#[RESOURCES] SPECIAL K | Official Discussion

568 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

verbal path
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Lovingly referred to as the Swiss Army Knife of PC gaming, Special K does a bit of everything. It is best known for fixing and enhancing graphics, its many detailed performance analysis and correction mods, and a constantly growing palette of tools that solve a wide variety of issues affecting PC games.

See the main configuration for LS here: #1279794350980595734 message

20240831_215705.jpg
elder sparrow
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I remember long ago it was essentially required to use it on the original NieR Automata PC port, but there was (or possibly still is) some type of anti-piracy implementation that prevented you from using it. I then found a "fixed" version of SK, but ended up never using it.
Fast forward many years and I played the YoRHa edition via Xbox PC game pass and there I installed a newer version of SK on that instead. I remember there were some visual glitches that I ended up fixing by changing or removing something. It was either a graphical setting in the game or the editing/removal of SK.

Fun fact:
My Xbox PC game pass expired while I was playing NieR Automata, so I ended up leaving the game open for like 2 or 3 more days straight.

Fun fact deux:
My game crashed before I got to the E ending. I was thankfully still somehow able to open the game 2 days after my pass expired (only that day; I couldn't open it up again after I had finished ending E) and was able to continue until the end of the game, except... The pass then actually for real expired and disconnected me completely from NieR's game servers... Right before I got to the "text" part of the end, which means I couldn't finish ending E...

It was impossible for me to finish the final ending.

I was struck with anger, confusion and sadness. Those 15 minutes didn't make me miss much, but I felt incomplete.

I then quickly jumped online and then "sailed the high seas" in the hopes of finishing ending E, and ultimately 100% -ing the game (mini fun fact: I did everything except complete the enemy database).

This was great. Why? There existed a save converter from the Xbox PC game pass version to the Flying Dutchman version.

Conclusion: the cycle had not been broken. In life, from Captain Hook to Captain Hook, I journeyed.

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Oh, BTW, NieR Automata, 9/10 game. Would like 2B||illion chances to try some b||ass||fishing||.

paper torrent
paper torrent
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The problem was some cracks have broken implementations of steam features.

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When sk tried to use those it started breaking stuff.

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The hash check can be disabled and in turn this disables the steam features.

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Honestly it was a very silly time. The person who forked it and removed the hash check used hex editor.

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Makes zero sense on an open source project.

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Not to mention pirates at the time could simply just disable the hash check/steam features and it'd be completely fine.

elder sparrow
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Oh, that's actually quite informative. Thanks.

earnest orbit
verbal path
earnest orbit
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Is it a programme that can be used in combination with Lossless Scaling?

verbal path
earnest orbit
earnest orbit
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I might need a guide, can I find a tutorial somewhere on youtube for how to use it with Lossless Scaling, or is there one written somewhere?

verbal path
verbal path
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@median raft why did you removed that?

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That was great 10/10

median raft
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Sorry, adjusting layout, haha.
For some reason i can't edit it.

verbal path
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weird

median raft
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Mirror: #🛸│testing-chat message

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SpecialK + Lossless Scaling

Tested on SpecialK 24.9.3.2, unless otherwise stated.

Index

  • LS:
    Lossless Scaling
  • SK:
    SpecialK
  • SKIF:
    Special K Injection Frontend
  • SK CP:
    SpecialK Control Panel
  • Scale:
    Entering LS scaling window either by:
    • Press LS Scalebutton / hotkey.
    • Alt+Tab in.
    • Clicking scaled app / game on toolbar.
    • Etc.
  • 1st, 2nd, ... LS Scale:
    Chronology order of LS Scale since current LS launch.

Local Install (to LS)

Preface:

Installation:

  1. Get SpecialK64.dll from SKIF folder or SK Discord > nightly-builds > SpecialK.7z.
  2. Copy SpecialK64.dll to the folder where LosslessScaling.exe is.
  3. Rename the copied SpecialK64.dll to d3d11.dll.
  4. Create a file named d3d11.ini at (2) location.
  5. Insert this inside d3d11.ini:
[SpecialK.System]
Silent=true
EnableCrashSuppression=true
NoCrashSound=true
GameOutput=false

[API.Hook]
d3d9=false
d3d9ex=false
d3d11=true
d3d12=false
OpenGL=false
Vulkan=false

[Input.Keyboard]
DisabledToGame=0

[Window.System]
TreatForegroundAsActive=true

[Textures.D3D11]
Cache=false

[Render.FrameRate]
TargetFPS=60.000000
  1. SK will be injected into LS when running LosslessScaling.exe.
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Additions Compared to the Pinned Video:

Pinned Video: #🛸│testing-chat message

  • [Window.System]:
    • TreatForegroundAsActive=true:
      Solved the inability to open SK CP (on 2nd LS Scale and up) if LS is scaling a windowed app/game while LS: Cursor > Clip cursor: On.
      Might not work on older SpecialK versions.
      Alternative:
      Set LS: Cursor > Clip cursor: Off.
  • [Textures.D3D11]:
    • Cache=false:
      Solved the VRAM leak problem on some GPUs.
  • [Render.FrameRate]:
    • TargetFPS=60.000000
      Solved a case where [Render.FrameRate]: TargetFPS was set to -nan(ind) / nan, which will break SK CP Framerate Limit checkbox.
      The bug happens when [Render.FrameRate]: TargetFPS=0.000000 and you click the Framerate Limit checkbox inside SK CP during 1st LS Scale (at this time, primary monitor is not set yet).

