v0.3.13

[valentderah]

AMD GPU? Get more FPS with one setting

Add to totk.ini next to totk.exe:

[performance]
vk_recorder = 1

Please report your GPU, driver and FPS with 0 and 1 in the comments or an issue, even if it just works: with enough good reports it becomes the default on AMD. Black screen or VK_ERROR_DEVICE_LOST? Set it back to 0 and attach logs\totk.log.

To update, run the new installer on your existing install folder. It keeps your game files, saves and totk.ini, and rebuilds totk.exe and the shaders.

Warning

DLSS and the Linux build are tested by the community. I don't have the hardware to test them myself.

Fixes

• Fewer VK_ERROR_DEVICE_LOST crashes (Crash ([host] fatal: memory commit) #788, Random crash with VK_ERROR_DEVICE_LOST ("device fault: write invalid") on RTX 4050 Laptop, v0.3.10 #802). While one game thread recorded GPU commands, another could free a texture those commands used, and its memory went away before the GPU read it: "write invalid" device faults, reported mostly on NVIDIA. Every freed object now waits until the commands being recorded have run.
• The same fix for memory pools and texture records. Memory pools the game frees, and the port's own records of textures, also waited only for commands already sent to the GPU. This matters most on integrated graphics (Intel, AMD APUs), where the GPU works straight from the game's memory. Neither crash reproduces on my machines, so I can't prove these are the crashes you get. If you still see VK_ERROR_DEVICE_LOST, please attach logs\totk.log: it now names the object that held the faulting address.
• Intel: no more crash at start in igvk64.dll (Crash on startup in Intel Vulkan driver (igvk64.dll) — 100% reproducible on 0.3.7, worked on 0.3.1 #681). Pipeline builds no longer run while the pipeline cache is copied for saving, which crashed Intel's driver.
• Installing over an older version rebuilds what changed (Compiling totk.exe fails on v0.3.11 #795). The release files all carry the same old date, so an update over an existing Setup folder could keep stale objects and fail with an undefined symbol, or keep the old totk.exe. The installer now compares file contents, not dates.
• Overlapping uniform updates land in order. Two updates that overlapped in part could leave the older values where they overlap.
• Mouse in menus (Mouse in menu sorting bug #905, Mouse side buttons bugged in pause menu/purah pad #908). T is now a second default key for Y, so you can sort the inventory with keyboard and mouse (the left mouse button is A while the menu pointer is shown). The middle and side mouse buttons keep their bindings in menus, so side buttons bound to L and R switch tabs. A bind_ line in totk.ini now also takes its key away from other buttons' defaults: with bind_X = key:t, T presses X only.
• The camera returns to its normal distance after aiming in direct mouse mode.
• Xbox prompts: the action button diamond matches an Xbox pad. With Xbox button labels, A now sits at the bottom and B on the right, as on the pad.

Performance

• Shorter hitches when entering a new area. Textures are converted from the Switch's tiled layout on the GPU instead of the CPU. In a test fight the longest loading frame dropped from 145 to about 80 ms; average FPS is unchanged.
• Fewer commands per draw. A draw records only the dynamic states that changed: 8.5% shorter frames on an RTX 4070 Ti on the Great Sky Island.
• Fewer full GPU barriers. Uniform updates between render passes are batched like those inside a pass.

Other

• Crash reports name the driver code. When the game crashes inside a GPU driver, logs\totk.log now lists the driver module with the offset and the C++ exception type, so crashes like Game crashes when a cutscene ends #285 can be traced.
• The speaker setting is translated into Brazilian Portuguese and Simplified Chinese.
• DLSS loads through the platform layer, on Windows and Linux alike.

Thanks

Thanks to ApereLieZ for the dynamic state and uniform update work, itaskaev2 for the Intel start-up fix and the DLSS loader, null15564 for the camera fix, ikeracevedo2002 for the Xbox prompt layout, and BigMeltoni, Liv3ry, NOOBTW00, ctysix, Forest-Boy and LeandroSTAR for the reports behind the fixes here.

Full Changelog: v0.3.12...v0.3.13

---

This discussion was created from the release v0.3.13.

[valentderah]

The next release won't be out for another 2–3 days. I'm feeling a little tired, but most of the critical bugs have already been fixed.

[Revanov]

Thanks for everything, can't wait for feature updates like performance optimization, high rez haptics and dualsense prompts to come now that bugs are squashed.

[Y0ggs0th0th]

Thank you for your incredible work, rest well and take time for yourself, your health, both physical and mental, is more important than decompiling a game!
Thanks again.

