Thank you, and SCSKiller 1.3.0-alpha.1 comes out tomorrow (Patreon)

Hi everyone,

First of all, thank you. Your support pays for the server and the community shader database, and for the hours behind every release. It's the reason SCSKiller keeps moving as fast as it does.

I also owe you an explanation. Until now, every version went straight to stable. That was on purpose: before starting the big feature release, I wanted a solid version that just works for everyone. Because of that, the alpha and beta builds promised in your tiers haven't happened yet. If you joined for early access and felt you missed out, I'm sorry.

That changes now. SCSKiller 1.3.0-alpha.1, the first alpha of 1.3.0, comes out tomorrow. It's the biggest update SCSKiller has had so far. More alphas will follow. Once we've confirmed in alpha that everything works, 1.3.0 moves to beta, and then to stable.

🧠 GAME SUPPORT FROM THE SERVER, WITH NO APP UPDATE NEEDED

The planning rules decide what SCSKiller compiles for each engine, and they now come from the SCSKiller server. If a game runs on an engine SCSKiller can already read (Unreal Engine games, for example), I can add or fix its support from the server without a new app release. The rules are signed, so the app only accepts rules that come from SCSKiller. Alpha and beta supporters get new rules first.

🎬 BEFORE AND AFTER, RECORDED IN THE APP (coming in a later 1.3.0 alpha)

1. Play a few minutes with the shader cache cleared.

2. Let SCSKiller compile the game's shaders.

3. Play the same section again.

The app then shows you the difference: shader stutters, how many pipelines were ready from the cache, and your worst stutter, with a frame time graph for each run. You can save the result as an image to post on X, Reddit or Discord, or keep it for yourself. Nothing leaves your PC unless you share it.

✅ NEW, COMING IN 1.3.0-ALPHA.1

• Official recordings: recordings for the most popular games, added to the community database and ready to download.

• New games:

– Source 2 games like Counter-Strike 2 (DirectX 11, no recording needed)

– The Last of Us Part I and UNCHARTED: Legacy of Thieves Collection (after a recording)

– Ghost of Tsushima DIRECTOR'S CUT and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (after a recording)

– God of War Ragnarök (no recording needed on NVIDIA) and God of War (2018)

– GTA V Enhanced, Resident Evil Village and PRAGMATA: no recording needed on NVIDIA

• AMD: DirectX 11 games now compile on AMD too.

• Frame times with frame generation on (FSR 3): the graph shows the frames the game actually rendered.

• Fewer pipelines rejected by the driver: Returnal, and games whose shaders carry their own root signatures.

• Games that don't have shader stutter show "No shader stutter", starting with STAR WARS: Galactic Racer.

• Mods: ReShade and HDR mods like RenoDX are detected and shown in the Library.

• Automatic re-planning: when a new community recording arrives for a game you already compiled, SCSKiller re-plans it while your PC is idle.

• A notifications bell for news, and a "What's new" after every update.

• Fixed: Xbox app Unreal games that start through a launcher (Hellblade II, Avowed) now record.

• Diagnostics: optional and off by default. They help me fix failed compiles and send only error codes and pipeline hashes.

🛠️ COMING AFTER 1.3.0-ALPHA.1

Most of these are things you asked for on Discord. This list isn't final: some items may arrive sooner than expected, and others may slip to a later version.

• Before and after (above).

• Auto-recompile when new pipelines are found: set it once for all games and change it per game. It never runs while you're playing.

• DirectX 11 / 12 choice per game, for games where SCSKiller picks the wrong one (7 Days to Die, Grounded, Evil West, Ghostrunner and others).

• Library:

– sort by name or size

– a "Compiled by SCSKiller" filter and a filter by status

– add your own game folders

– rename games you added by hand

• Cache management:

– one page for all your shader caches

– clean up the caches of uninstalled games

– free the space old NVIDIA driver caches still take

– a cache limit in GB

– move caches off C:

• Frame-time history: keep more than your last session for each game.

• Smarter Maximum mode:

– per-game suggestions when it helps

– when new pipelines arrive, only those get compiled instead of the whole game again

• Cyberpunk 2077: the recorder fix.

• Light / dark theme setting.

• More games, including Dragon's Dogma 2 and The Last of Us Part II.

🔭 WHAT I'M LOOKING INTO AFTER 1.3.0

• Unreal Engine 3 classics (the Batman Arkham series, BioShock)

• Death Stranding

• Red Dead Redemption 2

• Forza Horizon 6

• A public supported-games list where you can vote on the games that run flawlessly

It's an alpha, so expect some rough edges. Please report anything odd on Discord; that's exactly what this phase is for. I'll post the download here as soon as it's live.

Thanks again for being here from the start. ❤️