Fullscreen Optimisations are not enabled for Darktide (fix included)

[Vizra]

Issue Description (Required):

In my pursuit of trying to fix my AMD GPU performance issues I believe I have found a reason why the game performance so poorly outside of exclusive fullscreen for some people (RIP KING). The game is not benefiting from Fullscreen Optimizations. To the FatShark Developers, I have provided what I believe to be proof that this is the case (as well as anecdotal performance improvements as well).

This is separate to texture and mesh streaming issues that I have been investigating and testing that MANY people have benefited from performance wise (my other post here - I fixed stutter and textures not loading in! (Texutre streaming config file change) )

What to change

Under the file win32_settings.ini (Found under | C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Warhammer 40,000 DARKTIDE\bundle\application_settings) change the following value called ‘fullscreen’ from false to true:

renderer = {
	adapter_index = 0
	aspect_ratio = -1
	d3d_debug = false
	d3d_gpu_validation = false
	dlss_logging = 0
	dred_pagefault = true
	fullscreen = true
	fullscreen_output = 0
	gpu_crash_dumps = false
	ray_tracing = true
	screen_resolution = [ 1920 1080]
}

DONT FORGET TO SAVE YOUR CHANGES!

For me this has smoothed out my game even more and I believe to be some sort of flag to enable full screen optimizations.

Proof

For proof this allows the Darktide.exe window to be run with fullscreen optimisations, further down in this same file there is an entry called ‘window_name’. You can change this to be whatever you want and the WINDOW RUNNING DARKTIDE will take on that name (see attached image. Spoiler… The game window now has a funny name).

Fatshark, I believe that changing this one value should help smooth out performance with change of 5 letters. Please do some testing on your end.

Attempted Solutions (Optional):

Under the file win32_settings.ini (found at | C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Warhammer 40,000 DARKTIDE\bundle\application_settings) change the following value for fullscreen from false to true

renderer = {
	adapter_index = 0
	aspect_ratio = -1
	d3d_debug = false
	d3d_gpu_validation = false
	dlss_logging = 0
	dred_pagefault = true
	fullscreen = true
	fullscreen_output = 0
	gpu_crash_dumps = false
	ray_tracing = true
	screen_resolution = [ 1920 1080]
}

Platform (Required):

PC - Steam

[PC] PC Specifications (Optional):

7900xtx
9800x3D

Upload Supporting Evidence (Optional):

[Brad9191]

Yep it worked alright. No more stutters when I shoot or if lots of action is occurring.

[Syrax]

Fatshark did some changes regarding fullscreen a couple of updates ago. Specifically this: Hotfix #51 (1.5.4) - Patch Notes

Now, I assume that since they removed exclusive fullscreen you’re referring to the fullscreen we have now which is borderless fullscreen basically, correct? Also doesn’t borderless basically count as “windowed”? - in which case it wouldn’t benefit from fullscreen optimizations anyway? Sorry if that’s a dumb question, I’m kinda confused.

[Vizra]

Im glad im not going crazy. I have spent that last 5 weeks and 50% of my spare time looking into all this stuff, reading engine documentation and this one has finally solved my problems with weird framerates

@Axloss @FatsharkJulia

Potential for the team to look into this? It take about 3 seconds to do and the performance impact for my was staggering.

[Vizra]

Yep…

Essentially when Exclusive Fullscreen was removed, it forced everyone to use the Fullscreen Windowed, but because of that config file being false, it wasn’t fullscreen windowed, or at least it didn’t register as that. It seems to be treated as windowed fullscreen.

Sounds the same but very different in how the OS treats it.

[Brad9191]

I have a RTX 4090, but it still worked & that’s all that matters. I was like ohh no… Not this again. It’s just really bothersome having to keep going into text files & changing this every time they do an update like this.

[Vizra]

Yep,

I just hope all these changes i’ve figured out get implented into the base game.

This game is magic when it works, but it just doesn’t run well and i think i’ve gotten to the bottom of most of it

[Brad9191]

I love how this post is completely ignored that solves a real issue with the current updates lol.

[Vizra]

Look man.

I don’t blame them. I’ve been posting, updating my findings, and @ing the team A LOT.

And some of what I said was a thing turned out to be wrong or a red herring. I’ve since redacted what I’ve said and provided an update that was acknowledged and passed to the team by Axlos.

I imagine with how crazy and unstructured some of my communications have been they are kinda just read and move on.

That’s on my part for providing information that wasnt tested properly causing mixed messages and backtracks.

I’ve since come to a final conclusion with texture and mesh streaming and now with this full screen optimisations but my process was not very well structured.

So I’ve only got myself to blame for that lol.

That being said. I can confirm through testing with the community that my findings are true, and my recommendations / fixes are sound now. And my messaging around full screen optimisations was done more clearly, with a one and done post with no redactions.

The only question I have left to answer is what is the minimum spec that these fixes work for? So far 8gb VRAM graphics cards seem to be working fine. But I haven’t heard about anything lower than that.

[Brad9191]

I get why they would ignore it, but it really is a practical solution to a problem they always create after updates… I can confirm that on my end at least. Ever since there’s been 0 issues. I’m pretty hardcore at the game myself. I’ve had a few friends I told this too & it’s fixed there’s as well. Underrated post here… All I’m saying.

[Riku]

they are on break don’t expect anything happening until january

[Brad9191]

Yes, I realize this. I mean just in general they ignore these kinds of posts. Because in the past, I’ve made a few technical ‘fix it’ posts that helped people & it was just buried.

[Axloss]

this variable only sets the default value if the window should be in fullscreen or not.

you have the same setting in user config and im fairly certain they do the same thing.

What might be required for fullscreen optimization is that the resolution and window matches the display. And I assume we try to do that when fullscreen is true, regardless if it’s exclusive fullscreen or borderless fullscreen.

[Murderer]

Between this and the texture streaming thing my 60 fps finally actually feels like 60 fps. Insane the difference it made. Thank you for your efforts, OP

[Vizra]

I assumed that this was overridden but upon testing I noticed MUCH smoother expereince when playing, and this has been echoed by other users as well.

The only reason I changed this is that I was trying to restore exclusive full screen. But when I turned it on, even though I didn’t get it back, I noticed my game running noticably better.

Could this have something to do with the resolution setting further below then? For me it is set to 1080p by default even though I have a 1440p monitor.

I’m convinced something is going on here as I’ve flipped this full screen option false to true many times and the results have been very noticable

[Vizra]

My pleasure, I can also now play this game without it feeling like a stuttery mess

[Vykosian]

Just tried this. Ran a HIST with the inferno staff.

4K, 4080 Super, 9800x3d. All settings at max, including silly stuff like Raytracing and ragolls set to 50.

The game has NEVER run this smooth. I didn’t dip below 100 FPS the entire time and it was INCREDIBLY smooth. The game has never run this well for me.

As a side note, I know you’ve been pulling your hair out the past few months over the performance issues in this game. I just wanted to thank you for all you’ve discovered and all the tweaks you’ve discovered.

They’ve truly made the game run much much much better.

[Vizra]

You’re welcome man. Its actually insane how much of a difference this has made for me. This fullscreen thing was the final thing for me. Now my game runs instead of limps.

Feels good to see everyone benefit from it. Because documenting my findings and sanity checking myself takes A VERY LONG TIME lol.