Performance Log Users

Presentation Model Unknown (Full SK Install is Required)
There are 2 ways to enable Presentation Model detection (requires Performance Log Users permission):

SKIF:

  1. Settings > SwapChain Presentation Monitor > Grant permissions.
  2. Restart Windows.

Manual (Windows 10):

  1. Run Windows PowerShell as Administrator.
  2. Execute this command:
Add-LocalGroupMember -SID "S-1-5-32-559" -Member "S-1-5-4"
  1. Confirm that it is a success by:
Get-LocalGroupMember -Group "Performance Log Users"

Output should be:

ObjectClass Name                     PrincipalSource
----------- ----                     ---------------
Group       NT AUTHORITY\INTERACTIVE Unknown
  1. Restart Windows.

Extra: To revoke the permission:

Remove-LocalGroupMember -SID "S-1-5-32-559" -Member "S-1-5-4"

(3) after this will output nothing.

SpecialK Control Panel Navigation

Use Keyboard / XInput Controller:
https://wiki.special-k.info/en/SpecialK/Files#keybindings

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Extra SK CP Keybindings:

Keyboard \ XInput

  • Right click:

    Enter (Hold) \ A (Hold)

  • Switch between Top / Main menu:

    Alt \ X

    Note:
    You can't set custom Framerate Limit with keyboard.
    Edit d3d11.ini instead ([Render.FrameRate]: TargetFPS).

Latent Sync

  • Primary monitor will be automatically set on 2nd LS Scale.
  • Once primary monitor is set, you can access Latent Sync full menu by right-clicking on the bar at the right of Framerate Limit checkbox and click Latent Sync checkbox.
  • Status: Locked-On is required for Latent Sync to work.
  • Delay Bias and Auto Bias still work without Allow Tearing.
  • Tear Control / Sync Offset will move tear lines up / down.
  • Tear Control requires SK keybindings to work (see Bugs).
  • Unknown whether 1st point is needed for Latent Sync to work.

Enabling SpecialK HDR Under LS

Courtesy of mlgbigsmoke35

[SpecialK.HDR]
Use16BitSwapChain=true
ContentEOTF=1.0

Bugs

  • Random LS crashes and black screen (cause LS to hang) when LS Scale.
  • LS window will freeze until SK CP is closed.
    Caution:
    Do not close the scaled app/game while SK CP is still open, or LS window will be freezed indefinitely.
  • Can't open SK CP during 1st LS Scale.
    Solution:
    Press Caps Lock and try again.
  • SK keybindings (OSD/Macros etc.) other than the ones for SK CP navigation do not work.
    e.g. Latent Sync (Tear Control, Visualize Tearlines), Screenshots.
  • DInput (DualSense, DualShock4 etc.) and Steam Input controllers can't be used to navigate SpecialK Control Panel.
    Solution:
    Use XInput emulation (DS4Windows, X360CE etc.).

Question Marks

  • Input Lag between Latent Sync (with / without tearing / auto bias) and LS Sync Mode (Off / Default).

Useful Links

verbal path
elder sparrow
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noice

sage lynx
median raft
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It's really unstable, so i kind off hesitate to make a forum post.
Especially with the "question marks".
Maybe link it to #🛸│testing-chat ?

sage lynx
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Why not, post it in testing and we'll pin. It's annoying repeating the same questions when people ask in testing and discussion

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Also you can add, fake hdr/default hdr works

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You can enable 16bitswapcahin and eotf=1 as MLG found to force preset 0 hdr for games

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Use16BitSwapChain=true
ContentEOTF=1.0

verbal path
sage lynx
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Sure if he wants to 🙂

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3dfx>Ati, always

median raft
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Under [SpecialK.HDR], right?
Although i have no way to test it.

BTW What is "3DFX"?
Some kind of tag? Haha.

I think i'll stick with current ones for now.

verbal path
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But if you don't want, it's fine blob_shrug

sage lynx
median raft
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Ok, i'll post in testing now.

elder sparrow
sage lynx
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I may be very biased on that particular statement

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@median raft Can you edit your post and add two more bugs

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Dualsense and dualshock 4 does not when used with steam input. Causes input to not register

covert sleet
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cool, we can Spam SK discussion here then 🙂

sage lynx
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Dualsense works fine with xbox controller emulation. i.e: needs to be used with DS4 windows

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Other than d-input quirk, if m&kb doesn't work, controller can reliably engage the SK menu. Inputs are typical, SK menu can be brought up with home+select

median raft
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Is it input to the LS > Game, or input to SK CP?

sage lynx
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Sk cp

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And d-input may fail to work with steaminput entirely

median raft
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Ah, so only XInput controller (and others with XInput emulation) works with SK CP.

sage lynx
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Correct, not just control panel, it may start 360 pans and reject any key input (I went through 5 controllers unless others want to double-check with me)

median raft
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Is this good?
"DualSense / DualShock4 / Other non-XInput controllers (under DInput and Steam Input; input will not register) can't be used to navigate the Control Panel, unless XInput emulation is enabled."

sage lynx
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Probably add that it may reject input entirely for the phrasing

verbal path
median raft
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How about the edited one?

sage lynx
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I still think sk is worth all the trouble, latent and vrr optimised sync really is faster than default sync. Let's see if kaldein ends up helping, which he's not obligated to

sage lynx
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@median raft a heads up, forcing TreatForegroundAsActive=true: breaks LS completely for me

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messing around with SK, guess im lucky, i have no issues on 23.9.5, alt tabbing is fine, interacting with SK menu is fine, unless i click on HDR/top bars

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As for vram, its not really a leak but it seems to cache 1.2 gigs after 3 hours of use, starts at 900mb, climbing and settling at 1.3 in 10 minutes

# 
Cache=false:```
stops caching
median raft
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Ah, i'm on SK 24.8.29.

SK works fine w/o TreatForegroundAsActive=true, but as i said, can't access SK CP after 1st time w/o it.
Only applies on windowed app/game (including maximized window), regardless of LS Scaling Type.

