" graphics if possible.
 
I'm really happy that I'm an image quality enthusiast and have always played tons of low-budget games so I'm used to what that means for assets. I think Nier:A looks great other than the IQ blemishes.

Talking about those, my initial version I posted about earlier was a bit buggy. It's more intricate than I initially thought -- they use a pyramid of 5 buffers and then run a compute shader on the smallest one. Anyway, I fixed it.

bloom_defaultjhuq9.jpg

bloom_fixedp7uef.jpg


Now I'll have to clean the code up.

Holy molly... Any impact on performance?

Yeah, I think I am going to wait on this to finish my playthrough. I just reached the forest zone... it's killing me.

I'm going to go back to try to finally finish Dark Souls Prepare To Die Edition using your Dsfix. It has been an absolute night and day difference with it now that I've finally gotten it to work and can play at 3440x1440p and with texture mods that help a lot. Not to mention 60 buttery frames per second that are a Godsend.

Good to see you and others picking up the developers slack (or maybe it's really just lack of expertise?) and working your magic with Neir as well. Thanks.
 
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