GI-on-Linux/TWEAKS.md

Tweaks

This file lists some configuration file tweaks, performance tweaks, visual tweaks, and the likes of making your game (maybe) run better.

Performance tweaks

FPS

• Use the latest DXVK. Under winetricks, this should be dxvk. You can also set the DXVK version to manual on Lutris and just grab it from winetricks, since the version there is grabbed directly from GitHub, and will always be more recent.

• Try Esync. Esync will sometimes work faster than Fsync on some specific game/machine combinations. In my case, this was true. Esync can be enabled under Lutris, or enabled on the terminal with export WINEESYNC=1.

• Disable 'Volumetric Fog' in the game settings. It only gives visuals a very minor boost, and tends to create way too much lag (GPU-bottlenecked).

• Lower 'Shadow Quality' in the game settings. This is one of the options that was most impactful on the frame rate for me (GPU-bottlenecked).

• Try creating the following dxvk.conf file in the (your wineprefix)/drive_c/Program Files/Genshin Impact/Genshin Impact game/ folder, for vsync-less (mailbox mode), tearing-free, low latency gameplay:

   # Change to False on NVIDIA GPUs
   dxgi.nvapiHack = True
   # Change to 3 for triple buffering (improves performance at the cost of latency)
   dxgi.numBackBuffers = 2
   dxgi.syncInterval = 0
   dxgi.tearFree = True
   # More performance
   d3d11.constantBufferRangeCheck = False
   d3d11.relaxedBarriers = True
   d3d11.invariantPosition = False
   d3d11.zeroWorkgroupMemory = False
  

Loading times

• Make Linux's file caching to RAM more aggressive
  • This should reduce loading times for repetitive actions such as re-entering a domain. However, it will not give you the same boost as putting the game on a SSD.
  • Open etc/sysctl.conf with an editor like nano with sudo.
  • Add the line vm.vfs_cache_pressure = 10. Save and exit.
  • Run sudo sysctl -p to reload the kernel configuration.

Visual tweaks

• FPS Counters
  • Set the environment variable DXVK_HUD to fps,frametimes
  • For a fancier display, try MangoHud instead.
• Post Processing
  • Try vkBasalt for cool shaders and re-shade-like features.
  • Personally, I tweaked around with the vkBasalt settings, and got the game looking (subjectively) way better, by disabling in-game antialiasing, and creating the following vkBasalt.conf file in the (your wineprefix)/drive_c/Program Files/Genshin Impact/Genshin Impact game/ folder. This applies a not-so-blurry SMAA and some sharpening:

#effects is a colon seperated list of effect to use
#e.g.: effects = fxaa:cas
#effects will be run in order from left to right
#one effect can be run multiple times e.g. smaa:smaa:cas
#cas    - Contrast Adaptive Sharpening
#dls    - Denoised Luma Sharpening
#fxaa   - Fast Approximate Anti-Aliasing
#smaa   - Enhanced Subpixel Morphological Antialiasing
#lut    - Color LookUp Table

# Note: smaa will make in game text blurry. If you don't mind losing some crispness from the image, remove smaa from here and use the in-game antialiasing. In-game SMAA and TAA are really blurry, so make sure to turn up casSharpness to something like 0.7
effects = cas:smaa

reshadeTexturePath = "/usr/share/reshade/textures"
reshadeIncludePath = "/usr/share/reshade/shaders"
depthCapture = off

#toggleKey toggles the effects on/off
toggleKey = Home

#casSharpness specifies the amount of sharpning in the CAS shader.
#0.0 less sharp, less artefacts, but not off
#1.0 maximum sharp more artefacts
#Everything in between is possible
#negative values sharpen even less, up to -1.0 make a visible difference
casSharpness = 0.3

#dlsSharpness specifies the amount of sharpening in the Denoised Luma Sharpening shader.
#Increase to sharpen details within the image.
#0.0 less sharp, less artefacts, but not off
#1.0 maximum sharp more artefacts
dlsSharpness = 0.2

#dlsDenoise specifies the amount of denoising in the Denoised Luma Sharpening shader.
#Increase to limit how intensely film grain within the image gets sharpened.
#0.0 min
#1.0 max
dlsDenoise = 0.2

#fxaaQualitySubpix can effect sharpness.
#1.00 - upper limit (softer)
#0.75 - default amount of filtering
#0.50 - lower limit (sharper, less sub-pixel aliasing removal)
#0.25 - almost off
#0.00 - completely off
fxaaQualitySubpix = 0.75

#fxaaQualityEdgeThreshold is the minimum amount of local contrast required to apply algorithm.
#0.333 - too little (faster)
#0.250 - low quality
#0.166 - default
#0.125 - high quality 
#0.063 - overkill (slower)
fxaaQualityEdgeThreshold = 0.125

#fxaaQualityEdgeThresholdMin trims the algorithm from processing darks.
#0.0833 - upper limit (default, the start of visible unfiltered edges)
#0.0625 - high quality (faster)
#0.0312 - visible limit (slower)
#Special notes: due to the current implementation you
#Likely want to set this to zero.
#As colors that are mostly not-green
#will appear very dark in the green channel!
#Tune by looking at mostly non-green content,
#then start at zero and increase until aliasing is a problem.
fxaaQualityEdgeThresholdMin = 0.0312

#smaaEdgeDetection changes the edge detection shader
#luma  - default
#color - might catch more edges, but is more expensive
smaaEdgeDetection = luma

#smaaThreshold specifies the threshold or sensitivity to edges
#Lowering this value you will be able to detect more edges at the expense of performance.
#Range: [0, 0.5]
#0.1 is a reasonable value, and allows to catch most visible edges.
#0.05 is a rather overkill value, that allows to catch 'em all.
smaaThreshold = 0.2

#smaaMaxSearchSteps specifies the maximum steps performed in the horizontal/vertical pattern searches
#Range: [0, 112]
#4  - low
#8  - medium
#16 - high
#32 - ultra
smaaMaxSearchSteps = 8

#smaaMaxSearchStepsDiag specifies the maximum steps performed in the diagonal pattern searches
#Range: [0, 20]
#0  - low, medium
#8  - high
#16 - ultra
smaaMaxSearchStepsDiag = 6

#smaaCornerRounding specifies how much sharp corners will be rounded
#Range: [0, 100]
#25 is a reasonable value
smaaCornerRounding = 80

#lutFile is the path to the LUT file that will be used
#supported are .CUBE files and .png with width == height * height
lutFile = "/path/to/lut"