For VRAM, the leak is very severe on my end (Nvidia GTX 860M) with D3D11 texture cache on.
Can fill up both of VRAM and RAM in 1-2 minutes.

Edit:
Tried SK 23.9.5

  • With TreatForegroundAsActive=true:
    Same error as yours

  • Plain config (removed both [Window.System] and [Textures.D3D11] sections from initial ini that i had provided before):
    VRAM leak + Freeze frame on 2nd LS Scale.

sage lynx
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At 23 seconds and 50 seconds, when the video pauses, I am alt-tabbing out of the game/lossless scaling

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You can see my cursor here

image.png
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I am not sure why, not only does alt tab not break at all for me, i can spam and bring up the sk menu or make any changes as much as I want

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The only time i can ever crash SK

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If i click on any of those, essentially, once its set up, I never need to interact with the osd, nor does alt tabbing break it. I dont understand why half of other machines this simply does not work

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Jank at its finest

verbal path
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Interesting

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I still haven't tried SpecialK with Lossless

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YET

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I am waiting for the smarter people to figure most of this out

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before I venture myself

sage lynx
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Well i hope you good luck, it either just works, or doesnt work depending on the system. 23.9.5 has been perfectly fine for me

sage lynx
verbal path
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@elder sparrow I see your emojis.

elder sparrow
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:>

verbal path
elder sparrow
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😆 i decided i was gonna do it right after wistoria episode 8 hahaha

median raft
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Hmm

[Window.System]
DontHookWndProc=true

Does make SK 23.9.5 usable on my end.

It's just that you can't open/navigate SK CP anymore after 1st LS Scale e.g. if you tab out after 1st time Scale, you can open/navigate currently opened SK CP when entering back the scaled app/game.

Edit:

SK 24.8.29:
Doing this will cause Latent Sync to stuck in "Status: Locking...", which means that Latent Sync is not working.

Quotes taken from SK Discord:

gias:

"though also my understanding was that having a latent sync "status: lock-on" wasn't needed for the input delay bias to still work... but kal today clarified that seeing "locked-on" is still needed for the input delay bias to work... so guess i'll have to pay more attention to that going forward and see if i'm losing the lock or not"

kaldaien:

"If it's not locked on, then none of this works."
"You're just randomly adding latency if you try to use input bias while it's not locked-on."
"It needs to be locked-on, so that it doesn't add the delay in the wrong place. All that accomplishes is increased latency."

paper torrent
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That will probably disable hdr

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And you probably shouldn't use d3d9 injection. I'm surprised it worked at all.

median raft
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After bunch of testing, i don't think there is a stability difference between using SK dll as d3d11.dll, dxgi.dll and d3d9.dll.
BTW, for d3d9.dll you still need to set d3d11=true under [API.Hook] so that SK can hook to LS Capture window (which is DX11).
Just saw Evil Quaint mentioned about d3d9=true earlier, so i was curious.

rocky yarrow
paper torrent
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The only issue with dxgi is you probably can't use reshade then

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dinput8 is another injection method btw that may or may not work

median raft
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Only those 3 that i mentioned work on my end.
dinput8.dll is a no go (LS doesn't use it?).

bronze hull
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should i use latent sync or low latency sync?

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i’ve been using low latency sync because i read here somewhere before that its the best option if you have vrr but i’m not sure if that still holds up

thorny laurel
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whichever you prefer ?

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SpecialK basically gives you descriptions on every option, so just use that for judgement

edgy harness
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Need help I press ctrl +shift+backspace overlay not working specialk ,and we need rtts vs specialk latency test which the lower and best for fps games and setting for specialk best larency no vrr 🙂

thorny laurel
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Judging how RTSS adds massive amounts of "Present latency" and SpecialK seems to not do that - SpecialK just wins by default

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However, RTSS caps in-game FPS, while SpecialK + LS combo caps LS fps, so you still have to use both of them at the same time in games like Ghost of Tsushima - games that doesn't have a proper in-game FPS limiter

spiral rock
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is it safe to use special K on online games with anticheat ?

chilly lodge
covert sleet
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I already said this in SK's discord, but thanks to SK and LSFG, VRR flicker and range modification is a thing of the past

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which is great because CRU was the cause of all my black screen issues for 5 years

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just discovered that today

edgy harness
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I need just simple tweak how make soecialk default global setting as reflex + boost with marker at end .... plus that 3 rd extra option checked ?

covert sleet
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can create instability

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I mean you don't want it globally

edgy harness
# covert sleet I mean you don't want it globally

I want it cause I use with lsfg so when I don't just close specialk if
crash occur I can edit custom profile , I meant kind make default new game profile with reflex... on , or maybe copy .ini file to all other games !?

covert sleet
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what's wrong about pressing ctrl shift backspace and a few clicks?

