DSFix 1.8

It has been quite a while — I’ve been very busy at work for the past 3 weeks. I also haven’t had time to check/approve blog comments, so now there are 3700 in the moderation queue, and I’m sure at least 98% of those are spam. Sorry if you got stuck there!

Changes:

  • Added an FXAA option in addition to SMAA. FXAA is blurrier, but also deals with sub-pixel aliasing better because of that. It’s also very slightly cheaper in terms of performance.
  • Added the ability to bind a key to toggle a 30 FPS limit for a short time. By default it’s bound to backspace. This is useful to fix issues with the FPS unlock, see below.
  • Greatly improved depth usage in the SSAO shader. This means that the SSAO effect is now more stable at different distances from objects.

As always, consider donating if you like the mod.

Get DSfix 1.8 at the Dark Souls nexus.
(alternative download location)

In other news, I believe that all the possible issues with the FPS unlock are now known, and there is a way to deal with most of them as of version 1.8:

  • Sliding down ladders can make you fall through the ground. Workaround: don’t slide down ladders with unlocked FPS.
  • Jumping/rolling distance is slightly reduced at 60 FPS. Workaround: in case you need to do one of the 2 or 3 jumps in the game that need maximum distance, use the new toggle key to toggle a 30 FPS limit for the jump, then toggle back to 60 after it.
  • Slope interactions are slightly different at 60 FPS compared to 30, which may make you “stuck” at small obstructions from time to time. Workaround: rolling if there is space, walking back and forth a bit if there is not. Toggling the 30 FPS lock for a second in the worst case.

I have been playing for 40 hours or so with unlocked framerate, in single-player, coop and pvp, and I had no other issues.

In conclusion, I hope everyone had a nice couple of weeks and backed Project Eternity!

84 thoughts on “DSFix 1.8

  1. I put petert Friend upgrade to get the screen cursor guess is 0.3 DSfix punch began to lag much put the Ultima version gave lag the same way I run several games like bf3 what i could do so I want to Remove the Cursor Screen nothing else thank you for your beautiful work on Dark Soul

    • Oh gee, lol. You do realize that it’s impossible to understand your auto-translated message right?

  2. Durante, I was trying to troubleshoot why my “toggleSMAA” keybinding wasn’t working and after a quick visit to the github repository, I noticed that the name of the action was changed to “toggleAA”, but DSfixKeys.ini wasn’t updated to reflect the change.

  3. Just booted up with 1.8 patch.

    I’ve never had a graphical glitch before, but in Firelink just now, a part of Frampt’s face was shooting through the world. Like some of the vertices in his feelers got lost out in the void.

    Is this common?

  4. For whatever reason Dark Souls ceases to work for me on a fresh install of windows. Update 1.5 and 1.8 start and crash but everything inbetween those never leave the taskbar.

    Specs:
    Intel 2500k @ 4.2ghz
    HD 7850 @ 1100mhz/1400mhz
    8GB Ram @ 2133mhz
    Samsung 128GB SSD

    • Fixed my own problem. Set everything to run as administrator and now it works. Perfect 60fps at 2560×1440

  5. An hotkey for enable/disable FXAA in realtime would be much appreciated (only available for SMAA now). thanks Durante!

  6. I was checking for either a new release or a push on github that included the fps toggle every single day and eventually gave up and quit playing for a while.

    About damn time!

    After I really tested and saw how horrible the jump distance was at 60FPS I’ve craved that toggle function so much. Having to ‘save scum’ so much because of the collision issue really killed my enjoyment of the game. When I tried to play again at 30FPS I honestly thought something was wrong with the game because it looked so skippy, even removed dsfix and x360ce thinking it was something with that, but nope, I really played the game like that. Never again will I tolerate another 30 FPS game..

    Anyway, really do hope someone, somewhere, is able to get these issues fixed (or lessened) eventually, even though right now it feels like this is about as far as modding is going to come with this game. Sure do hope I’m wrong!

    PS: SMAA never really did anything much when supersampling; it was extremely subtle even just going to 1440p. When I set it to 1080p SMAA worked and looked so much better (aliasing wise) than 1440p. Even bumping it up from high to ultra (which should produce blurring) did nothing different. Unless I’ve forgotten something (possible since it’s been 2 months), does SMAA even work properly when rendering above native resolution?

  7. Hello Beautiful work you’re doing to me with more doubts I have to be here all DSFix or DSFiz 1.8 Corrects everything?

  8. Hi Durate,
    Maybe it’s not totally related to DS, but i’m glad to know if is possible to overlay every dx games using your technique, maybe your .dll can inject a GUI over a fullscreen game?
    Thanks

  9. First of all, thank you so much Durante for this awesome fix. Your hard work is greatly appreciated!

    Almost everything works great, but i’m having a problem where the game won’t launch if the Variable Framerate option is enabled. I know a couple people have reported this in previous posts too. Have you had a chance to look into this at all? Thanks!

