COGBox 0.4.8
Exact frame-rate limits, and more of them
The frame-rate limit now holds exactly in all four games (a limit of 165 used to give about 162, 120 gave 121-123). The list is now 30, 40, 45, 60, 90, 120, 144, 165, 180 and Unlimited - 40 and 45 suit the Steam Deck. Your saved limit carries over.
With frame generation on, the limit is now what you see on screen: 120 means the game draws 60 and frame generation adds the other 60.
Frame generation: less smearing
AMD FSR frame generation now gets the picture without the HUD and the motion of moving objects in all four games (and character motion in Gears 2), so the HUD and characters smear much less in the in-between frames.
New, still experimental: NVIDIA DLSS frame generation (2x on RTX 40/50; 3x, 4x and dynamic on RTX 50), DirectX 12. It's experimental because we don't have an RTX 40/50 card to test it on properly yet (we've only run it through a third-party unlocker on an RTX 30, where 2x and 3x worked well) - if you have one, please tell us how it runs.
New, experimental: AMD FSR frame generation on Vulkan - for Steam Deck, Linux and AMD players who use Vulkan. It runs smoothly in all four games. Known issue: characters can ghost slightly when they move or turn quickly in Gears of War, Gears of War 3 and Judgment (Gears 2 is clean); a fix is planned for 0.4.9. Please tell us how it runs on your Steam Deck or AMD card.
Judgment: sharper depth of field - Graphics → "Depth of field at the render resolution" now covers Judgment as well as Gears 3, so its blur is no longer drawn at a fraction of 720p (#105, thanks Gitaroo326).
AMD FSR frame generation, FSR and DLSS anti-aliasing are no longer marked experimental. Frame generation in Gears 1 is still experimental (characters can ghost slightly in dark areas). XeGTAO ambient occlusion is now marked highly experimental.
MFG Unlocker works with COGBox (RTX 20 / 30)
COGBox works with the third-party MFG Unlocker, which lets older RTX cards use DLSS frame generation. It isn't part of COGBox and isn't made or supported by us or NVIDIA - use it at your own risk and follow its instructions. On an RTX 3080 Ti in all four games, 2x and 3x ran well. The README has step-by-step install instructions (use version 1.5.0 or newer); the launcher offers the DLSS frame generation choices on RTX 20/30 once the unlocker's dxgi.dll is in place. NVIDIA's files come with COGBox. If it can't run on your PC, the game falls back to AMD's frame generation (or none).
Also in this release
- Gears 1: your checkpoint is kept when your gamer name changes (#246).
- Gears 2: Horde bots - tick Gameplay → Horde bots, then in local Horde press Back / View on the Horde scoreboard to add two bots (#237).
- System Link: new Friends' IP addresses box (Gameplay) for playing with friends whose PCs don't find each other on their own (#229, thanks clovis-junior).
- Gears 2: Two-player split: Side by side now works from the start (#237).
- Gears 2: keyboard key prompts also show on the HUD's action icons (#223).
- Gears 3: fewer missing or late-loading areas right after loading a checkpoint (#226).
- Gears 3 ultrawide: the camera framing is fixed (#220).
- Gears 3: one more Title Update 6 file is recognised as tested (#230).
- Gears 3: DLC with folders is now found before settings-only packages (#240).
- Native mouse look: slow aiming while zoomed (e.g. with the Longshot) is now smooth at any sensitivity, instead of moving in jumps (#228, thanks Flippage).
- Judgment: new Brightness setting (Display tab, 100 = original, lower = darker; #185). It starts at 65, which is closer to the Xbox 360, so Judgment looks darker than in 0.4.7 - set it to 100 for the old look.
- Launcher: no more "Advanced" sections - every option is under its own heading.
- Launcher: drag a picture (.png / .jpg, e.g. 600x900) onto the window to make it the box art of the game in front. Pictures of another shape are cropped, not stretched (#241).
- Launcher: on first start, program files (.exe / .dll) left behind by an older COGBox you unzipped over are moved to the _old-files folder - never deleted. Only files COGBox itself shipped are moved; your saves, settings, logs, mods, covers and any DLLs you added yourself (ReShade, DXVK, NVIDIA Streamline, ...) are never touched. You can delete _old-files once you're happy.
Thanks
- Flippage for the zoomed mouse-aim fix (#228, PR #231).
- Everyone who reported and tested #185, #220, #223, #225, #226, #230, #237, #240 and #241.
Download COGBox-0.4.8.zip below, unzip it (a new folder, or over your old COGBox) and run CogBox.exe. The .sha256 file is its checksum.