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I do it even when LSFG is running and it works great

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but maybe there's a global config if you really want to do something like that, you may need to ask directly on the SpecialK discord though, I use local injection 99% of the time so I'm not very familiar with global

edgy harness
covert sleet
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which pains me at least as much as it will you

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-> you will never get this experience with PC gaming

edgy harness
covert sleet
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hehe sorry for being the voice of truth

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the Steam Deck gets close to that ease of use experience, but doesn't support LS yet and has too much input lag in my opinion, even at 90 Hz

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the Switch is severly underpowered

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and the current generation of consoles is so boring people on youtube make videos about how boring it is

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So PC and case by case headaches it is.

edgy harness
covert sleet
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wait for 5000, 4000 is overhyped and overpriced trash, outside of the 4090

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but even then, the 4090 will be replaced soon-ish

earnest orbit
median raft
earnest orbit
median raft
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What SpecialK version did you use?
SK_LS_d3d11.ini that i attached before is for local install, as in you need to:

  1. Get SpecialK64.dll.
  2. Rename SpecialK64.dll to d3d11.dll.
  3. Move d3d11.dll to the folder where LosslessScaling.exe is.
  4. Rename SK_LS_d3d11.ini to d3d11.ini.
  5. Move d3d11.ini to the same place as (3).
earnest orbit
median raft
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Tested on my end and that version works (the banner, notification and control panel appeared).
Can you try to go to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Mods\SpecialK\Global and delete osd.ini and notifications.ini?
And try scaling with LS, see if the banner and notification appear.

earnest orbit
earnest orbit
elder sparrow
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💀

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read step 4 again

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and 2, actually

earnest orbit
elder sparrow
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noooooooo

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don't touch LS files

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only SK dll and ini

earnest orbit
elder sparrow
earnest orbit
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@median raft @elder sparrow ty so much, I didn't quite understand haha. Now I'll try to see if it works, otherwise I'll follow the step of deleting

median raft
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No prob 👍
The deleting osd.ini and notifications.ini are not required actually.
Can ignore that.
It just for resetting SpecialK startup banner and notifications to default.

earnest orbit
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It works fine, the only problem is that when I put the control panel the mouse goes behind it and doesn't let me click anything

earnest orbit
median raft
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Yep. Recommended to use keyboard/controller instead for the control panel.

earnest orbit
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it works fine now, I was wrong to connect the controller, sorry

median raft
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I think only XInput-compatible controllers works.
And for keyboard, sometimes you need to press Caps Lock 1st, then you can navigate the control panel.

earnest orbit
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You're welcome, and thanks again haha. I'm currently using this with the Switch emulator, by the way.

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I still have to fiddle around with the settings to see which are best for this, but it works very well

median raft
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SpecialK + LS combo is buggy, so expect random crashes.
I mostly use SpecialK for Latent Sync.
Although the SpecialK hotkeys and Latent Sync: tear location adjustment do not work on my end.
The Latent Sync: Auto Bias works though, at least according to the control panel input lag indicator.

thorny laurel
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The SpecialK hotkeys only work during the first load of Lossless Scaling when SpecialK has the window focus, otherwise they simply never get passed to SpecialK for whatever

safe prism
covert sleet
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yeah but next gen is just around the corner, it's just a few months

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why people always want to buy at the worst possible time is always something I can't explain

safe prism
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Not everyone is smart enough when it comes to buying things which is understandable

covert sleet
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no 😏
I'm kidding, yeah I guess, that's why we're all chatting about that 🙂

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but I mean, even the most basic person, when a new generation of GPU comes out, if you have nothing or outdated hardware, you can either buy the new shiny thing, or buy the previous shiny thing that will have crazy deals since it needs to free shelves

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bad things can happen in life, I myself must leave my apartment due to an abusive situation today.. however, for most people, they never have the money when it's time to buy stuff

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which means they don't plan it, which means they don't care, which means they don't deserve it :p

paper torrent
paper torrent
sullen raptor
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I was finally able to get it to work, for some reason enabling low latency + boost and setting a frame rate causes it to crash instantly for me, by just having low latency and no frame rate limit I was able to get it to work. Also having clip cursor on off in LS made it way more consistent. Additionally, in the ini I changed cache to =true, and TreatForegroundAsActive to =false

median raft
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Yep, i found out that instead using TreatForegroundAsActive=false in SK dll_ini, you can set Cursor > Clip cursor in LS to Off instead.
Which also solved the same problem (can't open SK CP if the scaled app/game is windowed).

Although cache=true under [Textures.D3D11] in SK dll_ini can cause adverse effect on some GPUs (memory leak).

sullen raptor
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Through more fiddling I was able to get the frame rate limit to work. Using the controller to get through the menus is a must for sure

wanton aspen
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I got special k to work flawlessly and once I get back from work I'll show you how I did it

bronze hull
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wait does latent sync work with vrr?