    • The problem with this issue is that it’s almost impossible to debug if it doesn’t happen to me. I can only give some general hints, like running an administrator account and disabling UAC.

    • A lot of things can go wrong when modifying process memory. You can also check if disabling your anti-virus software helps.

      If the game crashes, you can try to create a dump file and upload it somewhere (when the crash window pops up: open the task manager, right-click on DATA.exe in the “Processes” pane and select “Create Dump File” ).

  10. Does using the FPS unlock still has the chance of getting you banned from GFWL? If so, then did you manage to play 40 hours without getting banned?

    • I still think that the ban is a rumor, if indeed that was banned player should be from other causes. Microsoft does not care at all game for windows live, to be free unlike xbox live.

    • what i just found on yesterday. my friend got kicked after he set his FPS over 30. yes it not ban but kick from online, more like some error or some thing.
      however after he set his fps back to 30 (but still enable fps unlock) that issue not happen again.

    • There’s always a chance, but I haven’t had a single confirmed report of anyone getting banned.

  11. V-Sync doesn’t work with 1.8, i tried to use the latest Nvidia control panel and force V-Sync but the problem remains.

  12. Might be a stupid question but according to http://www.siliconera.com/2012/10/22/dark-souls-version-1-06-update-coming-on-october-24/ FromSoftware plans to release another update for DarkSouls on October 24 when the PreparetoDie Edition releases on consoles.

    What I’m asking is would the listed changes (see source) have any effect on DSFix if this update also arrives on PC and if they do will you still continue working on DSFix to correct them if they occur?

    Thanks for taking your time.

    Yours sincerely

    JohnboyXYZ

    • First of all: NOOOOOOOOOOOO don’t nerf my Crystal Soul Spear!

      Secondly: Since it seems like a balance patch, the graphics modifications should hopefully be largely unaffected. It could break the FPS unlock though.

    • All these fixes and changes (dark wood ring, masks of the father, mother, etc) are already present in the PC edition. The only bug that needs to be fixed in the PC is the broken stereo downmix.

  13. Greetings, I was wondering if it would be possible to include an option to display fps on screen, to avoid the use of third party programs. thank.

  14. This with with 1.7 WITHOUT the FPS unlock: I noticed when fighting Ceaseless Discharge that his tentacle when he attacks goes under the ground, making it impossible to fight him the normal way (as seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7JP3-1siME)

    Any idea why that would be, or any confirmation on this happening to anyone else? It’s been glitch-free for me otherwise.

    • I just fought him as well, with FPS unlock, and did not experience that glitch. Probably unrelated to the fix.

  15. Any chance to see a working antialiasing mod for worms revolution? (this game is lame, AA works only with nvidia cards) and the injectors I tried don’t work. :(

  16. Might just be me but it seems harder to perform the Forward+RT jumping attack and the Forward+RB kick attack with 60fps enabled. Also the undead dragon’s poison vomit falls through the floor.

  17. Another problem with dsfix, I’d call it a cosmetic problem is that sometimes using framerate unlocker, even at 30fps, it sometimes f*ck up the ragdoll and clothes physics, You can notice that sometimes the Frampt moustache stirs to ridiculous proportions and other weird behaviors, this was signaled by some users on Neogaf too.

  18. Are you planning on adding support for other aspect ratios?

    1080p stretched to fit 1920×1200 is not ideal.

    • make a custom resolution in nvidia control panel. set that to 1900 x 1200, then set that as the internal resolution.

      itll show up in the list of fullscreen resolutions in DaS

      look up tutorials before you do that, you have to do it correctly.

  19. Pingback: ついにアノール・ロンドへ - egony

  20. yeah, that ladder in undead burg after the bridge and where you met 3 rats gives me 100% falling through the fllor everytime.
    nice to hear about the jumps too, i remember on ps3 i always jumped where i wanted but couldn’t jump to damnhall of zena vendor under the brigde even after like 10 tries.

  21. This is a minor issue, but I was wondering how hard it would be to restrict dsfix key bindings usage to only when the game window has focus? I’ve been doing lot’s of co-op, and I like to keep the borderless game window in the background and do other stuff while I wait for summons (exactly the case when writing this post and hitting backspace to edit the text, while observing the dxtory frame counter alternating between 60 and 30 all the time :o)

  22. i can play the game using the 30 fps lock button, without being banned? i want to use this key to see if the game run full at 30 fps, because im using the dsfix 1.3 and some areas the fps drops to 15, i´ll be glad if someone answer me.

    • I’ve been playing the game at full 60FPS and doing lot’s of co-op and so far so good. The consensus seems to be that Microsoft doesnt care about anything that goes on with GFWL.

  23. Sometimes, after resting in a bonfire, I press “leave” and the menu dissapears, but my character is still sitting in the bonfire and there is nothing I can do. In this state, I can still get invaded, and if the invader backstabs me, I can continue the game normally. If nobody attacks me, I am forced to ALT+F4 out of the game. I believe this issue happened with DSFIX 1.7 Is this fixed in 1.8?