[wwwjiaoyuan]

Thank you for your excellent work. Have a good rest

[wowo267]

辛苦了

[leonardoribeirobiden]

totk.log
I tested it on the ROG Ally X, and it still has the same crashing issue during loading—right after the opening scene where the Master Sword becomes corrupted while Zelda and Link are present.

[Aun1x]

We'll be getting performance upgrades on the next updates? 😃

[Davehomeoffice]

I'm see something black shaders upon rotating camera in specific places, i don't say if this is a personal problem or other things, by the way, until the next update, have a good rest

[kirbyinmykup]

This bug still occurs on both my 6GB and 8GB GPU. Half of the screen flickers in almost any location in Hyrule, and it feels like it triggers whenever I am moving or panning the camera. hopefully he can fix this soon.

[Davehomeoffice]

I have 16GB so this is not my case, to be more specific, recently this happening in a temple of time i was push down in a determinate angle the analogic the most part of shaders of the objects in screen change to black.

[Revanov]

I got it alot less when using DLSS quality. DLAA has it alot more and also get black screen when looking at the sky sometimes.

[gavin364]

Take a good rest. You’ve done great work

[Edsonjr9]

With vk_recorder = 1

With vk_recorder = 0

CPU: ( I7 13700T )
GPU: ( RX 6750XT 12GB )
Driver: ( Adrenalin 26.10.2 )

[Pelipooper]

RX 6700 XT (Adrenalin 26.10.1), Ryzen 5 3600, 1440p with FSR, on 0.3.13

Tested in Lookout Landing:

• vk_recorder = 0: around 47-48 fps, with lots of little stutters
• vk_recorder = 1: around 57 fps, much smoother

No crashes with it on so far on 0.3.12 / 0.3.13. On older versions (0.3.4) I did get the odd device lost with it, so that seems fixed for me.

Tip for other RX 6000 people: my GPU kept downclocking in busy areas. With the AMD performance overlay turned on (Ctrl+Shift+O), it stays clocked up, and I went from ~52 to ~63 fps in the busy part of Lookout Landing. With a 60 cap it's basically a locked 60 now.

I used Claude to automate the testing runs and check the logs and numbers.

[LatteDream]

For some reason, DLSS doesnt seem to work for me... I try turning DLAA on, restarting, and it looks the same, with identical fps. Not even the DLSS indicators are working.

The nvngx_dlss.dll file is in there, is there a way to make it work?

[LatteDream]

I got you bro #930 (comment)

Thanks, man. I actually saw your guide before, but for some reason it didnt worked for me. I have DLAA on, like i show here.

And i have the NVIDIA App configured as well.

But idk why it still refuses to work.

[Revanov]

when you said it doesn't work, you mean regarding to performance?

[LatteDream]

when you said it doesn't work, you mean regarding to performance?

I meant the visuals. The game runs pretty smoothly already, but they look exactly the same when turning DLAA on or off. But, if i use DLSS instead, i notice that the resolution drops, but only that. The game just looks worse and DLSS refuses to start.

[Revanov]

@LatteDream What's your system spec and driver version?

Also, try taking screen shots of stairs from far away with dlaa on and off then compare them side by side, sometimes it may not be so obvious.

[LatteDream]

@LatteDream What's your system spec and driver version?

Also, try taking screen shots of stairs from far away with dlaa on and off then compare them side by side, sometimes it may not be so obvious.

I had version 621.01 drivers, so i updated them to the newer 621.14 drivers and now DLAA finally works! Thanks, man.

And here are my specs: AMD Ryzen 5 7500F, RTX 5070 and 32GB DDR5 RAM. Just in case, haha.

[kulzzer23]

Not bad performance boost on steam deck. Some locations can even hold 50-60. I don’t know if it can be done even better, but the result is there and it’s not bad.

[MokoGuy]

AMD vk_recorder A/B feedback — RX 9070 XT and Steam Deck OLED

Local results for v0.3.13 (0.3.13+ae30a61), game 1.4.3, in response to the AMD testing request. No mods or cheats. I used an AI assistant for the local test automation and log analysis; the figures below come from runs on my own machines.

Hardware:

• PC: Ryzen 7 3800X + RX 9070 XT, Windows driver 32.0.31044.16, Vulkan driver 26.10.44 (LLPC). Native Windows launch, 1920x1080 output, game-default render scale.
• Deck OLED / Galileo: SteamOS 3.9.5, kernel 7.2.7-valve2, RADV VANGOGH / Mesa 26.2.0-devel (git-5c65d4fc31). Native Linux through Steam, 1280x800 output / 1067x667 scene, AC connected at the start. Game capped at 40 FPS; Steam at 90 FPS / 90 Hz, FIFO, VRR off.