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nevermind— latent sync makes LSFG die on my pc, low latency it is!

craggy turtle
craggy turtle
bronze hull
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i don’t mind though, if latent sync doesn’t work with vrr that’s a dealbreaker

craggy turtle
bronze hull
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i don’t know what latent sync or low latency sync does i just know that low latency sync makes my game feel better

paper torrent
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it can kinda work with vrr I guess

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some people claim you get lower input latency without the wobbly frame pacing of the low latency limiter

craggy turtle
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In SK at least, enabling latent sync disables Vsync

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Idk why you'd even want both

craggy turtle
rocky yarrow
bronze hull
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im saying i dont want help i was randomly pinged after i declared that my issue was a non-issue

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also,

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no vrr is variable refresh rate as in freesync

sage lynx
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As long as SK doesn't crash for you, you can disable VRR, enable latent sync, boot up a game and test right now, delay bias works

sage lynx
# sage lynx Heres a quick osd and alt tabbing demo

As for VRR, you use low latency vrr-optimised limiter. I have a video here, with alt tabbing at 23 and 50 second into the video where the cursor is exposed. You can monitor VRR engaging with your displays OSD. In this case you don't use Latent sync

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SK injected to LS has access to present calls. Which is why WGC does not work with SK (after injecting to LS) and only DXGI. So all the function SK requires to use its limiter like present calls are all available to SK, it just limits the LS window, which you see after scaling

opal mist
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tried low latency + vrr but latent sync with fixed refresh rate feels a lot better at lower/unstable framerates

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both are very impressive

trim gale
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Some say that Special K can ban you in games and others say it can't, because it is injected into lossless scaling, so what is the truth?

thorny laurel
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@trim gale Since SpecialK injects into Lossless Scaling executable instead of the game, it makes no sense that the games anti-cheat would ban you for that, as it is essentially the same as running, for example, Discord Desktop Client in the background. Now injecting SpecialK into an anti-cheat protected game would be considered a bannable offense (not because of SpecialK itself, but due to INJECTION / Tampering of the game which is against games ToS usually), however I'm pretty sure you wouldn't even be able to launch the game in the first place and just get kicked during the anti-cheat boot step as SpecialK is a pretty well known tool nowadays and anti-cheat vendors probably flag it as a false positive already... People that claim that they got banned for SpecialK, probably got banned for something else instead, like for example, actual cheating... and just trying to deflect the blame.

trim gale
thorny laurel
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its just buggy, it works, but it has very frequent and annoying crashes

trim gale
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But that's okay, thx

fathom cave
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anyone getting huge stability issues with 24.9.16.1?

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like crashes very soon after scaling

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24.9.16 seems to work fine when scaling (though quick to crash when trying to open SK menu)

edgy harness
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guys what latency option do "reflex dlssfg pacing" one i mean it appear to me to help in smothness and latency with lsfg any one can give info or just an frame cap or anti tearing !?

paper torrent
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It's for dlss frame generation

livid kayak
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Trying to understand, for what reasons I would want to inject SpecialK directly into LS?

rocky yarrow
gritty chasm
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doesn't help

bronze hull
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in case anyone else was gonna try this, it doesn’t appear this works with wgc so the new windows update may have messed this up too

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at least, that’s what i came up with on my system, ofc more people should test (unless this is already a well known thing)

thorny laurel
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works fine

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what doesn't work fine is the SpecialK UI looses focus as soon as you interact with it on WGC. However, using DXGI or editing the .ini config straight to preconfigure everything works fine.

bronze hull
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odd, for me installing specialk makes lsfg just not work

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at all

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i'm running it off of a brand new windows install which makes it even more odd, i didnt even do anything yet lol

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well, its not the end of the world, could be an intel gpu thing and input lag isnt a huge problem for me, might revisit in future

thorny laurel
bronze hull
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i see, i’ll give that a try

bronze hull
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this one actually appears to break ls even worse for me, it doesn't attempt to scale at all, just puts the window over the taskbar

thorny laurel
zinc girder
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What are the benefits of inject sk into ls more than having latent sync and sk hdr?

thorny laurel
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I guess adjusting the render thread priority? if that has any effect

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also LS FPS capping, if that helps VRR or smth

zinc girder
bronze hull
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update: it worked, turns out specialk was just overwriting my .ini file, lol.

edgy harness
latent hamlet
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with lossoess scaling HDR special k has anyone noticed a decrease in brightness?

zinc girder
latent hamlet
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I mean vs native HDR.

#

can someone give me d3d11.ini because mine crashes lossoess scaling after 2 uses of lsfg

zinc girder
latent hamlet
#

I will try it at the same nits as my screen

vital sphinx
#

If I use special K, will lossless scaling turn off nvidia reflex?

thorny laurel
#

no

thorny laurel
# 
24.10.18
========
 + Added LOD Bias and Anisotropic Filtering overrides for D3D11 games

    >> The INI setting re-uses the D3D12 names, this whole thing will
         have its INI names changed in the future.

      * Use the in-game control panel to adjust Texture Filtering in
          D3D11/12 in the meantime to avoid confusion.

    Real-time adjustment for Anisotropic level and LOD Bias is planned
      for D3D11, but not yet implemented (game restart = required).

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/792979353117524009/1296749628456173630/SpecialK.7z?ex=67136bb3&is=67121a33&hm=a18a3288b5c27fd85aefa475137492f42178fcfa69766cd3387f497f79ea0d65&

#

Whether that texture filtering even works with Lossless Scaling needs to be tested, probably not very useful anyway

hearty meadow
#

i cant find specilk64.dll

deft furnace
#

Why is this even necessary ?

