SCSKiller 1.4.4: Linux no longer experimental, Heroic, Lutris and Faugus, Phantom Blade Zero ray tracing and steadier compiles (Patreon)

Thanks to everyone for your support, your reports and your recordings. 1.4.4 is a big update on top of 1.4.3, with more than 180 changes!

Linux support is no longer experimental

With Heroic, Lutris and Faugus Launcher added to Steam, SCSKiller on Linux covers the launchers most Linux players use, also in their Flatpaks, on NVIDIA, AMD and Intel graphics. Get the AppImage from the release page.

The big changes

- On NVIDIA, Phantom Blade Zero compiles its ray tracing the way the game creates it, also with path tracing on, so far fewer stutters remain in play, and the ray tracing part of its compile takes far less time.

- After you play, the next compile creates only what's new and what the game still compiled, instead of every pipeline again.

- Compiles that run short of memory no longer restart again and again from the same point, as Phantom Blade Zero did on 8-16 GB PCs. They go on with one thread and skip a pipeline for that compile only if it still can't get past it.

- When a game update or a changed plan leaves cache the game no longer uses, the app offers to delete it, also the Windows shader cache of earlier versions of Xbox games, so no disk space is wasted.

New

- A Ray tracing only button on the game page compiles only the game's ray tracing pipelines, the rest compiles at its next compile.

- The compile queue has a Check now button that looks for new shaders without waiting for the PC to be idle.

- On Windows, games with OptiScaler installed as d3d12.dll can be recorded with "Record alongside OptiScaler" on, with OptiScaler and its settings left as they are.

- On Windows, SCSKiller finds games installed with WeGame.

- GRYPHLINK games get their own section in the Library, and Black Myth: Wukong Benchmark Tool and other Unreal benchmark tools on Steam are listed and compiled like games.

- Unreal games with several AES keys, such as Fortnite, take one key per line, and the game page shows how many encrypted archives the keys open.

- The Library shows its summary cards again, and a Compact UI switch in Settings brings back the slim layout.

Linux

- Heroic, Lutris and Faugus games are listed, recorded (Vulkan and DirectX) and compiled, Faugus games get a Play button, and one click lets a Flatpak Heroic use SCSKiller's recorder folder.

- Heroic, Lutris and Faugus games on Mesa drivers compile, also inside the launcher's Flatpak, and follow the cache folder the launcher sets.

- A game whose launch options or launcher settings pick a GPU or DirectX or Vulkan compiles that way, and one that sets VKD3D_CONFIG compiles in that mode, so its cache is used.

- Vulkan games no longer skip valid pipelines that use newer SPIR-V features, and a compile never runs on a software renderer.

- Many fixes for Proton prefixes in other libraries, games on their own drive, sandboxes such as bwrap and firejail, and non-Steam games added to Steam.

Compiles

- A compile whose process ends unexpectedly keeps its progress, a pipeline that crashed or hung the driver is skipped, and a compile that ends twice at the same pipeline skips it and goes on.

- On Windows, the Finishing step shows a moving percentage and time left, takes far less time and disk space on NVIDIA when the game's own cache is small, and checks free space on the drive the cache really is on.

- On Windows, compiles use the performance cores of Intel hybrid CPUs, and a compile with many ray tracing pipelines never uses more than 60% of the PC's RAM.

- The Medium compiles about 2% more pipelines from its game files.

- Fortnite's Performance mode compiles its own shaders, and about 9,700 more of its pipelines compile on DirectX 12.

- A failed compile says why on the game page and in a notification, and a compile with nothing left to do says so.

NVIDIA

- Ray tracing skips ray generation shaders at sizes the game never uses.

- More recorded pipelines of games that use NVIDIA's shader extensions compile as the game creates them, and this PC's own ray tracing recordings keep their settings over the community's.

- Games that start NVIDIA Aftermath, such as STAR WARS Galactic Racer, no longer compile their shaders again at first launch.

- Unreal 5.5 and later games with a ray tracing recording compile the rest of their ray tracing shaders.

AMD

- FINAL FANTASY XVI, SILENT HILL f and demos that register their full game's name compile into the cache they read.

- Ray tracing games stay within the driver's cache size, so their cache is no longer trimmed and compiled again after every session.

- Vulkan games fill the cache file the game reads, and some DirectX 11 games, such as Dota 2, no longer show Not compatible after a compile.

Fixed

- Cyberpunk 2077 with Cyber Engine Tweaks starts again with Record on.

- On Windows, Record while I play installs again where an earlier version's recorder settings file blocked it.

- Phantom Blade Zero compiles through RenoDX also with OptiScaler in its Binaries folder, and other players' RenoDX recordings no longer lower its coverage.

- Games that restart themselves through Steam record again, and a game whose exe SCSKiller was told to use keeps recording after it runs another exe.

- Steam, GOG, Epic and hand-added games no longer show VAC by mistake, and a game folder SCSKiller can't fully read counts as unknown instead of anti-cheat.

- Two games with the same exe name, such as Path of Exile and Path of Exile 2, no longer take each other's driver cache files.

- Days Gone and Crimson Desert's large archives index again, and the text size follows Windows' Accessibility setting again.

Full notes, with all 140 changes: https://github.com/BlueHeisenberg/SCSKiller/releases/tag/v1.4.4

Nothing to do: SCSKiller updates itself, or use Check for updates on the About page. On Linux the AppImage updates the same way. New users download it from scskiller.com.

Your community recordings are what make games like Phantom Blade Zero compile their ray tracing: the more of you play with the recorder on, the more of each game compiles for everyone with access.

Thank you for supporting SCSKiller!