DSfix 1.5

It’s been a while, but I just released a new version of DSfix!

Bugfixes:

  • Fixed an issue with SSAO being rendered on top of particle effects/fog/water, instead of below them.
  • Improved the method used to determine when in the render pipeline to apply SMAA/SSAO, and also included more robust renderstate management. (This may fix the random display corruption issue people have been sporadically reporting ever since SMAA was included)
  • Tweaked the SSAO parameters a bit

New features:

  • As many modders requested, you can now load .dds texture overrides in addition to .png
  • It is now possible to set the desired target FPS of the game in the .ini, thanks to Nwks (Clément Barnier)! (This is fully integrated and also works correctly together with the intro skip feature)

Regarding the FPS override feature, please carefully read the notes in the .ini
This is the most invasive feature of DSfix, and thus carries the highest risk.

I am well aware that there are still many issues remaining with the minimal HuD, and since it seems like no one is fixing them I will get back to it at some point.

As for the performance requirements of 60 FPS, personally (after disabling all power management options for my GPU and CPU) I can mostly maintain 60 FPS at 1080p, 810 DoF with DoF blur 1, SMAA 4 and SSAO 2. This is on an i7 920 at 3.6 GHz and a 660ti.

As always, consider donating if you like the mod.

Get DSfix 1.5 at the Dark Souls nexus.

101 thoughts on “DSfix 1.5

  1. Thanks for the hard work!

    I’m experiencing a minor issue.
    I’ve been using the patch since version 1, and this is the first time I’ve noticed the issue, but there is now a small delay to all sound effects, even on the menu.

    Perhaps a .5 second delay to any action on screen.

    Any ideas? I’ll try turning off the FPS adjust and see where it gets me, but I thought I’d let you know.

  2. Hey Peter,

    Any chance you could export the toggleCursorVisibility function in your next binary release of DSfix (and maybe a quick accessor function as well)?

    Thanks either way.

  3. FPS feature doesn’t work me sadly, I went to Anor Londo’s first bonfire. 30 FPS Solid. I walked out of the bonfire room, through those stairs, while looking at the sky, and for 5 seconds, it worked at 60 FPS. Then it came back to 30 FPS and I never managed to see it working again.

    It’s because my PC is not good enough?

    Windows 7 64 Bit
    8 GB Ram
    AMD HD 5770
    FX-4100 Quad Core 3.6 GHz “Black Edition”

    Any ideas?

    Also I see that right now, the Dark Souls Nexus is down, wth?

  4. Any time frame on remaining hud issues and the sun when these are done the great fix will be perfect

  5. Hello there, I don’t think anyone could even ask for more!

    You even integrated the fps fix.

    Thank you!

  6. any way to assign key 0-9 for key board’s key config ?
    i think i must be better if can use key 1-4 for choosing weapon and item but as you knew this game not allow to use those keys….

  7. weird smaa artifacts (white boundary) noticed on upper part of sen’s fortress (Iron golem part).

        • XRaY,

          I am here to help.

          This is the third step: “??”

          I hope this has helped you.

          I have a theory about why the third step was harder for you to read than the other ones. Try changing your font to one that displays punctuation.

          Good luck using your product. I hope it continues to provide computer satisfaction.

  8. Thank you very mutch Peter ,Nwks, and all gays who commented in this fix 1.5 , i have finally the full speed of the game just maked the fix, dof1080 and sync on i had 30 fps until the scond boss (i3 2100 and hd6850)

  9. Looking at the comments, I might have a rare issue :(
    When i enable 60fps (issue is on all versions of 60fps mod for me), It constantly turns itself off and on. What i mean is- every 5 seconds i can see my frame rate change from 30fps to 60fps. Regardless of what I’m doing in game, it will constantly switch. I’ve tried messing with a bunch of settings and nothing seems to remedy this. I have an i7, and so i don’t think my CPU isn’t strong enough- i mean when it shifts into 60fps, it’s butter smooth even with a lot of particles and stuff going on. But then it’ll shift to 30fps regardless. Anyone have this issue or know what i could do about it?

  10. When I set the ini to 60 fps, the menus load and animate at double speed and maintain 60 fps; but as soon as the actual game world loads, all the animation slows down to half-speed and my frame rate drops to a steady 30. Clearly the animations are being stretched to 60 fps, but the game seems to only be computing 30fps, and that makes everything super slow. Nothing is capping my framerate in Inspector and vsync is off. Happens in both fullscreen and windowed/borderless.

    Is anybody else having this issue? It also happened when using it before DSfix integration.

    Intel Q9550 Core2Quad
    GTX 560ti 2GB
    8GB DDR2
    Win7 Ult

    • I have the same issue, I don’t see more than 30fps even when I am looking at walls, except for sporadic moments then the double or slow animation thing happens. I hope I wont get banned for this.

      I noticed also something else: In particular places were the fps dropped to 15, like in blightown, now if I have set the fps to 59 in the same places it drops to 20-25. Very weird.

      ps.to Durante. Thanks for everything so far you like a god amongst man.

  11. i think there is a way to make the performance better because this game runs in the same engine as racedriver GRID and the game runs really well even with ultra graphics mod.