Comparison	Recorder 0: mean FPS	Recorder 1: mean FPS	Result
PC, 60 FPS cap	~60.00	~60.00	Both reach the cap
PC, 120 FPS cap	96.83	105.51	~+8.97% in this scene
Deck, 40 FPS cap	39.89	40.00	Near the cap; no convincing gain

All measured runs completed, with no fatal or VK_ERROR_DEVICE_LOST in the game logs. Recorder-on messages were present for 1. The Deck kernel logs examined had no GPU reset, ring timeout or OOM.

The PC result suggests a useful gain on this setup, but not a general +9% claim for all gameplay. The Deck comparison mainly supports stability at the selected cap.

Protocol, individual runs, lows and limitations

For each comparison: two 120-second warmups, followed by four 300-second observations in 0 / 1 / 1 / 0 order. Each run used an independent copy of the same starting save. TOTK_VK_RECORDER=0 or 1 was the only changed setting within a comparison; the 120 FPS test explicitly kept realtime=1 and highfps_fix=1 for both variants.

The logged starting world position was x=558.3, y=1548.5, z=1615.3 in both the PC 120 FPS and accepted Deck runs. This was a scripted save load and camera pan followed by mostly stationary observation, not an exploration/combat session.

I excluded the first complete 60-second frame-time window from each measured run, leaving six complete windows / 360 seconds per setting. Mean FPS is weighted by frames/duration. These are the game's reported windows, not an independent per-frame capture.

Comparison	1% low range, recorder 0	1% low range, recorder 1	Frames >50 ms, 0 / 1	Frames >100 ms, 0 / 1
PC, 60 FPS cap	51.9-52.6	51.9-53.3	0 / 0	0 / 0
PC, 120 FPS cap	69.0-78.4	69.0-85.1	0 / 0	0 / 0
Deck, 40 FPS cap	30.1-31.7	30.5-32.0	0 / 2	0 / 0

The lows are ranges of individual per-window lows, not an aggregate 1% low. Hitch counts cover only retained windows, not loading/warmup.

PC 120 FPS run means, in order: 94.59 (0), 103.24 (1), 107.78 (1), 99.07 (0). There is variation between runs and only two measured repetitions per setting.

On the Deck I corrected a user-configured Steam 30 FPS limit and confirmed visible gameplay before the accepted comparison. Earlier unvalidated launches/probes were excluded; accepted measured runs show an 11.11 ms WSI refresh cycle.

I did not visually validate every measured run or assess every graphics/gameplay behavior. No power-efficiency claim: the available Deck readings were too noisy. Save profiles and configuration were hash-verified unchanged by the A/Bs. I subsequently chose recorder 1 for normal use on both devices.

Raw per-window summaries and logs are retained locally if more diagnostic detail is useful; no game files, builds, keys, firmware, shader caches or save profiles are included in this comment.

[Cbutters2000]

My only critique of this testing methodology is that you are capping the Steam Deck framerate to 40FPS, changing the parameter, then calling the parameter change ineffective because it doesn't increase performance; but you capped the frame-rate anyways and it was already operating near the cap. To call the change ineffectual; Well of course there was no gain; there is nowhere for it to go. This tells us very little about how the parameter change actually affects performance.

[sztbk6rpgk-prog]

I'm having an issue with the game for the first time, and it only started after the latest 0.3.13 update. It seems like my GPU is being bottlenecked. I used to get 60+ FPS, but now it drops to around 30 FPS and sometimes even 15 FPS. My APU, GPU, and CPU usage also don't seem to reach their full potential. The game was running smoothly before this update. Does anyone know what could be causing this?

[Red3steps]

Hello, thank you very much for the updates.
Just wanted to point a few things to try to help (i5 11600k and RTX 5080 ; Resolution 2560x1440 ; everything else on default ; ver0.3.13) :

• The shadows are flickering when moving Link or the camera, no matter the resolution
• The sky islands have this sort of weird outlines when i upscale the resolution to 2K, it disappears when I return to default 1080p
  (I remember the solution was to upscale the resolution through NX Optimizer and not the emulator itself. Not sure how you will manage that here...)
• When DLSS Quality is ON, the image gets blurry/shaky, not as bad as in previous versions but still there and makes the option not usable

My game runs really well without DLSS and with the FXAA On though, but maybe SMAA would look better ?

Ty again for your work and good luck.

