BlueHeisenberg/SCSKiller v1.4.8

SCSKiller v1.4.8

on GitHub

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.

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/v1.4.8.

Smart App Control (Windows 11) blocks unsigned apps outright, with no Run anyway.

New on Windows

• Hunt: Showdown 1896 compiles from its game files on NVIDIA. On AMD, on the game's current build, it compiles part of
  its shaders from the game's files, about half of what the game built in a measured session, and the rest still
  compiles while you play. The game contains anti-cheat. Enabling the recorder in it is at your own risk, and SCSKiller
  isn't responsible for bans.

Changed

• RE Requiem's recorder is off by default instead of blocked, and the recorder switch on its page turns it on.
• No game key is in SCSKiller's code, binaries or server. Encrypted RE Engine and FromSoftware games download their
  key at run time from its public source, and Unreal Engine games that need one read it from the game's exe or from
  the key you enter on the game's page, the others show as encrypted.

Improved

• The compile size limit on a game's page is No limit or Custom size, set with a number box or a slider from 1 to 128
  GB, or with presets of 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 and 128 GB.
• Encrypted RE Engine and FromSoftware games whose key can't be downloaded say so in their status and show a key field
  to add it by hand.
• Encrypted RE Engine and FromSoftware DirectX 12 games without a key are recorded while you play and compile what was
  recorded, and the key adds the rest.
• Frostbite games such as Dead Space have their shaders read from the game's files. DirectX 12 ones still need a
  recording.
• When the recorder didn't load in a game's last launch, its status asks you to send a report instead of asking for
  another recording.
• Games the recorder can't run in say they can't be compiled yet, instead of asking for a recording.
• On a first run, the recorders wait until the Welcome is answered.

Improved on Windows

• With AMD and NVIDIA, encrypted RE Engine and FromSoftware DirectX 11 games without a key, and DirectX 11 games whose
  shaders are packed, are recorded while you play and compile what was recorded.
• A start no longer reads every game's exe again for the AMD checks when the game hasn't changed.

Fixed

• Opening the window no longer takes gigabytes of memory for a few seconds while the Library loads its game icons.
• Reading a game's shaders in the background no longer takes most of the PC's memory.
• A game's shaders read for the recorder in the background no longer start over again and again while other games
  compile.
• A stopped background read of an older Unreal game's shaders goes on where it stopped instead of starting over.
• The first scan is faster on large Unreal Engine games.
• Rescans are faster after you play a large Unreal Engine game.
• The Epic library no longer lists Unreal Engine and plugin installs as games, which made the first scan slow.
• Epic games, Fortnite included, stay in the library while the Epic Games Launcher updates them, and a Fortnite added by
  hand gets the Normal and Performance modes.
• Games whose exe holds a very large icon show their icon in the library again.
• Half-Life 2 and other games that ship DXVK for an optional Vulkan renderer read as DirectX 9.
• A game whose exe imports DirectX 10 but makes a DirectX 11 device, such as Ryse: Son of Rome, is read as DirectX 11.
• Games that run on DirectX 11 or 12 no longer show 0% covered after a DirectX 11 compile.
• Hookshot ports installed with their launcher beside a bin folder are detected as Vulkan games.
• Far Cry 5 picks the game's exe instead of the .NET installer in its Support folder, and its bin_plus build no longer
  replaces bin.
• Far Cry 3, Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon and other games with an updater exe pick the game's exe.
• Games whose exe name contains "Crash", such as Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, are found.
• Max Payne 3 picks the game's exe instead of its launcher.
• PRAGMATA added by hand no longer gets the recorder, and a game that doesn't start with the recorder no longer asks you
  to turn on recording.
• The recorder stays out of 32-bit games that contain anti-cheat, as it does in 64-bit ones.
• Where Winds Meet is shown as a game that contains anti-cheat.
• The recorder no longer refuses a Steam game because a free pack installed into its folder, such as 007 First Light's
  Starter Pack, names the same folder.
• The recorder no longer goes into, or stays in, a game whose update added anti-cheat deep in its folder, and an
  anti-cheat check that doesn't finish keeps the recorder out until one does.
• The anti-cheat check of recorder games reads a game's folder again only after something in it changed, one game at a
  time per disk, and follows folder links.
• A game's recorder comes back within a few minutes once its anti-cheat is removed, without restarting SCSKiller.
• Turning the recorder on takes over a recorder another SCSKiller copy chained to a mod, and the mod stays chained.
• A game with anti-cheat no longer keeps a recorder another SCSKiller copy chained to a mod, the mod goes back under its
  own name.
• A game you just recorded no longer keeps asking for a recording when its plan was empty, it compiles what was recorded.
• Picking a whole drive or a folder of many programs as a game's folder says so, instead of saying the game's exe isn't
  in it.
• A second SCSKiller copy with its own data folder no longer shows facts from another copy's recorder sessions, such as
  the exe name a game runs as.
• An offline or anti-cheat recording session's files are still cleaned up when the game folder's SCSKiller marker was
  briefly unreadable.
• When SCSKiller runs as administrator and places the recorder in a folder the game can't write, the game records into
  SCSKiller's data folder.
• With AMD, a game is no longer marked Not compatible after a single launch, or after a compile it hasn't been played
  since. It needs a miss on two separate launches after the compile.
• A recompile no longer fails with "not enough space on the disk" when the drive with SCSKiller's data is short of room
  for its work files. It compiles every pipeline instead.
• Problem reports include the lines about reading the game's shaders.
• Turning off "Allow the recorder in games with anti-cheat" while another program holds the recorder's file removes it
  once that program lets go, and Settings shows "Some recorders are still in place" until then.
• scskiller compile exits 0 when a stop comes after every item was already compiled.
• scskiller index writes its output as it goes, so it no longer takes gigabytes of extra memory on a large game.
• The first-run Welcome no longer gets skipped when another dialog is open at the same time.
• Turning off "Allow the recorder in games with anti-cheat" during a scan turns off those games' recorder switches at
  once, instead of after the scan.
• The recorder note of a game that contains anti-cheat no longer says the game is compiled from its files only.
• A compile in a copy of SCSKiller's data folder no longer deletes recordings in the original folder.
• The coverage percent leaves out pipelines this GPU can't compile, so a complete compile reads 100%.
• On Vulkan games, the first launch line after a compile no longer says "0 with a shader set already known".
• With Always record, the recorder is back as soon as a game exits or restarts itself, and the "didn't load" note stays
  until a session records.
• A Vulkan game planned from Steam's archives says so, "planned from Steam's shader cache of your play" or "planned from
  Steam's shader download", instead of "planned from a recording".