  12. By mistake I put up maxFPS as 360 instead of 60 and..lol..game was running in perpetual slow motion.

    • And then I put it as maxFPS 32, games now running in fast forward as Charlie Chaplin movie.. hehe

  13. hey durante i tryed to limit the fps to 15;then the fps increased as hell but though the game was somehow laggy then i attacked BUM crashed!

    • hey XRaY i tryed to comprehend the word of you;then the brain of me Sploded a shell but game somehow make me feel of likely to it run. BUM kick off is do!!! lol

  14. I’m getting something that looks like tearing with 1.5
    maxfps 30

    I attempted to fraps it but that didn’t work

  15. Just to make sure, leaving maxFPS at 30 will keep DSfix from messing with anything related to FPS, right? I’d hate to get banned for that.

  16. Hey whenever I set it to run at 120fps it runs fine, but the game is at half speed? Will this ever be fixed or will we have to keep it at 60fps? Also, noticed some weird bugs running at 60fps. Mainly scripted events like the hollow thieves opening doors, on my game they all teleported into a wall. You can also fall through the ground going down ladders.

  17. I dont understand why when I use anti aliasing in nv inspector + darksoul flag uses less resources than the SMAA integrated. (While using dof blur, SSAO course) who personally I prefer to use the SMAA but I receive a performance decrease, as when there was a problem SSAO and SMAA in a previous version

  18. What is the purpose of the extra files as bundled here in this version? (includes DSfix1.5) – http://darksouls.nexusmods.com/mods/26/

    -dsound.dll
    -XliveProtectDisabler.asi

    I’ve only just tested 1.5, and it seemed to be working fine both online and off (with 60fps enabled) and I do not have those extra files. May set the .ini back to 30fps just because I’m paranoid about the GFWL ban (is that all I have to do?), but I’m just curious about what exactly that package is.

      • Doesn’t the XliveProtectDisabler.asi prevent GfWL from detecting the 60 Fps fix (seeing it as a possible cheat device) which is why it was included in this package in the first place ???

          • i put those files up because 1.5 doesntwork for everyone, like me. so with those files i am able to run it at 60 fps while capping it at 45 on the dsfix. i get 60 fps smooth as butter and 1.5 x speed on the entire game, in which ill never go back to shitty 30 fps now after this

  19. i’ve got a problem with importing saves from W7 system to W8. game says they’re corrupted. any ideas?

  20. PS: Durante, this 1.5 post isn’t tagged DSfix, FYI, so it doesn’t show up when searching for tagged posts. :)

  21. Durante, you inadvertently fixed the performance issues!

    I tried to set the fps cap at 32, but in game I noticed that it ran still at 30, but suddenly at twice the speed. So setting fps to 32 instead of 60 made the internal logic run at 60, but the fps at 30.

    But the amazing part is that in those spots where performance was bad, like in Blighttown going down to 15 fps, suddenly it ran SO MUCH BETTER. Even if it was running at twice the speed.

    So I tried to set the lock at 59 fps. And that was it. I still have 30 fps in game, the game running now at the proper speed, and as a side effect: NO MORE PERFORMANCE PROBLEMS.

    With that trick the game runs much better than the unmodded game. Where in Blighttown I had 15 fps, now I have 26. And even in those spots where the framerate dipped, now everything runs much better.

    • I tried it with 60 fps…i got 60 fps in the start menu…ingame was 30 fps….like always.

      When I tried 32 fps( @ ini). Fraps said 30 fps but the game run twice as face as normal oO WTF?!

      Intel I5 2500
      GeForce460 GTX
      8 GB RAM

      • I was in Blighttown btw…even no framerate drop @the bonfire. normally it goes down to 15 fps. Other settings like smaa etc. high @1980×1080

  22. just posting to confirm that the graphics flashing/corruption (ex. go to “alvina” in dark root garden and pan the camera a few times ;)) has been fixed in version 1.5! :) and the SSAO doesn’t produce anymore “artifacts” (very noticeable in anor londo walls)

    thanks again Durante for DSfix!

    • Great! I never had that issue, but I hoped this version would fix it. Thanks for the confirmation.

  23. WARNING! I just found a glitch in the undead parish : when I took the ladder down the tower which has a black knight on top and leads under the bridge with the dragon, upon touching the ground, I went through it and fell outside the world. Can anyone reproduce it?
    Settings : 60 fps with this : – http://darksouls.nexusmods.com/mods/26/ the version with DSfix 1.5 included
    - 1080p
    - SMAA 2
    - SSAO strength 2
    - DOFoverride 540
    - DOF additional blur 1
    - no HUD modifications
    - cursor off at startup
    - backups enabled, evry 1500 secs, 20 max
    - texture override enabled for font mod : http://darksouls.nexusmods.com/mods/21/
    - no language override, default language is French

    All other settings are off, config : i5-2500k, Radeon HD 7970, 8 GB DDR3, Win7 64x, using a PS3 controller with MotionJoy

    Otherwise, thank you Durante for this excellent fix! Hope you can resolve the bugs with the HUD mods soon!

