DirectX 12 on Sandstorm - potential FPS increase

[peglegswansoon]

I saw this in the Steam guides. Set the launch option "-dx12" for Sandstorm in Steam. It allows you to use DirectX 12 if your graphics hardware supports it. I got a fairly substantial FPS increase of around 25-30%! At first there was some more stuttering than usual, but this went away after a minute or so.

As it mentions in the post, you need to use Fullscreen mode and make sure the Resolution is the same as your Windows desktop setting. This means for example if you have a 4K monitor but play the game in 1080p for better performance, you need to set the game to 4K and reduce the Resolution Scale to compensate.

Texture Streaming Pool - I normally had this set to "Off", but in DX12 the textures wouldn't load at all! I had to set it to "High" instead.

Drop a reply if you try it out, let us know how it goes!

[Spawnsy]

Ooh! Good shout! I'll have a look at that.

[Hairy Frog]

If the improvement from 11 to 12 is the same as what it was from 10 to 11, it must be something ....

[peglegswansoon]

After trying this for a few rounds tonight, unfortunately I had some issues. At first everything was fine, but when the map changed parts of the HUD started glitching - the ammo counter and tactical minimap became distorted, so did compass indicators. Eventually I started seeing weird texture bugs too. Textures far away from me gained a blue/green tinge. Other textures started flickering black. I restarted the game once I saw more flickering in the skybox... After that it was fine for a map! The FPS improvement was still solid throughout. I'll stick with it for now.

Minimap bug

[Hairy Frog]

Game features probably ..... NWI can do that

DX12 isn't so old, and converting an older game is probbaly more dificult than building a new one. The devs yet have to master it

[peglegswansoon]

As of the latest patch, can report that I'm still getting the same FPS increase - particularly with Dynamic Shadows enabled, on DX11 these would tank my performance but now they work well. Gives you a little advance warning when someone is trying to sneak around the corner
Also the weird graphical glitches that appeared after changing map have now gone away! Would definitely recommend giving this a try now.

As an aside, unfortunately it does not seem to prevent the new stuttering/lag bug that was introduced in the latest patch.

[peglegswansoon]

Quick note about this - I had a Steam client update recently which seems to have cleared my launch options for Sandstorm. Would recommend to anyone else who starts getting low FPS to check the same hasn't happened to you.