Fixed on Windows

• SCSKiller starts on PCs without the Visual C++ redistributable.
• With NVIDIA, Vulkan compiles land in the cache the game reads.
• With AMD, Before and after no longer counts the before run as cold when a driver cache file of the game could still
  be in place.
• With Always record, a Vulkan game that restarts itself as a new process keeps its recorder in the new process.
• Clearing a game's cache keeps the files a hidden game with the same exe still uses.
• Games with an older Streamline, such as Dead Space, are recorded.
• Before and after: the panel under FSR 3 frame generation no longer crashes the game after the November Windows update.
• With AMD, stopping a compile keeps the pipelines the driver has already written, so the next compile goes on from there
  instead of from where the compile process started.
• With AMD, compiling Dragon's Dogma 2 and other games with FSR frame generation no longer loops on "Recovering from a
  GPU driver crash".
• A compile that was stopped and resumed no longer redoes its earlier part on the next compile on AMD, older NVIDIA
  drivers and Intel.
• A Hookshot port's hidden shader precompile no longer counts as the game running, which stopped its compile again and
  again.
• Luma is named on the game's page instead of plain ReShade.

Fixed on Linux

• A DirectX 12 game planned from Steam's shader cache alone, such as The Witcher 3, no longer shows Needs rebuilding for
  upscaler pipelines that plan can't take. Thanks to brunofgmag.
• A compile whose process keeps restarting no longer stops with "can't create a staging folder" (error 183).
• A DirectX 11 compile on NVIDIA keeps all the pipelines it compiled instead of losing some when it ends.
• Compiling a DirectX 11 game again no longer recompiles all its DirectX 11 shaders, which grew the cache with each
  compile.
• A compile that the driver refuses shows as failed with its reason, instead of "this GPU doesn't support what they
  need".
• Dragon's Dogma 2 Character Creator, Street Fighter 6 and some other games say the recorder can't run in them yet,
  instead of a misleading reason.
• scskiller steam-place says the cache is up to date whenever Steam's files already hold the same bytes.
• Games that set STEAM_COMPAT_DATA_PATH in their Steam launch options compile in that Proton prefix.

SHA-256:

f6cf52b87d5967dbdbb15d90299a9abee70953ce74a04442d107f36d33bca9de  SCSKiller-1.4.8-Portable.zip
336a729a8cdbbf764c138edf47d0305e12f8f850e953bd3a1dd8e5d85064fc7c  SCSKiller-Setup.exe
8f857847698e06c6c4107085d8a028b83724c71a4f477a649b560cd737fe252e  SCSKiller-x86_64.AppImage

Code signing policy