    • I had exactly the same thing (at least twice) using dsfix 1.4 and 60fps mod (online). Without 60dps mod this never happened.

    • Hmmm… It seems that the 60 fps mod creates some collision issues, because I also noticed that quite often the camera got through the scenery a little bit (not that this is a problem, but it does show collision issues). The “drop-down-the-ladder” bug is only caused if you drop fast, as opposed to slowly climbing lyour way down, which shouldn’t be much of an issue, but still…

  24. Thanks very much for your work Durante! I’m looking forward to try this version to see the tweaked SSAO and test if the artifacts on darkroot garden are gone, but I’m not brave enough, lol. Too much fear to be banned from GFWL. Could you tell please if the 60 fps fix code is skipped altogether if I set the .ini as 30 fps? In other words, is it the same risk to use this last DSfix version set to 30fps than any older version?

    As a side question, have you any plans to fix the misplaced black window that happen to appear on the game loading?

    Thanks again ::thumb up::

    • Yes, there is no additional risk compared to old versions as long as you are not using the FPS override!

      About the loading window: it’s on my list.

  25. Great stuff. Personally I’ll be sticking with 1.4 as the SSAO in 1.5 is adding that weird fog over the textures and I don’t want to risk getting banned for using 60fps but this is great work!

  26. Thanks a ton for 1.5, My usually shitty laptop running Dark Souls at 9~13fps now runs it smoothly at 30~ (par default laptop overheating issues, but hey, I’m not complaining)
    for reference, HP Probook 4520s.

      • DSFix has always worked in mysterious ways, some people get worse performance every update, some people get way better performance. I’m on the luckier end of this update.

  27. Just so people have a frame of reference, a 4.4GHz 2500k and a 5770 barely grazes 60fps at 720p stock, and not very often.

    Does this address the doubled camera rotation speed that occured using the old version of the fps fix?

    • Well, in contrast my i5 2500k OC’d to 4.2GHz with a GeForce 480 SC gets 60FPS a lot of the time, except for the places where the game would drop even running at 30FPS. I think your GPU just isn’t good enough? I also run 1080p, 810 DoF, SMAA 4.

      I too hope this implementation of 60FPS fixes the accelerated camera movement.

      • I think its more likely due to the differences in nvidia and ati drivers. It looks like Dark souls code suffers a lot from driver overhead. You can tell this by the cpu usage being largely in kernel time.

        • using v1.5, 60fps fix, mouse fix. all running great. have fallen through the floor a few times sliding down ladders and cannot slide all the way down the ?Bed of Chaos? slide without stopping every few feet now.
          the only time i’ve had bad fps drops the last couple days was while fighting one of the Lords. think it was the crystal spikes.

          reference for those doubting their AMD capabilities:
          AMD Phenom 955(4.2GHz), Radeon 6870(950MHz/1200MHz), 4GB 1600
          renderWidth 1920
          renderHeight 1080
          smaaQuality 3
          ssaoStrength 3
          maxFPS 60
          dofOverrideResolution 810
          disableDofScaling 0
          dofBlurAmount 2

          • Well the only difference I spot between us is the clock speed of the processor, mines at 3.4ghz, any chance you could try it at a lower clock? I still get fps drops in blight town/dragon breath on bridge/demon ruins and it would be great if it was reproducible by someone with a similar setup.

  28. Heads up I got banned from GFWL while using the 60fps option! DO NOT USE THE 60FPS OPTION ONLINE UNLESS YOU ARE OK WITH YOUR GFWL ACCOUNT GETTING BANNED! Now I cannot play the game online anymore :(

    • This made me kind of worried. Are there any other confirmed bans using this or the other 60 fps patch ???

    • DSfix.ini, line 27:
      “# – this requires in-memory modification of game code, and may get you banned from GFWL”
      As you have to open and read it to change maxfps to 60: tough luck.

    • proof or it never happened, i have 40+ hours using fps patch and dsfix and nothing has happened.

  29. I noticed a drop in performance compared to version 1.4, with equivalent setting, and without the use of the option to exceed 30fps.

    thank you for your work

  30. Hi Durante, thanks for this awesome release!

    Do you plan to fix the low definition Dof (most noticeable in Darkroot Garden/Petite Londo) and also the sun bug, sooner or later?

  31. Ah, if only this supported SLi, I’d set it to 120HZ for my new Korean Catleap 2B Extreme coming soon.

    • Hey, I’m getting one of those on Monday too! I would also like to know, is 120Hz at all a possibility?

      As far as SLI goes, I’m not too knowledgeable on it, but I’m pretty sure it works. Try setting “SLI compatibility bits” to 0×02004005 in nvidia inspector.

      • I tried 120FPS just for fun since I have a 120Hz monitor. It didn’t work properly. The game loads and plays but many animations are strange. When you run, you go very slow like you are overburdened. I should note I was only getting a 107 FPS or so since that was my machine’s limitation. Anyway, 60FPS is obviously plenty but it is fun to try more.

  32. Reading through your code is pretty fun. I might start playing with it if I find some time this week, and I’ll let you know if I happen to do something useful with it.

    Great work, as always.

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