PROTOTYPE ™ missing shadows and weak other graphical effects

[Mrblubb]

When using dxvk shadows, bloom and other graphical effects are missing/weakened/not rendered correctly

Software information

PROTOTYPE PC Max settings with emoose patch

System information

• GPU: GTX 1060 6GB stock
• CPU: FX 8350 stock
• Driver: 546.17
• Windows: Win 10 x64
• DXVK version: 2.3.1

Apitrace file(s)

https://we.tl/t-Bu8NKoCMzb

Log files

prototypef_d3d9.log

[K0bin]

This might just be a game bug:
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Prototype#No_shadows_with_AMD.2FATI_graphics_cards

[WinterSnowfall]

@Mrblubb Out of curiosity, does dxgi.nvapiHack = False do anything for the missing shadows?

Edit: My bad, this is d3d9 game, so it wouldn't do anything anyway.

[Mrblubb]

That happens on AMD cards and the fix provided in that makes shadows and some effects pixelated and not exactly accurate. With dxvk on nvidia it should render everything correctly

[K0bin]

Works fine when replaying the apitrace.

[Mrblubb]

@Mrblubb Out of curiosity, does dxgi.nvapiHack = False do anything for the missing shadows?

didn't tried it I'll try
Edit: Tried enabling it but it's same. I think there's something else causing this.

[Mrblubb]

@K0bin that's good! anyway it could render that way with only dxvk ?

[K0bin]

No, it's probably something that's baked into the apitrace.

[Mrblubb]

Oh ok. Just tried with dgvoodoo and everything is rendered correctly there. But performance is not so good as dxvk

[Blisto91]

Does it look correct if you create a file called dxvk.conf next to the games exe and insert d3d9.supportDFFormats = False

[Mrblubb]

Does it look correct if you create a file called dxvk.conf next to the games exe and insert d3d9.supportDFFormats = False

I'll try.

[Mrblubb]

OMG! Absolutely Fantastic. Shadows work perfectly now. Bloom as well. I'm not sure about smoke though, as it still looks better in native d3d9. But finally the game runs perfect locked 60fps without any dips. It's incredible on PC. Thanks a lot guys 😄

[Blisto91]

Can you can get a couple of screenshots that better show the smoke difference between d3d9 and dxvk

[Mrblubb]

Can you can get a couple of screenshots that better show the smoke difference between d3d9 and dxvk

Ok I'll make a good comparison.

[Mrblubb]

Alright, its hard to get perfect one to one comparison given the scene is dynamic every time. So the density and transparency depends on it. I tried and got a close shot though

[Mrblubb]

A video comparison.

Prototype.2024.05.18.-.19.38.04.02.online-video-cutter.com._2.mp4

D3d9

vlc.mp4

[Blisto91]

I am not completely sure what i should look at as i am not sure i see a difference.
You could try to get a apitrace of just the smoke.

Or see if d3d9.floatEmulation = Strict makes a difference

[Mrblubb]

Ok I'll try it & yeah it's pretty hard to notice sometimes. Smoke actually flickers when using mouse or pop-in pop-out or doesn't fade correctly. Hopefully this will fix it.

[K0bin]

I honestly don't see problem in the DXVK video clip.

[WinterSnowfall]

@Mrblubb The shadows should work fine with Nvidia on latest master now (in line with native drivers), without having to mess with any config options. To fix this on AMD and potentially also Intel, we'd still need a config option for the game though. I'll leave that to @Blisto91, since he has the game.

[Mrblubb]

Wonderful! Thanks a million @WinterSnowfall @K0bin @Blisto91 & everyone in the team. The game is looking and performing better than ever. And yeah about the smoke quality I played some scenarios multiple times and it seems smoke pop-in with mouse moving is vanilla issue so its fine for now, if only I could find any other perceivable difference further.
Cheers guys! 😁

[Blisto91]

Thank you for a well made issue report.