#

Special k works just fine the normal way

#

Dunno what's the point of messing with dlls and stuff

zinc girder
deft furnace
#

Hmm

#

It works fine in gacha

zinc girder
#

i dont know what is gacha

paper torrent
#

probably talking about genshin impact

#

if you run the injection service as admin it still works

deft furnace
thorny laurel
#

injecting anything into any multiplayer game is against ToS most of the time and risk of getting banned

rocky yarrow
thorny laurel
#

some games anti cheat has it whitelisted

#

problem is ... that whitelist is usually not public

#

some have it blacklisted too, that way you can't either boot the game or it kicks you out of the game upon entering a lobby

#

and the third option is that the anti-cheat is there for show or spying purposes

#

coming from chinese games, its the latter 😄

paper torrent
#

but yeah its not a whitelist or anything its anti cheat is just kinda bad I guess

hearty meadow
#

+++

tawny steeple
#

Does special k help performance in stalker 2?

deft furnace
#

Start of frame is the right reflex setting right ?

paper torrent
heady oracle
#

How to get rid of the widget on bottom right corner ?

zinc girder
heady oracle
#

Using controller 🎮 is only way to navigate the menu ?

vital sphinx
opaque bloom
#

still working?

#

wgc scaling doesnt work at all with the d3d11.dll

#

dxgi works but completely bugs out when the special k menu shows up

sage lynx
#

sk does not work with wgc, and you need to use a controller for the menu, otherwise it will be buggy/crash

opaque bloom
#

ah ok thanks

#

by the buggy/crash

#

do you mean how the screen slowly fades to black?

sage lynx
#

Usually using a mouse and kb to interact for the sk menu leads to LS crashing and black screen

#

using a controller with "Start + Select" and navigating with the dpad should avoid the completely

opaque bloom
#

not really sure if that's the porblem I'm facing but I'll try

sage lynx
#

What problem are you facing exactly?

opaque bloom
#

whenever I scale something with specialk enabled using dxgi, my screen just freezes and slowly turns more black starting from the top

#

ok so making AlwaysOnTop=-1 to AlwaysOnTop=1 stops my screen from going black but freezes still

#

wait did i fix it

sage lynx
#

try scaling and unscaling a few times, if it responds

opaque bloom
#

that kinda worked but my setup is janky af

#

not as good as how everyone else did it

#

but atleast I can change the settings now

sage lynx
#

You can try a lower sk version. 23.9.5 works well on my system, you could try rolling versions if need be

opaque bloom
#

yea ill try that

#

but the most important thing I wanted to test seemed to work

#

couldn't test it but it reflex seemed to activate

sage lynx
opaque bloom
#

ill test in a bit

opaque bloom
#

weird error

image.png
#

woah there we go

#

this works wayyyyyy better

#

everything seems to work now

#

one issue now comes but ill fix it myself

sage lynx
#

whats the new issue

opaque bloom
#

that specialk only works during the first scale

#

if I unscale and scale it again its just a black screen

sage lynx
#

What if you unscale and scale 4-5 times

opaque bloom
#

let me try

#

nope

#

I did it like 8 times

#

still black

#

but the first always works now

sage lynx
#

rip, can you take an ss of d3d11.config

opaque bloom
#

its very long

#

its probably due to a setting here

#

just got to figure out what

sage lynx
#

the entire sk injection is a little jank and seems to vary a lot system to system, due to driver and windows version differences

#

your config looks fine

opaque bloom
#

I'll keep messing with the options until I figure something out

sage lynx
#

Remember to disable LS sync mode, when using SK, thats the whole point of sk, when SK works that is

opaque bloom
#

got it

#

I even managed to got the antilag 2/latencyflex mod to work with this method but I'm not sure if that would cause any issues in the future

sage lynx
# 
Cache=false
CacheUsingL3Hash=false
PreciseHash=false
Inject=false
InjectionKeepsFormat=false
GenerateMipmaps=false```
#

you may want to disable the texture cache of SK, not needed and i think someone else reported vram leaks due to this

sage lynx
opaque bloom
opaque bloom
#

reflex seems to activate in specialk and it reports my gpu as a 4090

#

but I'm not sure if antilag 2 or latencyflex is active

#

but I did notice a 0.09ms drop in the latency reported by specialk

#

not much

sage lynx
#

Think i saw this in optiscaler, that always seems to crash when forcing latencyflex when i tried in cyberpunk

opaque bloom
#

I think its using antilag 2 in my case

#

I haven't tried forcing latencyflex

sage lynx
#

Think its all placebo, since when SK is injected to LS itself it has no access to reflex markers. In theory Antilag 2 should also not work, since you are capping the LS window, not the game window. So you cant inject the markers into the game either this way

#

AL2 should work, if you inject SK + Latencyflex directly into the game

opaque bloom
#

It might be I'm not sure but it was definitely doing something with the latency

#

+boost did nothing extra than using normal reflex

#

around a 0.1ms difference change

#

a bit odd

#

if I get lossless working fine without any issues, ill test it out further

sage lynx
#

Sure, keep cooking. The whole sk injection is jank and on the bleeding edge. You can also use the reshade plugin & inject SK + Reshade into LS at the same time. Lots of fun ways of crashing and breaking LS

opaque bloom
#

specialk hdr seems to work fine

#

maybe I'll the hdr from reshade with the antilag of specialk

#

endgame setup

sage lynx
opaque bloom
#

yup using that

#

with lilium's shaders

#

wait damn nvm

#

im limited to dxgi which means no reshade hdr

sage lynx
#

hmm? why not? reshade works with dxgi, the link above is dxgi+reshade

#

reshade does not work with wgc

opaque bloom
#

only wgc and gdi work with hdr reshade

#

dxgi doesn't display it right no matter what

sage lynx
#

I see. More injection jank

opaque bloom
#

yep

sage lynx
#

Have you tried an older version like 2.10? If that doesnt work, its just one of those injection weirdness

opaque bloom
#

I haven't

#

It could be that

#

rtxhdr broke during the latest lossless version

#

so specialk or reshade might have been effected

sage lynx
#

yup, but these are all somewhat jank anyways

opaque bloom
#

jank but really useful like reshade hdr

#

can't stop using it

opaque bloom
sage lynx
#

so far, both reshade and sk work on my machines, and I have seperate HDR presets (for browser and things you cant inject Reshade/SK into)

opaque bloom
#

still freezing/blackscreening after unscale

sage lynx
#

its def useful when it "works"

opaque bloom
#

^

#

does specialk work for you without any issues?

