This build isn't code-signed yet, so the first run will probably show SmartScreen's "Windows protected your PC".
Click More info, then Run anyway. Updates never show it.Signing through the SignPath Foundation is in progress for stable releases. To
check the download arrived whole, compare its SHA-256 with the one at the end of these notes (PowerShell:
Get-FileHash <file>). These notes aren't signed, so that doesn't prove who built it. The source: https://github.com/BlueHeisenberg/SCSKiller/tree/v1.2.4.Smart App Control (Windows 11) blocks unsigned apps outright. If it's on, wait for a signed release.
Clearer statuses
- "Partly compiled" shows when the driver rejected or crashed on more than a tenth of a compile's pipelines, with
how many, instead of "Warmed". Its ring shows the share that compiled, and "Why?" explains it. A game the driver
skipped only a few pipelines of stays "Warmed". - "The compile didn't help" shows on NVIDIA when a game's first launch after a compile still compiles what
SCSKiller compiled: the game needs a custom loader. It isn't compiled again unless you ask, and its page says the
unused cache can be cleared. - Anti-cheat games that need a recording show "Not supported" instead of "Not supported yet": their anti-cheat
blocks the recording they need. Gears of War: Reloaded is one, and so is every anti-cheat DirectX 12 game on AMD
without a community recording. ELDEN RING and ARMORED CORE VI show "Needs an offline session" until they have a
recording: "EasyAntiCheat blocks the recorder, but you can record at your own risk with an offline session." - Game verdicts: a game without shader stutter shows "No shader stutter" and stays out of "Add all ready",
driver-update rebuilds and the recorder by default. The list starts empty, and the server can fill it, or mark a game
not supported with a reason, without an app update. STAR WARS: Galactic Racer shows "Not supported yet · An app update
is needed for support". - A game on the "Not supported yet" or "Not supported" list shows that status on NVIDIA too.
- Games compiled for DirectX 11 and DirectX 12, like War Thunder, say so on their page, "DirectX 11 and 12" in the
Library, along with where each API's shaders come from. - A guessed Unreal version is marked "(guessed)" on the game page and in the Library, and the page says when a
compile rests on a guessed version or DirectX.
Recording and compiling
- A first recording no longer fills up. A game recorded before its first compile, which is every game that needs a
recording and most DirectX 12 games on AMD, kept the bytes of every shader it built. SCSKiller now reads the game's
shaders in the background as soon as the recorder is on, and again after a game update, so the recorder keeps only
their hashes. - The recording limit is 1 GB by default, up from 256 MB. A limit you picked yourself stays.
- Fewer compile notifications: only for games you've compiled, only when there's enough new to compile (1% of the
game's pipelines, at least 100, counted since the last notification), and at most once a day per game. Pipelines
whose shaders aren't in your install no longer count as new. - Coverage and pipeline counts leave out what can't be compiled on your PC: pipelines whose shaders aren't in your
install, AMD-only pipelines on NVIDIA, pipelines that crash your driver, and shader combinations DirectX refuses to
create. - Your texture filtering setting: with a recording of your own, SCSKiller compiles and counts only the pipelines at
your setting. Without one, it compiles every setting the community recorded and counts each pipeline once. - The queue warns when one game's compile adds more than 16 GB: "Very large caches can make the game start slower
and use more memory." It also says when the queue takes the cache past your limit, and on AMD that the driver's cache
can't hold it all. - Bigger community recordings are read, up to 250,000 pipelines per game, for games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2.
- Loading hitches no longer count as shader stutters on the game page: a load compiling on many threads, or a
precompile after a splash screen, is loading. - A game's own precompile and its loading screens no longer count as compiles while you played, also when the
recorder can't time frames (frame generation on).
Games
- FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH is fully covered again. Its community recording mixes players with different texture
filtering settings, which made SCSKiller fall back to a guess that left out two thirds of its shader combinations.
Any game whose community recording mixes settings like this is planned in full again, after one more compile. - Cyberpunk 2077 and other games where DLSS loads DirectX 12 before the recorder no longer ask for a recording that
never comes (NVIDIA). They still compile from their files and the community database. - Wuthering Waves is recognised as Kuro's fork of Unreal Engine 4.26, not 4.27, and shows as not supported instead
of asking for an AES key that wouldn't help: SCSKiller can only learn how this engine builds its pipelines from a
recording, which its anti-cheat blocks. Its files, 5.6 GB shader library included, now read correctly (thanks
@JohnsonRan). - Ready or Not compiles again: shader libraries over 2 GB are read (found by @dkflint723), and it's recognised as
Unreal Engine 5. - Scarlet Nexus compiles again: a line in the game's own settings no longer stops the read (found by @dkflint723).
- Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy compiles without a recording on NVIDIA.
- 3on3 FreeStyle: Rebound is recognised as Unreal Engine 5.1, not 4.27. When an Unreal game's files don't tell its
version, SCSKiller takes it from the exe's version number and marks it "(guessed)". - Xbox app Unreal games on AMD compile into the cache the game actually uses, after you play them once. Before,
their page kept saying "Needs rebuilding" after every compile (Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden). - Ubisoft games with a Ubisoft+ exe, like Assassin's Creed Valhalla, record and compile for the exe that actually
runs, and show their name in the Library. - Xbox app Unreal games are never compiled for a developer tool or console build in their package.
- Resident Evil Village is read as a DirectX 12 game, so it no longer compiles DirectX 11 shaders it never uses.
- Encrypted Unreal games: an AES key, found in the exe or typed in, is taken when it opens any of the game's
encrypted files, not only the first (found by @dkflint723). - An Unreal game with one shader library SCSKiller can't read compiles from its other libraries, and the compile log
names the one it skipped (found by @dkflint723). - Newer Unreal games' shipped pipeline caches are read. Gears of War: E-Day's lists 9,688 graphics pipelines.
Faster and steadier
- Less memory: SCSKiller gives memory back after a scan or compile and when it's in the tray.
SCSKiller.exe --memory, run while the app is open, writes what it holds to memory.log in its data folder, for a bug report. - A crash leaves a report: when SCSKiller closes on its own or can't start, it writes what went wrong to crash.log
in its data folder, and a failed start shows where that file is. - A failed compile says which step failed and keeps the whole error in compile-error.log in the game's SCSKiller
folder (found by @dkflint723). - How much of a game's cache is in use shows under its disk space on NVIDIA, and in the Library's tooltip: "4 GB on
disk · 2.6 GB in use". The driver reserves its cache files in doubling steps, so a cache that grew a little can take
twice the space. Clear cache still frees the whole size on disk. - A nearly full 4 GB NVIDIA cache file is flagged on the game page.
- A compile stopped by a running process names it and its path, so a leftover one can be ended in Task Manager.
- A compile no longer leaves a little behind in Windows' shader cache folder each time.
- The compile helper reports its error instead of crashing when it can't start an Xbox app game's compile, and passes
on a folder ending in a backslash correctly (found by @dkflint723). - Reading a large Unity bundle keeps only the blocks it read last in memory (found by @dkflint723).
- Sharing notices a recording rewritten at the same size within one clock tick (thanks @Dmi-3), and a recording test no
longer fails at random for the same reason (thanks @kaeldrin-gh). - The window opens at the size and place you closed it, maximized if it was (thanks @kaeldrin-gh).
- The Library's games no longer vanish and come back for a moment while SCSKiller starts or a game's status changes.
- The Library's buttons sit on their own row, aligned right, and wrap in a narrow window (thanks @JohnsonRan).
- The Library and the game page show the same compile time, Clear cache shows the same size as Disk space, a finished
game in the compile queue opens its page when clicked, and Library in the sidebar goes back to the list.
Recorder and anti-cheat
- "Played, nothing recorded" shows in the Library when a game was played with the recorder on and nothing was
recorded, and its page says why: another exe from the same folder ran (SCSKiller sets the recorder up for it), the
game changed since the recorder was set up, or the recorder didn't load. It no longer asks for a recording again
(found by @dkflint723). - On AMD, DirectX 11 games no longer wait for a recording: the page says a recording helps only on DirectX 12.
- Blizzard games installed by Battle.net but listed by another store, or added by hand, keep the recorder out
(found by @dkflint723). - The recorder goes into a game's folder under a temporary name and is then renamed into place, so a full disk or a
closed app can't leave a broken d3d12.dll that stops the game from starting (found by @dkflint723). - A recording whose end a power loss left zero-filled is cut back to its last whole record and recording goes on
(found by @dkflint723). - Removing the recorder always takes out its d3d12.dll and puts back the mod it was chained to.
- The recorder switches off right away when a game's folder changes.
- About and the README say SCSKiller is used at your own risk.
PCs and Windows
- The portable build keeps its settings and data in a
datafolder beside SCSKiller.exe. Its first start copies
your existing data there.
Updates
- A failed update leaves a log: updates.log in SCSKiller's data folder.
- An install, update or uninstall step that fails no longer skips the others, such as taking the recorder out of your
games.
SHA-256:
7ccb78c0accb263bc7daeb7695e25638570fbcef636bc50d631bb6c9bd08da4d SCSKiller-1.2.4-Portable.zip
81f3358f43f659e5af3c0020a728b67586ce77734a203cd9249d5c459b962218 SCSKiller-Setup.exe