[zuloykt]

The shadows are flickering when moving Link or the camera, no matter the resolution

Попробуй увеличить размер карты теней 1024+

[albertomarelli96-sudo]

Hi Valentderah,

First of all, I want to say that you've done an absolutely fantastic job. The results are clearly visible, and the improvement is really impressive. I'd like to share my experience with you.

I'm playing on a Lenovo Legion Go with a Z1 Extreme, and the game runs exceptionally well. In Balanced mode, I'm getting around 45–60 FPS in almost every scenario, at 1080p upscaled from 900p, without much trouble.

Unfortunately, the latest update has introduced some serious performance issues for me. I start off with a stable 45–60 FPS, but as I progress through the game, the frame rate gradually starts dropping lower and lower until it eventually becomes completely unplayable. I'm talking about just 3–5 FPS.

I honestly have no idea why this is happening. I was thinking about rolling back to a previous version or reinstalling the entire package from scratch to check whether something went wrong during installation or if there's another underlying issue. I haven't managed to do that yet, but I'll let you know if I find anything.

If it turns out that the issue isn't on my end, I hope you'll come across this comment and look into fixing this problem in your latest release.

One last suggestion: I'd also recommend taking a closer look at CPU performance. You've done an outstanding job optimizing GPU performance, but the CPU side still seems to struggle quite a bit. In my case, the CPU is clearly the bottleneck.

Thanks again for all your hard work. I really appreciate it, and I'm looking forward to future updates!

[jv092303-cyber]

Also having the same issue with the legion go 2 z2e it starts off fine, then as I explore it starts dropping until it is at 15 or lower fps just from 5 min of gameplay
The Val recorder does improve fps but the issue still remains where fps drops gradually and never recovers.

[albertomarelli96-sudo]

Hi Valentderah,

First of all, I want to say that you've done an absolutely fantastic job. The results are clearly visible, and the improvement is really impressive. I'd like to share my experience with you.

I'm playing on a Lenovo Legion Go with a Z1 Extreme, and the game runs exceptionally well. In Balanced mode, I'm getting around 45–60 FPS in almost every scenario, at 1080p upscaled from 900p, without much trouble.

Unfortunately, the latest update has introduced some serious performance issues for me. I start off with a stable 45–60 FPS, but as I progress through the game, the frame rate gradually starts dropping lower and lower until it eventually becomes completely unplayable. I'm talking about just 3–5 FPS.

I honestly have no idea why this is happening. I was thinking about rolling back to a previous version or reinstalling the entire package from scratch to check whether something went wrong during installation or if there's another underlying issue. I haven't managed to do that yet, but I'll let you know if I find anything.

If it turns out that the issue isn't on my end, I hope you'll come across this comment and look into fixing this problem in your latest release.

One last suggestion: I'd also recommend taking a closer look at CPU performance. You've done an outstanding job optimizing GPU performance, but the CPU side still seems to struggle quite a bit. In my case, the CPU is clearly the bottleneck.

Thanks again for all your hard work. I really appreciate it, and I'm looking forward to future updates!

I tried a clean reinstallation (deleting all files) of version 0.3.13, but there was no improvement.
I then tried installing the previous version I had been using (0.3.10), and that version works perfectly—my 45–60 fps are back (it struggles to go above 60 fps due to a CPU bottleneck). It seems there is some setting or an issue within version 0.3.13 that my Legion Go doesn't handle well.
I have an external graphics card (3070ti) that I could connect to test with version 0.3.13 and see if the same problem persists; let me know if I should do this and if it would be helpful.
Thanks again for your work!

[echidna5445]

i dont know if its just me, but for some reason my autobuilds dont appear whenever i make one ? its just blank, and whenever i click on it nothing happens.

[brok3ncircuit]

This pc recomp work perfectly for me. I've use emulator in the past and can't even finish the sky island tutorial due to shader compilation stutter, but with this, there is almost no stutter at all.

I have play for nearly 20+ hour and everything work just fine at 1080p 60fps default setting with cpu and gpu only use around 40%. In fact, even with v0.3.4, it already run great, upgrading to v0.3.13 doesn't seem to change much.

The only issue is when turning DLSS, there will be a screen jitter and it quite noticable even on v0.3.13. I just turn dlss off since i don't really need it, but it worth mentioning.

Btw, for context, my pc spec are as follow:
Intel i5-10400f
RTX 3060 ti 8gb
32gb ddr4 ram
Win10

Again, thanks for this impressive port.

[Taoufiq66666]

the gpu on my rog ally z1 extreme is on 100% and the cpu is 20-29% sometimes the cutscence stutter and i se that the reason is the gpu underload