#

if it does I could try your config and see if that might be it

sage lynx
#

yea, i can alt tab, and really abuse it as much as i want

opaque bloom
#

wait hold on i might have fixed it

sage lynx
#

you would need to change the Refresh rate back to 165, if you copy over my config

opaque bloom
sage lynx
#

#1279794350980595734 message i took a vid of me alt tabbing here. For others SK seem very unstable, but i have been very lucky with SK injection on LS. Still works fine on 2.12.1 for me

opaque bloom
#

ah I think the issue was from hdr

#

now I can alt tab but my game is dark af

#

but now I know what causes it

#

a shame though

#

hdr would have made it the best thing

sage lynx
#

Is it mpo related i wonder. I always use LS with hdr

opaque bloom
#

I did have issues in the past with mpo though

sage lynx
#

I mean in windows and enabled inside LS. I dont like special k's default hdr profile, if i want to modify hdr, its usually game first or reshade's sdr->hdr conversion

opaque bloom
#

I agree but I think the performance hit is far less

#

well I think everything is fine except hdr now

#

I'll test reflex off vs on

#

quick question, does vrr working or not hugely effect reflex?

sage lynx
#

Reflex works by managing the render queue and avoiding max gpu usage. It does not rely on vsync/vrr to work

#

Under max rr, not vsyncing would obviously be faster and judder free. So ideally you'd be using vrr under max rr

opaque bloom
#

thanks

#

my vrr never works not sure why but its fine

#

so my testing is really bad and its just using the specialk latency analysis widget

#

but with reflex the lowest latency I saw was around 2ms, without reflex it was 3ms and it only got that number once

#

now this doesn't really mean much with my testing but its interesting

#

the reflex on showed more variance in latency but was consistently lower than without it

#

now I just got to figure a way to get hdr working with either specialk or anything else

opaque bloom
#

reflex = antilag 2 in this case

#

another small test: 40fps borderlands 1 with 3x framegen
without reflex = 7.90-8.00
with reflex = 7.80s

#

if anyone figures out how to get hdr working I will kiss you

opaque bloom
#

i cant tell if i'm experiencing placebo but 2x framegen feels very nice

opaque bloom
#

I wonder why the hdr breaks it after unscaling once

#

It seems to even do it when reshade is active

sage lynx
#

Are you talking about injected hdr

opaque bloom
#

yup

#

ingame hdr and desktop hdr don't cause any issues

#

but injected ones in lossless do when using specialk

sage lynx
#

Are you using special K's default hdr profile

opaque bloom
#

I have my own one but I've tried default and the others

deft furnace
#

Just inject special k to the game instead

opaque bloom
deft furnace
opaque bloom
#

the point is to inject it in lossless

deft furnace
#

Works fine either way

opaque bloom
#

less latency and works on any game including multiplayer ones

#

also you wouldn't need to set it up on each individual game

deft furnace
#

You can inject reflex with the game as well

#

If you put it start of frame

deft furnace
#

unless all your games run at the same framerate and everything

opaque bloom
opaque bloom
deft furnace
opaque bloom
#

you wouldn't?

deft furnace
deft furnace
#

And hdr settings etc

opaque bloom
opaque bloom
#

hdr sure but it doesn't need to be perfect

deft furnace
#

I mean can you even "stack" reflex

#

If the game already has it

opaque bloom
#

ehh no one has really tested it as far as I know

#

not even sure reflex on lossless does that much unless someone gets the numbers

#

right now its all experimentation

deft furnace
#

I asked them as well they didn't really say there was a difference

#

On the special k discord

opaque bloom
#

specifically on lossless?

deft furnace
#

Yeah

opaque bloom
#

I see

#

I can't confirm it unless someone gets the numbers

#

so far with antilag 2 on lossless it feels nicer but could be placebo or very slight change

deft furnace
#

I guess i can try this

opaque bloom
#

its kind of a pain in the ass at times but if you want to try go ahead

deft furnace
#

🤔

opaque bloom
#

no one has tested it yet

bronze hull
#

i’m still using antilag 1 with lossless?

opaque bloom
# bronze hull how??????

that's just the specialk reflex injection but instead of reflex it does antilag 2 or latencyflex

bronze hull
#

ahh, damn i’d be interested in trying that but i’m on wgc so specialk doesn’t work tears

paper torrent
paper torrent
# deft furnace

latent sync technically shouldn't make a different, but I'm too lazy to try to prove that

verbal path
#

Hey @paper torrent @opaque bloom @deft furnace Can you guys help me?

#

Stuck trying to get DirectX 9 games to Flip Model via DXVK. This folder setup does not work

ModOrganizer_c2Rdq19CIu.png
#

Asked the same question over #778887425275199548 message

deft furnace
opaque bloom
#

Same here, I never messed with vulkan bridge

paper torrent
#

I don't think the vulkan bridge works with local injection

verbal path
#

(mod organizer)

deft furnace
#

shouldn't target fps be refresh rate?