      • It had never happened to me before installing DSFIX 1.7. Do you know if there is a solution for this?

        • This is easily avoided. Just wait a few seconds resting or kindling for the sparks to die down, then leave the bonfire. It happened to me all the time when I was rushing.

      • i played 400+ hours on ps3 and never happened to me, but here on PC it’s constantly.
        what i do is just sign out of Live, the game throws you back to title screen where you can log back in. no need to restart the game.

        • Same this happens to me. I never had this issue on consoles before, and I’ve never had this issue before patch 1.5. I now get it seeming every time I restore human form. The shitty part is that I don’t have the best connection so it sometimes takes like 10 minutes ingame to get back to PvP.

          But, I seem to have a fix to get around it. When I become human / kindle the flame, don’t leave the bonfire right away. Go and raise a few levels in any stat, but don’t save. Press ‘B’ (gamepad) and choose OK to not save and exit. Then press leave and exit the bonfire. It seems to work every time for me.

  24. Hey Durante,

    You mentioned that there are tons of posts in moderation. I;m not sure if this means you missed mine, so I’m posting it here again just in case. Sorry if I’m coming off as annoying! In a nutshell, I am using the fps unlock capped at 30 because without it I get 15 fps (vsync) or 20-28 (no vsync). With it I get 30 except in random places, with particles, and in Blighttown/New Londo.

    However, I notice that with the unlock enabled, instead of increasing to 2x the speed at 60, the game seems to decrease to 1/2 the speed at 15, causing “random slowdowns”. What I was wondering is, would it be possible/difficult to implement the ability in the next DSFix to toggle whether we wanted the game logic that keeps the game speed consistent at 60 fps or the one that keeps it consistent at 15 fps for those who simply wanted to leave the unlock at 30 fps? Or is the performance boost related to the change in game logic?

    I suppose the keyboard toggle could also be a workaround, but I was wondering if this more direct approach was possible.

    Again, thanks for your time!

    • I am not sure I understand the issue you are describing correctly. If you use the FPS unlock with a 30 limit everything should be fine in regards to game speed?

      • I don’t know, it’s just that I find that whenever the framerate drops to, say, 20, like in Blighttown, everything seems to run in slow-motion? I attack slowly, enemies move slowly, etc? In Firelink Shrine when I run from the bonfire towards where Petrus is I get 26 fps and my character runs slightly more slowly. Those are two examples that I can think of off the top of my head. When I sit at a bonfire it also takes a few seconds for the particle effect to finish.

        Looking at my ini, I have unlockFPS at 1 and FPSlimit is 30.

      • Oh, another example besides the ones I just listed is when the Hellkite Dragon breathes fire and kills me, the fps drops to 10 and everything is slooooow with all the fire particles around. The YOU DIED screen lasts at least 10 seconds.

        • first of all i want to know what your pc spec is ?
          i also doing the same as you two (unlock fps but limite it at 30). no problem with any particle effect. only place that cause game stutter is when i run away (or should i say run like hell) while demon ruin’s boss chasing after me but that only happen when he start follow me not before or after i defeat him (if that really called defeat).

          • My specs are pretty low-end, I think. It’s a laptop I’m using for college.

            Intel Core i5 CPU M480 @ 2.67 GHz
            Nvidia GeForce GT 420M
            4 GB RAM

            So when the demon ruins boss chases you, does it slow down or just get choppy? For me it slows down but Fraps says its like 22 fps.

            Without the FPS unlock it just gets choppy, doesn’t slow down.

  25. Thanks man, i’ll donate after christmas. You processed one of the best rpgs of all time. And I still hope you’ll figure out the problem with the disappearing sun.

    • The sun issue seems like my eternal nemesis. I’ve looked into it again, but I just can’t figure out how to fix it.

  26. Awesomeness! Your dedication to this game and mod goes beyond duty.

    I do however wonder if you’ve given up on fixing the minimal hud bugs?

    • There are just so many separate issues that can cause it to go wrong, each of which would require a lot of effort to fix, that I can’t muster the motivation to do it. I had hoped that someone else would pick up the slack when I released the source, but so far that hasn’t happened.

      • Yeah, I kind of figured that was the case. Thanks for the reply and I agree that it is sad there was no one who could step up. I would if I knew how and I certainly don’t expect you to do anymore than the massive work you have already done.

        • Just be patient, the source is out and someone’ll probably pick at these issues in time. Meanwhile make good use of the HUD-Changes toggle key when needed to properly view Bosses/Co-Op partners’ health bars.

    • The nexus links always seem to take a few minutes to go up, just use the alternative download location until that happens.

Leave a Reply to DAOWAce Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code class="" title="" data-url=""> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong> <pre class="" title="" data-url=""> <span class="" title="" data-url="">