#

or 60

#

hmm can't get it to work

finite nest
#

anyone else having issues having LS and special k? LS won't run at all with the special k files

opaque bloom
#

ok specialk seems to work a million times better than before

#

menu can be opened

#

hdr works

#

reshade works

#

and its hdr shaders and addons

#

reflex too

#

everything is much better than usual

paper torrent
#

didn't realize people were going to use this to capture any window

tidal junco
#

Strangely it breaks with dxgi in lossless scaling

fathom cave
#

yeah the later builds of SK don't seem to work with dxgi

#

i think the oldest one that worked for me was 24.11.23.2

tidal junco
#

Ima try the older builds then

thorny laurel
drowsy hare
#

Hello, what is the best method to use LS and Specialk together?

thorny laurel
#

download a 'compatible' SpecialK version .dll file - rename it to dxgi.dll - put it into LS folder near LosslessScaling.exe and then you need to configure it once properly

#

there should be guides here somewhere

sage lynx
#

pinned on the channel

image.png
drowsy hare
#

Thanks

deft furnace
#

Gonna give it another go

deft furnace
#

the shortcut doens't work tho

deft furnace
opaque bloom
#

I got his files and just pasted them

#

worked fine

deft furnace
deft furnace
#

and which api do you use inside lossless

opaque bloom
#

wgc

deft furnace
#

the banner appears but i can't actually open the menu

#

could that be because of dxgi?

opaque bloom
#

dxgi doesn't work iirc

fathom cave
#

but only for the first scale (unless you increase the banner duration time maybe)

toxic junco
#

Hello, does anyone know the issue where injecting with lossless causes the game to freeze and the screen to distort?

tidal junco
tidal junco
toxic junco
#

alright thanks I might later

toxic junco
# tidal junco This

It's not freezing or distorting, but the new problem is that my FG is stuck at 60 and doesn't go to 120. Sometimes, it also fails to inject.

tidal junco
#

I have no idea how to help with that sadly

toxic junco
#

Well thank for helping me lol

deft furnace
thin vale
#

how do you get the UI

#

to open

#

I can see the SK prompt at the top but Ctrl + Shift + Backspace does nothing

fathom cave
#

Also some games/apps work better than others when it comes to mouse movement e.g., when i scale browser i can’t access the menu but if i scale on Assetto Corsa i can easily access it

near ginkgo
#

Anyone cares to explain me what is this special k ?

deft furnace
#

Others nope

deft furnace
thin vale
deft furnace
#

Real

tawdry heron
#

I have place the d3d11.dll and d3d11.ini on lossless folder. But when I try to scale the game on WGC that just wont work, the lossless show like it is injeted on the window nothing happen

fathom cave
#

d3d11.dll seems to only work with dxgi

warm nebula
#

For those who have a hard time navigating the Special K control panel in Lossless Scaling, I have a slight workaround that works for me:

#

By following the above guide to put Lossless Scaling (LS) in windowed mode, when I turn on Frame Gen (FG), a new LS window appears (which I assume is the window that does the framegen).
I can alt-tab into that window and open the Special K control panel with the regular Ctrl + Shift + Backspace hotkey and I am able to adjust the settings.
Then once I'm happy with the settings, I close the control panel, unscale, turn off windowed mode in LS, and use the regular settings to scale the game again (or I can just keep using windowed mode if I want but Special K shows it has more input lag compared to non-windowed mode)

#

Way more convenient than trying to figure out how to use just the keyboard or controller to navigate Special K control panel

#

Also, this works great if using Special K in both the game and Lossless Scaling

#

Might not work for everyone, but I think it's worth a mention since it made my life easier ... 🤷‍♂️

bronze hull
#

does specialk still not work with wgc?

warm nebula
#

I think I had difficulties with the newest version, but only with DXGI; WGC worked fine.

fathom cave
#

newest version for me seems to not let you unscale after the 1st scale

#

latest that works good for me (on wgc) is 25.2.6.8

fair storm
#

Has anyone had problems using DXGI capture?

#

Testing on Version=25.2.27.1, only WGC seems to works without issues

#

If anyone recalls the last version that worked with DXGI that would help because I want to narrow down the commit where that changed

fair storm
thin vale
#

not sure why you're facing that issue

#

just works with DXGI for me

#

unless you're trying it on top of another mod

#

like fakenvapi

fair storm
#

For me, it just gets bugged unless I use WGC

#

Doesn't happen on the GitHub build I sent before

bronze hull
#

could i use this to get hdr retrofit working in games that don't allow specialk

paper torrent
#

yea

fair storm
#

With the new version out, it would be interesting if someone could check framepacing on the adaptive limit using SK

smoky niche
#

Can LS still be injected now? How do I do it? It crashes when I try to press capture

#

I have placed both d3d11.dll and d3d11.ini into the LS directory.

fathom cave
#

with wgc for me it only works when it's renamed to dxgi.dll

smoky niche
#

wgc

olive kraken
#

[ADDITIONAL RESOURCES] SPECIAL K | Official Discussion

visual parrot
#

what's the latest version of special k that works?

visual parrot
#

Also DXGI is glitching when using it with latest version and WGC doesn't work at all im on W11 and the version 24_11_24_2 works but WGC doesn't work

verbal path
#

[RESOURCES] SPECIAL K | Official Discussion

fathom cave
#

wgc tho